Nani’s Gangleader Review – Run of the Mill Comedy Thriller

Movie Name – Gang Leader
Main Leads – Nani, Priyanka, Kartikeya
Music – Anirudh Ravichander
Direction, Screenplay – Vikram Kumar
Editor – Navin Nooli
Cinematography – Miroslaw
Production – Mythri Movie Makers

Movie starts off with a bank robbery involving 6 folks, main antagonist Dev kills the rest of 5 and escapes with 300 crores. Movie main plot starts off after 14 months with Lakshmi teaming up with other members in the gang Saranya, Priyanka, Praanya and one other person, a common thing that connects all of them is that they are related to folks who got murdered in bank robbery.  They all take an oath to find the guy who killed their loved ones and take revenge on him. But they needed one intelligent person who can investigate this robbery case, Lakshmi suggests crime novel writer Pencil Parthasarathy (Nani) who makes living by copying English movies into Telugu novels.  Nani who does not have interest in helping the gang as true help initially rejects but later accepts to accomplish his personal goal of writing an original crime thriller. He aspires that he can convert this story into a novel.  Rest of the first half of the movie is about Gang lead by Nani finding who did the robbery. Appearances of Priyadarshi, Get up Seenu, Vennala Kishore brings laughter in audience. Kartikeya introduction as Dev is impressive. First half is decent with very few comedy scenes and drama scenes that have Vikram mark sensibilities.

Second half starts off with a decent pace, its Karthikeya’s turn to find out who is behind him. Dev finds out the details of the gang and tries to put the robbery case on Nani and gang. The rest of the story is about how the gang escapes from police and how they take revenge. A reference to Chiranjeevi’s Gang Leader movie can be found in second half. Movie comes to an end with decent climax and has a happy ending as Nani becomes a successful writer and finds a family in the gang.

Performance:
Nani’s performance is brilliant, time and again he proves himself to be a versatile actor. Lakshmi and Saranya has more dialogues than heroine, they all did their roles well. At times you feel Lakshmi’s could have been more subtle. Karthikeya did give very good performance as an antagonist; his histrionics are a plus to him. Vennela Kishore and Nani’s comedy scene in first half is worth mentioning.

Technical Departments:
Director Vikram has showed his mark sensibilities all over the movie. It’s a different genre that he had embarked on with this movie, he is only half successful handling comedy thriller genre. At times one may get a question on genre of the movie. Miroslaw captured director’s vision, provided an apt photography to the movie.

Background score is apt to the movie, BGM in scenes involving Dev in second half is exceptional. Anirudh Ravichandran’s music is good.

What’s hot:

1. Nani’s Performance
2. Background music
3. Production values
4. Cinematography

What’s not:

1. Thin Story line
2. Comedy
3. Screen Play

Final Verdict:

An average watch for normal audience. Since storyline is wafer thin, screen play has to be exceptionally well to make these kinds of movies work at the box office.