I actually am quite exhausted with the need for writers of big PAN-India films to follow a particular template with regard to its narrative. In Devara – Part 1, the setup is something totally different from the story that the film has to offer. An apparent security threat in the year 1996 triggers a chain of events that leads an investigating cop to a Red Sea Village in Ratnagiri that is home to the legend of Devara. The issue which I had was that a standard character borrowed from the PAN-India template was narrating the turn of events to the police inspector, who suddenly had all the time in the world to listen to a nearly 3 hour flashback, that was just part 1 of 2 with nearly no reference to the man he was seeking. This was a clear lapse considering how the twists and turns in the screenplay are presented in a verbose manner to the point of also describing the intentions of the characters as opposed to showing the same unfold onscreen. Despite that, the screenplay standing at nearly 3 hours does offer does glimpses of promise before sinking itself in the sea of mediocrity.

I must admit that I was briefly engaged with the world-building that revolved around a village by the sea featuring Devara and his soon to be nemesis Bhaira. The two initially joins hands together to ‘smuggle’ goods to their masters without having an iota of knowledge about the stuff. Soon in a turn of events, Devara does have a change of heart following an ultra-patriotic speech by the coast guard that soon ignites the rivalry between him and Bhairava. Instantly, the thing that worked in favour of the drana despite a flat piece of writing was the characterization between the two characters – Devara and Bhaira. Calling them poles apart would be an understatement given how Devara didn’t have a sense of ego while not being afraid of questioning the establishment as opposed to Bhaira, who did not empharize much on his morality and simply believed in carrying out duties.

The proceedings are decent in the first half with the underlying current of politics being fairly executed with the emphasis being on the game of one-upmanship between Devara and Bhaira. This also led to a wonderful interval block that was staged well and promised for an even better second hour. But sadly, the interval block of the film remained the best part about the film till the very end. This is because, the second half completely abandoned the rivalry between Devara and Bhaira, while completely shifting focus towards Vara, the son of Devara, and how he is completely in contrast to his father in terms of his personality. The writers were successful in diffusing much of the tension that was builtup in the first hour by randomly indulging in a love track that had no business to be here in the film.

The drama does go from bad to worse particularly because the threat of Bhaira suddenly doesn’t seem as daunting, with the twists and turns so predictable that you could see them from a mile away (and in case you couldn’t guess, you had a character narrating the same, remember?). One of the worst aspects of the writing was the characterization of the supporting characters – the henchmen of Bhaira that had seats reserved for growling and shouting during a random Ayudhya Pooja fight, or the women who were reduced to second class citizens, a mere reflection of today’s times. Even the finale fight was so poorly staged with physics defining stunts that it was just so laughable. And then came the ‘Why did Katappa kill Bahubali’ moment in the screenplay at the end that looked so needless and forced, that it infuriated me on why would anyone want to replicate the exact same twist of Bahubali. Filmmakers if you are reading, you need to drop the replication game right now! Also, stop turning films into a cash cow by regularly presenting a film in two parts. No, Not Cool At All! The screenplay here is extravagant and ambitious but extremely flat with its writing and reeking of mediocrity!