Cast: Vijay Deverakonda, Nasser, Sathyaraj, Mehreen, Yashika Aannand, Priyadarshi
Director: Anand Shankar
Huge expectations ride on NOTA after Vijay Deverakonda’s sensational hits Arjun Reddy and Geetha Govin-dam. The film is also in the news because some people wanted to stop its release because it is seen to support a political party.
Varun (Vijay Deverakonda), the son of Chief Minister Vasudev (Nasser), is given to partying with friends and playing video games. Vasudev is jailed in a corruption case, and instals Varun in his place. A clueless Varun signs the files shown to him, but things begin to change.
Mahesh Babu’s Bharat Ane Nenu is about a youngster who comes down to Hyderabad and becomes Chief Minister. Director Anand Shankar is takes a similar framework for NOTA. The only difference between the two films is that in the Mahesh Babu film, the lead character’s father passes away while in NOTA he goes to jail.
There are a similarities between these two films and it is surprising that Deverakonda still decided to go ahead with NOTA. Perhaps he had an eye on the Tamil version; the director concentrates on infusing the film with a Tamil flavour.
Anand Shankar starts off on a good note but dilutes Vijay’s character. The flashback episodes of Nasser and Sathyaraj are not necessary, and boring. Vijay Deverakonda is the pillar of the film. He has made his mark as a versatile actor, and is very convincing in NOTA. Mehreen is the female lead but hardly appears for a few minutes. Sanchana Natarajan gets a better role as Opposition leader and she plays it to perfection. Sathyaraj and Nasser are the other key players, and their experience shows. Priyadarshi is also there.
Sam CS provides a good background score, but the two songs are not appealing. The cinematography is good. And, finally, Bharat Ane Nenu was made with a commercial formula and had an interesting narration which elevated the protagonist. All of this is missing in NOTA. It is almost like a Tamil film dubbed into Telugu.
