Zebra is a 2024 Telugu language crime comedy thriller written and directed by Eashvar Karthic. The film has Satyadev & Priya Bhavani Shankar playing the lead roles while Daali Dhananjaya, Sathyaraj, Sunil, Satya, Amrutha Iyenkar, Jeniffer Piccinato, Suresh Menon, Temper Vamsi, Sameer, Ravin Makhija, Rama Raju, Surya, Usha Sri, Deepthi & others are seen in important supporting roles. The music is composed by Ravi Basrur while the film is produced by SN Reddy, Bala Sundaram, & Dinesh Sundaram under Old Town Pictures & Padmaja Films India Private Ltd banners.
Story:
Surya (Satyadev) is a middle-class bank employee at BOT- Bank Of Trust. He is in love with Swathi (Priya Bhavani Shankar) who works in another bank. One day, Swathi makes an error in transferring the amount to the wrong account number and Surya comes to her rescue by helping her using the loopholes in the banking system. This white-colored crime puts him in danger as the whole issue gets linked to a gangster named Adhi (Dhanajaya). Who is Adhi? How does Surya come out of this ruckus? Needs to be seen in the film.
What about on-screen performances?
Satyadev makes a strong comeback and gives one of his career-best performances with this film. He gets to play a wide range of emotions in the film. Right from comedy to action & romance to emotion, he gets it all right and literally carries the film on his own shoulders.
Priya Bhavani Shankar has a very good screen presence and she shines bright in the role of Swathi. She does well in all the fun portions as well and adds good value to the proceedings.
Comedian Satya brings humor and thrill in perfect balance. His scenes in the second half are a blast in the theatres, especially in the robbery portions and in the scene where he falls for Jeniffer Piccinato in the bank.
Daali Dhananjaya is pretty decent with his performance as the main antagonist but it felt like he is not the right choice for this role. His part didn’t have the weight that was required. All his slow-mo/build-up shots felt unwanted.
The same goes for Sunil & Sathyaraj as well. Both their characters felt underdeveloped. Especially Sunil’s part felt monotonous as Sunil doing these kinds of negative roles do not entirely fall into the comedy space nor are too villainy as they had to be.
Suresh Chandra Menon as the bank head and Jeniffer Piccinato & Ravin Makhija as the other bank employees who want to take revenge on the hero are poorly cast in their respective roles. They never fit their parts well and their scenes felt amateurish on screen.
Amrutha Iyenkar is utterly wasted in an impactless role as Daali Dhananjaya’s love interest who just comes in for a romantic song.
Temper Vamsi, Sameer, Rama Raju, Surya, Usha Sri, Deepthi & all others are okay in their limited supporting roles.
What about off-screen talents?
The story by Eashvar Karthic is well thought out and has an interesting backdrop involving bank frauds with today’s new age technology. The dialogues are good. All the lines about money are well written.
The screenplay however is very complex and covulated. The lengthy run time and too many subplots with unwanted songs are a big minus to the screenplay. The narrative gets too technical after a point and it becomes confusing & too hard to follow, especially in the second half.
The film starts well with a neat intro of all the characters. The small bank error and the way the hero solves it is thrilling. Also, the way this whole issue gets connected with the bad side of things keeps our interest going. The interval is good and raises curiosity. But the second half is where the film gets complex with lengthy & dragged-out scenes. The robbery scenes are engaging in parts. But again toward the end, the climax twists, and the actual reasons for the robbery are fine which makes up for the lengthy second half.
Director Eashvar Karthic does a superb job with his whole presentation. But his narrative has too many issues as he takes a convenient route in telling a few key scenes in the latter half. Had he opted for a simpler narrative style with less subplots and a crisper run time, then this would have been a memorable film overall.
The songs by Ravi Basrur are forgettable while his background score stands out in a few key scenes.
The cinematography by Satya Ponmar is brilliant as he captures the film on a rich scale while the edit by Anil Krish is not up to the mark as the film could’ve been cut short by at least 15-20 minutes.
The production values by Old Town Pictures & Padmaja Films India Private Ltd are adequate.
What’s Hot?
* Satyadev’s Performance
* Priya Bhavani Shankar’s Performance
* Satya’s Comedy Portions
* All Bank Robbery Sequences
* Decent Background Score
* Good Twists & Turns At The End
* Cinematography & Production Values
What’s Not?
* Convoluted Screenplay & Confusing Narrative
* Few Unwanted Sub Plots
* Unnecesary Songs & Their Placements
* Casting Of Many Supporting Actors
* Boring & Routine Scenes Of Dhananjaya & Sunil
* Weakly Developed Characterizations
* Lengthy Runtime
Verdict: On the whole, Zebra is a passable crime thriller on bank frauds with a touch of comedy that relies heavily on the superb performance of Satyadev. Though the confusing screenplay and lengthy run time are big speed breakers to the film, the refreshing backdrop and the twists at the end make it a decent watch.
Telugubulletin.com Rating: 2.5/5