Film: Okka Magadu
Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: Bommarillu
Cast: Balakrishna, Anushka, Simran, Nisha Kothari, Ashuthosh Rana etc
Editing: Kotagiri Venkateshwara Rao
Music: Mani Sharma
Dialogues: Chintapalli Ramana
Story-Screenplay-Producer-Direction: YVS Choudary
Released On: 11th January 2008
Story:
Veera Venkata Satya Narayana (Balakrishna) is a man who lives in village called Venkata Puram and he almost a demigod for the denizens of that village. A TV crew (Nisha Kothari and Co) comes to that village to make a documentary on him. (There is a nasty erotic comedy track between Nisha and Balakrishna for large part of first half). In the process, a young couple comes for the help of Veera Venkata Satynarayana. They say that they are in love but the groom’s father (First Person of the state) is objecting the marriage and sent goondas to kill the bride. Satyanarayana stands beside them and confronts the First Person Namboodiri (Ashuthosh Rana). His daughter (Anushka) falls in the lust of Satyanarayana as usual. (She performs in erotic style through out the movie just for so called relief of audiences).
On the other hand CBI officers go busy in investigating for the person who keeps on killing the people for some reason. The man kills the people those have no value for common people’s lives. That’s the only reason. The man is Raghupathy Raghava Rajaram (Balakrishna) an old freedom fighter. (YVS might have assumed that people have forgotten the movie ‘Bharateeyudu’-it’s not a comparison with that master piece indeed).He is the husband of Sarada (Simran). Veera Venkata Satyanarayana is the grand son of them.
Finally it is a fight between First Person, who is a cruel one, the CBI officers and Raja Ram. Climax is pretty well predictable.
Performances:
There is nothing to say about performances in the film. Anushka looked erotic and did erotic deeds on screen. She has no big place in the story of the movie. Nisha Kothari is also used for erotic things. She did in her way. Simran appears in old get up for maximum length of the movie. Her old get up is nasty. She has something to act in second half.
Balakrishna did well in his part and he looked impressive as far as get ups are concerned (except the old man’s get up).
Music is just ok and nothing great to say about that as well. On a whole, the mistakes go into the account of YVS in full dose. He would have made proper home work before finalizing the script. It was made in the line of earlier mishap like ‘Subhash Chanrabose’.
Analysis:
It’s a pity to see the talented director like YVS Choudary made such weak flick toiling for so many months on that. He simply played with the image of Balakrishna. Even Balakrishna failed to assess the outcome of the movie. It’s a miserable Sankranthi for many.
As the movie starts it starts testing the patience of viewers. Simran’s old get up is very bad and that looked completely artificial. Her over-action pumps in uneasiness through out the film. People understand that it is a copy of Bharateeyudu within the first few minutes of the movie. And the movie wouldn’t go against the expectations of people till the climax. First half of the movie disappoints fully. And the second half kills the audience completely. It is probably for the first time for a big hero’s movie that the audience ran out from theater without watching the last 20 minutes.
Why Telugu directors cannot think different? Why the man like YVS also stooped down to that extent.
- Balakrishna molests Nisha Kothari in a train scene. Is that called heroism? Or keeping up the image of him?
- Balakrishna kills two people by holding them in one hand and holding a electric wire on the other. The shock wouldn’t hit Balakrishna. Is that called heroism? (Directors are bringing damage to Balakrishna by composing only such scenes). In fact there is a covering for that in climax.
- Ashuthosh Rana, the First Person (may be an alternative term for CM) of the state comes out on roads wearing an underwear. Is that a scene to believe?
- The CBI officers come to conclusion that old Balakrishna belongs to 1940s from the clue that he eats ‘dampudu biyyam’. Is there any sense in that? It’s available even now in many super markets.
- Balakrishna gets into flying aero plane and says not to ask how he had come (so we should have question mark faces). He says to know only why he has come and blasts the plane. Yes, he escapes from that and smiles at last.
We don’t understand why YVS opted for an international make up artiste for Balakrishna. Even a local one would do well. The make up is simply bad!!!
A director gets warm hug from audiences in the form of box office collections when he makes a sensible movie. Audience should tend to appreciate the director with their hearts after the conclusion of the movie. He shouldn’t get the curses. Unfortunately audiences started cursing YVS while coming out from theatres after the completion of the movie.
The dialogues in the movie are also weak. Except Balakrishna’s dialogue regarding the castes in him no dialogue sounds sensible. ‘Pedavi Datani Mataku ayajamani nuvvu-Peadavi daatina mataku banisa nuvvu’ is in fact an old dialogue and Allu Ramalingiah used to say that. So, no creativity is used in dialogues.
‘Ground loki digaaka background choodanu’, ‘decision theesukunnaka compromise avvanu, compromise ayyetattu ayithey decision theesukonu’ are the dialogues those received mass applause due to typical Balakrishna punch in them.
The scenes from Hollywood flick ‘Patriot’ and a Jackie Chan film are copied in Flash Back theme. It is really a doubt how far this film gets patronage from audiences.
(SiraSri can be reached at sirasri@gmail.com)
