Rao Ramesh Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘HIT: The Third Case,’ starring Nani, Srinidhi Shetty, Ravindra Vijay and Prateik Babbar

May 2, 2025

by Carla Hay

Nani in “HIT: The Third Case” (Photo courtesy of Wall Poster Cinema)

Directed by Sailesh Kolanu

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the action film “HIT: The Third Case” (the third movie in the “HIT” series) features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A vigilante police detective discovers a cult of serial killers, goes undercover to infiltrate the group, and becomes a murderer on a killing spree.

Culture Audience: “HIT: The Third Case” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and the “HIT” series, but this movie abandons the intriguing detective drama concept and makes it an unimaginative and gory massacre movie.

Nani and Srinidhi Shetty in “HIT: The Third Case” (Photo courtesy of Wall Poster Cinema)

“HIT: The Third Case” ruins this movie franchise’s original intent of being a compelling story series about police solving murder mysteries. Instead, this “HIT” movie is a bloated action schlockfest of excessive violence that glorifies police brutality. It just another trashy movie that panders to the lowest common demoninator by copying too many other action movie abominations that have terrible screenplays and exploitative violence and are churned out on a regular basis.

The “HIT” series began with 2020’s “HIT: The First Case” (which had a 2022 Hindi-langauge remake also titled “HIT: The First Case”) and continued with 2023’s “HIT: The 2nd Case.” Each movie features a different police detective as the movie’s protagonist. All the “HIT” movies so far have been written and directed by Sailesh Kolanu, which is why it’s so disappointing that “HIT: The Third Case” (the third move in the series) has taken such a tacky and lazy turn for the worse. The only apparent explanation is that Kolanu and the movie’s other filmmakers thought they would make more money with a mindless and gruesomely violent action flick instead of a thought-provoking and intelligent police detective drama.

In “HIT: The Third Case,” Arjun Sarkaar (played by Nani) is a superintendent of police for the Indian Police Service’s Homicide Intervention Team (HIT) in Visakhapatnam, India. Arjun is an angry and corrupt official who frequently commits police brutality. As shown in the movie, he doesn’t hesitate to break bones and beat up people whom he interrogates in custody or whom he catches in the act of committing crimes. He sometimes does this illegal police brutality in front of his colleagues, who do little or nothing to stop him.

Arjun is in therapy for his anger management problems, and he has trouble sleeping. But this therapy is clearly not working. When Arjun is shown in a therapy session, all he seems to care about is getting a higher dosage for his prescription medication. “HIT: The Third Case” is such a shallow film, there is no explanation for why Arjun is the way that he is, but his aggressive style of policing has apparently gotten a lot of people arrested.

“HIT: The Third Case” tries to have some comedy relief early on in the movie, when Arjun’s unnamed widower father (played by Samuthirakani) plays matchmaker for bachelor Arjun by signing up Arjun on a dating app without Arjun’s consent. It leads to a montage of Arjun going on numerous disasatrous dates that always end abruptly because Arjun scares or turns off the women by interrogating them like a harsh police officer. The women on these dates make excuses to use the restroom and they never come back.

Arjun is extremely judgmental, emotionally immature, and socially backwards in his thinking. However, Arjun seems to get lucky when he meets Mridula (played by Srinidhi Shetty) through the dating app where Arjun’s father created a profile for Arjun. When Arju and Mridula go on their first date, she says she admires his blunt honesty. They begin dating and fall in love with each other. Mridula has a secret that is revealed later in the movie.

Arjun is investigating a series of murders where corpses are found hanging upside down from trees in isolated wooded areas. The dead people’s throats have been slashed. It’s eventually discovered that the murderers are members of a serial killer cult named CTK (an acronym for Capture Torture Kiil), which is operating on the Dark Web. In order to join the CTK cult, prospective members have to kill at least two people in this way and video record these murders.

