Cast: Nagarjuna, Richa, Sonu Sood
Director: Veerabhadram Chowdary
Rating: Two stars

Apart from his good looks and commendable acting prowess, the one good thing about Nagarjuna, unlike most other T-town actors, is that he tries his best not to get stereotyped. After doing films like ‘Shirdi Sai’, ‘Dhamarukam’ and ‘Greeku Veerudu’, he now steps into the shoes of a mafia don. Well, Nag does a neat job in picking up different roles in a row. But what he can’t escape is getting stereotypes in his films. His latest offing ‘Bhai’ is a good case study of how a good actor like Nagarjuna can be wasted in an age-old story with equally old-styled screenplay.

Bhai (Nag) works for mafia baron David (Ashish Vidyarthi) in Hong Kong. On a mission to kill an undercover cop, Bhai comes down to Hyderabad. There, he unexpectedly meets (of course, with a different identity) his family which had abandoned him during his childhood for the ‘wrong reasons’. How Bhai shields his family from his counterparts forms most of the film’s plot.

The movie banks on three things- Nagarjuna, comedy and family sentiment. The first part appears to be a drag, with back-to-back songs interrupting the narration. The heavy dosage of sentiment in the latter half puts you off and as the movie progresses, it turns predictable too. Richa often utters a dialogue in the film that says she needs to be updated and after watching her performance, one totally agree with the dialogue. Her puzzling expressions add up to her poorly-etched role. Sonu Sood is good as usual.

What save the film are Nag’s trademark performance, witty dialogues, beautiful cinematography and picturesque locales. The comedy track of Brahmanandam is good and reasonable. Contrary to his previous films, Brahmi is not at the receiving end, at least, until his role comes to an end.

On the whole, the film is a one-time watch for families who have not been to the cinemas much of late. For regular movie-goers though, ‘Bhai’ is just another passable film.