Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: Manchu Entertainments
Cast: Nandamuri Balakrishna, Manchu Manoj, Deeksha Seth, Sonu Sood, Manchu Lakshmi Prasanna, Prabhu, Sai Kuma and others
Music: Bobo Shashi, Salim-Sulaiman
Editor: M R Varma
Cinematographer: B Rajasekhar
Story, screenplay, direction: Sekhar Raja
Producer: Manchu Lakshmi Prasanna
Release date: 27/07/2012
Manchu Manoj is back and this time he has the strength of Nandamuri Balakrishna for his new venture. Slated to be a spooky entertainer, let us see how good this has been
Story
Gandharva Mahal is a landmark place in a town and here comes a young man (Manchu Manoj) to stay. This is owned by Naidu (Prabhu) and he is a kind hearted man harassed by tenants. The new tenant drives all of them away and also manages to recover the rent from them. Meanwhile, he also falls in love with Jagadha (Deeksha), daughter of Naidu. But staying alone in the Gandharva Mahal, the hero experiences the presence of a ghost of Narasimha Naidu (Nandamuri Balakrishna), father of Naidu. Meanwhile, the wedding of Naidu’s elder daughter (Madhumita) gets fixed. Will that marriage happen? From where did the hero come? Why is Narasimha Naidu still hovering like a ghost? All this forms the rest of the story.
Performances
Nandamuri Balakrishna got a meaty role but given his screen power, the character was not etched strongly with powerful dialogues or presentation. However, he was graceful in few scenes.
Manchu Manoj is hyper energetic, highly expressive and has a distinct dialogue delivery. His experimentation with looks is appealing but there are few times when he hams.
Deeksha Seth was there for the visual delight. She has put on few extra pounds and oozed her glamour in songs. Not sure why she has a fixation for the nose stud. If she thinks that makes her look pretty then she is mistaken. She looks a lot prettier without it.
Lakshmi Manchu was a show stealer. Though her role was brief she made her presence felt strongly and showed good versatility in her performance by showing three different facets in her character. The last few minutes from her were quite impressive.
Sonu Sood was not used to his potential, same with Sai Kumar who looked like a clown in his dressing and moustache, Prabhu was standard, Bhanuchander was alright, Praveen did his bit as required. Ajay was effective. Madhumita, Suhasini, Richard and the rest filled the screen wherever required.
Highlights
- Balayya’s screen presence
- Production values
- Lakshmi Manchu’s getup and performance
- Cinematography
Drawbacks
- Weak direction
- Inconsistent screenplay
- No conviction and intensity in scenes
- Lack of depth in narration
- Stale comedy
- Dialogues
Analysis
As a director, what are you supposed to do when you are given a juicy budget, powerful star cast, efficient technicians?
You will be thrilled and will put all your energies on the script and make it as strong and convincing as possible. If you fail to do that then there is a lot to learn as a filmmaker. And this is something Sekhar Raja should realize before he plans for his next project.
Coming up with a great idea is only the beginning for any successful project, the true mettle is seen when you can conceive that idea correctly on celluloid and bring that voltage so that the audience connect to it and find the material worthy. In this movie, despite having all the infrastructure, the director could not deliver. The first blunder he made was not using Nandamuri Balakrishna properly. It could be that he had no idea how to handle heavyweight ammunition like Balayya. Without high octane dialogues and aggressive sequences, no role would fit him.
Secondly, when dealing with elements like ghost or supernatural, there needs to be that fear factor, that element of surprise and most importantly the ability to generate belief that it is convincing as long as it is happening onscreen. So, the film had good grandeur and it was always colorful and rich with all famous faces in it but the emotion was missing.
And when the feel misses, the audience loses it. At the box office, the film will have good openings due to the hype created and Balayya factor but things will dip once the weekend passes.
Bottomline: Uu Kodtharu…Ulikki Padaru
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected])
