“Rebel” is the most ambitious film of young Rebel Star Prabhas who has had a string of hits last year. He looks like an uber cool version of veteran actor and original Rebel Star Krishnam Raju and has quite a following equaling the likes of Mahesh Babu and Jr.NTR. Prabhas has picked up director Raghavendra Lawrence – who gave hits like “Kaanchana” and “Mass” and “Style”. Raghavendra Lawrence belongs to that unique set of choreographers who took up directing in a big way – a’la Prabhu Deva, Amma Rajasekhar. It comes with a certain brazenness and some arrogance as well : since they know all the right moves for the lead pair in songs, they will probably or perhaps become a capable director. To some extent, it worked for Lawrence for a few movies but in “Rebel” he falls flat in many areas – the movie is not worth all the hype. I wonder what is that in the movie that took one year in the making.
The plot is a simple revenge story that resembles his earlier films – “Don” and “Kanchana”. Raju (Prabhas) comes to a city in search of “Stephen Roberts” whom nobody has seen before but who commands a fierce army of sophisticated gunmen who extort millions from innocents. Raju learns that only one Naanu knows who Stephen Roberts. Naanu’s daughter is a dance teacher in Bangkok, so Raju woos her to get the bag of secrets about the elusive S.R. He gets the villains finally with lot of gory action and mindless stunts but before that Lawrence shows one more lengthy flashback that reveals Raju’s original background of inheriting the kingdom of a Don (Bhupathi Raju played by Krishnam Raju). Deeksha Sheth, the second heroine in the film is also thrown into the flashback as his first love. The plot and the narration is bland and there is no twist anywhere.
What mars the film is heavy-duty violence which is glorified with graphics – drilling machines are used to pulverize knee-joints, knuckles and shoulders, all kinds of guns are used in the film and there’s relentless spraying of bullets and men are killed like mice. Action sequences are meant to elevate the heroism of a handsome and shapely hero like Prabhas but they are highly contrived and look unimpressive and surreal. All the stunts of the film are straight-lifted from recent Hollywood movies and some are inspired by “Sherlock Holmes” series - the one that shows an improvisation over “Matrix” series in the sense of slow-moving, body-part-breaking kind. Scientifically, the stunt masters know that the only part that is movable in the human face is the lower jaw – not ears, not eyes, not nose. So, animating all over the face is not really credible. Music by Lawrence is unexceptional and lacks finesse that professionals give. Lawrence should stick to his strengths than spreading himself thin. Knowing beats is one thing, drum beats is another.
I am told that the script was first rejected by Prabhas the first time Lawrence narrated it. Prabhas would have been luckier had he gotten away out of this script. It is not a film that will cap his career or one that will rekindle “Chatrapathi” mania despite the potential of the actor. Prabhas carries the film well but his costumes in choreography could have been better. His dialogue delivery is again inconsistent; that’s an area that requires great rework if he has to cement his place amongst the top three. His heroism gets highlighted in unexpected times and falls flat in moments it should've got. Tamanna is exposed to all her body parts full - she is covered most times only 15 per cent in the film and shows that despite all the beauty, she doesn’t have depth in her acting – even the song featuring her exclusively where she does a Janet Jackson-style dancing, audience take a puff break. Deeksha does a tad better in flashback. Krishnam Raju looks relatively comfortable in his elderly role compared with earlier films. The big relief in comedy comes only at three points punctuated well with the entry of Brahmanandam, MS Narayana and Ali. Good to see Ali in a better role as “KamalHasan ShivaShankar”, he sizzles in the six minutes. Mukesh Rushi as the villain shows different shades. On the whole, “Rebel” is a wasted effort by Lawrence despite the stunts, action, drama and negligible comedy because there’s nothing new he could show – it’s a rehash of his earlier films, elements he loves to show of dance, helping the handicapped and orphans, transvestites, dons, revenge, et al. Choreography, his main forte, is also amiss, maybe Lawrence should have given another upcoming a talent a chance at that. On the whole, I would not even give it beyond 2 out of 5 but because of Prabhas, I will give “Rebel” 2.5 on 5.
The plot is a simple revenge story that resembles his earlier films – “Don” and “Kanchana”. Raju (Prabhas) comes to a city in search of “Stephen Roberts” whom nobody has seen before but who commands a fierce army of sophisticated gunmen who extort millions from innocents. Raju learns that only one Naanu knows who Stephen Roberts. Naanu’s daughter is a dance teacher in Bangkok, so Raju woos her to get the bag of secrets about the elusive S.R. He gets the villains finally with lot of gory action and mindless stunts but before that Lawrence shows one more lengthy flashback that reveals Raju’s original background of inheriting the kingdom of a Don (Bhupathi Raju played by Krishnam Raju). Deeksha Sheth, the second heroine in the film is also thrown into the flashback as his first love. The plot and the narration is bland and there is no twist anywhere.
What mars the film is heavy-duty violence which is glorified with graphics – drilling machines are used to pulverize knee-joints, knuckles and shoulders, all kinds of guns are used in the film and there’s relentless spraying of bullets and men are killed like mice. Action sequences are meant to elevate the heroism of a handsome and shapely hero like Prabhas but they are highly contrived and look unimpressive and surreal. All the stunts of the film are straight-lifted from recent Hollywood movies and some are inspired by “Sherlock Holmes” series - the one that shows an improvisation over “Matrix” series in the sense of slow-moving, body-part-breaking kind. Scientifically, the stunt masters know that the only part that is movable in the human face is the lower jaw – not ears, not eyes, not nose. So, animating all over the face is not really credible. Music by Lawrence is unexceptional and lacks finesse that professionals give. Lawrence should stick to his strengths than spreading himself thin. Knowing beats is one thing, drum beats is another.
I am told that the script was first rejected by Prabhas the first time Lawrence narrated it. Prabhas would have been luckier had he gotten away out of this script. It is not a film that will cap his career or one that will rekindle “Chatrapathi” mania despite the potential of the actor. Prabhas carries the film well but his costumes in choreography could have been better. His dialogue delivery is again inconsistent; that’s an area that requires great rework if he has to cement his place amongst the top three. His heroism gets highlighted in unexpected times and falls flat in moments it should've got. Tamanna is exposed to all her body parts full - she is covered most times only 15 per cent in the film and shows that despite all the beauty, she doesn’t have depth in her acting – even the song featuring her exclusively where she does a Janet Jackson-style dancing, audience take a puff break. Deeksha does a tad better in flashback. Krishnam Raju looks relatively comfortable in his elderly role compared with earlier films. The big relief in comedy comes only at three points punctuated well with the entry of Brahmanandam, MS Narayana and Ali. Good to see Ali in a better role as “KamalHasan ShivaShankar”, he sizzles in the six minutes. Mukesh Rushi as the villain shows different shades. On the whole, “Rebel” is a wasted effort by Lawrence despite the stunts, action, drama and negligible comedy because there’s nothing new he could show – it’s a rehash of his earlier films, elements he loves to show of dance, helping the handicapped and orphans, transvestites, dons, revenge, et al. Choreography, his main forte, is also amiss, maybe Lawrence should have given another upcoming a talent a chance at that. On the whole, I would not even give it beyond 2 out of 5 but because of Prabhas, I will give “Rebel” 2.5 on 5.
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