Devara Part 1 Movie Cast/ Actors: N.T. Rama Rao Jr. as Devara / Vara, Saif Ali Khan as Bhaira, Janhvi Kapoor as Thangam, Prakash Raj as Singappa, Zarina Wahab as Devara’s Mother, Meka Srikanth, Shine Tom Chacko, Chaitra Roy.
Devara Part 1 Movie Director: Koratala Siva
Devara Part 1 Movie Release Date: September 27, 2024
Devara Part 1 Movie Available On: Theatrical Release and (likely to be released on Netflix OTT Platform)
Devara Part 1 Movie Released/ Available In Languages: Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada & Tamil
Devara Part 1 Movie Runtime: 176 Minutes
Devara Part 1 Movie Critic Review:
Four villages with different sea-skills control the fictitious “Red Sea” set somewhere off Ratnagiri. That’s for the Hindi version.
From being a uniquely gifted set of criminals who can outwit the coast guard by staying underwater with crates of contraband, the villagers have been forced to turn guardians of the waters against crime.
Singappa (Prakash Raj), a brooding know-all and seen-it-all, narrates the story of natural leader Devara (NT Rama Rao Jr) to a bunch of cops on the trail of a criminal who’s going to wreak havoc in Mumbai when the city hosts an important World Cup series. In the long-winding tale that follows, writer-director Koratala Siva loses track of the match-busting master criminal with whom he began his saga.
So now focus on the four villages with leaders of their own where Devara’s writ is obeyed by all. Except by devious Bhaira (Saif Ali Khan) and his cronies, although he and Devara have been pooling their brawn to lift contraband from the sea for big-time smugglers. But Devara has a heart, he takes care of women, kids and the weak, and encourages the enthusiastic young to study instead of joining the village-business. Bhaira is the black one, cunning, bloodthirsty, wicked. Devara is converted after an eye-opener from a coast guard who tells them how the crates they take off ships and hand over to criminals, contain arms and ammunition that are destroying lives. The newly-awakened Devara mandates that the villagers will no longer work against the law; Bhaira would rather have Devara killed than allow his word to impact their livelihood. But Devara is uncatchable, he’s gone underground, sorry, underwater from where he guards the “Red Sea” from the same smugglers they once worked for.
Koratala Siva has constructed a world of his own with the four villages that believe in customs like an annual shastra-pooja where the action climaxes in a muddy arena. Fighters from all four villages vie to take home that year’s cache of weapons which is believed to protect them from harm. The imagination showed in creating a reservoir of water skills that brings together villages for a common purpose, takes a beating when it comes to Siva’s shallow characters and muddied scripting. Devara (and later his son Vara, also played by NTR Jr) is the epitome of goodness, he even fights and wins the prized shastra every year but hands it over to a village that hasn’t won it for a long time. But Bhaira is the uni-dimensional devil.
The women are naturally depthless too. Devara’s whining mother (Zarina Wahab) won’t sleep until she’s had a glimpse of him. Years later, she remembers to fall seriously ill coz he’s been missing for so long. Devara’s son Vara won’t sleep until he’s heard tales of valour from his dad. Bhaira’s kid and Vara fight over who’ll win at the shastra pooja, meaningless when it’s repeated ad nauseam that it’s Devara who always overpowers everybody else in the wrestling arena. A blind sister wants to end her life to stop being a burden on her brother. Bhaira hatches a plot where she’s married off for her grateful brother to start doing his bidding against Devara. Except Bhaira and Devara/Vara nobody else has an opinion. Thangamma (Jahnvi Kapoor who comes in at half-time) vacillates between cheering Vara for being ballsy like his father and jeering him for being a weakling contrary to his father. She has only one badly-placed romantic song to define her. The men drink, fight and beat up women. The women look on and only talk of shaadi-byaah and waiting to pick up Thangamma’s rejects while the older ones fall ill or make cursory remarks about being cursed.
Certain action scenes like Bhaira’s men crawling out of the water and out of muddy camouflage to close in on Devara, are well choreographed. But there is a distinct absence of thrill in the action.
Where’s Devara? Who’s the real Vara? And carefully setting up questions to pull off a sequel, take up a lengthy part of the footage.
On the whole, despite the effort to create a different ambience, Koratala Siva majorly disappoints by not giving substance to his main characters or in telling a credible story. Among other incredulous situations is, how does Vara know he’ll one day pass off as his father’s doppelganger? And what was Saif Ali Khan doing in the film except for taking home a fat pay cheque?
Devara Part 1 Movie – Watch Or Not?: NTR Jr’s fans may want to watch him play father and son. For others, Hindi is not the language that sits well in a film that’s low on logic on several fronts.
Devara Part 1 Movie Review Score Rating: 2 out of 5 (i.e. 2/5)
Devara Part 1 Movie Official Trailer:
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