Ranabaali review: Vijay Deverakonda's famine epic

Verdict: An ambitious, sincere period drama with a story worth telling and a warm lead pair, undone by a bloated runtime, repetitive suffering and payoffs that never quite land.

Rating: 2.5/5

Ranabaali wants to show Rayalaseema beyond the faction feuds Telugu cinema usually gives it. Set during the Great Madras Famine of 1876-78 and narrated in the Burra Katha folk style, it casts Vijay Deverakonda as a chieftain who takes on the British. The ambition is real. Keeping the heartbeat going for three hours is where it struggles.

The story

The film opens with the legend of Singnamala Bobbili Ranabaali's birth and a local deity's prophecy about him. As famine tightens its grip and the Madras Presidency's commissioner, Sir Theodore Hector (Arnold Vosloo), squeezes the starving villages, Ranabaali goes from lover and husband to the warrior his people need. At his side is Jayamma (Rashmika Mandanna), who feeds others while going hungry herself. How the rebellion unfolds, and what it costs them, is best left to the screen.

Performances

Vijay's effort is obvious: he nails the Rayalaseema dialect, dubs his own lines and has clearly trained for the fights. He is at his most engaging early on, as a playful husband. Once the film locks him into warrior mode, though, he is left playing three notes, anger, resolve and righteousness, with little room for vulnerability. Rashmika Mandanna is the film's warmest presence. Her Jayamma is grounded and unfussy, and the scenes of the two simply eating, talking and teasing each other are better than most of the battles around them. It is their first film together since Dear Comrade, and the ease shows. Arnold Vosloo makes a cold, commanding villain, modelled on the real Sir Richard Temple, and Jason Shah is effective in a different shade of colonial officer.

Direction and technical work

Rahul Sankrityan deserves credit for bringing an overlooked chapter of history to the screen on this scale, and the sets, costumes and visuals are impressive. The trouble is rhythm. Scenes build towards a high and then cut away before the payoff, and the middle settles into a loop of oppression, suffering and revenge. Some of the atrocity scenes are so prolonged they become numbing, and the use of a pregnant woman's suffering feels manipulative. A post-interval song openly chases the Baahubali mood, and one key episode wears its Kantara influence on its sleeve. Ajay-Atul's music is uneven, and the last hour juggles history, devotion and myth without fully balancing them.

The history behind it

The Great Madras Famine of 1876-78 killed millions across the Presidency and is rarely seen on screen, which is reason enough to respect what Ranabaali attempts. The film's use of Burra Katha, the Rayalaseema tradition of sung storytelling, is its freshest device, and a traitor figure in the court will remind history buffs of the Kattabomman story. Since Kantara, folk- and myth-infused heroes have become a pan-Indian trend, and Ranabaali clearly wants a place in that wave. It has the research for it; what it lacks is the restraint to let its history speak without piling on more blood.

What works

Rashmika's Jayamma and the lead pair's chemistry
A rarely told famine history and the Burra Katha framing
Grand production design and Vijay's physical commitment

What doesn't

A punishing 178-minute runtime and a repetitive middle
Violence that replaces emotion
Predictable twists and a weak climax

Final word

Ranabaali has the scale, the history and two leads who care, but it needed a tighter edit and more faith in its quieter moments. Watch it for Rashmika and the slice of history; just be ready for a long, heavy sit. Kerala audiences can catch the full Malayalam version, songs included.

Also read: Ranabaali in theatres today: Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna's Madras famine drama opens worldwide