‘Rowdy Boys’ movie review: A patchy college drama helped hugely by Devi Sri Prasad’s music

The Telugu movie Rowdy Boys, which introduces producer Dil Raju’s nephew Ashish Reddy because the main man, is sort of a cocktail of issues that don’t mix collectively nicely, however is palatable at times. It tries to be a coming-of-age story of an aimless man caught in campus wars, discovering romance and a function in life. Binding the story collectively is Devi Sri Prasad’s music. His medley of compositions within the final hour perks up the movie.

The story unfolds in two campuses — a medical school and an engineering institute — located beside each other. The rivalry between the 2 faculties will get fuelled at any time when college students from one campus attempt to court docket a woman from the opposite campus. The movie opens with a cringe-inducing scene displaying engineering boys harassing a feminine medical school pupil. How the boys redeem themselves is advised by way of a long-winded story of Akshay (Ashish Reddy) who falls in love with Kavya (Anupama Parameswaran), a medical school pupil two years senior to him.

The primary act establishes Akshay as an incorrigible brat who causes heartburn to his father (Srikanth Iyengar). A lavishly mounted intro track includes college students of each campuses and later reveals their ugly battles. At one level, Akshay waves his school flag from atop a burning bus and is happy with being talked about in information channels.

Director Sree Harsha Konuganti contrasts Akshay with Kavya and Vikram (Vikram Sahidev), vivid college students of the medical campus. Vikram is not any angel, however is aware of to attend for the fitting second. The engineering college students, in the meantime, are helped by a senior pupil (Karthik Ratnam) to settle scores.

The story introduces a live-in risk the place a wayward Akshay is in sharp distinction to a focussed Kavya. In an odd method, this movie jogged my memory of Get up Sid, although each tales are poles aside in therapy.

The story additionally hinges on Kavya’s journey. She doesn’t see Akshay for who he’s, blinded by the campus wars, and takes it on herself to take care of him. She does all she will whereas he lazes round in a home the place they supposedly battle to make ends meet; by no means thoughts that the home seems like a designer pad stuffed with arty decor.

The drama picks up when Kavya begins failing in research and needs to get again to her former self. Akshay’s turnaround, from then on, is formed by taking cues from many romantic dramas of the previous.

The largest challenge with Rowdy Boys is that it might remind you of a bunch of older movies, to the extent that it finally ends up like a patchwork of impressed sequences.

Ashish and Vikram have display screen presence and are pretty sufficient, whereas Anupama Parameswaran stands out. She’s good; had the function and the story been written higher, she would have had scope to make a long-lasting impression.

In the end, this movie belongs to Devi Sri Prasad who anchors it along with his exuberant music.