'Rathnam' is the latest box-office release in the town. Since 'Prathinidhi 2' got postponed and there are no straight Telugu releases worth their name, the openings were expected to be decent. While the number-crunching is best left to trade analysts, let's analyze the film in this section.
Story:
In the opening sequence, sometime in 1994 inTirupati, three gory bandits attack a bus and loot more than dozen passengers who get killed. The incident shocks the police department, which decides to shoot down the bandits at sight.
Meanwhile, a pre-teen boy saves the life of a local gangster named Panner (Samuthirakani) from an attack. He grows up to be Rathnam (Vishal), the trusted follower of Panner, now a well-meaning MLA. The life of Rathnam turns upside down when he bumps into Mallika (Priya Bhavani Shankar), who is in danger because of a merciless thug named Lingam (Murli Sharma). How the past and present are interconnected, how Mallika and Rathnam's destiny plays out, and how the heroine is saved forms the rest of the violent story.
Performances & Technical Departments:
Vishal enjoys wielding machetes and weapons in this blood-soaked tale that wants to be a saga spanning several years and two generations. Had the writing been deep, the actor would have done a much better job. Samuthirakani and Murli Sharma look less expressive than they are in other films. Priya Bhavani looks overaged for her role. Yogi Babu's comedy barely works; he was better in most of the Telugu-dubbed Tamil movies in recent times. VTV Ganesh has a limited role, while Mottai Rajendran gets body-shamed in the name of comedy.
Devi Sri Prasad knows that you have to be in a hurry when you are doing a Hari movie. His background music is ear-splitting. The songs are mostly derived from his Telugu songs done years ago. The cinematography is barely okay.
Merits:
1. A single-shot action sequence is handled well.
2. The actors' emotions play out well in some scenes.
Demerits:
1. The action scenes, despite being choreographed by four different stunt masters, are uninventive.
2. A supposedly heart-touching fact concerning Mallika (the heroine) and Rathnam's dead mother feels forced. There is an element of surrealism in it but it doesn't hold water in the context of a commercial action entertainer.
3. The degree of violence evident in the film is both unwarranted and loud. The climax portions, especially, are unbearable.
4. The Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border element is not only emotionally vacuous but also socially irrelevant.
5. The lack of emotional connection is evident in the second half.
Vox Verdict:
'Rathnam' can be given a miss even if you are someone with a soft corner for Vishal. Director Hari, one of the established names in Kollywood, gives a pretty dated masala action melodrama with no concern for the audience's ears.
