Cast: RK Sagar, Misha Narang, Dhanya Balakrishna, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, Thaarak Ponnappa, Anand, VV Giridhar, Vishnu Priya
Crew:
Written by Varma Pericharla, Raghav Omkar Sasidhar
Cinematography by Shyam K. Naidu
Music by Harshavardhan Rameshwar
Edited by Amarreddy Kudumula
Directed by Raghav Omkar Sasidhar
Produced by Ramesh Karutoori, Venki Pushadapu, Tharak
RK Sagar, who gained immense popularity as a lead through Telugu TV series, marked his re-entry into films as a lead with The 100 film. The movie after going to different film festivals, released on 11th July, all over. Megastar Chiranjeevi's mother Anjanamma, Pawan Kalyan have promoted the film, recently. Let's talk about this cop thriller, in detail.
Plot:
Vikranth (RK Sagar), an IPS officer, believes that weapon is not needed to correct criminals. He is completely against encounters when even his higher officials hope him to be one. After his training, he takes up a case about a thieves gang, who only steal jewels from rich houses on every New Moon Day. One day, he meets a girl (Misha Narang) and likes her instantly.
But he finds her as a victim of gang rape by this gang of thieves. He catches the gang but they deny raping her. A gang of teengaers surrender to police and they are found dead. Virkanth faces NHRC charges of unethical encounter. Did he kill them? Who is behind all this? Watch the movie to know more.
Analysis:
RK Sagar looks good and fit as a police officer. His attire and body language suit action roles perfectly. But his emotional performance does need a little bit more polishing but overall, he delivered a believable performance. Misha Narang, got a very heavy role as a dancer and rape victim but her performance doesn't really shine as anticipated. Dhanya Balakrishna is wasted in a brief role. Thaarak Ponnappa is good but looks similar to his Pushpa 2 role and lacks similar intensity.
The movie tries to stick to commercial formula that too an outdated one, even though it has a strong core point. The writing needed to be consistent with more gripping scenes with growing proximity between leads and investigation part. But in trying to mix it all up, the strong emotional core that could have been the highlight of the film, goes missing. Each scene feels like being written with an inspiration rather than being original.
While commercial formula story telling and sticking to a format is not that bad, a thriller like The 100 needs to balance between women empowerment themes and heroism. Like Naan Mahaan Alla/ Naa Peru Shiva, Theeran Adhikaram Ondru/ Khakhi, Madras, Kathakali and many others it needed a strong premise that sets the characters in real world to make them more relatable. The narration lacks the similar coherence that we expect from such strong action thrillers.
While director Raghav Omkar Sasidhar has a solid social element at his behest, he tried to mix everything so much that he got confused which way to lean with his story. The movie needed audiences to connect with the women characters who are going through exploitation and manipulation but he gives exposition rather than letting us travel with those characters. Hence, it feels like an extended TV movie based on Savdhaan India, kind of series, rather than a coherent film.
With all the flaws, still the makers have been able to give a decent film that has a good core to talk about. Even RK Sagar's performance and the exploration of plot in the second hour are good points in it. With much better writting and strong narrative, the movie could have been much better.
Bottomline:
The 100 tries hard but incoherently ends up being too predictable.
Rating: 2.5/5
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