Arjun infiltrates the CTK cult by going undercover as a prospective member. His murder victims are criminals, whom he thinks all deserve to be killed. A huge plot hole in the movie is that Arjun is supposed to be a famous police detective (famous enough for strangers to know who he is when he’s out in public), and yet CTK’s leaders—two sadists named Samuel Joseph (played by Ravindra Vijay) and Alpha (played by Prateik Babbar)—don’t even recognize Arjun when he joins the cult. Arjun makes no effort to disguise himself.

Supporting characters in “HIT: The Third Case” are one-dimensional and have very hollow personalities. Three of these generic characters are Arjun’s HIT colleagues: director of general police Nageswara Rao (played by Rao Ramesh); assistant superintendant of police Varsh (played by Komalee Prasad); and sub-inspector Diwakar (played by Chaithu Jonnalagadda), who don’t do much in the story except enable and cater to Arjun’s nasty temper and out-of-control antics. None of the acting is impressive in this junkpile movie.

“HIT: The Third Case” (which has an overly long running time of 157 minutes) just becomes a mind-numbing, obnoxiously loud and terrible mess of heinous violence where the “hero” is no better than the villains. In fact, the “hero” murders and attacks more people than any other murderer and attacker in the movie. The action scenes also look ridiculous. Don’t expect a real detective mystery in “HIT: The Third Case.” This horrible movie is just an excuse to show vile and disgusting assaults and murders, with a meaningless story and a very warped portrayal of law enforcement and justice.

Wall Poster Cinema released “HIT: The Third Case” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on May 1, 2025.

Review: ‘Bachchala Malli,’ starring Allari Naresh and Amritha Aiyer

January 2, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Bachchala Malli”

Directed by Subbu Mangadevvi

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Indian village of Suravaram, the dramatic film “Bachchala Malli” features an all-Indian group of people representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A brutish man, who has longtime anger issues because his father abandonded him, abuses alcohol and gets into fights to cope with his emotional pain while he tries to have a romance with a kind and patient woman.

Culture Audience: “Bachchala Malli” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and don’t mind watching forgettable dramas that have mindless violence.

Allari Naresh and Amritha Aiyer in “Bachchala Malli” (Photo courtesy of Parthyangira Cinemas)

“Bachchala Malli” is a lackluster drama where the movie’s title character gets into fights and has self-pity about his turbulent personal life and father’s neglect. This bloated 140-minute movie is a chore to watch because it’s so uninteresting and hollow. After a while, “Bachchala Malli” goes on a repeat loop of misery where the movie’s characters don’t seem to learn much when it comes to personal growth. It’s all just so tedious to watch.

Written and directed by Subbu Mangadevvi, “Bachchala Malli” takes place from 1985 to 2005, in the Indian village of Suravaram. it’s where Bachchala Malli (played by Allari Naresh) has lived his entire life. For most of the movie, Bachchala is a brute who frequently gets drunk, smokes too much, and is ready to get into bloody brawls with anyone, at any time.

Why is Bachchala so angry? A flashback to 1985 shows that when he was in 10th grade (about 15 or 16 years old), Bachchala was actually a good kid who was an academic achiever. Bachchala’s father (played by Kota Jayaram) and Bachala’s mother Rajayam (played Rohini) were proud of Bachchala—especially Bachchala’s father.

However, Bachchala’s life is shattered when he finds out that his father has a mistress named Padma (played by Hari Teja), and she has a son named Bachchala Ramana, who was a toddler in 1985. Padma shows up at Bachchala’s family home one day to demand child support. Bachchala’s paternal grandfather tells Bachchala’s father that he has to choose to live with Rajayam or Padma. Bachchala’s father chooses his mistress Padma and becomes an absentee father to Bachchala.

Most of “Bachchala Malli” takes place in the 1990s, when Bachchala is in his 20s. He meets and falls in love with a woman named Kaveri (played by Amritha Aiyer), who tries to get Bachchala to give up his decadent ways. Kaveri is also the daughter of a police officer (played by Rao Ramesh), who predictably doesn’t trust Bachchala because of Bachchala’s reputation for being a drunken rogue.

“Bachchala Malli” is a tiresome and dull melodrama, with Bachchala and Kaveri having an on-again/off-again romance that is threatened when she gets engaged to another man. There’s also a subplot about Bachchala and his younger half-brother Bachchala Ramana (played by Ankith Koyya) having a vicious feud. Expect to see the usual unrealistic fight scenes, with tacky shots in slow motion. The romance in the movie is utterly boring.

The acting performances in “Bachchala Malli” are mostly mediocre, although Naresh seems to make an effort to portray Bachchala as more complicated than Bachchala really is. The musical numbers, which are awkwardly placed in the movie, have silly lyrics and generic dancing. “Bachhala” wants desperately for audiences to feel empathy for Bachchala, but this entire movie is so soullness, the only feeling that “Bachchala Malli” viewers might have is impatience for this entire messy movie to be over as soon as possible.

Parthyangira Cinemas released “Bachhala Malli” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on December 20, 2024.

Review: ‘Ravanasura,’ starring Ravi Teja

April 13, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Ravanasura”

Directed by Sudheer Varma

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Hyderabad, India, the action film “Ravanasura” features a predominantly Indian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A defense attorney agrees to a wealthy woman’s request to represent her father who has been accused of murder, but all is not what it seems to be in this twist-filled story.

Culture Audience: “Ravanasura” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Ravi Teja and don’t mind watching idiotic action films that drag on for far too long.

Jayaram and Pujita Ponnada in “Ravanasura” (Photo courtesy of Abhishek Pictures)

In a world filled with terrible movies, “Ravanasura” has some of the most moronic plot twists you could ever see. The acting performances are horrendous. And this 140-minute action flick is too long for a movie this vapid. Perhaps the only real creative thought that was put into “Ravanasura” was for the choreography and staging of the occasional musical numbers, but the song lyrics in these musical scenes are utterly witless and generic.

Directed by Sudheer Varma (who co-wrote the atrocious screenplay with Srikanth Vissa), “Ravanasura” has a major plot twist that’s revealed about halfway through the movie and changes the entire trajectory of the story. It’s enough to say that this plot twist is so stupid, it wants viewers to forget that DNA testing exists. The plot twist also doesn’t take into account that certain characters have different body sizes and different heights. Other plot twists in the movie are much more predictable, but the big “shocker” in “Ravanasura” will just have viewers rolling their eyes in disgust at how bad this idea is.

In the beginning of “Ravanasura” (which takes place in Hyderabad, India), criminal defense attorney Ravindra, nicknamed Ravi (played by Ravi Teja), works as a junior lawyer with his ex-girlfriend Kanaka Mahalakshmi (played by Faria Abdullah), who is Ravi’s boss at the small law firm owned by Kanaka. Ravi and Kanaka briefly dated when they were college students, but she never had strong romantic feelings for him. Kanaka is now happily married to a man named Sekhar Mahalakshmi (played by Sriram, aslo known as Srikanth), who is openly affectionate with her, much to Ravi’s disdain.

Ravi keeps half-jokingly telling Kanaka that she is eventually going to marry Ravi, who constantly asks her out on dates that she firmly rejects. Ravi says insulting things about Kanaka’s marriage and about Sekhar. Ravi also makes other inappropriate, sexist comments to Kanaka while they’re on the job. It’s blatant sexual harassment.

And to make matters worse, Ravi isn’t very good at his job, since he does things such as show up late for courtroom appearances. An early scene in the movie shows that Ravi ruined a case by showing up too late with a crucial witness for a courtroom trial. The case was then dismissed by the trial judge.

All of this nonsense is shown early enough in the movie that viewers will immediately be wondering why Kanaka (who obviously dislikes Ravi) hasn’t fired Ravi already. Because “Ravanasura” is such a cesspool of idiocy, there is no explanation. The marriage of Kanaka and Sekhar is used for one of the movie’s many poorly conceived subplots and twists.

Ravi gives the impression that he’s a socially awkward jokester who can be very irresponsible, but he has some heartache in his life: His father lives in a hospital and appears to have dementia. The only thing that his father seems capable of saying is the name of a woman named Shanti. Ravi tells people that Shanti is the name of a nurse who used to take care of his father, and he grew very attached to this nurse.

Ravi has a goofy sidekick friend/attorney co-worker named Babji (played by Hyper Aadi), whose only purpose in the movie is going along with whatever Ravi says. One day, Ravi and Babji are at a library when they are approached by an attractive young woman named Harika Talwar (played by Megha Akash), who asks Ravi to be her father’s attorney. Harika’s father is a wealthy pharmaceutical mogul named Vijay Talwar (played by Sampath Raj), who has been accused of brutal murdering a man.

This murder, which took place in a restaurant, is shown as the opening scene of “Ravanasura.” The murder happened in front of several witnesses, who all identified Vijay as the killer. However, Vijay insists he’s been wrongfully accused and he wasn’t even near the restaurant when the murder happened. The problem for Vijay is that his alibi can’t be verified. Harika works as the head of research and development for her father’s company, which is called Syncox Pharma.

Kanaka doesn’t want her law firm to take the case, but Ravi uses blackmail to force the firm to take the case and to let Ravi be Vijay’s attorney. What Ravi does for the blackmail is to catch Kanaka off-guard by asking to take a selfie photo with her, and right when the picture is taken, he planted a romantic kiss on her cheek. Ravi tells Kanaka that he will show the photo to Kanaka’s husband Sekhar and tell him that Kanaka and Ravi are having an affair, unless she agrees to let Ravi be Vijay’s attorney. Yes, the movie really is this ridiculous.

The police officers who are the most involved in investigating the case are a deputy inspector general of police named Narasimha Murthy (played by Murli Sharma); an assistant commissioner of police named Hanumanth Rao (played by Jayaram), who takes the lead in the investigation and is very persistent; and police inspector named Ruhana (played by Pujita Ponnada), who Hunmanth’s subordinate and is often more perceptive than Hunmanth. And somewhere along the way, a home minister named Mudi Reddy (played by Rao Ramesh) is revealed to have a connection to this case. Other characters who have pivotal roles in the story include a makeup artist named Saketh (played by Sushanth); Saketh’s girlfriend Jaanu (played by Daksha Nagarkar); and a woman named Keerthana (played by Anu Emmanuel), who has a romantic interest in Ravi.

The last half of “Ravanasura” gets more and more tangled up in ludicrous revelations, until nothing in this movie is believable at all. It’s just a brainless story, bombastically told to make the action a not-very-convincing distraction from all the bad filmmaking on display. Most of the cast members over-act in the worst ways. Scenes that are supposed to be comedic look too forced and fake.

“Ravanasura” star Teja is one of the movie’s producers, so he’s partly to blame for how horrendous this movie is. However, “Ravanasura” director/co-writer Varma ultimately made a lot of the dreadful decisions that resulted in this movie being such a garbage dump. “Ravanasura” could have been a brain-teasing thriller. But instead, this noisy, overly long and aggressively foolish abomination is more likely to give viewers a headache.

Abhishek Pictures released “Ravanasura” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on April 7, 2023.

Review: ‘HIT: The 2nd Case,’ starring Adivi Sesh and Meenakshi Chaudhary

December 17, 2022

by Carla Hay

“HIT: The 2nd Case”

Directed by Sailesh Kolanu

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Visakhapatnam, India, the action film “HIT: The 2nd Case” features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A self-assured police detective goes on the hunt for a serial killer, who murders women and who leaves their body parts at the crime scenes were his other murder victims are found.

Culture Audience: “HIT: The 2nd Case” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of “HIT: The First Case” and suspenseful movies about police investigations of serial killings.

Adivi Sesh and Meenakshi Chaudhary in “HIT: The 2nd Case” (Photo courtesy of Wall Poster Cinema)

“HIT: The 2nd Case” is a captivating thriller from beginning to end. It’s a winning example of a sequel that’s better than the original movie. The story’s mystery is wider in scope and told in a more compelling way than in “HIT: The First Case,” a movie originally released in 2020 as a Telugu-language film, and then remade as a Hindi-language film released in 2022. It’s also a great idea to make each “HIT” movie with a different detective protagonist.

