Stories that try to be quirky dark comedies and are woven around oddball characters are not easy to pull off. They can be game changers when done well. But when they miss the mark, they can end up a big bore. The Telugu dark comedy Bhaag Saale, written and directed by Praneeth Bramandapally, rides on an interesting premise of a diamond ring of historical value changing hands between a motley bunch of characters that range from a don (John Vijay) who wants it to win over his lady love to a poor chef (Sri Simha Koduri) who wants to bail out his girlfriend and her father from trouble. While the idea and the characters might seem promising, the writing isn’t sharp enough to make Bhaag Saale an edge-of-the-seat fun ride.
Bhaag Saale (Telugu)
Bhaag Saale begins rather well. In his trademark witty style, actor Siddhu Jonnalagadda’s voiceover introduces us to the fictitious story of a diamond that was once considered as precious as the Kohinoor and later, was split into multiple pieces. One of these pieces is in Hyderabad as a diamond ring named Shali Shuka Gaja. The SSG will inevitably play a part in the life of Arjun (Simha Koduri), a chef who dreams of opening a restaurant and puts on a fake identity of a rich guy to impress Maaya (Neha Solanki), even as his father (Rajeev Kanakala) stretches every rupee to make ends meet.
