Movie: Hari Hara Veera Mallu Part 1
Rating: 1.75/5
Banner: Mega Surya Production
Cast: Pawan Kalyan, Nidhhi Agerwal, Bobby Deol, Vikramjeet Virk, Pujitha Ponnada, Anasuya, Nasser, Kabir Duhan Singh, and others
Dialogues: Sai Madhav Burra, Pranava Chandra
Music: MM Keeravani
Director of Photography: Manoj Paramahamsa, Gnana ShekarV.S.
Production Designer: Thota Tharrani
Editor: KL Praveen
Action: Nick Powell, Syam Kaushal, Peter Hein, Ram-Laxman, and others
Producer: A Dayakar Rao
Presented by: AM Rathnam
Directed by: Jyothi Krishna, Krish Jagarlamudi
Release Date: July 24, 2025
Despite being plagued by financial hurdles, multiple delays, and an extended production span of over four years, “Hari Hara Veera Mallu” has finally seen the light of day. The film hit theaters today.
Now, the big question is: did the combined vision of Krish and Jyothi Krishna, along with producer AM Rathnam’s unwavering persistence, ultimately pay off?
Story:
Impressed by his masterful thievery, a regional king (Sachin Khedekar) summons Veera Mallu (Pawan Kalyan) and entrusts him with a covert task: to steal a cache of prized diamonds. During this mission, Veera Mallu encounters Panchami (Nidhhi Agerwal), a devadasi.
Soon after, the Nawab of Golconda offers him a far more formidable challenge. That is to retrieve the legendary Kohinoor diamond, a symbol of the Deccan’s pride, now in the possession of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, locked away within the mighty walls of the Red Fort in Delhi.
Veera Mallu sets out on this perilous journey, driven not just by promise, but by a deeper, personal calling. Will he succeed in his audacious mission?
Artistes’ Performances:
Pawan Kalyan convincingly embodies the role of Veera Mallu. The character aligns with his current political image, making it feel almost tailor-made for him. While he appears impressive in the early portions, the film’s protracted production leads to noticeable inconsistencies in his physical appearance, particularly in the latter half. Moreover, the segments centered around Sanātana Dharma fail to make the intended emotional impact.
Nidhhi Agerwal, who remained steadfastly committed to the project through its long production, portrays Panchami. However, beyond a notable twist involving her character, she is given limited scope. She appears in two songs, but the role offers little in terms of narrative weight.
Bobby Deol, riding high on the acclaim from his menacing performance in “Animal,” delivers a neat portrayal of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. His commanding presence and restrained menace bring gravitas to the antagonist’s role.
Among the supporting cast, Sathyaraj manages to make an impression. In contrast, Raghu Babu, Subbaraj, and Sunil are relegated to predictable, formulaic roles, delivering performances that feel all too familiar. Raghu Babu’s dialogues are irritating.
Technical Excellence:
The film boasts several prominent names on the technical front, but most of them deliver shoddy output. In terms of production design, it certainly appears grand in certain portions.
Veteran art director Thota Tharani does an impressive job recreating the Mughal era with believable sets especially Charminar set. However, other portions are not up to the mark.
The cinematography is totally unimaginative. The visual effects are totally crap. The graphics in episodes like rock falling while Veera Mallu heads to Delhi are amateurish and laughable. In certain places, even the rendering was so bad that the left eye of Pawan Kalyan doesn’t appear to us.
The film falters most significantly in its music. Historical action dramas of this scale demand not only captivating songs but also a deeply immersive background score. Unfortunately, MM Keeravani falls short in this regard. The songs fail to leave an impression, and while his re-recording work offers some support to the narrative, it doesn't quite reach the emotional or cinematic highs expected from a film of this nature.
Editing and dialogue writing are equally subpar.
Highlights:
Charminar fight
Interval bang
Drawback:
Substandard VFX
Boring second half
Abrupt climax
Sleep-inducing songs
Analysis
“Hari Hara Veera Mallu” originally commenced production under the direction and screenplay of Krish, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the prolonged delays eventually led to creative differences between Pawan Kalyan and Krish, resulting in the latter’s departure from the project. Subsequently, Jyothi Krishna, son of producer A.M. Rathnam, stepped in to complete the film. As a result, the film is a collaborative directorial effort, though the tonal and stylistic disparities between the two halves are quite apparent. It becomes increasingly evident that much of the second half bears Jyothi Krishna’s imprint.
On paper, the core premise — a charismatic outlaw entrusted by a king to retrieve a priceless diamond— holds some promise. But this potential doesn’t translate to the screen. The narrative frequently strays from its central arc, weighed down by outdated sequences that feel disconnected and thematically inconsistent.
The film opens on a sluggish note, with the first 20 minutes unfolding in a rather flat, uninspired manner. It is only when Pawan Kalyan’s character enters the domain of Sachin Khedekar and Nidhhi Agerwal that the narrative begins to gain some momentum. From that point until the interval, the film manages to maintain a moderate level of engagement. The chase sequence through the bylanes of Charminar and the action set-piece at the monument are particularly gripping, while the twist involving Nidhhi Agerwal’s character adds an element of intrigue. Despite occasional flashes of predictability, the pre-interval stretch works well.
However, the second half begins on an even more lackluster note. It opens with an unintentionally comical sequence featuring Pawan Kalyan taming a lion through sheer will, followed by an uninspired horse ride through mountainous terrain en route to Delhi. These scenes are marred by substandard visual effects that significantly detract from the viewing experience. The quality of visual effects is so poor that several frames appear embarrassingly unpolished and amateurish.
A series of overdrawn and unintentionally comical sequences unfold in the second half, seemingly crafted to align with Pawan Kalyan’s off-screen image rather than serve the narrative. First comes a bizarre episode involving a pack of wolves, which Veera Mallu tames with nothing more than an intense gaze. This is followed by a detour to a famine-stricken Muslim village, where he selflessly shares all his resources. Immediately after, he encounters a group of Brahmins performing a yagna to invoke rainfall, and proceeds to defend them from oppressive Muslim rulers. These scenes appear back-to-back, strung together with sanctimonious dialogues, resulting in a tedious stretch that tests the viewer’s patience.
Eventually, the narrative builds to a much-anticipated face-off between Pawan Kalyan and Bobby Deol. However, after a prolonged whirlwind action sequence, the film concludes rather abruptly, teasing a “real war” to come in Part 2.
What’s most baffling is that, despite being in production for over four and a half years, the film suffers from shockingly poor visual effects and lackluster cinematography.
It's difficult to fathom how directors Krish and Jyothi Krishna allowed such substandard sequences to pass through post-production unchecked. The screenplay, meanwhile, is riddled with clichés and artificiality, lacking the emotional and narrative depth one would expect from a period epic of this scale.
Overall, barring the relatively engaging pre-interval stretch and a single sequence in the second half, “Hari Hara Veera Mallu” is marred by mediocrity — plagued by uninspired storytelling, uneven visuals, and embarrassingly poor visual effects. Despite its grand ambition and extended production timeline, the film falls short on nearly every front. It stands as yet another disappointing outing from Pawan Kalyan.
Bottom-line: Bore Mallu
