Well I didn't know Rana Naidu is a remake of Ray Donovan. So when i saw the teaser / trailer of Rana , i thought it would be a tale of a son and father who are pitted against each other where the father is hired to try to stop the son from his job. I expected terrific face offs and fight sequences but it wasn't to be.
Rana Naidu is basically a family crime drama where each character has a story of his own to showcase, from Rana Naidu to Naga the father to the youngest Jaffa, everyone's story is shown in this series. In between their own story lies the major one, the Rana Naga story . It's not what i thought. It's basically Naga trying to bring his family together only to find that there were secrets hidden from him and why exactly Rana hates Naga is the main story.
There's no sparks flying off like clash between Naga and Rana at all. I was dissapointed here. Just a mere collar holding and some threatening dialogues nothing else. Remaining series is only focused on others story and how the Naga Rana relationship moves .
It's a very slow moving series. The first 6 episodes are quite patience testing because there's not much happening at all other than world building. This where intense fight sequences would have helped but theres none other than sex. The last 4 is where the interesting parts start coming in and the series salvages itself a bit.
The series is filled with tons of slangs and sex, kissing scenes of all sorts . Definitely not a family series. One more thing to note, the series has no black and white characters, all have grey shades to their personalities. An aspect i liked.
Venkatesh was really enjoyable as the funny yet dangerous Naga . He seemed to be enjoying the role . Rana Daggu as Rana might not be liked by all considering his one stern expression throughout the series but you gotto understand, that was what his role or character was. Ashish Vidyarthi stood out amongst all. Man he was an absolute hilarious ride especially his journey from Hyderabad to Mumbai part was the best. Sushant Singh and Surveen chawla come together again after Hate Story 2 and they did a pretty good job . Abhishek Banerjee was also terrific as his character of a rape victim is extremely tough to play .
Music is good as well . My favourite being "Meherbaan", gave that retro Bollywood music feel.
Overall, a strictly one time watch series. Doesn't leave you excited even for any more seasons.