Radhe Shyam review: Gorgeous but frivolous drama

Radhe Shyam

Telugu (Theatres)

Director: Radha Krishna Kumar

Cast: Prabhas, Pooja Hegde

Rating: 2.5/5

The hero introduction song in ‘Radhe Shyam’ is fascinating. To begin with, it doesn’t praise the hero’s skills and strengths to the skies. It’s more like a character introduction song that fits nicely into the template it creates. It’s rare to find such a transparent feature in a Telugu movie that’s headlined by an A-list star. Vikramaditya (Prabhas) freely roams around Europe without any worry as though he’s a reflection of Bunny (Ranbir Kapoor) from the Hindi rom-com ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’ (2013). These men go wherever the wind carries them. They stop and smell the flowers, too. But, sadly, they won’t water the plants.

Vikramaditya (Prabhas), a palmist, tells the women who fall for him that he can’t be in a relationship with them as he doesn’t possess a “love line” on his palm. At the end of the day, he comes across as a guy who’s against the idea of developing attachments. But he’s not emotionally unavailable, either. He doesn’t wait for his ex to show up with a big smile and a bigger ring so that he can get married to the love of his life later. He just knows that he can’t reach the heights of a happily ever after.

What pulls down the energetic beats from this seemingly easy point is the lack of chemistry between Pooja Hegde (who stars as a doctor, named Prerana) and Prabhas. They behave in a rather straitjacketed fashion which gives rise to discomfort in a movie where the burden of lifting the narrative rests mostly on the shoulders of the protagonists. Of course, the setting is a major plus because your eyes will feast on scrumptious colors and sights. And the music, too, offers hope. But you can’t appreciate the cover endlessly and ignore the contents.

In a way, Radha Krishna Kumar’s latest offering is an experimental affair. The leads aren’t weighed down by the compulsion to crack jokes at every passing turn. And there are no action scenes that are strung together to make the man of this mainstream drama appear as a larger-than-life savior. However, a little humor wouldn’t have killed anybody. In fact, it would have saved many uninspired stretches from becoming soggy.

The battle of ideologies in ‘Radhe Shyam,’ too, is quite flaky. Paramahamsa (Krishnam Raju), Vikramaditya’s teacher, believes in the theory that palmistry is only 99% science, whereas the younger gentleman strictly says that nobody can alter the lines on their palm. A supporting character is also thrown in for good measure to explain how fates work – a girl who’s told not to spend her time on sporting activities wins accolades in the field of archery.

There’s a somewhat similar scene, in Boyapati Srinu’s ‘Akhanda’ (2021), in which the principal character tells a doubter that scientific knowledge is a toddler when compared to spirituality. The directors of both these movies forget to mention that only superstitious practices use science as a crutch and never the other way around. When you go to a hospital, the doctors won’t ask you if they can consult an astrologer before treating you. [Please, run away from that place if it ever happens.]

Prerana and Vikramaditya, for what it’s worth, look cute together. But it doesn’t give them carte blanche to whisper mundane nothings into each other’s ears and call them romantic exchanges. Krishna Kumar seems to have shaped the structure of ‘Radhe Shyam’ based on Mani Ratnam’s classic ‘Geethanjali’ (1989). These films are partly set in hospitals where the corridors smell of death and despair. It’s unfortunate that you can’t walk into the playfulness of ‘Geethanjali’ here, though.

Prabhas has perhaps taken it upon himself to prove that he’s not just the star of the ‘Baahubali’ (2015 & 2017) films. But if he keeps trying to satisfy viewers of all ages and classes, he won’t be able to step out of the tunnel. I’m not suggesting that he needs to feature only in heavy-duty thrillers. He can certainly dip his fingers in all the genres. Nonetheless, he needs to pull himself together if he’s serious about getting rid of the long ‘Baahubali’ shadow.