Rana Naidu (2023) in google drive S1
Rana Naidu, the official remake of the American series Ray Donovan, with Rana Daggubati and Venkatesh Daggubati taking on the roles played by Liv Schreiber and Jon Voight, is a series about the dysfunctional Naidu family, their internal squabbles, all the rabble around them and how the bigger politics keep pulling them apart. Keeping the show together are the lead characters Rana (Rana Daggubati) and the unsavory family patriarch Naga (Venkatesh Daggubati).
Having migrated from Hyderabad to Mumbai with his brothers and wife (Sushant Singh, Abhishek Banerjee and Surveen Chawla, respectively) and a chequered past, Rana Naidu rises to be the handyman of the political leader OB Mahajan, and fixer for all the rich and mighty of society. Helping him in this are Srini (Adithya Menon), Lara (Lauren Robinson) and a few others. His routine is disturbed when his father Naga Naidu, who has been in jail for the last 15 years, is released and comes to Mumbai to mend relations with the family. We gradually learn that it was Rana Naidu who put him in jail, and his release may create problems for Bollywood star Prince Reddy (Gaurav Chopra). While Naga Naidu is looking to patch up with his family, Rana and his cohorts are working hard to push Naga away.
We also meet a self-styled guru Vijayawada Maharaj, India’s most wanted man who has been in hiding for a decade, Surya Rao (Ashish Vidyarthi), and musician Toofan.
The show is high on sex, innuendo, double entendre and cuss words. Most of it is to shock and awe and not in service of the story. After a while, the gaze of the show towards women feels exploitative and disturbing, and is hard to watch.
Also read |Rana Daggubati says Bollywood friend wasn’t aware who’s Prabhas a few years ago: ‘He knew Mahesh Babu as Namrata Shirodkar’s husband’
While Ray Donovan was a dark comedy that had its moments, Rana Naidu seems to celebrate its depravity. The premise of the show-two men with few redeeming qualities going up against each other-had a lot of promise but the potential remains untapped.
Some of the south viewers might find the performance of Venkatesh hard to digest. The 62-year-old actor with three decades in the film industry and the image of a ‘family’ star expounds profanity with glee. The change is drastic and his fanbase may be thrown off by some of his dialogues. However, the actor is effortless in his part — he uses a quaint mix of Hyderabadi Hindi and delivers hugely offensive dialogues with ease.
