Movie: Balakrishnudu
Rating: 1.5/5
Banner: Saraschandrika Motion Pictures & Maya Bazar Movies
Cast: Nara Rohith, Regina Cassandra, Ramya Krishna, Pruthvi, Aditya Menon, Kota Srinivas Rao, Diksha Panth, Ajay, Tejaswini, Vennela Kishore, Srinivas Reddy, Duvvasi Mohan, Chitti, Ravi Varma, Sana, Satya Krishna and others
Story and dialogues: Kolusu Raja
Music: Mani Sharma
Cinematography: Vijay C Kumar
Editor: Kotagiri Vekateshwar Rao
Stunts: Vijay
Producers: B Mahendra Babu, Musunuru Vamsi, Vinod Nandamuri
Screenplay and direction: Pavan Mallela
Release date: Nov 24, 2017
The film has been in news for its hero Nara Rohith slimming down 20 kilos for it. His new look created interest around the movie “Balakrishnudu” that is directed by newcomer Pavan Mallela. Also, since Nara Rohith never did a pure masala movie, the film created more interest.
Let’s see how Nara Rohith fares in a mass entertainer...
Story:
Balu (Nara Rohith) is hired as bodyguard for Aadya (Regina) as she has threat from faction leader Pratap Reddy (Ajay).
Aadya is the niece of a powerful faction leader (Ramya Krishna). But Aadya is not aware that the guy who impressed her is her bodyguard. How Balu protects her forms the rest of the story.
Artistes’ Performances:
Nara Rohith in his out and out mass hero character has shown his mark. Though this is a new terrain for him, he has shown ease. His new avatar has also helped him.
Regina has played the role of a rich landlady’s niece and she is okay. Ramya Krishna in another strong role has lent credibility. But the film belongs to Prudhvi who has got full-length comedy role after a long time.
Srinivas Reddy in the second half is also good. Ajay as main villain is okay.
Technical Excellence:
The film is like a road film, as it is shot in various locations. Vijay C Kumar’s camera has captured all of them neatly and the lavish production values have lent visual richness to each frame.
Music by Manisharma is not good except for one song. Editing is neat. Dialogues are decent.
Highlights:
Comedy Here and There
Drawback:
Outdated scenes
Predictability
Regular story
Analysis
After seeing Nara Rohith in different kind of subjects and content-driven roles in many movies, his attempt to fit into the role of a mass hero in “Balakrishnudu” takes us some time to adjust to the fact.
He gets to play a role that has been played by many heroes in the past, also, the story written by Raja is generic masala story.
Directors like Sreenu Vaitla have used this formula to the maximum. There is nothing left to be explored in this genre. Yet, writer Raja and director Pavan Mallela have attempted the film and have added road-movie elements to this regular story.
The director has coated this action drama with some dose of entertainment. In olden days, Brahmanandam used to appear in such role, now Prudhvi has replaced him.
The film begins with faction-action stunts and establishes that Ajay vows to kill the heroine who is being brought up in Hyderabad far from faction field. Then Nara Rohith is introduced and a romantic track is set up between them and they hit the road.
On the road, they meet a comedian (Prudhvi), after a series of events, they land in villain’s village and comedy scenes follow. Such a formulaic story and screenplay! Nowhere the story and screenplay show some variety.
Although some comedy scenes are quite enjoyable, the track of Prudhvi and Srinivas Reddy is extended beyond a point. It gets tiresome after a point and puts you in sleep mode.
Also, Nara Rohit is not at all comfortable in this kind of setup. The romance track between them (much like in Venkatesh’s “Bodygaurd”) is barely impressive.
New director has shown some spark in entertaining sequences, but the story and narration is boring.
Overall, ‘Balakrishnudu’ is regular commercial movie that one has watched umpteen times with little novelty. This is quite a disappointment.
Bottom-line: Old Wine
