Film: Kathanayakudu
Rating: 2.75/5
Banner: Vijayanthi Movies
Cast: Rajinikanth, Jagapathi Babu, Nayantara, Meena, Prabhu, Sunil, Brahmanandam, Dharmavarapu ,Duvvasi Mohan, Ali, MS, Vijay Kumar, Mamata Mohandas, Sona, Geetha, Tanikella, Suriya and others
Cinematography: Arvind Krishna
Music: G V Prakash Kumar
Director: P Vasu
Producer: Aswini Dutt
Released On:1st Aug 2008
There is a dialogue by Super Star in this film: "Janam cinema bagunteney choosathaaru. Lekapothey ee Super Star natinchinaa choodaru". Let us see if those 'janam' come to this film or not.
Story:
It is the story of two friends Barber Balu (Jagapathi Babu) and Super Star Ashok Kumar (Rajni Kanth). Barber Balu is very pious at heart, sincere at work and never dreams high. He lives with his wife Sridevi (Meena) and three children.
The villagers are cold towards Balu and his family as they believe that he is misfit to make good earnings. Another barber (Sunil) plays smart and earns big using some gimmicks.
Once, Super Star Ashok Kumar happens to come to that village, Sirisilla for shooting. Entire village gets carried away by the aura of Super Star. Knowing that Balu is the childhood friend of Ashok Kumar entire village comes to him to take them to Super Star for photographs. Even Balu's children and wife ask him to take to Ashok Kumar. But Balu fears that Super Star may not recognize him after 3 decades of friendship. Finally, what happens? Can Balu meet Super Star? That gets unleashed at the grand finale.
Performances:
Rajni Kanth is the sole attractor in this movie. The film got huge crowds at box office for the element of 'Rajni' in it and there is no dispute in that. Rajni Kanth's speech recalling his childhood in a school function in the last 15 minutes moves many audiences. That stands out to be the highlight in entire movie.
Jagapathi Babu is ok in his role. There is nothing special with respect to slang or diction but acted in his routine style.
Meena, after a long time appeared on screen and still with enough of spark and lush. Nayantara is ok for glamour show. No one knows why Mamatha Mohandas agreed to do that most unimportant role.
Others are just ok. Ali, Sunil and Dharmavarapu are used for spilling laughs but they couldn't do up to their standards. Brahmanandam's role is mere waste. Any small time artiste would have been ok for that. Prabhu acted as security cop to Rajni Kanth.
Songs were shot in rich manner but the music is very pale. Dialogues are weak. No punch in comedy and no depth in sentiment are seen.
Direction is amateur in many facets. Some ups and downs in P Vasu's direction:
- Once it is told 'Kucheludu' is the shooting going on and in other scene it was said that it is the shooting of 'Chandramukhi-Part 2'
- Vasu failed to utilize the key scenes for bringing in depth. He failed to record the reaction in the faces of Barber Balu and Super Star Ashok Kumar when the son of the former says that his name is 'Ashok Kumar'.
- People don't understand why Balu is not called on to the stage either by organizers of the school function or local people there, when Super Star Rajni Kanth says about him and sheds tears.
- Why Jagapathi Babu sheds tears while calling to guest-house where Super Star stays? That is another connectivity problem in screenplay.
It's only Cinematography and Art Director's jobs are marvelous in totality.
Plus Points:
Rajni Kanth's presence
Cinematography
Art Direction
Drawbacks:
No proper comedy
Many boring sequences
Misplacement of songs
Weak music
Pale dialogues
No depth in narration
Analysis:
Entire movie is about a barber meeting 'Super Star'. But that scene was not showcased well. Necessary depth hasn't worked out in that old friends' reunion scene. And the purpose of entire film is only meeting the Star. But what the Star has in return did to that barber-friend? What the Star did to that village? Director didn't go to those areas. The film concludes when the Star meets barber.
The movie runs in dull mode until Rajni Kanth comes on to screen. Only then the tempo picks up. SP Balasubrahmanyam's dubbing to Rajni Kanth worked well. It sounds a bit new as people got accustomed to Mano's dubbing all these years.
To sum up, the film would certainly go into masses for 'Rajni Factor' in it. And it is the same Rajni factor that should keep box offices sounding. The subject is very good but director under-played to handle it in the way it should be. Things would have been better if proper care was taken in scene composition and tempo balance.
(SiraSri can be reached at [email protected])
