If a ‘trend’ could be the sole basis of a film, Bhaag Saale would be it. Written and directed by Praneeth Bramandapally, with Sri Simha Koduri (Arjun) and Neha Solanki (Maya) playing the lead characters, Bhaag Saale is a poor Telugu imitation of the wacky Hindi comedy Bhaag D.K. Bose. The film revolves around a priceless ring and the miseries it causes to those who own it.
Bhaag Saale has a motley crew of characters. John Vijay (Samuel) is a crazy gangster who has invested most of his life searching for a precious ring with the intention of owning it, and his gang includes Harsha Cheemudu (Jackie), a wicked man who delivers funny lines. Samuel eventually gets his hands on the ring, but his plans are foiled by Arjun, though why this happens makes zero sense. Bhaag Saale has many such logical problems which take away the fun, tension, and drama from the plot, forcing you to witness stale proceedings of two hours, peppered with terrible performances.
In the film, Arjun is a fraud who cheats on his girlfriend by pretending to be a millionaire. There is no explanation for this either, and it gets absurd when he claims to ‘love’ her but does not tell her why he has been duping himself as a rich man. Such is the hollowness of the narrative. Arjun then tries to retrieve the ring and prove his supposed honesty before Maya in a bid to convince her that he is not with her for her money. But all this is ineffective when it plays out on the screen because of the poor writing and execution. Though Arjun is a fraud, Maya is quick to forgive him, and like most things in the film, this too feels illogical.
In all aspects, Bhaag Saale is an empty film with superficial characters. There are many things happening on screen, but you are not sure what to make of them. The film simply expects you to get into the ‘vibe’ because you must have watched similar films in the past. The premise is supposed to offer comedy, but laughing at the jokes becomes the most challenging part of watching the film because none of them land. John Vijay wrongly spelling ring as ‘reeng’ is supposed to be comical. His asking ‘ring eng irukk’ (Tamil for ‘where is the ring’) is another supposed joke. You are not allowed to ask why these lines are jokes. You are expected to just laugh along and move on.
Director Praneeth heavily relies on slurs and sexual innuendos to create humour, but all it does is make you wince at the obscenity and tastelessness of the writing.
The performances also do little to redeem this wreckage of a film. Rajeev Kanakala (Murthy) plays the hero’s father – a miser who does not have faith in his son. Rajeev is a fine character artist, but in Bhaag Saale, his over-the-top performance makes you wonder what happened to him. He tries his best to mimic the energy of Goparaju Ramana from Middle Class Melodies, but fails miserably. John Vijay plays yet another character who appears creepy, and he too overdoes it. Only Harsha gives a decent performance.
Bhaag Saale also employs a religious element in the story. Arjun buys a Bhagavath Gita book to safely keep the ring. He could have hidden the ring anywhere in the bag, but he buys a book worth Rs 500 just to store it, and there is not much philosophy attached to this religious element either. Apart from this, Arjun has a tattoo of the deity Krishna, and portraits of other deities appear in many frames. These details look as if a religious aspect was squeezed in just to pander to such sentiments. Additionally, producer Arjun Dasyan recently disclosed that there is a reference to the Hindu god Krishna in the film, similar to Karthikeya 2. This makes it evident that the filmmaker perhaps infused a religious colour into the narrative only because that seems to be a ‘trend’ nowadays.
On the whole, Bhaag Saale is a dull, lazily written film. In retrospect, the film’s title was possibly a hint for the audience to flee from theatres.