Cinematic Reverie: Bhola Shankar's Journey in Focus

Bhola Shankar movie review: Chiranjeevi shines in a lackluster remake

Bhola Shankar review: Meher Ramesh's comeback sort of feels like he has actually gone further back in time in terms of the story and narration of the film. 

After the huge success of Waltair Veerayya, megastar Chiranjeevi chose the remake of Ajith’s Vedalam under Meher Ramesh’s direction. As a remake, Bhola Shankar doesn’t deviate much from Vedalam’s story.

Shankar (Chiranjeevi) and Mahalakshmi (Keerthy Suresh) come to Kolkata for Maha’s admission into a reputed college. He starts working as a cab driver in Vamshi’s (Vennela Kishore) company. Srikar (Sushanth) falls in love with Maha at first sight and convinces Shankar for their marriage

Meanwhile, the rampant human trafficking in Kolkata has grown uncontrollable under Alex and his two brothers’ supervision and the Kolkata police under DGP (Sayaji Shinde) vows to tackle it sparing no efforts. But the lower cadre police and most of the government machinery is afraid of the wrath of Alex’s gang and try their best to stay away. With Shankar’s help, the police apprehend some goons and save some girls intended for shipment. Alex’s younger brother tracks down Shankar and tries to kill him. Shankar brutally kills him and his gang members. Another brother is also killed by Shankar in the next round of attack. Advocate Lasya (Tamannaah Bhatia), with whom Shankar had some interaction earlier, witnesses the killings and confronts Shankar.

Shankar reveals that Maha is not his actual sister and goes on to narrate the back story. Who is Shankar, why he is living in Kolkata as Maha’s brother and what is his connection with the human trafficking ring forms the rest of the story.

Meher Ramesh’s comeback sort of feels like he has actually gone further back in time in terms of the story and narration of the film. The choice of Vedalam for a remake seems utterly baffling and bereft of any contemporary, updated imagination. The duets with Tamannaah, Chiru’s signature dance moves, portions with Rashmi and Sreemukhi etc., all feel utterly forced and pure cringe.

Keerthy Suresh holds herself well in this poorly written role and manages not to be a mere presence besides Chiranjeevi. Vennela Kishore impresses in his brief role. All the other actors have nothing much to offer other than being extensions to Chiranjeevi’s mega presence.