‘D/O Prasad Rao Kanabadutaledu’ series review: This vigilante thriller confuses pace with nuance

We live in times when filmmakers are increasingly insecure about keeping restless viewers invested in a story. This has resulted in storytellers shaping narratives that frenetically jump from one sequence to another, without context or substance, so that distraction may not be an option. The characters do not talk; they shout. And the bombastic background score screams for attention. Every scene turns into a loud statement.

ZEE5’s Telugu web series D/O Prasad Rao Kanabadutaledu (Prasad Rao’s daughter is missing), helmed by Krishna Poluru, takes this desperation to new heights. While leaving little to a viewer’s imagination right from its title, the show shifts between three timelines that influence the events in the life of a missing girl. The crime scene is visualised as a narrative hook to unpack discussions on conservative parenting, the dreams and aspirations of a girl child, intergenerational trauma and vigilante justice.

Prasad Rao (Rajeev Kanakala) is on the lookout for his daughter, Swati (Vasanthika Macha), who has not attended his calls for hours. Rebecca Joseph (Udayabhanu), a police officer, is entrusted with a missing case.

While Rebecca investigates various dimensions of the girl’s life, the screenplay moves between two flashback episodes — a traumatic past involving a group of children in a village, and various vignettes from Swati’s life, offering a peek into her upbringing.

D/O Prasad Rao Kanabadutaledu reduces its characters to unidimensional entities. Prasad is the caring yet conservative father. Swati is a responsible yet ambitious daughter. Prasad’s wife, Sujatha (Bindu Chandramouli), is her daughter’s ally, strictly bound by domestic duties. Rebecca is the generally curt, no-nuisance cop. Every sequence reinforces these traits, lest you forget what they stand for.

The primary issue with the show is the absence of rhythm in the storytelling and lack of emotional graph. The narrative allows little room to build a character and generate tension — the primary ingredient of a thriller. Even with the breakneck screenplay, the story makes very little progress, obsessing over repetitive animated reaction shots. This, perhaps, is a result of the director’s tryst with television.

Taking a cue from Tamil films like Maharaja and Mareesan — stories about men standing up for the victimised women in their lives — D/O Prasad Rao Kanabadutaledu is also a victim of the male saviour complex, advocating instant vigilante justice, with officers bound by the system too endorsing it.

The core emotion of the show is anger/vengeance, and the director validates it as a convenient and deserved response, eliminating any need for debate.

The show’s other key takeaway, about inculcating a free-willed, liberated atmosphere at home that encourages children to discuss their innermost concerns with their parents, plays out like a footnote.

The writing focuses primarily on the shock value of the events, and the entire show flows like a pacy highlights package that misses the larger picture. It wants to be a cautionary tale, but lacks the drama to register any impact.

Given that most of the characters feel like patchy caricatures, none of the performances linger. Rajeev Kanakala, one of the most sought-after on-screen fathers today, slips into the ‘dotingly patriarchal’ role like a walk in the park. Udayabhanu rises above the limitations of the curt cop-act and does her bit to provide the role with some firepower, even though the bland ending dilutes the impact.

Vasanthika Macha, as Swati, barely gets to be a wide-eyed, small-town girl with big dreams, and is mostly treated as a victim. Gayathri Bhargavi and Bindu Chandramouli feature in key roles, though their characters are under-written. This is precisely one of the reasons why D/O Prasad Rao Kanabadutaledu feels like tokenism. While a woman may be the victim, the men still have a larger say in the proceedings.

The melodramatic background score and the hurried cuts neither let the narrative breathe nor conceal the rot in the stale premise. 

D/O Prasad Rao Kanabadutaledu is a needless addition to the worryingly growing list of vigilante sagas with reductive tropes. It appears slick because it does not want to let viewers think; it does not have much to say either.

Published – February 27, 2026 09:16 am IST