Tollywood industry's maker Ramgopal Varma’s Vangaveeti is a true story based on Vijayawada Gang culture which was popular in 70s,80s. Varma has picked the phase between year 1970 when Chalasani Venkata Ratnam’s monopoly in Vijayawada rowdyism began and till 1988 when Vangaveeti Mohan Ranga was killed. The story is about rivals between two gang Vangaveeti gang and Devineni families. The rest of the story is how the members of the family end up their life killing each other.
Sandy who acted as both Vangaveeti Radha and Ranga is top class in his looks and performance. Meanwhile the guy who has acted as Devineni Nehru is also a good fit in the role. Lyrics and dialogues by Sirasri and Chaitanya Prasad are not up to the mark and very disappointing. May be RGV did not get enough budget to do justice to high intense crime drama, at the times we may experience a tamil dubbing movie watching experience. The authentic portrayal of history is the highlight of the movie. Sandy has acted phenomenally and has proved his individuality in the movie.
The cinematography work is made well and the drone camera angles and the way the rustic locales of Vijayawada are shown is awesome. Production values by Kiran Kumar are very impressive as the art department has done a great job of showcasing the proceedings during the 80’s in a good manner. Editing is made excellently and so were the dialogues by Sirasri. The movie turns out to be a series of murders shown in gore, without setting up enough premise for the murders.
The outline of the story is familiar to many, narration, authenticity and the way the movie is taken to the audience are what the audience look for in these type of movies. As the story spans across 18 years, obviously, any director cannot narrate all incidents or all influencing factors. May be because of said limitation, instead of detailing the feud between the Vangaveeti & Devineni families , Varma has ended up making a documentary of murders that happened in Vijayawada over those two decades. There are lots and lots of bloodshed in the movie and few scenes are brutal. All those who do not know about the history of these gang wars in Vijayawada will find the film quite routine as the film has only a revenge drama of killing each other.
