Despite three films to his credit, it appears that director Mandya Nagaraj still needs to work on the basics of filmmaking. It is another matter that his three films to date -- Thaayiya Runa, Nammoora Ramayana and Murder -- were all box office duds.

His fourth, Rakshaka (The Protector), featuring Sai Kumar, comes with a new theme. Shot mainly in the dense Biligiri Ranga forests, the story and ambience gave him ample opportunity to do something different. But sadly, like his previous work, the script remains the weakest element. The proceedings are so dull that people in the movie theatre along with this reviewer looked more at their watches than the screen.

Rakshaka is about a dynamic police officer who rescues a minister's child from a gang of criminals headed by a mafia don. The forest department staff is also involved in the kidnap drama. The don demands ransom of Rs 10 crore. The minister informs the home ministry and ACP Prithwi, a daredevil, is assigned to the rescue. He succeeds, obviously.

Sai Kumar as the ACP has less dialogues and more action even though he is famous for his dialogues. Mandya Nagaraj makes no use of him at all. What's different is the fact that the film has no heroine except for Sanjana, who appears on and off and performs an item number. Among the many new faces are Bhanuprakash, the producer of the film and his friends too. Most of them fail to impress.

In delivering a below-par product, Nagaraj has also failed to extract the best out of his technicians. Music director and lyricist Ravichandra fails to impress, while Manohar's photography is ordinary compared to his earlier work. All the hype about Sai Kumar's second entry withers away with this film. It is high time talented actors like him reinvent themselves and avoid such stereotypical roles.

In short, Rakshaka fails miserably.

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