Billa- nothing more than an ostentatious show

name:Billa
Language: Telugu
Genre: Action
Direction: Meher Ramesh
Starring: Prabhas, KrishnamRaju, Anushka, Rahman, Namitha, Hansika, Ali, Sampath, Kelly Dorge, Subbaraju, Jayasudha


Synopsis:
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A remake of the tamil film Billa which starred Ajith and Nayanatara. The Tamil Billa was itself remade from hindi film DON (2006) yet another remake of DON (1978).
The story is about a most wanted antisocial element (Billa) who is killed in a cop chase. The cops want all the data of the underworld including Devil who instructs Billa and is not yet known to the world. The cops find a person who is replica of Billa and send him in his shoe to get the data.


Brief:
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Prabhas plays the title character Billa who is wanted for arm smuggling, treason, murder, etc. He always mentions "Trust no one". Billa cants the famous dialogue from Terminator-"hasta la vista baby ". Lisa (Namitha) has been with him for more than four years and she is obsessed with him and even shows that she can die for him. Billa resides in Malaysia but his operations are carried out everywhere. Rashid(kelly Dorge) makes deal with Billa alone. As cops have always been futile to nab him, Krishnamoorthy (KM from here on) (Krishnamraju) has been appointed as the new in charge to trace Billa down. Krishnamoorthy makes many a attempts but Billa eludes every time. KM also appoints a spy in Billa's gang but the spy is killed by Billa himself. Billa also kills one of his aide Vikram (Subbaraju) as he wants to quit the gang for his personal prospects. Vikram wanted to marry Priya (hansika). Now Priya on a revenge trys to seduce Billa to death; she even successfully unload his gun but Billa still has a bullet in the form of locket which proves be handy and its Priya who is captured by Billa. Using her as the bait, he again escapes from KM and throws Priya on the road only to be run down by a heavy truck. Meanwhile KM feels the pressure from Interpol to catch Billa by hook or crook failing which Interpol will have to intervene.
Maya (Anushka) wants to avenge the death of her brother Vikram. She is introduced to Billa by his members after she saves them. She makes a couple of attempts but situation fail to permit her.
KM also wants to avert a deal that is likely to take place between Billa and Rashid.
KM almost catches Billa red-handed with loads of ammunition, but yet again Billa evades him on a sophisticated Ferrari. After a intense chase KM shoots Billa fatally. KM secretly takes Billa to a burial ground and with the help of an Indian informer (Ali) buries the dead body. KM wants the world to still believe that Billa is alive. It is here when the informer says that he has a friend in Vizag (Vishakapatnam) who is a replica of Billa.
Now, the scence shifts to Vizak where Ranga and his small gang earn their daily bread by pick pocketing and other petty thefts etc. He also has two younger siblings whom he adopted after they were orphaned. So to meet their expenses he has to steal. KM offers him a great amount if he is ready to put on the shoes of Billa and get all the data of Billa's superior Devil. Though initially unwilling and after some persuasion along with the feeling of providing his siblings better living, he obliges and gets trained.
Billa is then induced back to his gang and acts as if he is suffering from memory loss. Yet another act of drama makes him get back his memory. Smartly he gets all the data from the computer system to a pen drive. This is given to KM. Later, Namitha is accidentally shot by Billa fatally while trying to confront her after she has discovered that he is not the original Billa. KM is shot by unidentified person while in pursue of catching some goons.
With the death of KM, Ranga is in an ironical situation as he doesn’t have substantial evidence to prove he is not Billa. He even tries provoking Billa's aides so that the spat can prove he is innocent, but fails.
A big deal is to happen between Billa and Rashid where it is revealed that Devil is none other than the Interpol officer himself. After a big tiring fight Billa (Ranga) wins and is proved innocent.


Performances:
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Prabhas had good histrionics but yet lacked the elegance of playing a DON. He rather excelled in the role of Ranga.It was this character of Ranga which brought in some interest in the audience and even tickled their funny bone. Anushka was sizzling in her bikini and other scanty dresses but had nothing much to prove. Namitha after a hiatus of 4 years was again seen in a telugu movie but her role was only for voluptuous show. KrishnamRaju was OK. There was nothing notable about Hansika as she was confined to an item song only.
The camera work needs a mention. The movie was really rich but yet lacked the punch.
The worst thing of the movie was for its terrible English; one example was KrishnamRaju says” we catched him".
Music was OK, not very special in fact missed the trade mark of ManiSharma.
Meher Ramesh again failed to deliver the punch required.


Overall the movie failed to strike the right balance.
See if you haven't seen the Hindi DON or don't know the story. Don't expect much. You can give it a miss


Rating:2/5


rating index:
1: very bad
2:OK
3:Good
4:awesome
5:Outstanding