The story wasn't seamless and seemed to be multiple patches stitched together. The songs were the worst I heard or seen in years. If Gunashekhar wants to be recognized for his skills, he needs a clear vision. Almost all through the movie, it seemed like the director wasn't clear about what he wants or that he couldn't extract it from the actors and the other artists. I hate to compare one director with other but I feel justified to compare any director with Rajamouli. That is because I am not comparing their skillset but their commitment. Rajamouli doesn't sleep till the gets the shot to his 100% satisfaction(At least to his satisfaction, may not be to audience's satisfaction). Looks like Gunashekar needed only 70% in most places to okay a scene.
3D was very good for the 1st Telugu film and VFX was good in parts but felt they could have been avoided in some places.
The movie felt like a 80s movie made with modern technology. The screenplay needs to be tight and logical.
The fight sequences though showed promise in some places, were too gross and ugly in others. Especially where Rudramadevi keeps on fighting standing on the spears amidst the Snake formation. Simple question, will not the enemy soldiers retract their spears at least to protect themselves?
The fate of the fight between the enemy king and Chalukya Veerabhadrudu was inconclusive. This shows how patchy the editing was.
Allu Arjun was, as expected, flawless while the story was far from b being such.
For those who think that the move was a spectacle because it had to be made within the contours of history, I disagree such a view because the story quite liberally removed every contour except the names of the historical characters. The story was COMPLETELY FICTIONAL. We can find from history that Rudramadevi was brought up as if she was a boy and that she ruled with the name 'Rudradeva' but not that even she was unaware of her physiology or that everyone else was fooled to believe that a girl was a boy and worse that a woman was a man. The disappointing part was that most part of the story was focused on this transformation between boy and girl and how she swaps roles. History never said that Gona Ganna Reddy was a Bandit. He was a revenue collector i.e a designated official and feudatory of Rudramadevi. These are very crucial aspects that help understand the history of the period. With this movie the history has been twisted beyond the red line. History doesn't agree that Rudramadevi built a multi-phase city walls. I think the Gunasekhar's city walls were inspired from Chanakya's Arthashastra.
I personally feel that a director has to be very responsible with his story when they are presenting a historical narration especially when the genuine one is not really popular. We can twist and turn Mahabharata because people can make out which part is fiction. But in case of Rudramadevi, very few people know the history. Such fictional movies will be considered history. Some of the reviews and comments is the proof.
Gunasekhar surely has talent but he just lacked the vision and clarity in this movie. Looks like he was very complacent.
