Rating: 2.75/5
Banner: Sri Venkateshwara Creations
Cast: NTR, Samantha, Shruti Haasan, Mukesh Rishi, Ravi Shankar, Rao Ramesh, Kota, Ajay, Rohini Hattangadi, Tanikella Bharani and others
Music: Thaman
Cinematographer: Chota K Naidu
Editor: Gautham Raju
Director: Harish Shankar
Producer: Dil Raju
Release date: 11/10/2013
After scraping through with some success in the form of ‘Baadshah’, junior NTR has teamed up with Harish Shankar who is floating with ‘Gabbar Singh’s success. Let us see if this combination worked.
Story
Nandu (Jr NTR) and his group of friends are happy go lucky guys and he gets struck when he sees Akarsha (Samantha). From thereon, he tries all ways to impress her and finally manages to do that. He is invited for Akarsha’s sister marriage and there he meets her father (Mukesh Rishi) who is going through a series of life threats and other issues from hidden enemies. Nandu comes forward and offers to help. However, there is a motive behind Nandu’s help and what happens from there forms the rest of the story.
Performances
Junior NTR is the life and soul for this film. He has excelled in every department and few expressions of his in certain scenes are really absorbing. Of course, the quota of his punch dialogues is less.
Samantha looks cute with her somewhat plastic shaping but more than that, she has put on few kilos which has upped her sex appeal and oomph factor. As a role, it wasn’t much but she did her job as required.
Shruti Haasan looked a little misfit for her role. Added to that, her dubbing was not that effective. Barring the one song she did and her last scene, rest of the times her makeup and dressing were not proper.
Ravi Shankar was superb. His dialogue delivery, body language and expressions showed the much needed menacing effect. Though he arrives at a later stage he managed to grab attention in a big way.
Mukesh Rishi got a significant role and made his presence felt, few powerful dialogues for him would have given a good result. Kota was brief but brilliant. Rao Ramesh was elegant. Rohini Hattangadi was a miscast. Tanikella was neat. The group of friends for NTR brought some light moments.
Highlights
- NTR
Drawbacks
- No substance in plot and script
- Loud BGM
- Insufficient punch dialogues
Analysis
Story being old fashioned cannot be a complaint when the film is not up to expectation. Intact dialogues, in depth emotional quotient and a right intensity in all parts with conviction can work wonders despite old story. Harish Shankar could do that partly but not sufficiently.
There is no doubt about Jr NTR’s caliber as an actor and his screen presence. But that needs to come with a sensible plot and a reasonably good share of entertainment to expect a blockbuster from him.
Harish Shankar tried to exploit NTR’s action image ignoring the muscle needed for romance and entertainment. Since he was unable to cook up the right plot, he should have focused on giving a tacky screenplay with very convincing and interesting dialogues to keep the audience hooked, but that didn’t happen completely.
The other aspect that Harish must have focused was on giving strength and elevation to all the antagonists. Though he did a fantastic job with Ravi Shankar, Harish didn’t work on giving some strong dialogues to Mukesh Rishi, despite bigger screen space. Similarly he missed generating more fun with comedian like Praveen. And Rohini Hattangadi proves to be a miscast for the role. She is known for her decent roles and Seetaramayya Gari Manavaralu is yet to be forgotten by many. Some other actress who is known for generating laughs could have worked the comedy episodes made on her.
Also, he didn’t define his style of film making like that of Trivikram and Boyapati. He is making films for hero not defining his signature style which may damage his image in future. It is only after the interval bang that the real story begins and since the plot was predictable something different should have been included to make it more engrossing.
The entire first half goes without any direction towards the story and the typical songs, fights, some comedy, romancing follows one after the other mechanically. Even the music part is not gripping to keep the audience glue to seats. Except the songs ‘Neneppudaina’ and ‘Jabilli..’, others became cigarette songs. The final song ‘Idi Ranarangam…’ smelled rotten with out-dated idea. How can the director imagine a song in such a situation? The second half is completely action filled. Though there a couple of sparks on a whole, it ended up as an obsolete treat with cliched climax.
Given the stardom and image of NTR, he must have packed with strong dialogues. Story is less and buildup is more. Technically and production wise the film has no compromise but quality and ability to provide wholesome entertainment failed.
Bottomline: Ramayya Visigistavayya..!
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
