Dacoit Movie Review

Adivi Sesh is back on the big screen after his usual 3-year gap with Dacoit, along with Mrunal Thakur, promising a different love story. As always, the promotional material created good buzz. Let’s see if he maintains his success streak.

Setup:

Hari (Sesh) and Saraswathi (Mrunal) were once lovers but got separated due to caste issues. Hari believes Saraswathi betrayed him by sending him to prison for a crime he didn’t commit and now wants revenge. Years later, Saraswathi is living with a child and an ill husband, facing financial problems. Both of them reunite for a heist to solve their problems. Will they succeed? Will Hari take revenge for the betrayal? This forms the rest of the story.

Technicalities:

Cinematography by Danush Bhaskar is good. Visuals look adequate and natural most of the time. Editing by Kodati Pavan Kalyan is slick and stylish. Though the pace is flat and lacks highs, the editing pattern feels new and shows effort. Music by Bheems Ceciroleo is very average. The song “Roobaroo” works well on screen. The special number “Chichu Buddi” featuring Jonita doesn’t have much impact and is forgettable. Background score by Gyaani is the show stealer. It feels fresh and fits the film well. Production values are okay, but the budget that is being talked about is not visible on screen. The story by Shaniel Deo and Adivi Sesh feels outdated and routine, though the screenplay has some merit with a few modern touches. Shaniel Deo’s debut as director is a miss with an unengaging narration.

Performances:

Sesh looks good in his role as a small-town boy and a roughened prisoner. His performance in emotional scenes is commendable. However, his Rayalaseema dialect feels off throughout. Mrunal Thakur gets a strong role again and does it really well. She carries the role with the required emotion and maturity. There is a dialect issue here as well, with Chinmayi dubbing for her. Other roles by Anurag Kashyap, Zayn Marie Khan, Prakash Raj, and Atul Kulkarni are okay but don’t stand out much. Anurag has some better moments towards the climax.

Positives:

Adivi Sesh & Mrunal Thakur
Background score
Climax
Stylish treatment in parts

Negatives:

Outdated story
Flat narration
No emotional connect
Repetitive action scenes
Songs

Analysis:

The film starts on a decent note with a well-established love story and core conflict. Technically, it looks strong with all departments doing their part well. But as it progresses, the treatment turns slow and the narration feels flat, with very few engaging moments. The promotional material promised intense action episodes, but that intensity is largely missing in the film. The action sequences that do appear feel staged and not very natural, which reduces their impact.

There is a slight pickup towards the interval, but it doesn’t fully elevate the momentum. The second half begins on a good note with a twist and manages to create some interest. A few more twists follow, and while they are decent on paper, some of them miss the required impact due to the way they are executed. The film again slows down with repetitive heist episodes, and the narration continues to feel stretched. The emotional core is present, but it doesn’t land effectively because of the slow treatment and lack of depth in key moments. The overall idea and setup feel routine and old, even though they are presented in a somewhat modern way with a neat background score and editing. The lack of gripping moments and intensity hurts the film throughout.

The climax, though predictable, lands well emotionally. However, the impact is not as strong as it should have been, mainly because the slow narration leading up to it doesn’t build enough momentum. If the action episodes were more raw and natural, and the love story emotions were handled with more depth, the film could have worked much better.

The real problem with Dacoit is that the story, setup, and overall treatment feel mid and routine, which is not what we expect from a Sesh film after the reputation he has built as a new-age filmmaker.

Overall, Dacoit is an average but watchable film if you go in with the right expectations.

Bottomline: Mediocre Prema Katha

Rating: 2.75/5