Ravanasura Movie Review: Neither a commercial drama nor a thriller and only Ravi Teja shines

Review: With Ravanasura, Director Sudheer Varma attempts to make an “entertainer” that begins as a ordinary commercial drama, then turns out be a thriller, and ends up leaving you unsatisfied anyway! Only Ravi Teja shines.

Junior lawyer Ravindra (Ravi Teja) works under his ex-crush Kanaka Mahalakshmi (Faria Abdullah) but is seemingly not very good at his job. He goofs up a lot and still retains his job which has no explanation! Like any hero of a commercial movie he annoys his boss because she’s a woman and happens to be his ex-crush too. She’s now happily married to Sekhar (Sriram).

One fine day, Harika (Megha Akash) walks into his life and office both. Even as he swoons at her, she tells him her father Vijay Talwar (Sampath) is wanted for murder. The issue? Her father can’t seem to remember committing the crime. Like any sane man, Ravindra doesn’t believe him but he takes up the case because he’d like to help his "future father-in-law." Harika isn’t in on this plan as expected!

Then there are characters like a police officer called Ruhana (Pujita Ponnada), a mysterious guy called Saketh (Sushanth A), Jaanu (Daksha Nagarkar), Keethana (Anu Emmanuel) and a few others who come and go from the film as the script pleases. Then there’s ACP Hanumanth Rao (Jayaram) who’s about to retire but is tasked with an important case involving multiple murders.

Ravanasura starts off as any other Ravi Teja-starrer with some song and dance, apart from silly jokes thanks to Hyper Aadi who plays advocate Babji. The film however does pick up when things take a turn. As the layers are peeled back you begin to see how all these people that Ravindra is surrounded with might just be connected to each other. And while Sudheer had initially taken his own sweet time joking about Ravindra and Mahalakshmi’s relationship, he rushes through some key points here.

While cinematic liberty is expected, Sudheer expects you to not just suspend disbelief a little a too much, he also wants you to not think of any chinks in the logic at all it seems like. A Ram-Sita-Ravanasura angle is brought in to justify the film’s title. The whole thing reeks of a 90s thriller gone bad and by the end of it all, you just wonder where this is all heading. But, of course, Sudheer has another ace up his sleeve that’s a little too silly to comprehend.

Ravanasura is saved to a certain extent only because of Ravi Teja’s performance. He might enjoy doing the whole masala routine but he seems to truly come unto his own when a certain side to his character is unveiled. He oozes menace and seems so unpredictable for a hot minute there, you don’t really know what he’s going to do next. While the film is filled with too many characters the rest of the actors seem wasted in their roles.

Harshavardhan Rameshwar’s background score adds well to the proceedings. Bheems Ceciroleo’s music doesn’t offer anything fresh and the songs just act as a hindrance, seemingly force-fitted there. Vijay Karthik Kannan’s cinematography is good, so is Naveen Nooli’s editing.

Ravanasura only in a very few moments gives a feel of a thriller and however they simply doesn’t make this worth a watch.