Kireeti Reddy makes a convincing debut in a massy, soulful ride

IRECTOR Radhakrishna Reddy's Junior unfolds within a familiar commercial framework: campus capers, dramatic dialogues, and dance numbers, but it surprises with a tender emotional core. It is a film about parenting, misunderstood love, redemption, and the longing to reconnect across generations.

- A SHARADHAA

IRECTOR Radhakrishna Reddy's Junior unfolds within a familiar commercial framework: campus capers, dramatic dialogues, and dance numbers, but it surprises with a tender emotional core. It is a film about parenting, misunderstood love, redemption, and the longing to reconnect across generations. Designed to launch debutant Kireeti Reddy, Junior does more than showcase a new face; it explores what happens when youthful exuberance meets long-buried emotional truths.

The film begins on an unconventional note. In Vijayanagara, elderly couple Kodandapani (Ravichandran) and Shyamala (Sudharani) shock their conservative community by expecting a child late in life. Forced to leave town for peace and privacy, tragedy strikes during their journey — Shyamala dies in childbirth. Left to raise his son alone, Kodandapani's story as a single father quietly sets the emotional compass for what follows.

Cut to the present, their son Abhinav (Kireeti Reddy) bursts onto the screen with a stylized college chase scene, packed with energy and flair. From this point, Junior transforms into a vibrant campus entertainer filled with fun, rebellion, and young romance. The first half is clearly structured to highlight Kireeti's strengths — his dancing in "No No Fear with Junior," comic timing during college pranks, and ease in action scenes. Yet, beneath his cheerful exterior, Abhi carries an emotional gap — a disconnect with his father, who he finds overbearing and out of step with his youthful ideals.