Cast & Crew :

Story:- Sanjeevayya (suman) is the CM of the state and he dies in a bomb blast. Dhanunjay (Subbaraju) is a relative of Sanjeevayya and he plans to take over the CM post. Hero Arjun Prasad (Rana) is the son of Sanjeevayya. He is well educated and runs a successful business in the USA. When he comes to India for his father rituals, he comes to know that his father(CM) was a corrupt person and entire political system is filled with corruption. Arjun Prasad uses his brain to outsmart Dhanunjay to become the CM. The rest of the story is all about how Arjun Prasad fights against corruption and makes a difference.

Artists Performance: The title role of Leader needs an actor of tremendous ability to do justice and Rana did an excellent work. It was a brave decision by Sekhar Kammula to cast a newcomer like Rana and he came up with a great performance. His voice is his best asset. He can speak Telugu in a highly authoritative manner. However, he looked little stiff in scenes with heroines. Leading heroine Richa Gangopadhay did a performance oriented role and she is good. Priya Anand is adequate. After a long time, Kota got a meaty role and did remarkable work. Suhasini is super in the movie with her controlled performance. Subba Raju is excellent as the villain. Harsha Vardhan gets another worthy role in this movie. His performance is good. Tanikella Bharani is nice. Rao Ramesh and Ahuti Prasad are adequate. Udaya Bhanu did an item song in the movie.

Story - Screenplay - Direction: Story of the movie is good and this movie had some real life incidents (YSR’s death, Ayeshea’s murder case, Dalits case in Chunduru, Lumbibi park blasts etc). Director Sekhar Kammula introduced the characters and story of the movie in an impressive way. He set the right platform for the movie to take off in the first half. However, the tempo is not maintained in the second half as the main point is diluted in love episode and family scenes.

Other Departments: Music of the movie is really good. Mickey J Meyer came up with good background score and rerecording. Cinematography by Vijay Kumar C is good. Dialogues written by Sekhar Kammula are excellent and thought provoking. Editing of the movie is very good in the first half, but should have been better in the second half. Production values by AVM are excellent.

Analysis:-

First half of the movie runs smoothly. The scenes of hero becoming CM are well written and directed. The love/betrayal episode and hero’s effort to save CM chair brings the tempo of the movie down in the second half. The intention of Sekhar Kammula to make a movie for corruption free politics should be appreciated. He did very good job in the first half. However, the things aren’t worked so well in the second half. On a whole, Leader is a better attempt to do an idealistic movie. We have to wait and see how it performs at box office.

Rating :3.5 out of 5

By : S.R