Leader

Sekhar Kammula's 2010 Telugu film follows Arjun Prasad, who stands to become chief minister of Andhra Pradesh after his father's death. A young man educated abroad, he is taken seriously neither by his party nor by the public. Though the film tries to build politics as a story of personal heroism, it touches real questions in places: the education budget, agricultural credit, favouritism inside the party. Kammula's direction is calm; there is little shouting and a great deal of talk. This is among Rana Daggubati's first major roles. The film's limit is its assumption that one honest man can solve a systemic problem; it targets the people in the structure rather than the structure. Even so it is among the few Telugu films to treat politics in this register. Who it's for: those who like Indian political drama and Sekhar Kammula's films. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a critique of the system; the film looks for its solution in personal virtue.