Check (2021) 

Aditya (Nithiin) is a dying row prisoner going through fees of terrorism. His best hope for residing lies in the sport of chess. National and Nandi Award winner, director Chandrasekhar Yeleti, returns to Tollywood after 2016 with the prison drama Check. While his strive is to tell the story of a prisoner who is desperate to show his innocence, the odd ‘industrial’ remedy the film receives ensures it finally ends up being a combined bag.

Aditya (Nithiin) is facing extreme fees of terrorism and is sentenced to death. He appeals to the court to appoint him a attorney who will help him show his innocence. Manasa (Rakul Preet Singh) is compelled to take in the case with the aid of her father (Posani Krishna Murali) in hope that her profession will benefit from it. Even as Aditya waits in wish of locating a way to escape demise sentence, he meets a chess participant, fellow prisoner Sriman Narayana (Sai Chand) who excels at the game. While the student soon surpasses the master in the sport, lifestyles continues throwing curveballs. If he manages to stay to tell the story paperwork the story.

In the early 2000s whilst Chandrasekhar Yeleti made films like Aithe and Anukokunda Oka Roju, it was hard not to be in awe of the testimonies he told. This nonetheless remains the case for the maximum element when it comes to the center tale of Check. Instead of the usual heroic protagonists who will defy gravity and nary shed a tear, he writes a protagonist who's in a prone position for no fault of his very own.

He reports trauma because of solitary confinement, however manages to show even that revel in into a beneficial one. He also faces threat from fellow prisoners like Trigger (Rohit Pathak), who exists to tick off the box of that disgusting, ruthless, cliché criminal. And extra importantly, he falls in love with Yatra (Priya Prakash Varrier) simplest to sing a duet (fortuitously the only tune within the movie) and realise too late that he has been conned. An irony, seeing as how he’s a expert conman who’s presupposed to be smart. None-the-less, Chandrasekhar dredges on, in desire that during midst of all the random, closely choreographed fight scenes, the audience notices the details that have been installed, mainly in terms of Aditya’s backstory and the motive why he receives so accurate at chess.

But the film suffers a major drawback with regards to its pacing and casting both. Nithiin falters in a few key scenes to lend the specified depth to his character, whilst he aces via other bits. Even even though he plays a conman/prisoner, his frame language comes across as each boy-next-door he has ever performed earlier than. The history score through Kalyani Malik tries too tough to set the temper, operating handiest in components. Rakul alternatively offers an awesome performance, switching between timid and fierce, as and whilst required. Sai Chand leaves an impression, despite the fact that his individual isn’t fleshed out properly. Priya and Simran Choudhary also make the satisfactory of what they’re given. The climax is way too paying homage to a sure well-known American prison drama, so are some other scenes.

Check has the ability to be a fascinating prison drama but falters in portions it’s speculated to excel in. It does have top bits and potential, but in case you’re partial to engaging jail dramas, it would leave you trying. Yeleti does make you need to stay invested until the stop, but simplest because you already know what he's able to.