Rey Movie Review
YVS Chowdary’s Rey is finally out in theaters after being under production for four long years. YVS spent a bomb on this film which was supposed to be the launch pad of Chianjeevi’s nephew Sai Dharam Tej. Is the film worth all the struggle and expenditure?
Story :
Amritha (Saiyami Kher) joins a Jamaican college in order to grab a chance to participate in the Best of the World Dance competition. She teams up with local guy Rock (SDT) and his gang to achieve her goal. But there is Jenna (Shraddha Das), a two time winner of the title, who is also eyeing it for the third time. Jenna is cunning and incompetent that she always eliminates her competition by using brute power.
Performances:
Sai Dharam Tej made his screen debut with Pilla Nuvvuleni Jeevitam in a polished look than this one. He should be thankful for not making debut with Rey. His hairstyle, look and performance are all very bad in this film. Only saving grace is his dance. He might have struggled to stand as an actor if this came earlier than PNLJ. Shraddha Das is alright as the bad girl. She is not a great actress to pull off this character with ease. YVS Chowdary messed up the characterization to make things even tougher for her. Saiyami Kher is wooden faced and not attractive at all. Arpit Ranka goes overboard. Naresh and Hema try to create some funny moments as the parents of SDT. Comedians have been wasted with pointless roles.
Technicalities:
YVS Chowdary’s intentions are right, but he couldn’t get them right. His eccentric style of dealing with the emotions of characters will not appeal to everyone. This is yet another disappointment from the filmmaker who used to make successful commercial films during the early days of his career. He did put in efforts in working on a saleable script, but couldn’t shrug off his weaknesses in making it into a pleasant film.
Chakri’s music is a letdown except for couple of songs. Background score is too loud for anybody’s comfort. Cinematography is neat. Rich locales are captured well by Gunasekhar. Dialogues by Sridhar Seepana are good in parts. Editing could have been sharper. The film is a yawn with a run time of over 2 hour 40 minutes. Production values stand out as the best part of the film.
Thumbs Up:
Dances
Thumbs Down:
Direction
Analysis:
Rey is a very loud film in which every actor goes overboard in their respective roles. This is perfect example for a film that is made by a director who is completely out of form. YVS Chowdary didn’t learn any lessons from his previous failures. His weaknesses are at display in Rey too. This film gets on your nerves after a point that even the bearable scenes don’t seem tolerable.
True to its tagline ‘Shout for Success’ every actor just keeps on shouting at any point of time. The ego clash between SDT and Shraddha should play the key role in making this an engaging watch. Over the top direction and performances kills a promising plot in spite of spending crores of rupees.
YVS Chowdary is known for making lengthy films but the raw emotions used to be his forte. Subtle emotions in films like Seetarama Raju and Lahiri Lahiri Lahirilo cannot be forgotten easily. Wonder why YVS Chowdary took to this loud portrayal of emotions when his real strength lies elsewhere.
Sometimes mass audiences laps up senseless films that are horribly loud. Rey could hope for such magic to happen to stay afloat at the box office until Son of Satyamurthy arrives. Thanks to mega fans Rey fetched a decent start, henceforth a lot will depend upon the public talk.
Verdict: Tests your patience.
