Express Raja 2016

Inumu, Dhanraj Sukhram, a quirky thief who only steals iron, sets the tone for a wild caper that spirals into a multi-layered chase. The story kicks off with Raja, Sharwanand, along with his partners Sreenu, Prabhas Sreenu, and Giri, Saptagiri, kidnapping a pet dog and bolting from the scene. What follows is a brisk flashback that reveals the trio’s misfit lives before Hyderabad—and the tangled family dynamics that push them toward a life of scuffles and schemes.

Raja’s father, a devoted teacher and social activist, runs an NGO fundraiser with a close ally, while Sreenu also battles his own troubles under the same roofs. The local inspector brands them vagabonds, insisting they seek real work in Hyderabad, sending them away with a mix of exasperation and hope. In the new city, the spark of romance flickers when Raja spots Amulya, Surbhi, and decides to win her over by posing as a dictionary salesman. The gambit works in a dramatic fashion: he saves her from an attempted assault, a moment that seals their growing bond. Amulya, a dog lover, is drawn to Raja’s bold, reckless charm—an irony given that Raja personally fears dogs, a point that becomes a running joke and a source of conflict.

Yet love’s first bloom blurs into trouble when Amulya witnesses Raja handing over her beloved dog to the local municipal authorities. Her trust shatters, and the couple’s budding relationship sours into a painful breakup. To mend things, Raja and Sreenu hatch a plan to recover the dog and restore their standing, even if it means bending rules and risking their necks. Their extreme measures lead them to try to impress an influential figure by selling a record number of dictionaries, hoping the windfall will fund a proper reunion with Amulya. The audacious scheme brings them into contact with Bill Gates’s legendary persona, embodied by Brahmaji, and for a moment the boys glimpse a path out of their self-made chaos.

A misstep at a pet shop—where the bags of Raja’s crew are swapped with Giri’s—sets off a chain of consequences. Giri, in a misguided act, burns the bag that holds the love letters from Amulya, a mistake he promptly tries to mend with a heavy dose of apology. The four friends converge again at the pet shop, only to discover the dog has already left with a new owner. The search intensifies until they finally track the dog to Binami British’s home, a character who epitomizes the eccentric cross-cultural circus surrounding their lives. Binami British, Supreet, becomes a pivotal anchor in a sequence of twists that pull the troupe back toward Amulya.

With the dog located, Raja delivers it to Amulya, only to learn that she is set to marry Kesava Reddy, the son of a powerful Nellore MLA. Kesava Reddy, Harish Uthaman, embodies the half-glamour, half-aggression of political ambition, and his mother’s memory loss during a car crash becomes a fault line for everyone’s decisions. The lovers’ escape to Nellore is thwarted by Kesava Reddy’s gang, who close in as Raja and Amulya flee a chasing force through a bustling landscape that includes a dancing troupe. The troupe’s vehicle becomes a makeshift escape route, but a mischievous act by Inumu triggers a disastrous turn at a local fair, where Amulya is again captured by the antagonists.

In a desperate bid to free Amulya, Raja and Sreenu retrieve the dog and strike a tense bargain: return the dog to the British in exchange for Amulya’s safety. Detentions ensue, battles loom, and the climactic moment arrives when Raja, wielding nothing but quick wits and the odd Oxford Dictionary, knocks out Kesava Reddy to rescue Amulya and their companions. The film rounds out as the unlikely heroes reclaim their dignity: a group of misfits who, through a series of absurd misfires and heartfelt moments, realize that loyalty, courage, and a touch of luck can turn a chaotic caper into something almost heroic.

Throughout the chaos, the film threads together themes of love, family duty, and the tension between mischief and responsibility. It blends slapstick humor with earnest emotion, keeping the audience rooting for an underdog crew who stumble toward a better future. The performances—especially the fearless antics of the central trio and their colorful companions—deliver a steady rhythm of chaos and charm, making this a mirror of small-town dreams colliding with city-scale consequences. The ending leaves a sense that, even in a world built on ridiculous schemes, the bonds between friends, lovers, and families can endure, sometimes by sheer luck, but often by quick thinking and a little help from a loyal dog.