Billa Movie Review

Movie Review : Billa Rating : 3/5 Banner : Gopikrishna Movies pvt ltd Cast : Prabhas, Anushka, Namitha, Rehman, Krishnamraju, Supreeth, Kelly Dorjee, Hansika Motwani, Subbaraju, Ali, Jayasudha and Others Music : Mani Sharma Cinematography : Soundararajan Producer: Narendra, Prabodh Director: Meher Ramesh Released Date: April 03, 2009

Story: A visual treat, the story begins on the backdrop of Malaysia and this is ruled by the most wanted criminal Billa (Prabhas) who is into weapons, gold and other illegal activities. He is chased by ACP Krishnamurthy (Krishnamraju) but Billa gets away each time. Meanwhile, pressure comes from Interpol officer Dharmendra (Rehman) on Billa case. Billa is flanked by Lisa (Namitha), Ranjith (Supreeth), Vijay (Subbaraju) in his gang but then he does not believe in anyone. In his gang joins Maya (Anushka) who comes with a vengeance to kill him. However, he gets caught during a deal and while escaping Krishnamurthy shoots him. Billa dies but without giving the details of a dangerous deal that he has with Rashid Khan (Kelly). Meanwhile, with the help of police informer Shankar (Ali), Krishnamurthy identifies Ranga (Prabhas), a petty thief in Vizag who looks just like Billa. He brings Ranga to Malaysia and trains him to take the place of Billa since no one knows his death. What happens from there forms the rest of the story. Presentation: The director has come up with a storyline that has been known for generations and though the presentation was alright, the narrative had flaws. The dialogues were weak, the script was written without strength, screenplay was random. Music was just average with two songs worth humming, cinematography could have been a lot better, editing was crisp but sometimes the shots were too short. Full marks to costumes and locations, the art department has done a neat job. The car chase sequence was good. Prabhas has come up with a very good performance and more than Billa, it was his role as Ranga that looked more convincing. Namitha was there for the glamour, so was Anushka but then her bikini scene did get attention, she was quite seductive in this movie. Krishnamraju was just okay, Rehman was neat, Kelly Dorjee had more punch, Supreeth was effective, Ali was alright. The others did not have much to do in this. Conclusion: The film happens to be a remake of the 'Billa' that became a blockbuster in Tamil. While the first half got a bit boring with the first fifteen minutes looking very stale, the tempo picks up eventually. A lot of focus was put on the style and slick presentation but content could have been worked more in terms of providing punch dialogues and some intense scenes. However, the movie is technically well made and the makers have scored more on that. The film will surely be a visual feast with the glamour of Anushka, Namitha and the acting of Prabhas.