Rana Naidu Review: Real-life uncle-nephew jodi of Venkatesh and Rana Daggubati come together for the Netflix series Rana Naidu, where they play reel father and son. Only there isn't much love and respect, and whenever they see each other, they are either thinking of jumping at each other's throats, or they actually do that. Rana Naidu is created by Karan Anshuman and is adapted from the popular Liev Schreiber series Ray Donovan, which I confess, I haven't watched. Rana Naidu: Rana Daggubati Opens Up About Working With His Uncle Venkatesh Daggubati for the Netflix Series.

So Rana Daggubati plays the titular Rana Naidu, a celebrity 'fixer,' which means he uses any means possible to keep his high-profile clients from being exposed in any scandal. And the 'scandals' in which his clients find themselves almost always make you cringe. In the first act, we see a hooker having oral sex with a high-on-drugs cricketer and then spitting his sperm into a cup in order to blackmail him into pregnancy.

Another client has a video that is threatening to go viral in which the actor is seen having oral sex with a trans woman for the third time. The sound effects and depiction of these scenes are used to create shock value rather than to make a point. If you've seen the showrunner's previous series, such as Inside Edge or the first season of Mirzapur, you'll know what to expect from Rana Naidu, but the new show amplifies these bits to a much higher level of discomfort.

The dialogues are also on another level, revelling in crudeness and straying away from political correctness. So we have Rana's estranged father Naga Naidu (Venkatesh) calling his one of exes, a North-Easterner, 'chinki' and there are some very rough reference to genitals and various sex acts, that don't exactly enhance the dialogue delivery, instead flourishing in just shocking the viewers. If the honourable judge who found College Romance's dialogues vulgar and objectionable, watched this show with her headphones on, pretty sure she might have to wash them off with acid and dettol by the end of the first episode itself!

Watch the Trailer of Rana Naidu:

I don't mind the crude dialogues because I've grown accustomed to them after watching shows like Mirzapur, Sacred Games, Entourage, and Game of Thrones, but if they're used so frequently and are mostly used to titillate or jolt the viewer, the result is that you don't feel connected to the characters, even the main ones. That's a big turn off for a show full of morally ambiguous, mostly negative characters.

Anyway, returning to the plot, Rana Naidu is also a family man, with a loving wife Naina (Surveen Chawla) and two children, one of whom is a teenage girl (which means she is bound to bring hormonal angst and lands in some romantic trouble ahead, and yup, Rana Naidu never disappoints). Despite the craziness of his job, Rana's life was going well until his father was released from prison after serving 15 years for murdering a girl. Naga keeps repeating that he never killed anyone, even though he is no saint.

The rest of the premise revolves around Rana's life and work becoming topsy-turvy due to his father's external presence and what exactly happened 15 years ago. Other characters, such as Rana's two other brothers Tej (Sushant Singh) and a shaky Jaffa, add to the show's weight (Abhishek Banerjee). Gaurav Chopra plays a popular actor who is debauched and a drug addict, Aditya Menon plays Rana's trusted lieutenant, and Ashish Vidyarthi plays a crime-lord in hiding who is plotting revenge on Naga for something he did 15 years ago. There's also Rajesh Jais, who plays a politician with close ties to Rana who suffers from a brain tumour in the interim.

There are numerous subplots, but the series' obsession with shock value and titillation causes many of them to go unexplored and disconnect me as a viewer. Jaffa's childhood trauma, which he never manages to escape from, was the one subplot I truly cared about. This leads to what I believe is the show's best plot element, when Jaffa brings home his former tormentor and allows his other siblings to cover for him. Aside from that, there wasn't much in the subplots that could work. When it keeps diverting to other subplots, the main plot arc of Rana and Naga's animosity becomes diluted. However, the final two episodes are Rana Naidu's best, as they tie in most of the plot. Venkatesh Daggubati on Playing Father to His Nephew Rana Daggubati in Crime Drama 'Rana Naidu'.

The show's saving grace is also its acting. Fans of Venkatesh will be surprised to see him playing such an uncouth character, but the actor looks stunning in a very different (and grey) colour on him. Rana Daggubati's performance is restrained, allowing his character to be calculated, menacing, and caring when necessary. Sushant Singh is fantastic as always as the Naidu clan's conscience-keeper, and Abhishek Banerjee shines once more in a sympathetic role. Also, kudos to Gaurav Chopra for his performance as the depraved, zonked out superstar. Ashish Vidyarthi, Rajesh Jaid, Rajesh Kumar, Mukul Chadda, and Adithya Menon all do well in their respective roles.

Surveen Chawla and Ishita Arun stand out among the female cast members, owing to their increased screen time. Their characters are poorly written. Surveen's harrassed Naina felt like the writers plucked Mrs Ari Gold from Entourage and gave her a more murderous husband. The other female characters are either given flimsy written roles or are there to be killed or have sex scenes. In one of the later episodes, a key female character is shot dead, but there are no emotional ramifications for that scene. It's as if Rana Naidu simply dislikes female roles, despite the fact that one of the leads claims to respect feminism.

Final Thoughts

Rana Naidu is a show about trouble characters in even more troubling situations and trauma. It works for the performances and a couple of subplots, but the obsession in creating a shock-laden screenplay, sex scenes that don't much matter to the plot and dialogues that soak themselves gleefully in crudeness often get you disconnected from the proceedings. Rana Naidu is streaming on Netflix.

Rating:2.5

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 10, 2023 02:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).