Waltair Veerayya (2023) is an example of an engaging and entertaining film, despite having an age-old plot, cliche characters and an unbelievable amount of masala. The thing that carries this ragbag to the finish line effortlessly was megastar Chiranjeevi. Even at this age, he was delightful to watch on screen, and thankfully the fight sequences were not overambitious. Over the course of 160 minutes, I searched in vain somewhere the plot gets a twist and feels new, it didn’t. The film gets a raw from mangoidiots.
The story is about an international gangster and drug smuggler brought down by a local rowdy with the help of CBI and an honest policeman. Instead of being this straight story, the screenplay takes many wrong turns and in one place feels like we are watching a second film. In the song sequences, Chiranjeevi has served a treat to his fans. Next to him, Shruti Haasan as an energetic CBI officer and Bobby Simha as the second villain impress us with their performances. Prakash Raj as the main villain could’ve been a lot more threatening and powerful, but he wasn’t. Though his role comes throughout the film, it had limited scope Rajendra Prasad has done it well especially since his anger towards the rogue who kills his fellow policemen in his police station comes out genuine, and so has Vennela Kishore whose comedy works.
Footnote: The last film I saw of Chiranjeevi was Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy (2019).
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