Cast: Pradeep Ranganathan, Anupama Parameswaran, Kayadu Lohar, VJ Siddhu, Mysskin, Harshath Khan, George Maryan, Sneha, Gautham Vasudev Menon, KS Ravi Kumar
Crew:
Music Composed by Leon James
Edited by Pradeep E. Ragav
Cinematography by Niketh Bommireddy
Written by Ashwath Marimuthu, Pradeep Ranganathan
Directed by Ashwath Marimuthu
Produced by Kalpathi S. Aghoram, Kalpathi S. Ganesh, Kalpathi S. Suresh
Pradeep Ranganathan has become a highly famous actor-writer-director with Comali and Love Today. He is currently working majorly as an actor after becoming a star with Love Today. Now, his next film Dragon, released as Return of the Dragon in Telugu. Oh My Kadavule / Ori Devuda director Ashwath Marimuthu has directed the film. Let's discuss about the film in detail.
Plot:
In the bustling town of Warangal, Dragon and D. Raghavan (Pradeep) meets Keerthy (ANupamma), and sparks fly between them. They fall deeply in love, spending six years together. But after six years later, Keerthy ends the relationship, feeling that Raghavan is going nowhere in life with his 48 backlogs in engineering and no job prospects. She marries a wealthy man, and Raghavan, heartbroken, vows to succeed more than the guy Keerthy married.
He resorts to cheating and gets a fake degree, quickly climbing the corporate ladder. His boss (Gautham Vasudev Menon) eventually promotes him to a prestigious position in the USA. Just as Raghavan is celebrating his engagement to Pallavi (Kayadu Lohar), his college principal unexpectedly shows up at his office. What happens next forms the rest of the storyline.
Analysis :
Pradeep Ranganathan does well to carry the film on his shoulders as careless, reckless and selflsh person. While he could deliver a good performance in college scenes, in emotional scenes it looks like a repeat of Love Today. He should try to improve this aspect in his upcoming films.
Anupama Parameswaran, Mysskin, Gautham Vasudev Menon, George Maryan, KS Ravi Kumar give their best within the scope of their characters. But Kayadu Lohar has been limited to few scenes and slight skin show. Writing for her character should have been much better. While viral vlog star VJ Siddhu is good his co-vlogger Harshath Khan brings the movie down.
His portions as Little Dragon, in the second hour seems draggy and cringey. Still the movie lands the climax better and the good intentions behind the story triumph over the draggy portions till then. The problem lies with the predictable nature of the screenplay and it feels like a drag-on in those portions.
The social commentary about not resorting to shortcuts and the emotional drama impresses as Ashwath Marimuthu is able to bring it all together. Still, the character depth in writing is missing for Kayadu Lohar and other important friend characters. It looks like conveniently put together at places and hence, the narrative gets problematic. Still, the emotional high in climax saves the film to an extent.
AGS productions production values and technical standards of the film are high quality. Background Score by Leon James is apt and songs are easy on ear. On the whole, the movie ends up being an easy one time watch with few flaws here and there.
TeluguOne Perspective :
Drags a bit in second hour but it's an easy one-time watch.
