Rating: 1/5
Banner: Sri Balaji Movies
Cast: Jagapathi Babu, Priyamani, ‘Kick’ Shyam, Kota and others
Music: Koti
Cinematographer: M V Raghu
Editor: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Story, screenplay, direction: T Venugopal
Producer: Govardhan Raju
Release date: 29/12/2011
The regular pair of Jagapathi Babu and Priyamani is back and this time, they came with a dose of flashback. Let us see if the film was divine enough.
Story
Chakri (Shyam) who hails from a royal family works with a TV channel and he falls in love with the Marwadi girl Sohini (Priyamani). Both families agree for the marriage and Chakri’s father (Aditya Menon) takes the newly wed couple to the grave of his brother Veera Narasimha Rayalu (Jagapathi Babu) and Naga Penchalamma (Priyamani again) for paying respects.
However, the spirit of Penchalamma enters the body of Sohini and she kills Chakri’s father. A tryst with a guru reveals the flashback of Narasimha Rayalu and Penchalamma, their efforts to lay the idol of Narasimha Swamy in a temple for the welfare of the villages and the enemies (Kota and others) who are stopping it. Whether the divine mission is successful or not forms the rest of the story.
Performances
Jagapathi Babu looks fit and does his bit in the required manner. Though some of his dialogues looked odd, he managed to bring some attention of the audience to the screen.
Priyamani should work on her looks. Her body is slowly going out of shape and something is not right around her tummy and navel area where the extra flab has come. Performance-wise no complaints…
Shyam is handsome and despite his Kollywood background, he tries his best to get the lip sync. Though his role is subdued, he gives his full in every scene. He is a talent who should be given right roles.
Aditya Menon is a good performer. He has the right kind of personality and the evil expressions to make him the villain. He has strong potential to enter into the top league of villains if he chooses his projects carefully.
Tanikella Bharani was effective, Kota was impressive, Brahmi was boring, Rajeev Kanakala was wasted, Jackie was okay, Hema and Surekha Vani were brief, Siva Parvathi was standard, Brahmaji came and went, the others didn’t have much scope.
Highlights
- Jagapathi Babu & Priyamani
Drawbacks
- Outdated direction
- Terrible music for songs and BG score
- Poor cinematography
- Abrupt editing
- No depth in any scene
- Dragged pace
Analysis
Within first five minutes of the film, one begins to get a feeling that they are being made a ‘Bakra’ and by the time the film is halfway, the ‘Bakra’ is ready for ‘Bali’.
The thought from the director is good but there is not a single point where he can be patted for his execution. It was amazingly amateur. Sometimes, the film looked like ‘Chandramukhi’ and sometimes, it looked like ‘Arundhati’. And one doesn’t know why Rajeev Kanakala was there, an actor of his calibre became a simple dummy. Here are some highlight comments heard inside the theatre
- When Jagapathi Babu is given a extra long sword for doing ‘Daiva Kaaryam’, the theatre folks commented that it will be used by him for slicing lemons and breaking coconuts in temple
- Nearly 70% of the scenes contain Jaggu carrying the sword. It looked more like a kid carrying his fancy toy wherever he goes with a lot of excitement.
- Priyamani as a royal Naga Penchalamma dreams of a song sequence wherein her eroticism and raunchiness is displayed. The attempt was to appease the mass audience but it was a misfit.
Overall, this is a film which has no content, no proper handling of the script and there is nothing notable that any class of audience can connect to. At the box office, the chances of the film scoring a flop are very high.
Bottomline: This ‘Kshetram’ needs no ‘Darshan’..
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected])
