Yogaraj Bhat is often criticised for weak stories. Especially, his last few movies like Pancharangi and Paramathma came under scrutiny for lack of strength in the story department. However, the director has tried to change the perception of the audience, as his latest flick Drama has a strong story.
Like his earlier films, the qualities that you see in his heroes - like care-free attitude with the ability to mouth wonderful one-liners, will be seen in this film too. Bhatru, this time, has used the Mandya dialect and Yash has done complete justice to his role.
Venkatesha (Yash) and Sathisha (Neenasam Sathish), are pranksters and poor in studies. The former accompanied by the latter leaves Mandya in order to win the heart of Nandini (Radhika Pandit), who studies in a college in Hassan. Prior to that a puppeteer and wanderer played by Ambareesh foresees their future and tells them that their lives will change once for all.
However, his leading girl is the daughter of underworld don and there is a dispute to be settled between her father and his guru. Nandini, who was not serious about him, puts him under several strange tests but the last one gives a complete twist to the story.
The first 45 minutes in Drama is full of fun but the next 10-12 minutes is bit boring. Yogaraj Bhat takes too much of time to arrive to the main story. Nonetheless, every few minutes, enjoyable one-liners guaranteed. We can see taking-life-as-it-comes attitude of his leading characters in this movie too. However, the real drama begins before the end of interval. The second half is full of twists and turns.
Yash has come out with his best performance till date. Hats off to him for living the character. He speaks the Mandya dialect with ease and his comic timings, like Golden Star Ganesh, is excellent. He is backed with Neenasam Sathish, who has come out with flying colours. Radhika Pandit is cute. However, Suchendra Prasad's character of psychic principal stands out of all. The frustration of a man without his wife has been brilliantly enacted by him. Ambareesh, in the role of sutradar, lives good impression.
Yogaraj Bhat's technical team comprising of music director V Harikrishna and cinematographer Krishna have lived up to his expectations. However, the drawback of the film is the screenplay,as it loses grip at parts. However, his one-liners make up for those errors.
Verdict: You get what you expect from Yogaraj Bhat films. Hilarious one-liners, romantic poems and a little bit of philosophy.