Movie: @Narthanasala
Rating: 1.5/5
Banner: Ira Creations
Cast: Naga Shaurya, Kashmira, Yamini Bhaskar, Shivaji Rajaand others
Music: Mahati Swara Sagar
Cinematography: Vijay C Kumar
Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao – Thammi Raju
Producer: Usha Mulpuri
Direction: Srinivas Chakravarthi
Release date: 30 August 2018
The grand success of 'Chalo' gave a lot of recognition to Naga Shaurya. The film was produced by his mother on Ira Creations banner. From the same production house, now comes, “@Narthanasala”.
In fact, the film generated a lot of curiosity among audiences thanks to Naga Shaurya’s gay act in the teaser. Let’s find out its merits and demerits.
Story:
Radha Krishna (Naga Shaurya) runs an organization that trains women in self-defense. A nun informs him that one of her community girls Manasa (Kashmira) is harassed by a guy (Satyam Rajesh). He saves her from him and also falls in love with her. On the other hand, his father fixes his marriage with the daughter (Yamini Bhaskar) of a Rayalaseema leader.
To avert this marriage, he tells them that he’s gay. Then he lands in a situation where he gets proposal from a man. This twist leads to more drama.
Artistes’ Performances:
Naga Shaurya seems to have sleepwalked into the sets, there is nothing new from him though he gives some coy expressions to make people believe that he’s gay.
Ajay as Jayaprakash Reddy’s gay son is believable and has given honest performance. Both the heroines have nothing much to do. Yamini has done a beach song to showcase her glamour and Kashmira gets to play a dumb role.
Jaya Prakash Reddy’s performance as usual is loud though he generates some laughs here and there.
Technical Excellence:
The film has decent production values with two catchy songs. Mahati Sagar’s music is the better part of this bland movie. Cinematography is neat. Editing is not right.
Highlights:
Interval twist
Two songs
Drawback:
Farcical situations
Inane dialogues
Loud comedy
Outdated screenplay
Analysis:
A protagonist behaving like someone else to marry the girl of his choice when he is forced to stay in the villain’s house has been rehashed in many movies. That was the regular theme for many of Sreenu Vaitla’s movies. Naga Shaurya’s “@Narthanasala” brings back the same plotline. It's just the main protagonist acts gay to avoid getting married.
Spoilers ahead. The film’s entire plot hinges on an interval bang – hero getting proposal from another guy. A twist that definitely has novelty but instead of handling it sensitively or with a good dose of humor, the new director has made it into an outdated Sreenu Vaitla’s movie replete with farcical scenes and forced comedy sequences.
Jayaprakash Reddy who plays the father of Yamini Bhaskar keeps on calling the hero as pothram (a derogatory word used for homosexual). Then hero’s naval is regularly squeezed by the guy who proposed him. This is shown as gay romance!
Entire second half happens in Jayaprakash Reddy’s house. All nonsensical events happen here. Scenes like Jayaprakash Reddy sleepwalking, a drunkard relative asking guests to give him 1000 rupees to enter into the scene, Shivaji Raja doing maryada to his son’s gay “boyfriend”.
Adding more trauma to the audience, Shivaji Raja, who has played hero’s father, yells ‘Hey Krishna’ and a pundit appears into the scene and they have silly conversation.
In the middle of the second half, hero’s friend says: “I am feeling like I am doing asanas on top of a volcano.” Audiences feel the same when the proceedings reach this point.
Except for couple of songs, there is nothing worth talking about. The new director’s old-school of narration and bland comedy makes this movie hard to sit through.
On the whole, “@Narthanasala” is full of idiotic comedy scenes with bland narration. This is not for the people who seek some decent comedy.
Bottom-line: Point-less!
