Rana Naidu Review: Rana Daggubati and Venkatesh Star In A Netflix Thriller With A Nasty Edge
STAR RATING: 3.5/5
STAR CAST: Rana Daggubati, Venkatesh, Surveen Chawla, Sushant Singh, Abhishek Banerjee, Gaurav Chopra, and Aditya Menon
Rana Naidu, the Indian adaptation of Ray Donovan, may appear to be a crime caper, but it is, at its core, a family story. It's not your typical family drama, but each member of the brood is facing their own issues while dealing with years of falsehoods and stress. This picture of a dysfunctional family, mixed with crime, celebrity scandal cover-ups, and politics, makes the show highly captivating. This also allows it to function independently without being compared to the original.
A somewhat faithful adaptation of Ray Donovan, the writers' usage of the original's multiple subplots is outstanding. They are ingeniously incorporated into the show in ways that Ray Donovan is not. Rana Naidu is more of a family drama, with the most grounded component of the show being the moments spent between family members. The vulnerability and downward spiral are superbly written and acted by some of Indian cinema's top actors. Rana Naidu clearly justified the number of subplots that found their way into this drama about a dysfunctional family, with a running time of nearly 400 minutes spread across 10 episodes.
STORYLINE
The idea of a family from Hyderabad migrating to Mumbai for better opportunities is an intriguing one because it includes Telugu into the primarily Hindi-speaking series. It's interesting how the filmmakers don't even bother to disguise the protagonists' accented spoken delivery. It's a good touch to demonstrate the breadth of our content.
Apart from a great examination of dysfunctional families, Rana Naidu delves into childhood trauma, infidelity, the fickleness of the influential, and the arrogance of outsiders. It takes a no-holds-barred approach to parent-child relationships and serves as a stark reminder of how many of us gloss over the creases in our equations rather than putting up a brave front.
SYNOPSIS
Ray Donovan ran for seven seasons and had a feature film to end things. From what we have seen in season 1, Rana Naidu has the fuel to run for the same, if not for more, and it is clear that as long as Venkatesh and Rana have fun, so will we.
