Film: Vengamamba
Rating: 3/5
Banner: V M C Films
Cast: Meena, Sarath Babu, Saikiran, Sana, Subbaraya Sarma, Ashok Rao, Ananth, Sudha, Sivaparvathy, Ranganath, Sriram and others
Music: M M Keeravani
Cinematography: P R K Raju
Director: Uday Bhaskar
Producer: Doraiswamy Raju
Released On: 17th July 2009
The sparkling beauty Meena who has now become a lovely bride with her recent marriage has now arrived with her new movie and this time, it is a purely devotional flick. Rated as next to ‘Annamayya’, let us see how true this attempt is.
Story
Vengamamba (Meena) is the darling daughter of Krishnaiah and Mangamamba (Sarath Babu and Sudha).
She grows up to be an ardent follower of lord Venkateshwara and despite the crisis in her personal life and the hurdles, she is determined and has her goal focused. Soon, she reaches Tirumala and continues her writing works. There are issues she faces from members like Kainkaryam (Anant) and Dikshitulu (Ashok).
Does she manage to overcome those hurdles? Is she successful in her writings? All this forms the rest of the story.
Performances
Meena:
Meena has come up with a very good performance and she has shown grace and elegance in her act. She could do her best even in old get up but that ended up in brisk pace.
Others:
Sarath Babu was upto standard and even Subbaraya Sarma was good enough. Sudha did her melodrama as usual, Ananth and Ashok Rao were efficient as the villains, the real lookers were Saikiran and Sana as the gods and they were the perfect choice for the roles. L B Sriram was brief, Ranganath was barely there and others did their bit as required.
Technical Departments:
The director has come up with a neat presentation of the storyline and his narrative was appealing. The presentation was also good with some really melodious songs along with exceptional graphics. Editing was nice and the screenplay was smooth. The script was written without much complication and the pace of the film was good.
Music and Lyrics:
Music many a time appears to be a continuation to Annamayya. Even the lyrics written for the song of Vengamamba jananam is something similar to that of Annamayya Jananam song.
Highlights:
Get up of Sai Kiran as Lord Venkateshwara
Devotional depth in a few scenes
Disappointment:
Lack of publicity
Analysis
Though this did not have the glamour and glitz of ‘Annamayya’, the movie has been shaped well and it has come up with a standard result. The credit for this goes to the performances and also the songs. Since it is a purely devotional flick, the genre of audience would be quite specified such as the families and those with spiritual inclination.
Though the film faltered on elements such as lack of comedy and few unwanted songs, overall it has been able to engage the audience in a good way.
The current day audience can relate to it in terms of the dialogues and the makers have not attempted to make it melodramatic or sentimental. This is a good effort considering the genre and the success of the film would rely on some aggressive marketing and decent first week reports. The technical values of the movie were quite good and the graphics also were perfect. This is a good one for those who seek some clean movies.
This film is a must watch for all Telugus because, it’s the newly unleashed story of a ‘vaaggeyakaarini’ of British era in Tirumala.
Bottom Line: This historical devotional film again goes unknown in history if proper publicity is not added.
(SiraSri can be reached at [email protected])
