Cast: Sai Dharam Tej, Rakul Preet, Jagapathi Babu, Mukesh Rishi, Vennela Kishore and Ali
Director: Gopichand Malineni
Director Gopichand has joined hands with Sai Dharam Tej for Winner that released on Friday. With top actress Rakul Preet Singh as the female lead, and Tagore Madhu and Nallamalapu Srinivas as joint producers, the film has created quite a buzz at the box office. Siddharth (Sai Dharam Tej) runs away from home when still a child because he hates his father Mahender Reddy (Jagapathi Babu). His mother is dead and though his father takes good care of him, a misunderstanding leads to an estrangement. Siddharth grows up and joins a newspaper as the creative head.
He meets Sithara (Rakul Preet) at a party and falls in love with her, but she rejects him. She is an athlete and practices hard but without her father knowing anything about it. When he comes to know, about this, he arranges for her to marry a top jockey (Anup Singh). Siddharth attends the ceremony and after seeing him, Sithara wants to escape from her marriage. She tells her father that she loves Siddharth and lies to him that Siddharth is also a top jockey. She wants the two men to compete in a horse race and decides to marry the winner. But Siddharth actually hates horses and racing, but how he takes up the challenge is the crux of the story.
Director Gopichand Malineni follows the commercial formula that has brought him much success. He chooses the world of horse racing as a backdrop but it’s obviously new to him. The Sai Dharam Tej-Prudhvi-Rakul Preet love track is very similar to the Venkatesh-Prudhvi-Nayanthara one in Babu Bangaram. In that film, Venkatesh was a cop and used Prudhvi to further his interest with Nayanthara, whereas in this film, Prudhvi is a cop and Sai Dharam Tej uses him to further his love with Rakul. The narration is predictable so everyone knows what to expect. Only in the second half does the movie open up.
Veligonda Srinivas, who wrote the story for Akhil’s debut Akhil, is the story writer for this film too. The story line could have been much better had he been more focused instead of indulging in silly drama. But the director has aimed for the masses and some dialogues and scenes are bound to enthral the front benches. Sai Dharam Tej is improving from film to film and in this one, he gives a commendable performance. He is good in comic scenes, delivering the dialogue with ease. Rakul Preet is beautiful and glamorous, but has no scope to perform.
Anasuya sizzles in an item song and Jagapathi Babu has once again done a neat job. Thakur Anup Singh as the villain looks good. Prudhvi as Singam Sujatha and Ali as Peter Heins come up with a few laughs as does Vennela Kishore. Mukesh Rishi is just about okay. Chota K. Naidu is the cinematographer and has shot some beautiful visuals, especially in the song sequences. Abburi Ravi provides some entertaining dialogues, which will impress his fans. Thaman’s music is good and the songs are catchy. But Winner fails to match up to certain expectations. Mind you, Sai Dharam Tej’s on-screen performance is good, but there are too many illogical scenes.
