Naa Peru Surya, Naa Illu India


Naa Peru Surya, Naa Illu India is a 2018 Indian Telugu-language action film written and directed by Vakkantham Vamsi in his directorial debut. Produced by Sirisha and Sridhar Lagadapati under the banner Ramalakshmi Cine Creations, it stars Allu Arjun, Anu Emmanuel, and Arjun Sarja in the lead roles alongside an ensemble cast including R. Sarathkumar, Boman Irani, Thakur Anoop Singh, Sai Kumar, Pradeep Rawat, Harish Uthaman, Rao Ramesh, Nadhiya, and Vennela Kishore.
The film follows Surya, a short-tempered soldier who aspires to serve at the borders, but he finds trouble after getting into brawls and killing a terrorist. He is given the chance to prove his worth by getting a clearance signature from a renowned psychologist, who is none other than his estranged father. Surya must curb his angry behavior while still confronting his enemies, if he wants to fulfill his dream.
The music was composed by Vishal-Shekhar with editing by Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao. The film released on 4 May 2018.

Plot

Surya is a soldier in the Indian Army who suffers from anger management issues and dreams of being posted at the LOC. After getting into a brawl at a local club and attacking Inspector Himanshu Negi and stealing the latter's gun, Surya uses it to shoot dead a terrorist right when the officer comes to ask for the gun from Surya's senior Col. Sanjay Shrivastav. Surya's dreams are now shattered after being court martialled for indisciplinary action. His godfather requests Shrivastav to give Surya a final chance. Shrivastav agrees on the condition that Surya gets a signature of approval from the country's top psychologist and the Dean of the Institution of Psychology and Foreign Languages, Dr. Rama Krishna Raju, who happens to be Surya's estranged father.
In order to fulfill his dream of going to the border, Surya agrees, taking up home with a passport officer named Kishore, who has been waiting for a year for a similar signature from Raju. Upon meeting, Surya and Raju refuse to acknowledge each other, and Raju questions Surya's personal life. Surya reveals to Raju about his relationship with Varsha, whom he broke up with when she distanced him on finding of his profession and his disrespecting her uncle. Surya gets frustrated, in turn accusing Raju of enjoying himself on listening to Surya's failures. Raju then reveals about Surya to the entire university.
Surya then takes up a challenge from Raju to control his anger for three weeks and not cause any fights from the following day. He, however, beats up a young gangster when the latter makes a commotion in the middle of the road, who is revealed to be the son of a dreaded gangster Challa, the very day before the challenge is to start, as a final fight. In the following days, Surya encounters several situations with Challa and his men; however, being able to control his anger and even becoming used to living within the society have reformed.
However, things take a turn when Surya ends up as the sole witness of the murder of Mustafa in the hands of Challa's son, over a property dispute. He keeps quiet about this, as he learns from the society. However, he is guilt-tripped when Police Officer Krishna Kumar, who was investigating Mustafa's murder, addresses him as someone who made a great impact on the latter's life. Meanwhile, Surya reconciles with his father, returns to his family, makes up with Varsha, and seemingly has won the challenge. However, he addresses his mistake publicly and refuses to take the signature. Having completely realized his error, Surya attacks and kidnaps Challa's son, asking Challa to help him find Mustafa's son Anwar, who expressed his hatred against the nation, which he believes did not recognize his father's sacrifices or death and left his home. Surya fears that Anwar may follow a wrong path, and both he and Challa set off on a mission to recover Anwar.
On finding Anwar in Mumbai, Surya makes him realize his mistake and warns him not to take the wrong route in life, after which Anwar shows his care for his nation. Surya receives Raju's signature, and a few months later, he is shown to be standing at the border hoisting the Indian Flag.

