The Kichha Sudeep starrer Vikrant Rona, directed and written by Anup Bhandari, has opened in cinemas across the globe. The film carries good expectations and has been positioned as the next big thing from Kannada cinema after the historic success of KGF Chapter 2 earlier this year. Unfortunately, Vikrant Rona is a mostly bland film with no exciting theater moments to hook the audience. The film’s visual world is very dark & the 3D glass makes our experience even more grim and dull. The 3D doesn’t add any value to the film and turns out as just a marketing gimmick; though the effects looked really good in the trailer!
Vikrant Rona is a murder mystery thriller which unfolds at a very leisurely pace. There is some suspense built up around Sudeep’s character at the interval but there isn’t much after that! The actual revelations happen in the second half with one major moment in the climax. The raw action-packed climax faceoff between the hero and the antagonists has been shot well. The popular ‘Ra Ra Rakkamma’ song with Sudeep and Jacquline Fernandez doesn’t inject any excitement amidst the audience.
Composer Ajaneesh Loknath has a good outing. The team’s vision to present a unique visual world in a forest milieu is praiseworthy but the output on screen isn’t great. Apart from Sudeep, the other actors are all mostly unknown to the non-Kannada audience; Nirup Bhandari makes a decent impression among the rest.
Sudeep has a very cool, macho screen presence in this film but his over-stylized own voice Tamil dubbing, heavily influenced by Rajinikanth, isn’t clear at all times.