Rana Naidu review: Rana Daggubati and Venkatesh star in an unpalatable series
Rana Naidu, the official remake of American series Ray Donovan, with Rana Daggubati and Venkatesh Daggubati taking on the roles played by Liv Schreiber and Jon Voight, is a series about the dysfunctional Naidu family, their internal squabbles, all the rabble around them and how the bigger politics keep pulling them apart. Keeping the show together are the lead characters Rana (Rana Daggubati) and the unsavoury family patriarch Naga (Venkatesh Daggubati).
Having migrated from Hyderabad to Mumbai with his brothers and wife (Sushant Singh, Abhishek Banerjee and Surveen Chawla, respectively) and a chequered past, Rana Naidu rises to be the handyman of the political leader OB Mahajan, and fixer for all the rich and mighty of society. Helping him in this are Srini (Adithya Menon), Lara (Lauren Robinson) and a few others. His routine is disturbed when his father Naga Naidu, who has been in jail for the last 15 years, is released and comes to Mumbai to mend relations with the family. We gradually learn that it was Rana Naidu who put him in jail, and his release may create problems for Bollywood star Prince Reddy (Gaurav Chopra). While Naga Naidu is looking to patch up with his family, Rana and his cohorts are working hard to push Naga away.
We also meet a self-styled guru Vijayawada Maharaj, India’s most wanted man who has been in hiding for a decade, Surya Rao (Ashish Vidyarthi), and musician Toofan.
The show is high on sex, innuendo, double entendre and cuss words. Most of it is to shock and awe and not in service of the story. After a while, the gaze of the show towards women feels exploitative and disturbing, and is hard to watch.
Rana Daggubati also gives a controlled performance in the eponymous role. Surveen Chawla gives a decent, nuanced performance as the troubled wife. Sushant Singh and Abhishek Banerjee shine in the only human characters in the entire show. The younger actors have also done well, especially the kid who played rap singer Rehaan.
The production quality, cinematography and background score are top notch. The overall story-broken family working hard to come together-actually suits Indian sensibilities. But the way it is treated is not to everyone’s taste. The Night Manager, another recent adaptation, has been tweaked to suit the Indian audience perfectly. The show Rana Naidu fails in this regard miserably.
