'Bharateeyans' Telugu movie review

Director Deena Raj’s Bharateeyans — with the tagline “The New Blood” — is the latest theatrical release in Telugu this weekend.

You don’t actually need to watch the trailers of some films; posters are enough to sense the pulse of the content inside and how it is packaged.

Well, you can’t expect a film shot so crudely by a director who wrote stories for the Daggubati family and Prabhas some 20 years ago.

You read it right! Deena Raj rendered stories for hit films like Preminchukundam Raa (1997), Premante Idera (1998), Kalisundam Raa (2000), Eeswar (2002), Lahiri Lahiri Lahirilo (2002), Sardukupodam Randi (2000), Sakhiya (2004), and Nagaram Nidrapothunna Vela (2011).

Synopsis

Six youngsters from various regions — Bhojpuri (Subha Ranjan), Nepali (Sonam Thendup Barphungpa), Telugu (Nirroze Putcha), Bengali (Rajeswari Chakraborty), Tripura (Peden O Namgyal) and Punjabi (Samaira Sandhu) — are taken to an old military farmhouse by a group of men who claim to be working closely with the Indian government and the Army.

The task before these youngsters is to go on a secret mission to China in the guise of tourists.

They’ve no option left but to accept the mission since their family members are in danger.

How do they enter China’s territory and crack the mission? Will they all return to India safely? — is what Bharateeyans is about.

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Poor characterisation

The patriotic feelings among the young generation have undergone changes due to the reshaping of ideologies — both political and cultural — over the years.

When the British were at the helm, patriotic sentiments certainly ran high among people. Cut to 2023, the true meanings of the words like “patriotism”, “sacrifice”, and “unity” have undergone a sea of change, if not completely forgotten by people.

Now, have you found any youngster flaunting a locket with a photo of a freedom fighter stuck into it?

But Subha Ranjan’s character Bhojpuri does it —he flaunts Bhagath Singh’s pic inside his locket. His dream is to join the Indian Army.

Samaira Sandhu, who played a Punjabi girl in Bharateeyans, gives a lecture on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) when the cabbie asks her for extra fare by citing the increase in petrol rates.

Lecture on GDP to a cabbie, for demanding a few extra bucks! You realise that the Punjabi girl is a school teacher, much later.

An aspiring cricketer, Bengali (well, the name itself is Bengali), played by Rajeswari Chakraborty, doesn’t tolerate injustice. Her blood boils when a cabbie takes advantage and demands more money for dropping her at her destination.

She says, “Anyanni assal sahinchalenu (I can’t tolerate this injustice),” and brings back old memories of firebrand Vijayashanthi mouthing those cliched dialogues during the 90s.

Bengali has a backstory; the ball she hit while playing a cricket match struck a boy outside the boundary rope. Unfortunately, his father was a local politician.

In a fit of rage, the politician attacked Bengali’s father, resulting in the amputation of his leg. Now don’t wonder why there was so much violence for hitting a six!

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Lack of logic

There’s Narendra Modi in Bharateeyans! The person who played Prime Minister Modi in the film would probably never find the answer as to why he had to do the role.

All he does is ask his government officials about the Plan A, B and C of the secret operation in China.

There’s a retired RAW agent from Tamil Nadu accompanying these youngsters to China. In the guise of a smuggler, he operates across the Indo-China border, and strangely, he never gets caught for his illegal activities.

This apart, the dialogues in the flick are so random that you wonder why a Punjabi girl gives a lecture to this RAW agent in his 60s about the significance of the Tamil language.

She says, “Tamil words are found in the Hebrew language, even the language had the mention in Mayan civilisation.” And all this happens when the opponents attack their vehicle while crossing the border!

Another (not so) interesting character is Wan, a commanding officer in China’s Red Army. Wan is played by Mahendra Bagdas. He along with his son speaks Telugu fluently.

In fact, he also speaks Gujarati and Malayalam so effortlessly with two lady RAW agents who infiltrate the Chinese territory to steal classified information.

Both Wan and his son flaunt the dark side of their characters. There’s a scene where Wan’s son keeps on explaining his heroics to the visitors at his den.

On the other hand, Wan gives some gyan on how the virus is developed in a small makeshift lab near the inside forest and how he joined hands with Pakistani forces to defeat India.

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Performances

Sonam Thendup Barphungpa and Peden O Namgyal, who played Nepali and Tripura respectively, are reasonably okay.

There’s much scope for actor Nirroze Putcha who played the frustrated father of a toddler. But the poor characterisation watered down his performance.

Indeed, the story of Bharateeyans is so clumsy without any thrills that everything takes a backseat.

Mockery of serious subjects

Audiences would certainly expect something new from a writer who had a reasonably good stint as a story writer two decades ago.

Apart from merely uttering the words “terrorism”, “secret operations”, “patriotism”, “unity” and “sacrifice”, the characters in Deena Raj’s directorial made no serious attempt in infusing life into the story.

In a way, Bharateeyans made a mockery of serious issues that the nation is currently facing.

With its poor screenplay and cliched-outdated dialogues, the Hindi-Telugu bilingual stands out as a lopsided work of filmmaking.

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Verdict

More than igniting love and a sense of attachment towards the country, Bharateeyans makes you embarrassed, as it is deduced to become a travesty of nationalism.

However serious the subject may appear in its raw form, the subsequent transformation of the script to visual form only leaves audiences laughing. You may probably have to resist laughter because the patriotism theme that the film banks upon takes away your happiness.