David Billa – Movie Review: Poorly narrated prequel

We have seen many sequels of many films, but David Billa is a different movie. This is a prequel of popular hit film Billa. That means, it is the prior story of the turn over as Billa. The movie is a show of Ajith Kumar, who rocks the screens with stylish looks and performance.

A Sri Lankan refugee, David Billa (Ajith), decides to revolt against the authorities, as they ill-treat other refugees in the camp. All refugees turn his followers and he becomes the leader of that gang and slowly starts to climb the crime ladder with his own knowledge. One day, Abbasi (Sudhanshu Pandey) comes in contact with him and he starts working for him. Soon he gets an unexpected rise and Billa's boss gives him many chances to show his intelligence and courageous strength. Things go wrong, when he faces problem with Dimitri (Vidyut Jamal), an arms dealer. What happens next will form the crux of the story.

Performance: Ajith looks quite normal. He has a deadly appearance and his eyes have lot of intensity. All his costumes suite him perfectly. He has showed excellent mannerisms all through the film and has lot of ease in action scenes. Subhanshu Pandey is perfect in the role of Abbasi. His performance too is quite suave and impressive. Vidyut Jamal too is okay as Dimitri. Other artistes, including Izhavarasu, Bruna Abdullah, Parvati Omanakuttan have done justice to their roles but have no scope to perform.

Technical: RD Rajasekhar's cinematography is extraordinary, but the editing is bad to some extent. Suresh Urs should have sharpened his scissors to make certain part crisp. Selection of locations and their picturisation by cinematographer are excellent but the director has failed to make good use of his work in this film. Yuvan Shankar Raja's music is just okay. We are not aware of the Tamil original but the Telugu dubbing is very poor.

Dialogues are written in a poor way and its use on the screen too is absurd. There is no Telugu nativity in the movie. The romantic track between the hero and heroine has not been etched well. However, action scenes are conceived well and the film could be definitely called an action thriller. Director Chakri Toleti seems to have reproduced the Hollywood film Scarface. However, he failed to pen the script as it is. Moreover, the screenplay lacked conviction and has no grip on the story, while the narration is also very poor. In one word, the director had failed in all aspects. The only solace is that he could be able to etch the hero's role in a stylish manner but has failed in all other characters.

Remarks: Watch the film for grand visuals and interesting locations. Songs and item numbers give you relief. Action scenes are enjoyable. However, the commercial success aspect is doubtful.

Cast: Ajit Kumar, Bruna Abdullah, Subhanshu Pandey, Vidyut Jamal, Izhavarasu, Parvati Omanakuttan and others.

Credits: Cinematograpy - RD Rajasekhar; Editing - Suresh Urs; Music - Yuvan Shankar Raja; Producer - Sobha; Screenplay and direction - Chakri Toleti

Banner: SVR Media

Released on: July 13, 2012