Written and Directed by: Vikram Kumar
Produced by: Naveen Yerneni, Y. Ravi Sankar, Mohan Cherukuri
Cast: Nani, Priyanka Arul Mohan, Lakshmi, Saranya Ponvannan, Karthikeya
Music: Anirudh
Cinematography: Miroslaw Kuba Brozek
Editor:  Naveen Nooli
Production: Mythri Movie Makers
Release date: 13 September 2019
Running time: 155 minutes


iQlikMovies Rating: 2.75/5

Nani is known for picking up the scripts that are out of routine. Be it a box office money minter or a slumping debacle, he is known for giving his best as an actor. After his recent film "Jersey" that had pulled decent acclaim, he came up with Gang Leader. Vikram Kumar, who is known for handling the roller coaster screenplays like that of "Manam" has directed it after his "Hello". Let us see if this film kept up the aura of Mega Star's yesteryear's title or not. 

Story:

Few unrelated women brought together by a common incident in life, want revenge for their plight. They choose Pencil Parthasarathy (Nani) as their leader for their revenge story. 

Nani is a fraud revenge novel writer and in an attempt to write an original story agrees to help them!. 

Meanwhile, a racer (Karthikeya) becomes a suspect of the robbery. The chase continues and what happens finally is the plot of the film.

Performances:

Nani shouldered the entire film with his impeccable performance. When the treatment happens to be humor-based, it is known that Nani gives out his best. 

Lakshmi is frequently seen on Telugu screen in recent times with Oh Baby, Manmadhudu 2 and now in Gang Leader. She is routine with a similar look and performance trait. Priyanka is ok. Karthikeya, the RX100 hero, as an actor in a negative role, fits into the requirement. His screen time is short but he looks stylish and promising in the negative role. 

Technical Aspects: 

Coming to the writing part and other technical aspects, in parts it appears to be a screenplay and dialogue-driven exercise than the storyline. But on a whole, it ends up as a fair deal. 

First half stands out to be an average though it has some fun quotient. Some dialogues engage well while the other just go with the flow. Second half proves to be a bit better with some emotional scenes and on a whole, it stands out to be an above-average entertainer. Climax part is good. 

Anirudh's music is not so impressive with an exception to the first song in the second half (Hoya). Rest of his compositions neither elevate the mood nor keep engaged, though the lyrics make sense. Cinematography is impressive and the rest are in sync with the requirement with decent production values.

This is a film for a weekend family audience. There may not be thumping patronage from the younger crowds. But still, this is not a film to be ruled out from the list. We may say that it is better than Vikram's earlier film Hello but not on par with that of the screenplay and story standards of Manam. The film would have become a massive entertainer had the director focused more on comedy part. 


Plus Points:

Nani's performance

Production values 

Screenplay 

Minus Points:

Songs

Comedy quotient 

Bottom Line: Neither roaring nor boring