“Prince” Mahesh Babu is here… After a 3 year absence from the silver screen, Tollywood’s biggest star comes up with much awaited Khaleja. The successful team of Mahesh, Director Trivikram and Music Director Mani Sharma ensure that the expectations are sky-high. Thankfully, the film lives up to expectations and delivers what it promises to a large extent without going overboard to meet the mass expectations.

What’s it about: Khaleja starts off in the remote village of Pali where the villagers are dying of mysterious ailments while their village priest predicts that their savior will soon come down to rescue them. Cut to a remote corner of Rajasthan where a taxi driver Alluri SitaRama Raju (Mahesh) is on a mission to help a poor man’s family. Over a series of flashbacks with Babjee (Sunil), the story unfolds on how he has landed here and soon, a convenient coincidence has Subhashini (Anushka) landing up in the middle of the desert as well. Anushka and Mahesh have already had a series of comic interludes while in Hyderabad leading to Mahesh developing a soft corner for her. After almost being killed by GK’s (Prakash Raj) goons, they land up in Pali where Mahesh is treated as a God much to his discomfort. He runs back to Hyderabad to escape this worship but soon he finds himself drawn back. The movie is about how Mahesh, Anushka, GK and the village of Pali are interlinked over a rare mineral called Iridium that ultimately leads to an action packed climax.

What is Good: The movie is all about Mahesh and he single-handedly carries the show successfully as the script lets him showcase his emoting, dancing, fighting skills very stylishly. He gets enough chances to play the lover-boy as well as the action hero across the story. He delivers numerous “punch-lines” in his characteristic dialogue delivery style which had the audience cheering for him. Anushka does well in her glamorous avatar and her pairing with Mahesh has a lot of chemistry. Sunil, Ali and Brahmanandam add on with their brand of comedy as a part of main track. The fight scenes are well spaced out and executed stylishly by Peter Haines and Ram Lakshman. Most of the songs have a very cool music video look to them while Mani Sharma makes sure the music is pleasant on the ears.

What is bad: Khaleja takes far too long to get to the story and this is what gives the movie its lengthy running time. The first half sets up the plot but the second half drags at points to bring things to a conclusion. The editor and the director could have done away with a song and two fights which could have helped reduce the length. The other weak point is the villain’s character which comes into action only in the last 15 minutess and then again, it is wasted due to Prakash Raj over-the-top acting. He doesn’t come across as menacing enough in contrast to Mahesh’s character. Tanikella Bharani and Kota Srinivas Rao are wasted in their 5 minute roles while Anushka’s character conveniently disappears before the movie ends.

Me Thinks: Khaleja is a treat for Mahesh fans and definitely can be watched once for its entertainment quotient. It keeps you engrossed and is worth the ticket money.

Tailpiece: “Unobtanium” in Avatar and “Iridium” in Khaleja …seems like people battling over rare minerals is the in-thing in movies nowadays!!!