Nela Ticket Review: Mindless masala fare

At a time when Telugu filmmakers are pushing the envelope with some fascinating storylines, along comes the Ravi Teja-starrer, Nela Ticket, which sticks to the safety of tried-and-tested formula.

Cast: Ravi Teja, Malvika Sharma, Jagapathi Babu, Sampath Raj
Director: Kalyan Krishna

The film starts off with the swearing in ceremony of Aditya Bhupathi (Jagapathi Babu), the new home minister, who is driven by greed and fear of failure. He plans to assassinate his father, senior politician Ananda Bhupathi (Sarath Babu), for property and money. A reporter films the culprit, and after being attacked by the minister’s henchmen, eventually slips into a coma. When everything seems going well for Aditya Bhupathi, he meets Nela Ticket (Ravi Teja), an orphan with the philosophy, Chuttu janam, madhyalo manam, ala undali ra life ante (Surround yourself with people that make the life happy), who has a temper that flares up when anyone humiliates elderly people. The rest is all about how this happy-go-lucky youth turns into a tireless messiah figure for the old, oppressed and exposes the wolf in the sheep’s clothing.

Director Kalyan Krishna tries to tap into every relatable issue with his dialogue. This completely predictable bore fest of a film seems to be designed as a test to find out who’s brave enough to sit through the 167-minute runtime. The annoying side characters especially try one's patience. Meanwhile, someone like Brahmanandam doesn’t have one significant piece of dialogue, and is relegated to the background.

The promotional videos and the posters of Nela Ticket make it a point to stress that it is a masala entertainer. And with Ravi Teja, the darling of masses, in the lead one would expect the film to be high on entertainment with a gripping narrative. Instead, we get a film that falters right from the word go due to the lacklustre presentation and amateurish treatment. Although the contrast between the hero-villain is stark,  it’s all at the surface level only. 

Ravi Teja is shown in a larger-than-life role and everything about him is predictable. He carries the film on his shoulders and plays to the galleries. Jagapathi Babu, with his impressive body language and menacing grin, brings some amount of gravitas to the film. 

Despite her poorly etched role, Malvika Sharma looks real as a medico. Prudhvi manages to evoke a few laughs, but his efforts are largely in vain. Shakthikanth Karthick’s music has no shelf-life and Ravi Teja’s dance movements don’t give his fans anything to cheer for.

Kalyan Krishna has churned out a film that falls short in many places and only succeeds at testing the audience's patience.