Veera Simha Reddy Movie Review: Nandamuri Balakrishna's latest, Veera Simha Reddy, is purely for his fans. That's it. I wish I could end my review here on a positive note. But I can't. I have to expand further on my tired thoughts, despite a throbbing headache caused by incessant shouting and the hyper violence shown on screen. Veera Simha Reddy is a propaganda piece alright, and it is there to serve its leading man, who is also a popular political figure, and propagate his larger than life image to the masses. If you have any doubts about my statement, which means you haven't watched much of his movies, then the song "Jai Balayya" might sway away your aspersions. Veera Simha Reddy Review: Nandamuri Balakrishna's Telugu Film Gets a Lukewarm Response From Critics.

Veera Simha Reddy, directed by Gopichand Malineni, has Balakrishna play a double role, that of a father and son. Borrowing the template from SS Rajamouli's Baahubali films, the movie has the son, Jai, a car-dealer in Turkey learn about the legacy of his father, whose existence he was not aware till the right opportune moment. That father is Veera Simha Reddy, the uncrowned king of Rayalaseema, whose inhabitants see him as a God and who can defeat innumerable enemies thrown at him without even bearing a scratch.

He has mortal enemies in Pratap Reddy (Duniya Vijay) and his wife Bhanumati (Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, alright but she is getting stereotyped), who keep trying to kill him at every opportune moment. Why they want to kill him and why he keeps sparing their lives is explained in a lengthy, melodramatic flashback in the second half, and once that's done, the son is entrusted to carry his father's magnanimous and violent legacy forward.

Watch the Trailer of Veera Simha Reddy:

Most of the first act of Veera Simha Reddy is Cringe Max Level. Set mostly in Turkey, we meet the son Jai, supposedly dashing one-man army, whom we are to be believe is in his '30s (or maybe even lesser, who knows). Even if the creases on his face say otherwise, I would have still suspended my intelligence and believed this is a 'young' man, if he didn't need to call Honey Rose his mother, or romance a clearly younger Shruti Haasan (easily one of her cringiest roles).

In the father character, Balayya is far more convincing, even if the role mostly allows him to display max swagger and shout at the highest of the decibels a human ear can bear. And to match those decibels, even the background score aims to bleed your ears. Of course, most of the scenes are opportunities for Balayya to enhance his political mileage, while the screenplay is merely a formulaic '80s stuff that simply refuses to die because such plotlines allow the heroes to keep their mass image on. Balayya's last film, Akhanda, had at least one enjoyable action scene, this has none. Nandamuri Balakrishna Gets Angry With Fan Before Veera Simha Reddy Trailer Launch Event.

There are plenty of over-lengthy scenes of hyper violence, unbelievable and stupid stunts, unwanted songs, bad dancing and an item song that comes out of nowhere. The person sitting next to me kept closing the eyes of his young daughter whenever someone's head got chopped off, or the camera suddenly lingers on a woman's curves. While that's something for censors to ponder on about how such violence and gratification get away with a U/A rating, my concerns seeing the scene next to me is this - is that father okay when the movies keeps making demeaning statements about women? When someone's manhood is insulted by claiming he is behind a woman's saree or when he is called an eunuch? When the hero keeps calling himself the 'saviour' of women, but doesn't bother to ask his own sister what she wants in her life, or when another character says a woman's future is only tied to her in-laws' house? Oh wait, you, sir, knew what you came in for, I am there because I get my salary paid watching this.

Final Thoughts

Veera Simha Reddy is a loud, formulaic and cringe action-propaganda vehicle purely tailored to cater to Nandamuri Balakrishna's image (even if some of the scenes don't suit him at all) and to keep his die-hard fans cheer for him. For the rest, this is simply avoidable.

Rating:1.0

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 12, 2023 03:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).