If one were unaware of Pawan Kalyan’s political evolution and his overt alignment with Hindu nationalism, Ustaad Bhagat Singh makes it unmistakably clear. Despite director Harish Shankar’s claims that politics and storytelling would remain separate, the film functions less as cinema and more as an extension of Pawan Kalyan’s present political persona of being an “unapologetic Sanatani.”
This long-delayed project was planned in 2020, however, it was released six years later, after Pawan Kalyan became a Deputy Chief Minister. The film marks the reunion of Pawan Kalyan and Harish Shankar who delivered the blockbuster film Gabbar Singh in 2012.
Starring Raashii Khanna, Sreeleela, Gautami, R Parthiban, KS Ravikumar and others, Ustaad Bhagat Singh barely attempts to build a coherent narrative. What exists is a thin, almost perfunctory plot about an undercover cop dismantling an “Islamic terror” network which largely serves as a scaffolding for ideological messaging. The storytelling is secondary, often irrelevant. What dominates instead, is a barrage of political cues that echo majoritarian anxieties and right-wing talking points.
One cannot help but talk about Pawan Kalyan’s politics in this review because this film is nothing but a political project aimed at “clarifying” the actor’s latest fascination with Hindutva.
The film, at times, gestures at nuance with dialogues like “This is about a person, not a religion”, similar to how Pawan Kalyan tries to retain a secular image too in real life. But these disclaimers ring hollow.
The broader narrative relentlessly paints Muslims as demographic threats and security risks, mirroring the rhetoric of Pawan Kalyan’s alliance partners — the Bharatiya Janata Party.
All of Muslim-majority Old City in Hyderabad is depicted as a terror hub. In a scene, Pawan Kalyan goes to Old City wearing a bottu on his forehead. He is cautioned against it, because Muslims apparently attack Hindus.
The film works to mainstream the BJP’s claim that Muslims are deliberately attempting to change the country’s demographics through infiltration and increasing the Muslim population.
More troubling is the film’s implicit endorsement of contentious political developments like the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, a process widely criticised for disproportionately affecting Muslim voters. By embedding such ideas within its narrative, the film blurs the line between fiction and propaganda, normalising exclusionary politics under the guise of entertainment.
It is evident that Ustaad Bhagat Singh underwent many changes while Pawan Kalyan reshaped his political identity from being a secular leader to a proud Sanatani.
The film has incorporated all the talking points of the Hindu right-wing such as ‘why wont you say Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and Operation Sindoor.
Structurally, the film is a mess.
Ustaad Bhagat Singh opens with a series of assassinations in the Chief Minister’s office. Then, in a non-linear fashion, cuts to the ‘beginning’ in the Nallamalla forest where Pawan Kalyan’s character is an orphan. Similar to the prevailing perception of Pawan Kalyan as a ‘well-read’ man, the young boy reads revolutionary literature, particularly Bhagat Singh. After being adopted by KS Ravikumar, a school headmaster, he is renamed as Bhagat Singh.
The adulation of Bhagat Singh stops here and does not extend to his staunch rationalism and atheism.
Ustaad’s mentor Ravikumar, who is now a Chief Minister, is attacked in a shoot out by Nalla Nagappa (Parthiban). And the caretaking Chief Minister is also not spared. Finally, Nalla Nagappa assumes charge as the caretaker CM of Telangana. Nagappa’s son goes to Nallamalla forest to party but is abducted by Ustaad Bhagat Singh.
Why was he abducted? With a series of uninteresting twists, Harish Shankar reveals this painfully boring story.
In the first half, Pawan Kalyan, works as a forest guide, providing security to Shloka (Raashii Khanna) and her family. Shloka comes to the forest to seek therapy following a break up. Pawan Kalyan dismisses the idea of seeking therapy.
Shloka falls in love with a man called Gopi, but Gopi is interested in her brother. What follows is a homophobic subplot passed off as humour.
Shloka disappears from the story in the second half and is never to be seen again.
The first and second half feel like two disjointed parts with glaring logical flaws. Deaths in this film leave no shock nor impact. It appears to be set in a parallel world where law and order does not exist.
Harish also incorporates an explicit rape scene which makes you wince at the insensitivity and the lack of intervention by the CBFC. How did such scenes get cleared during the certification? Is it because Pawan Kalyan is an ally of the ruling BJP party?
Nalla Nagappa has an Islamic terror background. As ridiculous as it sounds, Pakistani Jihadi terrorists intend to help Nagappa become the CM by changing the demography of the state. Muslim infiltrators are given voter IDs to bring in a regime change. These scenes are similar to how the BJP often claim that Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has enlisted Rohingya refugees as voters in Hyderabad.
Female characters, including those played by Raashii Khanna and Sreeleela, are either trivialised or discarded entirely and solely exist as narrative devices.
Visually and tonally, the film at times resembles a Boyapati Srinu film, who recently made the Hindu nationalist film Akhanda 2. And the background score by Thaman, who has collaborated with Boyapati many times does not help the cause.
Among the meta references, there is a direct reference to Pawan Kalyan joining politics at the film’s conclusion.
Ustaad Bhagat Singh is not just a poorly constructed film but is a deeply ideological one. It reflects a deliberate shift in Pawan Kalyan’s public identity and uses cinema as a vehicle to reinforce that shift. What could have been a mass entertainer instead becomes a heavy-handed political statement in which narrative coherence, character depth, writing and artistic integrity are all sacrificed at the altar of propaganda.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film’s producers or any other members of its cast and crew.