Roberrt movie review: This Darshan film is a fun entertainer

3.5/5

Within the first 10 minutes of Kannada star Darshan's Roberrt, you have his character Raghava single-handedly stopping a colossal hoarding from crushing a politician. The template of the film gets set in those 10 minutes - colourful visuals, superhuman action sequences and caricaturish villains. But despite all these predictable ingredients for a potboiler, Roberrt is surprisingly fun and this is thanks to how coolly Darshan carries off his character.

Raghava, though built like a bull, is a god-fearing do-gooder who lives with his son Arjun in Lucknow and works in a family-run South Indian catering company. While they have their share of struggles, Raghava's attitude of staying under the radar and not inviting trouble keeps them happy - at least till Arjun causes a problem for a political leader's son. This reveals another side of Raghava, one that he has kept hidden for the sake of his son.

What makes Roberrt enjoyable, in spite of the second half becoming extremely predictable, is how the makers are totally invested in what they are trying to sell. The film is a mass entertainer with the first half, showing the goodness inside Raghava and the second also zeroing in on that facet even when he is at the centre of crimes. The art and music department lend this film the mass appeal it aims for.

Darshan shines in both halves as the stammering Raghava and the swaggering Robert. A memorable scene has him repeating the lines of Ravana after a well-choreographed action sequence, enough to make die-hard fans cheer. Vinod Prabhakar as Robert's partner-in-crime, Jagapathi Babu and P Ravi Shankar as the gangster brothers and Asha Bhat as Raghava's love interest do their limited parts well. Jason D'Souza, who plays Arjun, also adds to the cheery setting in the first half.

The second half slows down because of the predictable elements and the two songs don't do any favours either for the movie that is 2 hours and 46 minutes in duration. However, if you are a fan of mass entertainers that have a decent story, good dialogues, emotions and action sequences, Roberrt makes for a good watch.