Veeraiah (Vikram) is a stubborn fellow. He is everything to his people. He is law unto himself and doesn't fear the police or courts of law. While marrying away his sister (Priyamani) to the man of her choice, S.P. (Prithviraj) along with his police force opens fire injuring Veeraiah, who eventually escapes. The police who arrest Veeraiah's sister, gang-rape her. Enraged by this, Veeraiah kills policemen in various ways. Veeraiah kidnaps S.P.'s wife Ragini, who is well versed with music and is an accomplished dancer. Now confrontation starts between police officer and Veeaiah. Unknowingly Ragini becomes a pawn in between them. Then start many events happening, which we haven't expected. What happens thereafter, forms the the rest of the story.

Analysis :

How best a technician Manirathnam is on the national and international levels is well known to all. There is no need to tell separately about his way of readying the script, take of scenes and keeping up of tempo etc. Lot of his previous movies are there to prove them. What we have to analyze now is, what new has been done in this movie. Well, it can be said that he has taken a lot of care in filming this movie than any Hollywood movie. It has an excellent screenplay... but misses our nativity. Flick smacks of a Tamil odor. The flick starts with Veeraiah's point of view.Later with narrating his story to Ragini, the flashback is being revealed. Long ago Dasari Narayana Rao has already socialized Ramayana with his Seetharamulu" movie. Though that movie didn't have the technical standards as of this movie, but it was quite near to our nativity. This movie too has Jatayu, Hanuman, Vibhishana, Shoorpanakha like characters but Manirathnam presented them very differently. It is his directorial greatness that he puts the audience in a dilemma, whether hero of this movie is Rama or Ravana. It would have been better if more care had been taken in dubbing the voices.

TeluguOne Perspective :

Acting-: Vikram, who played Veeraiah's role is a two time national best actor award winner. Vikram's performance in this movie can be likened with the voracious eating of a person who had been starving since long and has been fed with lots of food. There is no doubt in saying that his performance in this movie can again get him a national award. His role is full of variations. Coming to former miss worldAishwarya Rai, she has vast experience of acting in national and international films. She did full justice to her role as Ragini. It can be said that this former miss world has worked very hard for this movie. Then speaking about Priyamani, she is also a national award winning actress. Though her screen time is brief, yet she has done a very good job in that. Prabhu as Singanna and Karthik Murali as Forest Guard have performed well.Music-: A.R. Rahaman, who has brought many laurels and two Oscar Awards for our country, scored music for this movie. Manirathnam is the one who introduced Rahaman as a music director with his film "Roja". Rahaman too has scored an excellent music for this movie of his guru. Songs 'usure poyane...' and 'Kullabodichey...' will certainly be liked by the audience. Re-recording has infused life into the movie.Camera-: Shantosh Shivan's cinematography has turned this movie in to a visual poetry on celluloid. Every frame in the movie is as colorful as a painting. Wonderful photography. This department has done exceptionally well.Editing-: Very nice.Lyrics-: Manirathnam had a memorable rapport since past 22 years with lyricist late Veturi Sundra Rammurthy starting from "Geethanjali" movie, which ended with this movie. Even the name "Villain" for this movie was given by Veturi. But it is sad that the songs in this movie are in no way different from usual dubbing movie songs.Dialogues-: While Smt. Suhasini Manirathnam provided dialogues for Tamil version, Ramakrishna provided them in Telugu version. His dialogues, though good at some places, doesn't impress much. They are just like routine dubbing dialogues.Choreography-: Famous choreographers Ganesh Acharya, Brinda, Shobhana and Asthad Deboo have provided choreography for this film. Song 'kullu pudithe.. kullabodichey' has been choreographed fantastically. Remaining songs too are not bad.Costumes-: Sabysachi Pai designed costumes look natural and apt for the situations. They have a kind of new look and reflect the mood of the scene in a better way.Action-: Shyam Kaushal and Peter Heins, both have worked as action choreographers for this movie. Telugu audience know very well the mettle of Peter Heins as a choreographer with the movie "Magadheera". Shyam Kaushal too is not far behind, he has a very good name in Bollywood. Actionscenes composed by this combo will enthrall the audience, without doubt.It is difficult to tell how far this technically-excelled movie will enthrall the audience. The movie can be watched for Manirathnam's direction and Aishwarya Rai's performance.