Gang Leader
Table of Contents
Quick Facts
Gang Leader is a Telugu crime comedy directed by Vikram Kumar, starring Nani as a crime novelist who writes about revenge for a living — and then finds himself leading one in real life. Released on 13 September 2019, it pairs Nani with a gang of five women, aged six to sixty, who walk into his life with a plan to rob a robber — a man who only imagines revenge on paper, asked to execute it for real.
This was Nani’s second release of 2019 after Jersey, and a deliberate change of gear — from restrained sports drama to full-length entertainer. Produced by Mythri Movie Makers with music by Anirudh Ravichander, the film opened to warm reviews, with critics calling it inventive and wildly entertaining. It now streams on Amazon Prime Video and JioHotstar.
Plot
Parthasarathy, known to readers by the pen name Pencil, is a successful crime novelist whose books are all about revenge — until five women show up at his door with a real one. Saraswathi, Varalakshmi, Swathi, little Chinnu and Priya have been cheated out of their life savings by Dev, a smooth and dangerous bank robber. The police cannot help them, so they turn to the one man they believe understands revenge better than anyone: the writer who made a career out of it.
Pencil is reluctant at first — writing about crime and committing it are very different things — but he gets drawn in, and the unlikely six form a gang the film cheekily dubs “The Revengers.” What follows is the planning and execution of a counter-heist: robbing Dev of the money he stole, with Pencil’s storyteller brain staying one step ahead of a genuinely ruthless antagonist. The contrast between Pencil’s fictional expertise and his real-world panic is where much of the comedy lives.
The film saves its best card for the end. In the final twist, the police close the robbery case with almost nothing to show for it — except a dog collar engraved with the name “Sravani.” It turns out Sravani was Pencil’s own beloved pet, killed by the robbers during the original bank robbery. Without ever knowing it, Pencil had been avenging his own loss all along — a reveal that reframes everything that came before it.
Performance
Nani is the engine of this film, playing Pencil with exactly the right mix of cleverness and cowardice. His Pencil talks a big game on the page but sweats through every real confrontation, and Nani mines that gap for both comedy and sympathy. It is a different register from his intense turn in Jersey earlier that year — the nervous asides, the exasperated reactions, the failed attempts to sound like the hero of his own novels.
Kartikeya, fresh off the impact of RX 100, makes a genuinely menacing antagonist as Dev — slick, intelligent and without the soft edges the heroes have. The five women are the film’s secret weapon: Lakshmi and Saranya Ponvannan bring warmth and gravitas as the elder members, while Priyanka Arul Mohan (in her Telugu debut), Shriya Reddy and young Praanya P. Rao hold their own in the ensemble. Vennela Kishore and Priyadarshi handle the comedy track well, with fun cameos from Sukumar and Anirudh Ravichander in the end-credits song.
Screenplay and Direction
Vikram Kumar, the director behind Manam and 24, treats Gang Leader as a genre playground. The core idea — a revenge story where the avengers are a novelist and five ordinary women — is genuinely fresh, and he stages the heist portions with the playfulness of someone who clearly loves the genre. The first half, where the gang comes together and the plan takes shape, moves briskly and holds the film’s best comedy. He also keeps an emotional undercurrent running: this is about ordinary people pushed to extraordinary measures.
The screenplay is not airtight. The second half leans too long on the mechanics of the heist, and a couple of stretches feel like marking time before the climax. Critics were divided in exactly this way — Behindwoods called it “an inventive, wildly entertaining comedy with a great ensemble performance,” while The Times of India felt it tried to tick all the boxes and only partly succeeded. But the final twist is beautifully planted, and it lands because the film made you care about Pencil’s dog long before you knew why.
Music
Anirudh Ravichander’s music is one of the film’s liveliest assets — his second collaboration with Nani after Jersey, and a complete change of mood. “Ra Ra (Roar of the Revengers)” works as a rousing gang anthem, “Hoyna Hoyna” brings the energy, and “Ninnu Chuse Anandamlo,” sung by Sid Sriram, is the album’s romantic standout. The promotional track “Seeti Kottaloi” became a crowd favourite, with lyrics by Anantha Sriram and Inno Genga keeping the wordplay sharp and in step with the film’s tone.
The background score does quiet heavy lifting — keeping the heist sequences tense without tipping into self-parody, then pulling back for the emotional beats. Miroslaw Kuba Brozek’s cinematography gives the film a warm, polished look that suits its mix of comedy and crime.
Themes
At its heart, Gang Leader is about the difference between imagining justice and delivering it. Pencil has spent his career writing revenge stories where everything goes according to plan; the film keeps asking what happens when real life refuses to follow the script. Underneath is a quieter theme: grief and loss are the real engines of revenge. The women are not criminals — they are ordinary people whose savings, and with them their security, were stolen. The film treats their anger as legitimate, which keeps the comedy from curdling into mockery.
The Sravani reveal deepens all of this. Pencil thought he was helping strangers settle a score; he was finishing his own unfinished business. It is a neat, almost literary idea — the writer becoming a character in someone else’s revenge story — and it gives the film an emotional punch a straight caper comedy would not have attempted.
Conclusion
Gang Leader is the kind of film Telugu cinema does not make often enough — a crime comedy with a genuinely original premise, an ensemble that clicks, and an ending that earns its emotions. Nani is in terrific form, Kartikeya is a strong villain, and Vikram Kumar directs with visible affection for the genre. The second half stumbles slightly, but the inventive setup and the final twist more than compensate. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video and JioHotstar, it is an easy, rewarding watch for anyone who likes their comedies with heart.
Watch the official trailer: