Bollywood is better known, but the Telugu film industry produces some of the most innovative and exciting films in India, often kicking off major cinematic trends for the subcontinent; Bollywood is still trying to make its own Baahubali, and many new Bollywood pictures are remakes of Tollywood films. Tollywood has a reputation for films of epic scale and high quality . . . now. Vicky Dada (1989) comes from a different time.
Vikram (Nagarjuna) is a young, idealistic law student. He'd better be idealistic; his mother Srividya (Srividya), a judge, raised him to respect the law and seek justice whenever he can. Vikram does have a bit of a temper, especially when his girlfriend Shyamlee (the incomparable Juhi Chawla) is threatrened. But I'm sure this will have no negative consequences.
Shyamlee is called away to tend to her ailing sister in America. Vikram graduates, and immediately begins work as a prosecutor. His first case (tried in front of his mother, which is far from the worst conflict of interest in a courtroom scene in this movie) involves Savitri (Radha), who has been accused of prostitution. Vikram wins easily, because he is good at lawyering, but when he realizes that Savitri was framed as part of a land grab masterminded by corrupt politician Ranganatha Rao (Ranganath), he pays her fine and uses his lawyering skills to stop the land grab.
Thwarted, Rao calls on crimelord Prabhakar (Tiger Prabhakar) for help. Prabhakar sends his goons, one of them kills a guy, and Vikram vows to bring the killer to justice. Prabhakhar uses his corrupt influence to threaten the eyewitnesses, and the goon is set free. Vikram doesn't give up, though. He and his sister, the plucky aspiring reporter Rekha (Vara Lakshmi), team up to find out more about him. Unfortunately, Rekha decides to break into Prabhakar's evil lair and film him. She's caught and kidnapped, but not before she mails a cassette tape to Vikram, revealing what's happened.
Vikram has Prabhakar arrested, and prosecutes the case. (Again, in front of his mother, which also means that both the prosecutor and judge are related to the victim. And yet that's still not the worst example of conflict of interest in the movie.) Prabhakar gets off, thanks to some genuinely ridiculous legal trickery, and because Vikram was provoked into throttling the defense counsel, he's suspended. Vikram declares that he doesn't want to be a lawyer anymore anyway, and runs off to become a violent (but stylish) vigilante.
Vigilante stuff happens. Vikram and his dog wage war on Prabhakar's criminal empire, beating up vast quantities of henchmen and picking off the gang's lieutenants one by one, then using his lawyer skills to get off scot-free. Yes, I'm kind of glossing over the vigilante action, but the movie does as well, because surprise! This is actually a romance! Shyamlee returns from America and wants to continue their relationship, but Vikram dispenses justice on a freelance basis now, and feels he no longer has anything to offer her, so he pushes her away. Savitri, meanwhile, has fallen hard for the man who has saved her so many times. It's a good old fashioned love triangle, with occasional action scenes.
About halfway through Vicky Dada, I realized that it's probably not a very good movie. The plot doesn't really make sense, the action scenes are enthusiastic but sloppy, the court scenes are enthusiastic but really sloppy, the dance numbers are phantasmagoric, and why does Prabhakhar have a jeep with an infinite number of rockets, anyway? More seriously, the movie indulges in some of my least favorite eighties Indian movie tropes, particularly the hero's sister meeting a dire end in order to motivate the hero.
And yet, bad movie or not, I was glues to the screen the whole time. Maybe it's the fantastic cast, who treated the wobbly material with a respect that it may or may not have deserved. Maybe it's the sheer enthusiasm of the thing. Maybe I just wanted to see what the hell the dancers would be wearing in the next number. Whatever the reason, Vicky Dada is possibly bad but definitely watchable.
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