This review will be quite a contrast to the reviews on a majority of the websites.

First, the movie is strictly for intelligent audience and hence the film opened to a divide talk. The director (Trivikram) assumed his audience are matured enough to grasp his intent - divinity lies within everyone and whoever reaches out to the needy is God – and never bothered to explain it.

Second, it’s an out and out Mahesh film. The prince of Telugu cinema ignites the screen after three years and he looks fresh, energetic, rejuvenated and extremely stylish. He totally moves away from his Okkadu, Athadu and Pokiri image and comes up with a scintillating performance. Anushka looked gorgeous but paled in front of Mahesh’s charisma.

Coming to the movie, people are sure to get reminded of Magadheera for the relationship between the nature and the protagonist, but the comparison ends there. The movie starts brilliantly with superb visuals of a distressed village. Enter Mahesh, the whole look and feel of the movie turns trendy, and immediately begins the laugh riot that runs non-stop until the interval bang. The fight preceding interval, which is choreographed superbly with some breath-taking visuals, gives the necessary impetus and helps in building expectations about the rest of the movie. The songs in the first half are shot brilliantly, especially Piliche.

The second half is like an acid test for any director and Trivikram succeeds to a great extent. A couple of scenes make you stand up and applaud his cerebration. It requires guts and lot of self-belief to take up such a storyline where the protagonist is equated to God. Kudos to Trivikram for the attempt and this reminds me of another Mahesh movie which has lot of divine quotient, Murari - I am dying to write my thoughts on this movie, probably in two parts. Trivikram excells in the comedy and business aspects individually, but loses his way a bit while interspersing comedy in the second half due to which the mood of the film fluctuates frequently. If not for the commercial pressure involved, the second half would have been more serious and crisp.

Mani Sharma gives a stunning background score and proves why he is one of the top-rated background music composers in India. Fights are stylish with limited use of graphics and DI for the movie is superb. Trivikram’s dialogs are not in the same league as Athadu, Jalsa, and Nuvve Nuvve, nevertheless they are effective. A tighter second half could have appeased the first day fans.

My picks:

1.     Sunil and Mahesh meeting

2.     Mahesh’s meetings with Anushka and the ensuing scenes at the garage

3.     Shafi’s characterization

4.     Mahesh’s acting during the whole of God episode

5.     Climax where focus is more on Prakash Raj and the count remaining 534.

PS: It’s gratifying watching Mahesh shoulder the film. What Khushi was for Pawan Kalyan, Khaleja is for Mahesh.
The movie title is not apt.