Vinaya Vidheya Rama Review: Unreal heroics that never end make for a tiresome film

Our Rambo-esque hero slashes off the goons’ heads so powerfully that they go flying in the air, and are caught by eagles soaring past to feed on. Mindblowing, isn’t it? Vinaya Vidheya Rama is all that and more. Mindless gallantry laced with nauseating family relations all tied together by a single unfailing hero - Vinaya Vidheya Rama is the epitome of a masala movie. Which of course, means you are expected to forget all rationality, sit back and cringe.      

Cast: Ram Charan Tej, Kiara Advani, Vivek Oberoi
Director: Boyapati Srinu

Rama (Ram Charan), the youngest of five brothers, all of whom are orphans and find a family among each other, is a good-for-nothing, hot-headed, yet good-hearted young man. His eldest brother (Prashanth), an IAS officer who works for the election commission, is subject to many threats because of his sincerity. But Rama being the angry young man he is, beats the goons up and forces his brother to make amends for him. He later gets posted as a special officer for the election commission in Bihar. Being the sincere officer that he is, he butts heads with the local don, Raja Bhai (Vivek Oberoi) and hence enmity ensues, until the hero emerges to kill all evil. Even if evil means an army of 300.

When you buy a ticket to a Boyapati movie, you know what you’re signing up for. Vinaya Vidheya Rama is no different; if anything, it goes beyond all expectations. It’s a testosterone-driven cringe-fest from the word go. The heroics just do not end. And some of it is reserved for the villain as well. To assert his evilness, Vivek Oberoi pulls out a wild cobra and has it bite him repeatedly. And then... the cobra dies! 

Meanwhile, there is a family, Rama’s vadina (Sneha), the other brothers and their corresponding wives and children. And yes, there is a heroine too. Papa (Kiara Advani) only appears on screen as a prelude to songs. She barely has four dialogues in the entire movie; and to add insult to injury, Kiara’s navel and cleavage are introduced to the audience before her. In fact, we get to know more about her mother (Hema) than her in the film and appreciate it too. Boya slyly masks all the misogyny in the movie through the character of Hema, who is a women’s rights activist. She sets the rules in the pellichoopulu for her daughter, she asks for a medical checkup before discussing any further, and fights for wronged women even if it means getting locked up.  

If there is any plot worth mention here, it is lost between all the fights, songs, dances and random dialogues meant to elevate the hero. All the build-up has no payback whether in the most adrenaline-driven superficial way or creatively. Ram Charan does full justice to the character. He truly believes that he, as the hero, can single-handedly fight off 300 people, and it shows. However, all of it is wasted potential against such pedestrian writing. Sneha, Prashanth and Vivek Oberoi deliver exactly what Boya seems to have asked of them, which is to say, not much.

In short, take all of Boya’s films in the past, put them on steroids and you get Vinaya Vidheya Rama. Boyapati doesn’t hold back. Maybe he should have.