When director Vamsee’s ambitiously mounted Telugu film Tiger Nageswara Rao (TNR) begins with a note ‘inspired from true rumours’ and a voiceover informs us that it is a tale of blood and tears, it indicates the tone of the film. Ravi Teja plays the title character inspired by the real-life dacoit of Stuartpuram in Andhra Pradesh, Nageswara Rao who earned the moniker ‘tiger’ for his daredevil acts. In the absence of substantial documentation, the director and his team relied on accounts shared by the late dacoit’s wife and a few others in the village and the police. Sharing the writing credits with Srikanth Vissa, Vamsee attempts to unravel the murky sociopolitical story of Stuartpuram and its notorious thief. A story like this would ideally be complex with grey areas. But this film presents black and white characters and the promising narrative is gradually diluted into an oft-repeated mainstream story.
A biopic-style presentation of a dacoit would warrant jaw-dropping sequences that establish his ingenuity in pulling off improbable tasks. The events are set in the 1960s and 70s and we are introduced to the story of Nageswara Rao through Guntur-based police officer Vishwanath Sastry (Murali Sharma). There is a sense of urgency with which he recounts the exploits of the dacoit to a group of top-ranking police and intelligence officials in the country. The first big episode introducing the Stuartpuram donga aka Ravi Teja on screen is a train robbery. R Madhi’s cinematography, GV Prakash Kumar’s music and the editing create an adrenaline rush. But the sub par visual effects are a huge dampener.
