'Ride' movie review

My rating: 2.75/5

Genre: Youth/Family

Type: Straight

Banner: Sri Sai Ganesh Productions

Cast: Nani, Tanish, Shweta Basu Prasad, Aksha, Adarsh, Ahuti Prasad, Sudha, Kasi Viswanath, Brahmanandam, Dharmavarapu, Tulasi, Kinnera, Bikshu, Hema etc.

Music: Hema Chandra

Cinematography: Shyam K Naidu

Dialogues: Shashank Vennelakanti

Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh

Fights: Ram Lakshman

Story - screenplay - direction: Ramesh Varma

Producer: Bellamkonda Suresh

Release date: 5 June 2009

As the title suggests it’s a movie based on bike ride. Obviously it appeals for teens and let us see how far the movie reached expectations.

Story:

Mahesh (Tanish) is the responsible son of a middle class retired father (Kasi Vishwanath). He joins in Kapil Chit Funds as collection agent to add something to his father’s pension. As his employer (Brahmanandam) asks him to possess a bike to work in his company, his mother (Thulasi) gifts him one on loan.
On the other hand Arjun (Nani) is the son of an employee (Ahuthi Prasad) who believes more in savings than fulfilling the bike-desire of his son. Arjun is so passionate about bike that he finds no meaning in life without that. He studies in collage and dreams about possessing a bike every day.
Once, Mahesh loses his bike and finds that with Arjun. The tug starts from then. Has Arjun stolen Mahesh’s bike? Finally how that bike changes the lives of these two youngsters? That forms rest of the story.
Rani (Swetha) is the lady beside Mahesh and Pooja (Aksha) s the girl for Arjun.

Performances:

Nani is at his best. He is setting a trade mark for himself with unique voice and modulation of dialogues. There are many mass dialogues written for him and he delivers them with panache. His dances in Danchave Menatha song are pretty good. But at times, he is brining in monotony of expression carrying his Asta Chemma flavor. He should be conscious at that point. He proves to be a good suit for mass oriented roles.

Tanish is still tender in looks. He needs to add roughness to fit into the action oriented bill. Tanish’s body language, costumes and introduction scene in this is movie is modeled after hero Mahesh Babu. Tanish is really good in emotional scenes. But he is perfect fit for the role he portrayed in this film. He has to work on dialogue modulation.

Aksha is for glamour while Shwetha is with performance plus glamour. Like ‘e…p..u..d..u’, ‘e….k..a..d..a’ modulation in KBL, here she was give the mannerism ‘Ori Nayano..’. But that proved superfluous in some scenes. There is no much footage to the heroines. Aksha looks like a broader version of Trisha. She needs to shed a few pounds to look more attractive on the screen.

Three actors are borrowed from Nachavule film. Kasi Viswanath, small boy and hero’s friend are these characters. All these characters are like just an extension of their Nachavule performances. Ravi Babu should get some royalty for Ride film.

Kasi Vishwanth has slimmed down and now looking better than that of in Nachavule. Ahuthi Prasad has little to portray. Comedy would have worked on him to add value for his presence. Others are ok.

Brahmanandam-Praveen combination as bava-bavamaridi brought many laughs in theaters. Praveen seems to be promising artiste for subtle humor and comedy for many film makers these days.

Analysis:

As said above, it’s a concept that appeals to the age group of 13-19. The sentiment that surrounds a bike may not appeal for matured audiences. It’s a clear cut action-sentiment drama knitted around a two-wheeler.

First half of the movie is with good pace while second half pervaded with action episodes and chasing sequences. The climax is a bit lengthy but there is little scope to make it short.
The screenplay and direction is neat till the movie reaches interval point. The movie is over in the second half the moment when these guys decide to share the bike. The last 20 minutes of the movie which comes after resolving the main conflict appears like an undesired extension. The screenplay and direction is not satisfactory in the second half. The bike logically belongs to Tanish in this movie because the legal ownership is with him. The same bike is bought by Nani in chor bazaar. All it takes is a police complaint from Tanish in order to get rid of Nani. This basic point is ignored while writing story/screenplay for the second half.

Coming to technical aspects, Hema Chandra’s music is good and RR is also done well. Dialogues and direction is also up to the requirement. ‘Dhanchave menaththa koothura…’ remix on Nani and Aksha is canned in a perfect masala way.

The fights composed for this movie lack completeness and most of them are abrupt (for example we don't know what happens to the bike on railtrack in climax). Editing is average. Dialogues in the movie are partly good. The sentimental dialogues are well written.

First half is satisfactory. The writer/director falters in screenplay section in the second half. Ideally the movie is over the moment these two guys come to an understanding.
Navadeep’s appearance in guest role in climax is a bit interesting.

Bottomline:

For people who have seen uber stylish bike ads on TV, the chases and races shown in the film pretty mediocre. Ramesh Varma did a better job compared to his last film, but it is not good enough! On a whole, the movie has followed the formula of a youthful masala entertainer.