New Delhi:
Packed with relentless action and sweeping visual spectacle but devoid of genuine emotion, Devara: Part 1 (Hindi) is strictly for fans of movies that, in the absence of a solidly original concept, seek to thrive on their epic scale, the star power at their disposal and an array of swords, scythes and short-blade scimitars.
The film, set in the last two decades of the twentieth century, seeks to make up for what it lacks by way of storytelling sharpness with its technical flourish. But, barring a scene here or a shot there, it does not exactly soar to the heights one would expect from a production of this magnitude.
Apart from its stilted, even corny, dialogues, the film’s biggest undoing is its rather tame, done-to-death good-versus-evil construct created around four villages nestled in a mountain that overlooks a shark-infested sea. The region has a history of violence and its inhabitants treat their weapons as God.
The villagers inhabit a vast, fevered and bloody landscape in which men perpetrate unspeakable violence until the titular hero, who leads a band of hardy men who have no fear of the sea, has a change of heart and decides to stamp out evil from the face of the ocean and the settlements around it.
The lawless area is home to descendants of brave warriors who once fought the British rulers and triumphed. They now serve as sea pirates at the beck and call of arms dealers who spirit away their illegal consignments from sailing ships.
One long sequence features a raid on one such vessel by the Coast Guards. As the ship is searched, the villagers who have sneaked in mount a daring escape before they are detected. It is in the course of this scene that both the protagonist and antagonist, along with their accomplices, of Devara: Part 1 are introduced as intrepid fighters.
Jr NTR essays a dual role of a father and son, the former a dreaded, invincible warrior and the latter a meek man who shies away from violent confrontations. Saif Ali Khan plays the villain with only as much aplomb as the screenplay by director Koratala Siva permits, which curtails the room available to the actor for manoeuvre.
Devara: Part 1 kicks off 1996 with a meeting of senior Bombay police officers who are perturbed by news that a mafia don is planning to disrupt the upcoming Cricket World Cup. A senior lawman is sent to the south with a team to nab the crime lord who has not been seen in public for several months.
There, the police team stumbles upon the legend of Devara, narrated to them by Singappa (Prakash Raj), an ageing witness to the heroics of a man who took on his own people to save them and the sea from the fell influence of self-serving criminals.
Devara (NTR Jr) disappears into the sea after vowing not to let Bhaira (Saif Ali Khan) and his ilk wreak to continue with the illegal activities that endanger innocent lives. The fear of retribution stops the ship raiders in their tracks. But Bhaira raises a ferocious army of young men to do his bidding as he bides his time until he can strike back.
Devara: Part 1 is dominated entirely by venom-spewing men. The women – notably Devara’s mother (Zarina Wahab) and wife Jogula (Shruti Marathe) – are gentle souls painted into a corner. They have little say in how things turn out for the family and the village. The women, be they mothers, sweethearts, concubines or soothsayers, are treated alike – with callousness.
By the time Janhvi Kapoor makes her entry as the daughter of an old associate of Devara’s, the film is well into its second half. She is no more than a glorified extra, a pretty girl who has her sights set on the absent Devara’s timid son Vara (NTR Jr) but insists that she will marry him only if he displays the strength and valour of his father.
Janhvi is part of a couple of unintentionally funny romantic sequences and, needless to say, an entire love ditty that allows her (and the hero) several changes of outfits and backdrops. She, however, vanishes without a trace once she has done her limited number.
As Devara: Part 1 offers no clear indication of what Part 2 might hold, there is at this point no way of knowing if the Bollywood star appearing in her first Telugu-language production would be accorded greater play in Part 2.
What stands out in Devara: Part 1 is the editing by A. Sreekar Prasad, who cuts the film in a way that makes it far more coherent as a story (notwithstanding the simplistic nature of the plot) than any of those recent blockbusters from the South – KGF, Pushpa, Bahubali, RRR – were.
Thanks to the uncluttered flow that the film achieves, the three-hour runtime does not weigh heavy on the audience. Not that the film has aspirations that are any different from a KGF or a Pushpa, but it does have a rather smooth trajectory for a narrative that is inevitably blown-up to accommodate two avatars of NTR Jr and a Saif Ali Khan looking to redefine the contours of the Devil.
Anirudh Ravichander’s BGM rises and falls in keeping with the needs of the action, which, in effect, means that it is almost always flirting with distracting crescendos. The songs, too, come and go without creating much impact.
But nothing in Devara: Part 1 is as disappointing as the VFX. No, it isn’t Adipurush-grade abysmal, but the underwater sequences, the shots of the turbulent ocean (water tub?), the explosions and the superhuman leaps across and over hurdles are ordinary (if not utterly tacky) to say the least. That is one area that the next instalment of the film would need to register a huge improvement.
Devara: Part 1 is a mixed bag. The parts that work, few and far between as they are, might serve to whet the appetite of fans of big-canvas action and melodrama. The segments that fall short do not quite meet expectations. They are the sort of dampers that could damage the future prospects of the two-part film.
Be that as it may, Devara: Part 1 isn’t exactly always adrift at sea. It does occasionally manage to anchor itself to terra firma, where the fight scenes are energetic and robust. With the editing and a fervent NTR Jr imparting a degree of steadiness to the film, it isn’t a washout.
