After delivering four hits in a row, Koratala Siva has made “Acharya”, which marked megastar Chiranjeevi and his son Ram Charan acting together in full-length roles. After the initial five minutes, the story comes to the main point: a mining businessman has his eyes on the forest land, and the locals have been resisting.

The backdrop of a temple town and the protagonist being a Naxalite leader aside, the story is clichéd. Umpteen movies have been made on that point of a businessman/corporate company trying to grab a village/forest land.


Director Siva begins the story with Chiranjeevi and his attempts to set things right in Dharmasthali and later (in the second half) reveals the story of Ram Charan. A tried and dusted template!

Despite having a super hit song “Lahe Laahe” and an item song, the first half of the film really tests our patience with proceedings that are as predictable as they come.


Koratala Siva has never presented his movies in such an outdated setting. Be it “Mirchi” or “Srimanthudu” or “Bharath Ane Nenu”, he presented the first half of the film in an energetic manner with good songs.


Since Chiranjeevi is a senior hero, Koratala Siva seems to have no clues about holding our attention in the first half sans romantic thread or any other material. He doesn’t bring the character of Ram Charan before the interval. So, with these limitations, the film has become a boring affair until Ram Charan arrives in the scene. 


Though the second half has nothing new, it is fairly better than the dull and archaic narrative of the preceding sequences. Ram Charan, for some moments, brings energy. But the film again slips into mediocrity. Finding freshness in any of the scenes is like searching for a needle in the haystack. 


Plus, there is no contemporary feel in any of the scenes. The temple town and their behavior make us believe that the film is a period drama set 50 years ago. Uninspiring background score further spoils the final moments. 


Koratala Siva is known for writing powerful dialogues and coming up with one or two terrific mass moments in the second half. The film doesn’t offer his trademark writing style at all.


“Acharya” seems to have suffered from long delays and many reshoots. But primarily, the soul is lacking and the narrative is totally boring. In nutshell, watching “Acharya” without falling into sleep mode is difficult.