‘Kingdom' movie review: Vijay Deverakonda ‘almost' returns to form in an ‘almost' watchable action-drama

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Unlike Sunny Deol in Gadar 2 or Shah Rukh Khan in Pathaan, you may not be able to call this as a great comeback, but the hunger to attack a meaty character to flesh out all the juiciness seems to have returned read more
Cast: Vijay Devarakonda, Satya Dev, Bhagyashrii Borse & Manish Chaudhary
Director: Gowtam Tinnanuri
Language: Telugu
Actor Vijay Devarakonda has had quite a lull at the movies off late. His anger, rage, fury, and those patented and petrifying gazes became repetitive. All of these show up in his new film Kingdom as well, but with a story that feels far more coherent and captivating. It's impossible for brooding central characters not to be heavily bearded. If you need to show your hero is in deep agony, don't make him shave. That also shows up in Kingdom, but again, the semi-engaging narrative exists to take care of the cliches. The leading man has dual characters to play. His boss is the always watchable Manish Chaudhari, whose memorably toxic character in Rocket Singh made me aghast at the idea of stepping into an office and reporting to a manager.
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A mission that obviously won't be revealed here, Deverakonda has to go undercover. The film has been written and directed by Gowtam Tinnanuri, the man behind Nani's immensely moving sports drama Jersey. The filmmaker has taken the grandeur miles ahead for his new film since he has given Kingdom the treatment of a high-octane spy thriller. The visuals are flawed but fascinating. The VFX and CGI-coded landscapes do at times act as a deterrence, but the central character's journey kind of cruises along smoothly to make you overlook the flaws.
The one thing that's now getting tiresome is to see the leading man's supposedly intimidating empty glares at his leading ladies. And of course, grabbing them by their collars. Vijay did that with Ananya Panday in Liger, and he does that here with Bhagyashri Borse. But this time, the angst feels more personal. Kingdom has a tinge of Yash Chopra's Deewar when two brothers reunite only to find them on the opposite side of law. They are the two sides of the same coin that barely see eye to eye. The film has also been planned as a duology so there will be a lot of unanswered questions by the end of the film.
Even the action scenes are different from the kind of stunts you are seeing in most of the movies today. The number of bullet shots easily overpowers the Animals and KGFs. Deverakonda lets his fists and guns do the talking. Even if you see the trailer of Kingdom, it's Manish Chaudhari's character doing most of the talking and dialoguebaazi. The leading man has only one line where he says he says with all his deadpan fury- Aag Laga doonga.
This leading man has two different characters to portray, and as stated above, he has looked and performed much better in this movie. Unlike Sunny Deol in Gadar 2 or Shah Rukh Khan in Pathaan or even Salman Khan in Dabangg, you may not be able to call this as a great comeback, but the hunger and hunt to attack a meaty character to flesh out all the juiciness seems to have returned.
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Rating: 2.5 (out of 5 stars)
Kingdom is now playing in cinemas