“HIT” movie series creator Sailesh Kolanu has written and directed all the “HIT” movies so far. “HIT: The First Case” ended on somewhat of a cliffhanger for the movie’s protagonist, police inspector Vikram Rudraraju. “Vikram: The 2nd Case” has a brief mention of what happened to Vikram, but otherwise, it’s a completely separate story. What each “HIT” movie has common so far is that it’s a story about a hotshot investigator in a police department called Homicide Intervention Team (HIT) located somewhere in India.

“HIT: The 2nd Case” follows police inspector Krishna “KD” Dev (played by Adivi Sesh), as he investigates the case of a twisted serial killer who dismembers his victims and leaves their various body parts at the crime scene where the killer’s other victims have been found. All of the victims are women n their 20s and 30s. The first known victim is a woman in her 20s named Sanjana, whose torso has been found in Visakhapatnam, India. KD makes a promise to Sanjana’s devastated, widowed father (played by Tanikella Bharani) that he will find the killer and make sure that there is justice for Sanjana.

In “HIT: The First Case,” police protagonist Vikram had post-traumatic stress disorder. In “HIT: The 2nd Case,” KD doesn’t have any psychiatric issues that affect how he does his job. However, KD’s biggest weakness is his arrogance. Early on in the movie, KD tells a group of reporters who ask for his comments about an unrelated case where KD captured a man who killed his own brother: “Generally, these criminals are very dumb.” It’s a comment that will come back to haunt him when the serial killer does things to outsmart KD.

KD’s cockiness also shows in how unkind he is to one his female colleagues. His ex-girlfriend Varsha (played by Komalee Prasad) has been appointed as one of his subordinates. He tells Varsha: “Seeing your face is very annoying to me.” The movie never really goes into details over why Varsha and KD broke up, but it was a romance that obviously did not end well. KD is very unhappy that Varsha has been assigned to help him with this serial killer case. KD also has his trusty police dog, a German Shepherd named Max, who is a constant companion when KD is on duty.

Whatever negative feelings that KD has toward Varsha, they are in direct contrast to his adoration of his girlfriend Aarya (played by Meenakshi Chaudhary), who is a confident and independent feminist who also expects chivalry from men. When KD asks Aarya to move in with him, she’s reluctant at first because she doesn’t want to give up having her own place. But she eventually changes her mind, because she and KD are in love with each other and want to build a life together.

Aarya works at female empowerment center called HER Welfare Association, which helps female victims of domestic violence, and offers other female-oriented services. A flashback scene in the beginning of the movie shows how, 20 years earlier, women from HER Welfare Association staged protests in support of a woman named Jhansi (played by Neela Ramana), who accused her husband Ram Prasad Koduri (played by Harsha Vardhan) of raping her, after he caught her cheating on him with another man. The HER Welfare Association plays a prominent role in the story.

Other characters who are connected to this story include KD’s female police sidekick Shradda (played by Pavani, also known as Pavani Reddy); Sanjana’s roommate Rajitha (played by Divya Narni); Rajitha’s boyfriend Kumar (played by Suhas); Sanjana’s childhood friend Raghavudu (played by Majili Shiva); KD’s police colleague Abilash (played by Maganti Srinath), nicknamed Abi; KD’s immediate supervisor Shinde (played by Brahmaji); and director of general police Nageswara Rao (played by Rao Ramesh).

Describing the rest of “HIT: The 2nd Case” would be giving away too much spoiler information. It’s enough to say that the movie is a non-stop ride of suspense and intrigue, with all of the actors playing their roles very well. The movie’s big showdown scene comes across as a little too contrived, but it’s still packed with a lot of tension. Mostly, “HIT: The 2nd Case” succeeds in how this investigation unfolds in a riveting way and how solving this mystery has a few fascinating surprises.

Wall Poster Cinema released “HIT: The 2nd Case” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on December 2, 2022.