Spoilers ahead…
Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/rx-100-telugu-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan-kartikeya-payal-rajput-ajay-bhupathi/
Shiva (Karthikeya Gummakonda), the hero of Ajay Bhupathi’s RX 100, is the kind of up-yours, super-macho man we’re seeing a lot, lately, in Telugu cinema. He’s built like a tree trunk — when he spreads his arms wide, he seems to be inviting birds to roost. He smokes weed and beats people up. Emotionally, too, he’s a toughie. Daddy (Ramki) reminds him — in a clunky bit of expositional writing — that he didn’t shed a tear when his parents died. Daddy took him in, and now, he wants Shiva to leave the village. But Shiva won’t. We aren’t given the reason right away, but it’s not hard to guess. It’s a girl (Indhu, played by Payal Rajput). His love for her transformed him into mush in a way even his parents’ death couldn’t. And now, like Arjun Reddy, he pines for her. Is she someplace else? Is she dead? Is that what explains the song sequence where she vanishes every time Shiva tries to take her in his arms?
“My love is like the tide in the sea, which never stops,” Shiva says. We see what he means when we cut to a flashback. This Shiva is much milder. In the present, we witness an action sequence in a meat market where Shiva beats up an enemy with the dismembered head of a cow, and much later, he says things like, “My intestines should spill out with the stab of your knife.” But in the past, he resorts to violence only when Daddy orders him to — say, after an assassination attempt on Indhu’s father, Vishwanatham (Rao Ramesh, in good form). (This stretch is nicely staged, filled with local colour.) But at one point, when Shiva is beaten up by a gang trying to keep him away from Indhu, he offers little resistance. In fact, Indhu seems more of a “man” in these portions, as she takes over the traditional “hero duties.”
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
shaviswa
July 20, 2018
Why the spoiler? 🙂
Anyway – the movie resembles a typical Telugu masala pot boiler from the promos and trailers.
LikeLike
Aadhy
July 20, 2018
Are you writing about Ee nagaraniki emaindi by any chance, BR ? It’s Pelli choopulu director Tarun’s second movie and was suggested by a friend. Haven’t caught the movie yet but trailer promises a lot of fun.
Also, the soundtrack is kickass.
LikeLike
kaizokukeshav
July 20, 2018
Didn’t expect this review since RX100 was an underdog to start with. You have some liking towards Telugu cult movies I assume.
LikeLike
Anuja Chandramouli
August 27, 2018
Hey BR! I read this review, stopped reading when you mentioned the spoiler alert, watched the film like you suggested and came back to read the rest of it. Of course since you went on at length about the twist, I must have been on the lookout as I figured it out anyway (Sighs) but I agree with you. It was a worthy twist and “I wish Indhu hadn’t been written as an all-out vamp, who even issues orders to kill. Isn’t it enough that the man has lost his heart, his mind? Does he have to lose his life, too?” Till that point, the twist was super realistic and I daresay everybody knows a girl or two who have pulled similar stunts like that (though of course it is unrealistic to suggest that such characters who are admittedly guilty of selfishness, narcissim, spoilt brattiness, etc. would go to the length of ordering a hit.) While I agree that toying with a man and callously breaking his heart is deplorable, I still find it hard to sympathize with guys like Siva. What happened to him was awful but that hardly justifies flushing his own life down the toilet and feeling perfectly justified in behaving like a loser/brute/drunken hooligan and then blaming the girl, her parents, her US mappillai or fate for what happened. The best revenge is to live well. It is about time the wannabe Romeos, Juliets, Lailas, Majnus, Ambikapathis, Amaravathis out there figured it out.
Indhu is a jerk, but even so it is not okay for the wronged dude to barge into her bedroom tie her up, verbally abuse (of course she earned it but breaking in and entering is a criminal offense) or rough her up. No court of law would or should buy the broken heart excuse. Why do these things even have to be spelt out? Also, whenever, I watch these Telugu/Tamil movies, I am always surprised at how accessible a girl’s bedroom is. Don’t these filmmakers know anything at all about grills?
LikeLiked by 1 person