Cast: Naga Chaitanya Akkineni, Sai Pallavi, Prakash Belawadi, Divya Pillai, Rao Ramesh, Babloo Prithveeraj, Kalpana Latha 

Crew: 
Cinematography by Shamdat 
Music by Devi Sri Prasad 
Editing by Navin Nooli
Written & Directed by Chandoo Mondeti 
Produced by Bunny Vasu 
Presented by Allu Aravind 

Naga Chaitanya Akkineni has been looking for a big blockbuster sucesses after recent set backs at the box office. He found a major success with Premam, directed by Chandoo Mondeti, when many doubted his abilities. Now, in adversity, once again he teamed up with Chandoo for his most hyped Thandel. Devi Sri Prasad music has been boon for the film and Sai Pallavi is sharing screen once again after Love Story with Chaitanya. Allu Aravind has stated several times that this movie will be a big blockbuster. So, let's discuss if the film holds up to those claims. 

Plot: 

Raju (Naga Chaitanya), belongs to a fishermen community in Srikakulam, Machaleswaram village. Some good fishermen form a formidable group and go to Ahmedabad for fishing hunt and make money there. Raju falls in love with Satya (Sai Pallavi), whom he refers to as Bujji Thalli. As their bond grows strong, even the opposition from their parents start to weaken. Still, Satya's father tries to draw wedges between them. 

At this point, Raju gets an offer to become Thandel, the leader of the 21 fishermen group from his village. He accepts this offer, despite Satya's stern opposal. She misses him and starts to write letters as phone communication gets though. During a stormy sea, in the night, Thandel group crosses the international water border and shore up at Pakistan. What happens next? Watch the  movie on big screens to know more. 

Analysis :

Naga Chaitanya delivered his best performance till date. His honesty in transforming into character of Raju and his diction does impress. He is exceptional in emotional and romantic scenes. Fights seem a bit forced and he couldn't really do much about it. Sai Pallavi did her best once again but her character lacked depth. All others are adequate. 

Songs from Devi Sri Prasad are good but his Background Score is repetitive in many places. Production values and production design are good and the technicians worked hard to keep things real. But the VFX work is underwhelming and even at places few background art could have been better. 

Editing wise movie needed a lot more sharpness in choice of cuts as few places jarr a bit while at others it seems to stick to a flow. In short, there is inconsistency in choice of shots and cuts. Maybe writing did not really help the course. Yes, the major weakness in this script is the writing. Romantic scenes and Pakistan episodes don't really evoke the emotion, that the director wanted them to. 

Problem lies in the way, he treated few scenes in a lighter vein  and few in serious tone. Their is a lot of inconsistency in the way, the story is built upon to its crescendo. We see a sharp tonal shift from sequence to sequence or maybe we can call it as episode to episode. 

This results in shallowness in the emotion where the depth of it should trigger a tear jerk from us. While the aim is visible to achieve it, the execution is flawed to really reach the heights. Still, movie is watchable for the performances. 

TeluguOne Perspective :

Performances save this Thandel's boat in a stromy narrative.