V movie review: When an overqualified cop meets an overprepared devil.

V starts off with a masala-style fight during some communal riots, and just based on that, it was fairly easy to see where the movie was headed. Even before watching the movie I was able to understand literally the whole story. A cop tries to stop the villain, who's playing a game with the cop, until the cop realises that he himself is related to the villain's past, making the villain seem like a vulnerable hero.

Based on the trailer, you would think that Sudheer Babu's sidekick is Nivetha Thomas. Instead, she's only in the movie for a song and some dark comedy, which isn't exactly well-suited in the middle of suspense. A similar thing happens with Vennela Kishore. You would think he would play the normal comedian sidekick, but he just plays a limited, normal assistant. There's only one scene that shows the comedian Vennela Kishore, but it's severely undermined by the circumstances around it.

When it comes back to the actual story, it seems like a Tom and Jerry style fight between Sudheer Babu and Nani. (Similar to Ravi Teja and Shaam in Kick.) The only issue with this is that we know that Nani usually plays hero roles, so there has to be some soft corner or rom-com style flashback for him that makes him the hero in his own story. Obviously, there was a rom-com flashback with him and Aditi Rao Hydari. I'm sure that everyone knew what her role was, even though the trailer didn't show it.

Predictability has been in issue in this director's (Mohana Krishna Indraganti) past movies, like Sammohanam, but what made V stand out here was that with an action-thriller, unpredictability NEEDS to be there. It's literally a huge part of the story. It's the SUSPENSE factor. It's a part of the genre. With a cutesy rom-com, predictability isn't exactly the top priority when compared to complex characters.

Speaking of developed characters, Sudheer Babu's character was just too perfect and too worthy. He wasn't human enough, and I'm pretty sure that seeing someone relatable on screen is better than seeing someone that's literally immaculate. He was perfect at everything and anything, from being a cop to being a model. He literally couldn't make a mistake.

And then there was Nani's character: The smart devil 😈. He was way too over-prepared. What serial killer comes that prepared when he's gonna kill someone? He literally needs a knife and a sticky note with a cut, but instead he has everything from gauze to drugs. It was evident that the director made sure that Nani's character was the best of the best, and Nani did justice to his character. (He actually did it much better than I thought he would.)

The characters didn't exactly have their own inner journeys or character arcs or something shows that they changed. (In my opinion, some characters didn't even have much character.) Everything was just put forth on a silver platter. Sudheer Babu's character arc just shot down when we resigned and started reading Withering Heights. Nani's graph didn't exactly change much until the very end of the movie, where he seems good all of a sudden. Not exactly the best arcs/graphs.

Even though there were a lot of glaring issues with the movie, and even though it might not have met my expectations, it was definitely fun to watch.