Telugu hit-maker Sekhar Kammula’s Kuberaa has every intention of being an epic drama about greed, temptation and corruption. The first hint of Kammula’s ambition is Kuberaa’s duration: 182 minutes.
The first hour or so is well-spent. Kammula and co-writer Chaithanya Pingali neatly set up the racket that links the beggar Deva (Dhanush), Central Bureau of Investigation officer Deepak (Nagarjuna) and the Mumbai-based billionaire Neeraj (Jim Sarbh).
A clash of interests and income levels is afoot, depicted through the visual contrast between luxurious skyscrapers and squalor on the ground.
Neeraj recruits Deepak, who is languishing in prison on a trumped-up charge, to handle hush payments to a political party in exchange for a lucrative project. Deepak, making the fastest move in a sluggishly paced film, sheds his principles overnight to work for Neeraj.
Deepak’s scheme involves laundering the money through offshore accounts set up in the name of clueless beggars. Deva is among the beggars who are picked off the streets, given a bath and basic skills, and used to transfer vast sums of wealth.
It works until it doesn’t. Deva slips out of the net and goes on the run, with Neeraj’s hoodlums and Deepak in hot pursuit. Sameera (Rashmika Mandanna) is force-fitted into the plot, randomly meeting Deva and running into him repeatedly thereafter.
The events involving Deva seemingly take on a life of their own, with credulity levels in inverse proportion to his efforts to save his skin. Kuberaa drags on and on, giving the impression that the movie won’t ever end.
There’s far too much flesh on a skinny plot. The film overly complicates a routine story of the righteous poor standing up to the venally wealthy. The nobility-of-poverty theme is a tough sell in a film that makes a hash of its better-sketched characters and dreams up a series of contrivances to nudge Deva from supplicant to status-challenging hero.
Dhanush’s largely one-note performance works best in the scenes in which Deva uses his life-long experience of destitution to evade his tormentors. From stray dogs to garbage, Deva improvises furiously, and often cleverly.
But Neeraj and Deepak are always the more interesting characters. Jim Sarbh is especially effective as the amoral businessman until Neeraj’s blind trust in Deepak beggars belief, like so much else in Kuberaa.