Cast

The film marks the debut of Vamsi as a director. Vamsi has previously written stories for successful films such as Kick and Race Gurram. The film stars Allu Arjun and Anu Emmanuel in the lead roles while Arjun Sarja and R. Sarathkumar play supporting roles. Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao, Rajeev Ravi and Rajeevan are the editor, cinematographer and art director respectively.
The movie teaser was released on 1 January 2018 and registered 10 million digital views within 29 hours on YouTube.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film is composed by Vishal-Shekhar. The original score is composed by Vishal-Shekhar and John Stewart Eduri. After a successful collaboration in Tiger Zinda Hai, Vishal–Shekhar casted Meghdeep Bose to produce their songs for this album. The first single from the film, "Sainika", was released on Indian Republic Day, 26 January 2018, as a tribute to the soldiers of the Indian Army. The film's second single "Lover Also, Fighter Also" was released on 14 February 2018. The Naa Peru Surya Naa Illu India audio launch event was held on 22 April at Military Madhavaram, West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh. The Naa Peru Surya- Naa Illu India pre-release event was organized on 29 April at Gachibowli Stadium, Hyderabad.

Release

The film was released on 4 May 2018 along with its dubbed versions simultaneously in Tamil as En Peyar Surya, En Veedu India and in Malayalam as Ente Peru Surya Ente Veedu India and later in Hindi as Surya: The Soldier on 7 September 2018.

Critical reception

Naa Peru Surya, Naa Illu India received mixed reviews, critics appreciated Allu Arjun's performance, calling it the "biggest strength to the film," and his "career-best performance".
The Hans India gave it 3.25/5 stars, writing, "Na Peru Surya, Na Illu India is a film that gives us solid entertainment throughout the movie. The film starts off impressively and takes a U-turn to the interval point. The best part of the movie is that the director is stuck to the core point and did not deviate himself from the main content"
Idlebrain gave it a 3/5 rating and wrote "First half of the film sets up the plot and is alright. The second half of the film has good writing and intense scenes. Though the director tried to cater to all cross section of audiences by having all types of elements in the first half, he made sure that he sticks to the basic plot of the film towards the climax. Allu Arjun stands out in the film with his stylish and terrific performance. The core plot is handled well. But the infusion of commercial elements plays spoilsport. On a while, Naa Peru Surya is a film that genuinely explores about fighting your own weakness and fighting the enemies within India!"
Chitramala gave it 3/5 stars, noting, "Na Peru Surya, Na Illu India is a film which is indeed not to be missed because of the action elements. The film has a gas performance from Allu Arjun who carried the movie on his shoulders. The interval block sets the stand correctly for the second half to unfold in its way. As the film progresses, the screenplay becomes weak, and the audiences will feel bored, but the director cleverly wrote the s do not deviate. On the whole, the film has everything that the audiences would love about the movie, but still, it could have been a much better one considering the scope to elevate."
Indiaglitz gave it 2.75/5 stars, writing, "Overall Allu Arjun's summer release is a mixed bag of goodies. The fans are sure to relish the actor's rugged avatar, the actor after his role in Arya and Arya 2 has come to exhibit variety as an angry young man."
Greatandhra gave it 2.75/5 stars, reviewing, "Despite enough scope for fully extracting these emotions to the fullest, the first time director has not used them well. Instead, he put all his creative guns on the characterization of Surya, the protagonist who has anger management issues. Vakkantham Vamsi as the writer has chosen the right plot line, but his execution completely falters due to lack of experience. The emotions look forced. All in all, “Naa Peru Surya” has Allu Arjun’s best performance, but it doesn’t involve you totally."
Times of India gave it 2.5/5 stars, reviewing, "Naa Peru Surya, Naa Illu India is a hard film to describe, what with so much happening in a span of fewer than 3 hours. The film has all the requirements of a commercial potboiler – there’s unbridled patriotism, a love track, a family drama, an ambitious man striving to make it big in his career, several points of conflict replete with goondas and other moral dilemmas that all play out, interspersed at regular intervals with colourful and highly choreographed songs."
AP Herald gave it 2.5/5 stars, reviewing, "Though his cast including Arjun and Sarathkumar have supported him with their performances, Vamsy struggles to weave an uninteresting screenplay, as the first half takes too much time establishing the characters, and with too many action shots bores the viewer, Besides, the second half moves on a very unpredictable note, and the masala factor takes over the content, thereby impacting the quality."
Hindustan Times gave it 2.5/5 stars, concluding, "Naa Peru Surya is a film that would work purely because of dramatic emotional moments in combination with the high powered action sequence, something that Tollywood is well known for."
fullhyd.com gave it 6/10, writing, "Its ambitions may be lofty, and its whole isn't as captivating as the sum of its parts, but make no mistake, some of those parts are hugely entertaining."