Ramarao On Duty - Boring and unimpressive

 

Rating - 2.25/5

Cast - Ravi Teja, Divyansha Kaushik, Rajisha Vijayan, Venu Thottempudi

Director - Sarath Mandava

Writer - Sarath Mandava

Producer  - Sudhakar Cherukuri

Cinematographer - Sathyan Sooryan

Editor - Praveen K. L.

Music - Sam C. S.

Production companies - Sri Lakshmi Venkateswara Cinema, RT Team Works

The story is set in the 1995 Chittoor district. Ramarao is an honest govt officer who is very sincere in his duty but to help common man he uses the flaws in law. He is transferred to his hometown where he finds a link to the case of many people missing. How he solves the whole mystery is the rest of the story.

The first half starts on an impressive note. Hero's introduction scene is good but after that director took too much time to establish the characters. Though there are some good moments the movie moves at an ordinary pace. The interval-bang also lacked the punch. 

In the second half, the director tried to impress by involving many characters and adding layers to the suspense factor, but all the twists are predictable from a large distance. The director could have stuck to the investigation part, but he inserted the romance and family track for the sake of formula which did not help the movie. Also, the sudden shift of the hero taking the case personally was not registered properly. He could have made a commercial entertainer or a thriller but by mixing both genres he could not do justice to any.

Raviteja looked good in a different role this time which does not have the usual energy levels, but he maintained the intensity of the character. Divyansha Kaushik was just present for the namesake. Rajisha Vijayan had a good introduction, but her character goes nowhere. Venu Tottempudi who returned to the big screen after 9 years was fine in a corrupt police officer role. Tanikella Bharani, Rahul Ramakrishna, John Vijay, and others were apt.

Camera work was innovative in opening scene and forest backdrop scenes. Songs appeared as speed breakers, but the background score was good and tried to elevate the mood of the film. Dialogues were good in important scenes, while the usage of English looked unintentionally comic in a few scenes. Even though action sequences were nicely choreographed they lacked punch due to no strong lead scenes.

Overall, Ramarao on Duty had a good potential to be a thrilling ride, but lost its way with improper execution.