‘Rana Naidu’ web series review: Venkatesh, Rana Daggubati have a ball walking on the wild side, but the series is not wholly impressive – The Hindu

Actors Venkatesh and Rana Daggubati weren’t kidding after they saved reiterating that their first net collection Rana Naidu is a household drama that’s greatest seen in isolation. This word of warning is for individuals who have adopted their work in Telugu cinema and would possibly tune in anticipating one thing feel-good. Rana Naidu, Karan Anshuman and Suparn Varma’s Indian adaptation of the American collection Ray Donovan, is a darkish crime and household drama replete with intercourse, nudity and foul language. When you look previous this, the collection has just a few issues going for it although it’s flawed and at instances, clunky.

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Rana Daggubati is solid as Rana Naidu, a fixer who cleans up the soiled secrets and techniques of celebrities in Mumbai. It might be as murky as retrieving a semen pattern being smuggled in an ice bucket (I’m not making this up)! For all that cleansing up act he does for others, Rana’s personal life is a multitude with scars from the previous. 

The primary two episodes work as character introductions to the members of the Rana Naidu household — his spouse Naina (Surveen Chawla), a former actress in Telugu cinema earlier than she married Rana and moved to Mumbai, and their kids Ani (Madhav Dhingra) and Nitya (Afrah Sayed). Rana’s older brother Tej, the stunt choreographer (Sushant Singh), and youthful brother Jaffa (Abhishek Banerjee) each reel from scars from a tough childhood. There may be some form of semblance to the household till the daddy, Naga Naidu (Venkatesh), steps out of Chanchalguda jail in Hyderabad and arrives in Mumbai.

The collection is crammed with characters that vary from brooding to excessive. Rana and his staff —  Lara (Lauren Robinson) and Srini (Adithya Menon) — placed on a stoic persona regardless of how soiled a job they’re cleansing up. Their poker-faced expression offers away nothing and they don’t communicate greater than what’s barely vital. In a single scene a personality asks Rana, if behind that stoic persona, he’s somebody who secretly cries watching Baghban on tv. On the different finish of the spectrum are the purportedly annoying character Prince Reddy (Gaurav Chopra), Naga’s older brother Surya (Ashish Vidyarthi), the financier OB Mahajan (Rajesh Jais) and the various ladies they’ve liaisons with.

Karan and Suparn construct the world of Rana Naidu and its principal characters peppering them with Telugu strains and Dakhni phrases. ‘Baigan ke bataan’ and ‘izzat ka falooda’ are thrown round liberally for the characters which have their roots in Hyderabad. Naga Naidu is probably the most vibrant of the lot because the patriarch who is sort of dismissive of the emotional trauma his sons carry since childhood. 

In distinction to the feel-good and family-friendly characters Venkatesh has performed in Telugu cinema for many years, he does the whole lot that may be thought-about inappropriate as Naga Naidu. And he appears to have had enjoyable strolling the wild facet. The face-offs between him and Rana are the excessive factors of the collection. The true-life uncle-nephew duo cease at nothing on the display. Rana has performed the dangerous man earlier, however this brooding act is in a darker house than his mainstream Bhallaladeva within the Baahubali movies. For probably the most half, he’s required to seem brooding however the collection offers him the occasional window to painting the agony of a person who desperately desires to maintain his household afloat. Rana makes use of his towering character to play the menacing fixer and can also be convincing throughout his meltdowns or when he shares heat moments along with his kids who’re coping with their very own angst.

Rana Daggubati, Surveen Chawla, Afrah Sayed and Madhav Dhingra in ‘Rana naidu’
| Photograph Credit score:
Sourabh Paul/Netflix

The merry-go-round of crime that shadows this household performs out for much too lengthy and never each subplot or character holds curiosity. The one which moved me probably the most is the story of Jaffa (Abhishek Banerjee comes up with an internalised, empathetic portrayal). When he opens up about his guilt of not saying a agency no to his abuser as a baby, Suparn and Karan use the plot level to stress {that a} sufferer doesn’t should wallow in guilt. Each Abhishek and Sushant play their characters with sincerity. 

Surveen is solid in an element that may seem nagging with repetitive strains equivalent to ‘what the hell, Rana?’ or ‘what the ****, Rana?’. Caught in a scenario the place she doesn’t know what risks the household faces and what precisely Rana is as much as, her anger just isn’t misplaced. 

Whereas Naga’s characterisation shifts between dangerous, oblivious, ugly and an occasional streak of excellent, the story doesn’t give a clear chit to Rana both. There’s Suchitra Pillai too however what precisely was the purpose of her character?

For Telugu film buffs of the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s, there are throwbacks to Venkatesh’s older movies and songs. For the others, there’s some morbid humour. Image a affected person asking a neurosurgeon what are his probabilities of survival after a surgical procedure for mind tumour and the subsequent shot displaying us the board ‘bheja fry 50%’. 

Beneath all that dressing up of intercourse, alcohol and expletives, Rana Naidu has an undercurrent of pathos. Cinematographer Jayakrishna Gummadi makes use of heat and darkish tones to intensify the grim environment, aided by John Stewart Eduri’s background rating.

There are just a few rewarding payoffs in the direction of the top of the 10-episode collection. However general, can Rana Naidu be higher? Most positively.

(Rana Naidu streams on Netflix)

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