Ranabaali reviews: Vijay Deverakonda’s famine-era drama earns praise for theme and cast, criticism for 178-minute length

Early verdicts on Ranabaali, the period action drama led by Vijay Deverakonda that opened in cinemas on 16 October, are mixed: critics have applauded its theme and the central performances but found fault with its running time and its second half.

Rahul Sankrityan has directed the film. According to IANS, Deverakonda plays the title character, Rashmika Mandanna appears as Jayamma, his wife, and Arnold Vosloo, recognised for The Mummy, plays the villain, Sir Theodore Hector. Naveen Yerneni and Y. Ravi Shankar of Mythri Movie Makers produced it, with T-Series presenting. The film had originally been due out on 11 September.

The story and its setting

Ranabaali, a rebel from Rayalaseema, takes up his people’s cause during a 19th-century famine in the British-ruled Madras Presidency. The reviews do not agree exactly on when this happens: Koimoi dates the setting to 1878, whereas 123Telugu puts it in the 1860s. The makers, IANS reported, say the film draws on real events between 1854 and 1878 but is not a biopic.

• In theatres from: 16 October 2026
• Composers: Ajay-Atul
• Length: 178 minutes, per Koimoi
• Critics’ scores: 123Telugu 2.75/5; Koimoi 2.5/5

How the critics rated it

123Telugu’s one-line verdict was “Noble Intent, Moderate Impact.” The site observed that “the famine concept hasn’t been explored before” and that “Vijay Deverakonda delivers an honest performance,” and it had good words for Mandanna as well as for the camerawork and production design. On the downside, it found the post-interval portion repetitive and easy to predict, singled out the background score, editing and sound mixing, and wrote that “the lengthy runtime is another major shortcoming.”

For Koimoi, Ranabaali was “an average flick whose highlights largely lie in the first half.” Its critic liked the set design, the world the film builds, the rapport between Deverakonda and Mandanna, and the archival famine footage it uses. The negatives listed were a sagging second half, a climax that comes late and seems hurried, and violence repeated so often that it stops landing. The review also drew comparisons with films including Kantara.

Collections still awaited

No figures for the film’s first-day earnings had emerged at the time of writing. IANS has called it a pan-India project.

Sources: 123Telugu, Koimoi, IANS