Devil and the details.

 Devil: The British Secret Agent (2023) is a period action drama that revolves around the struggle for Indian independence and features hugely improbable fight scenes, so comparisons with RRR are pretty much inevitable.  That's not entirely fair, since Devil features an extended Agatha Christie homage rather than RRR's celebration of masculine friendship, but there are definite similarities.  Still, Devil manages to be more violent, more nationalistic, and even less historically accurate than the previous film.

The year is 1945, and the British secret service is focused almost entirely on apprehending Indian revolutionary Subhas Chandra Bose and his Azad Hind Fauj (or INA), because it's not like the British had anything else going on to keep them occupied in 1945.  Bose is expected to return to India at any moment, and the British want to catch him, but they are continually thwarted by the mysterious Trivarna, Bose's right hand man and head of security.  The British effort is being led by Bracken (Mark Bennington), a mustache twirling villain who always finds time to be gratuitously cruel even when he's on the job.

Meanwhile, Vijaya (Ammu Abhirami), daughter of a zamindar (Nithin Mehta), has been brutally murdered.  The local police chief (Srikanth Iyengar) makes a few wild accusations as he meets the various potential suspects, but winds up arresting the zamindar himself.  That's not good enough for Bracken, though, and he dispatches his top agent to take charge of the investigation.

Enter Devil (Nandamuri Kalyan Ram), the titular British secret agent.  Devil is introduced during an unrelated action scene, single-handedly taking out an entire pirate crew, though only after they've killed nearly everyone else on the ship.  Once he's on dry land Devil and his assistant/comic relief Sastry (Satya) take charge and prove the zamindar's innocence almost immediately.  Devil has questions for neighbor Patwari (Ajay) and femme fatale Rosy (Elnaaz Norouzi), but he's also drawn to Nyshadha (Samyuktha), the zamindar's niece and a devoted patriot who can't imagine why Devil would work for the British.

Devil's there for a reason, though, because it's all the same case.  Nyshadha is the telegraph operator for the INA, and she received an important coded message for Trivarna which was stolen on the night of the murder.  Nyshadha doesn't know who Trivarna is, but the trail leads to Indian National Congress member Manimekala (Malvika Nair), who preaches nonviolent resistance by day and practices armed revolution by night.

Devil discovers a copy of the stolen codes, and the secret service decode half of it.  Bracken decides that Nyshadha is no longer useful, so he arranges for her to be kidnapped and hopefully murdered by bandits, because he is transparently evil.  Devil has other ideas, rescuing her in dramatic fashion and winning her heart in the process.  He tells his superiors that they still need Nyahadha, because Bose won't land until he gets the all clear signal, and only Nyahadha knows how to get the message to Trivarna.

Devil's shifting loyalties are further complicated by the discovery that there's a mole in the secret service and a mole in the INA, and they may or may not be the same mole.  (They're not.)  It's a tricky situation, but fortunately Devil is clever, charming, and unbelievably skilled at violence.

Taken on its own terms, Devil is a fine action movie.  the plot is complicated but hangs together well enough to drive the action, and there's a lot of action.  It's all gleefully improbable; when discussing just how many men to send after Devil one character flatly states that numbers don't matter, and Devil proves them right during the climax by taking down an entire company of two hundred soldiers equipped with guns and cannons.  

The mystery plotline isn't as successful; it's the focus of the first half of the movie but is quickly overwhelmed by the action/spy plotline, and the solution to the mystery is almost an afterthought.  But the mystery is really only there to introduce Nyshadha and to give Devil a chance to show that he's smart.  It's certainly atmospheric, and I will happily forgive the anachronistic flappers in the big musical number.

On the other hand, this isn't just an action movie it's a Subhas Chandra Bose hagiography.  Bose never actually appears in the movie, but characters talk about him all the time, treating him a s a sort of Indian nationalist King Arthur, always on the verge of a glorious return which in the real world never actually happened.  Everyone calls Bose Netaji, even the nefarious British, and there's only a fleeting mention of the Axis powers he's collaborating with; Bose is the true threat to Britain's control of India.  This is mythology, not history.