YEVADU

Yevadu (English: Who is he?) is a 2014 Indian Telugu-language action film co-written and directed by Vamsi Paidipally. The film features Ram Charan, Shruti Haasan, and Amy Jackson in the lead roles, while Allu Arjun, Kajal Aggarwal, Sai Kumar, Jayasudha and Rahul Dev play supporting roles. The film was produced by Dil Raju under the banner Sri Venkateswara Creations. Vakkantham Vamsi co-wrote the film's script with Paidipally. Devi Sri Prasad composed the film's music, while Marthand K. Venkatesh was the film's editor.

Satya and Deepthi are lovers living in Visakhapatnam. A dreaded don, Veeru Bhai, lusts for Deepthi. When Deepthi's parents are killed, she and Satya escape. They board a bus on route to Hyderabad, but the bus is stopped unexpectedly and boarded by three men: Veeru's henchman Deva, Veeru's brother Ajay, and a corrupt police inspector, Shravan. They kill Deepthi in front of Satya, and he suffers an almost-fatal stab wound. Before the three leave, they set fire to the bus, leaving Satya to his death (after they stabbed him to death). However, Dr. Shailaja saves Satya by giving him a new face and skin. Ten months later, Satya wakes up from his coma.

Under the pseudonym of Ram, Satya returns to Visakhapatnam where he meets a model named Shruti, whom Veeru likes. Befriending Shruti, he takes advantage of his new unknown face, and lures Deva to a half-constructed apartment (or unconstructed building), where Satya kills Deva. A photo of Deva is discovered by assistant commissioner Ashok Varma, which has been marked with a "1". Satya then files a report on Deepthi with the police, stating that she has been missing for ten days. Since Shravan knows that Deepthi was killed ten months earlier, he becomes suspicious of Satya in his new persona, and follows him to a mall, where Satya kills him. During the investigation on Shravan's death, Satya presents himself to Varma as an eyewitness. When asked to provide a description of the killer, Satya describes his former face. Satya then manipulates Ajay to fall in love with Shruti and gets the two of them to pose in compromising positions for some pictures, under the pretense that they will be used as a promotion to assist Shruti in getting an opportunity to audition for the female lead in a film. Instead, Satya sends copies of the pictures to Veeru, to turn him against both Ajay and Shruti. Satya then convinces Ajay that the only way to save Shruti from Veeru's ire is to kill Veeru, which would also allow Ajay to gain his brother's position. However, Veeru's henchmen kill Ajay, but Veeru is himself killed by Satya, who reveals his true identity. He apologises to Shruti for using her, before leaving.

His vengeance fulfilled, Satya departs from Visakhapatnam. On the way, a stranger attacks Satya, but is killed. Suspecting that the attack might have something to do with his new face, Satya visits Dr. Shailaja. When they meet, Shailaja confesses that she has given Satya the face of her deceased son, Charan; she then goes on to explain the circumstances surrounding Charan's death. Charan was a happy-go-lucky rich graduate who hung out with his friends and girlfriend, Manju. One of his friends, Shashank, questions the local don, Dharma, regarding his illegal acquisition of lands by exploiting the slum people. Threatened, Dharma kills Shashank, after which Charan begins to raise support among the local population to revolt against Dharma. Again threatened, Dharma approaches another one of Charan's friends, Sharath, promising to establish his political career if he kills Charan. Charan and Sharath go to Visakhapatnam to attend a wedding. On their return, they board the same bus as Satya and Deepthi. When the bus was stopped, Sharath pulls a knife on Charan and the two engage in a fight. Veeru's men simultaneously enter the bus. Deepthi is killed inside the bus while Charan and Sharath's struggle has led them outside the bus, where Charan is stabbed to death. Charan's body is sent to Shailaja, who after observing Satya's urge to live decides to transplant her son's face onto Satya, rather than simple plastic surgery. Before Shailaja could inform Satya about Charan, Satya had left the hospital.

Leaving Shailaja, Satya visits the slum, under the guise of Charan. After meeting the locals, he decides to avenge Charan's death. First, he meets Sharath in a political meeting and, using the shock of Charan seemingly being alive, makes him kill Dharma. Satya makes the slum people follow Sharath to Dharma's house. Sharath stabs Dharma, who in turn kills Sharath. However, the mob, which has followed Satya, finally kills Dharma. Afterwards, Manju is shown living in a distant land, mourning Charan's death. The film ends with Satya meeting her.

The movie is laced with plenty of brilliantly conceived episodes that establish that it’s just the bodies that are exchanged and not the personalities. While the biological merit of those purported surgeries could be contested, it reflects the filmmaker’s respect for the viewers’ intelligence. It’s something mana Tollywood filmmakers lack completely.

So when Allu Arjun comes out sounding and behaving like Ram Charan after the ‘face transplant’ we are supposed to cheer for the star rather than the character he’s supposed to be playing. Guess the audience (the reviewers included) have little option other than suffering the intelligence (the lack of it rather) of the filmmakers. The sad part is this kind of stuff is actually not bad by our general standards.

Why else would we keep producing cheap imitations (and that’s putting it kindly) of Hollywood blockbusters week after week. Many celebrated filmmakers have made careers out of making sufficiently dumbed down adaptation of cult Hollywood films. We haven’t got to world cinema yet.

This movie this isn’t a rip off of Face Off. We don’t have filmmakers who have the required creativity and technical know how to make half decent adaptation of that 1997 action thriller. The director just borrows the central idea to dish out another silly revenge drama. No. It offers two revenge dramas rolled into one. After finishing off everyone responsible for his girlfriend’s murder, he goes about killing all those responsible for the murder of Charan. Well, Charan’s story is revealed in the post interval flashback episode.

For all the hype surrounding Ram Charan and Allu Arjun acting together in the movie there isn’t a single episode in which the two share the screen together. Neither does it offer the spectacle of the duo dancing together in a dream sequence. What we get is the statutory truckloads of action and high decibel background score.
 

When not beating up people to pulp or dancing like a dream, Ram Charan waltzes through the entire film with one and a half expressions. Sai Kumar indulges his vocal chords in what must be one of the most over the top villain characters ever. A few more of such roles and he will certainly break the outer limit of human hearing threshold of 20000 HZ. Kota Srinivasa Rao and Jayasudha carry off their roles with characteristic aplomb. Shruti looks pretty, but has little else to do.

Devi Sri Prasad’s compositions though formulaic are perhaps the most enjoyable part of the movie besides Charan’s dancing i.e. Allu Arjun is convincing in his cameo as well. Well the action choreography is just undecipherable. There are so many stunts that you can’t tell one from another. And yes there is Brahmanandam as well, but his comedy track seems to have disappeared in the edit suite.