Ustaad Bhagat Singh Review 2026: A Debacle From Pawan Kalyan

Ustaad Bhagat Singh Plot

A village teacher, Chandrasekhar Rao (KS Ravikumar), adopts a poor tribal boy living in the jungles and begins treating him like his own child, teaching him the Bhagavad Gita and the story of Bhagat Singh, and treating him like his protege, with the headmaster himself being the guru. Soon, the headmaster names the child Bhagat Singh (Pawan Kalyan). 

The guru is called upon to join politics and serve the people on a large scale. After this, he advises Bhagat to give up everything and join the line of duty when asked to anytime in the future.

The boy grows up to be a fearless cop and falls in love with RJ Leela (Sreeleela), but soon leaves behind this filled life to live a quiet life at Nallamala forest, where he meets Shloka (Raashii Khanna), a girl dealing with emotional distress after a breakup, and also the daughter of a wealthy businessman.

Alongside all this, Chadhala Marri Nalla Nagappa (R. Parthiban) aspires to become the CM of the state and plans an assassination on Chandrasekhar Rao, following which he becomes the interim CM. His son heads to the Nallamalla forest for a getaway, but goes mysteriously missing. It is later known that Ustaad Bhagat Singh is the man behind his disappearance. The fight between Ustaad Bhagat Singh and Nagappa forms the rest of the story.

A 2-Decade-Old Outdated Story

Firstly, there is absolutely no reason why the story of Ustaad Bhagat Singh should excite you, as it is a combination of tons of medium-scale commercial entertainers that have been produced for the last 2 decades, certainly more than that when we speak, particularly keeping the Tollywood film industry in mind. 

The film is led by a physically powerful and patriotic hero loved and feared by many, eliminating all the criminals around him alone while juggling his life filled with family and friends, a girl with whom he is in a relationship, indulging in dance and comedy, and fighting a bigger and much more corrupt force, all of it together. Sprinkle on top of this story a deafening BGM, some songs, elevation scenes, and emotional flashbacks, and you have a commercial entertainer ready.

That’s the plot of thousands of Indian films summarized in one paragraph in front of you, and one of those films is Ustaad Bhagat Singh 2026. Now, you can easily determine how many such films you have watched ever since you were born, how outdated they are, and how predictable and unoriginal the thoughts of director Harish Shankar and writer Dasaradh are. What’s worse is that you can predict this storyline from the Ustaad Bhagat Singh trailer itself.

Wasted Female Leads 

One thing routine entertainers like Ustaad Bhagat Singh never miss out on is wasting the female lead of the film. While most such films have only one leading actress, Ustaad Bhagat Singh tries to be a bit original by integrating two leading female characters in the film, but ends up wasting them successfully.

While Shloka (Raashii Khanna) is a character central to the story, Leela (Sreeleela) is that modern romantic interest whose presence does not help the film much, especially when she is clearly portraying no effort to play her role. The writing team did try to give them a bit of value with small subplots like Shloka’s emotional backstory and Leela’s life as an RJ, including her ‘Gala Gala with Leela’ program, but they turn out to be cringeworthy, irritating, and ineffective. 

A Checklist of Commercial Elements in the Film

Harish Shankar wanted Ustaad Bhagat Singh to seem patriotic no matter what it takes to prove him as one. For him, showing the superstar as a noble crime-fighting cop was not enough, so he added many sequences based on real-life incidents. 

These preachy subplots included one on the lines of the Nirbhaya incident, a hint towards Operation Sindoor, among many others, as if he had prepared a checklist on the qualities of a noble nationalist. Not only do they feel unfit to be a part of this film, but they are also boring enough to forget instantly. Due to the same reason, Ustaad Bhagat Singh seems like a poor compilation of many elevation blocks and commercial scenes.

Besides this preaching, it consists of some jokes here and there that don’t land, Pawan Kalyan’s dance, and some dramatic sequences, all of them constantly making you wonder how much of the film is left.

One Man “Failure” Show

In the past, Pawan Kalyan carried horrible films as They Call Him OG on his shoulders purely through his screen presence, dialogue delivery, and action sequences. But in Ustaad Bhagat Singh, even he seems to be sleepwalking for most of the part after getting his fees. 

The writing and direction have failed massively in giving the superstar a deserving presentation, which is otherwise something that fans lap up the most.

The Bare Minimum Good Things About Ustaad Bhagat Singh

Not everything is bad in our Ustaad Bhagat Singh movie review, as there are minimal but notable components of the film that deserve your praise, too. These praiseworthy elements include a countable number of elevation blocks, which actually turn out to be good and not forced. These also include the interval block, which comes as a minor refreshment after a long and tiresome first half. 

Among the comical scenes, a few punches genuinely work, but many of them don’t, which is obviously a result of the film’s poor writing. 

The music composer Thaman S tries to induce life into the film with his background score and fails in most parts. However, at several places, he has succeeded where his BGM does not feel like a headache or badly out of place, but does justice to a scene.

The Technical Aspects

The technical aspects of Ustaad Bhagat Singh are way too ordinary and do not deserve to be talked much about, as they don’t give anything to the film. The cinematography and the production design speak of the routineness that Pawan Kalyan’s Ustaad Bhagat Singh shows in its entire runtime. The background score of the film is average, while the songs are just horrible and make you wish there was a skip or fast-forward button in the theater.

The Failure of the Ustaad Bhagat Singh Cast

Among the Ustaad Bhagat Singh cast, Pawan Kalyan is strictly average as he has given a lazy and unenergetic performance for most of the Ustaad Bhagat Singh showtimes.

Among the female leads, Raashii Khanna and Sreeleela do not contribute much to the quality of the film with their performances. Their acting feels like they are here just for the money and to work with Pawan Kalyan.

R. Parthiban as the antagonist is good and fits into the typical image of a politician who is corrupt in all ways. 

Among the supporting cast, KS Ravikumar, Rao Ramesh, etc., are great in their respective roles.

Final Thoughts

As for the overall Ustaad Bhagat Singh Revenge review by Inside Box Office, it is a zero-effort potboiler made just to mint money off of Pawan Kalyan’s stardom, but failing at that, too. No matter when you decide to walk out of your show due to a headache, you regret the loss of money on this film. If director Harish Shankar thinks that Pawan Kalyan, being a Deputy CM, should not do item numbers, he should also not do such lazy projects which is something that does not deserve to be watched even on OTT.

Stay tuned to Inside Box Office for reviews of upcoming Pawan Kalyan movies, along with the rest of Bollywood and South Indian movies, and their box office updates.