Film with comedy thread fails to ensure smile  

Srinivasa Reddy is known from making several films with comedy backdrop. Especially, the combination of Srinivas Reddy and Srikant recently gave a hit like Yamagola (Mallee Modalayindi). Soon after, they paired up again for this film. The release of the film was however delayed abnormally due to some unforeseen circumstances. After that, Srikant played hero in another couple of films and after the release of the 100th film of Srikant, ‘Mahatma’, the producer gained confidence and made sustained efforts and ensured the release of this movie. As expected, the film could not gain the attention of many audiences, despite the presence of glamour and performance-oriented heroines. 

STORY

Ramu (Srikant) is a cab driver and Sita (Meera Jasmine) is his wife. They both lead a happy married life under the guidance of Ramu’s granny (Sakuntala). Sita fails to bear a child for several years and one fine day, she turns pregnant. While conducting routine tests the doctor finds that Sita is suffering from a typical heart disease which is dangerous for pregnant ladies. The problem might lead to the death of both mother and child during the time of deliver and a surgery is needed much before Sita delivers the baby, which costs around Rs 8 lakh. Ramu makes every attempt but could not secure the funds. Even he loses his job at that time. One night, when Ramu was moving desperately on a railway track, he finds a dead body of a woman and also a bag which contained huge cash. Ramu immediately takes the money to the railway police and the inspector there tries to implicate Ramu in a murder case.

But, Ramu’s friend, Anand (Krishna Bhagawan), an advocate comes to his rescue and bribes the inspector and turns the story that the woman died accidentally. Anand convinces Ramu that the money would be useful to save his wife, as the woman who died any how did not return. As the news flashed in newspapers, the father (Tanikella) of the woman Ramya (Sada) finds the address of Ramu with the help of a doctor (MS Narayana) and appeals Ramu to stay with them. But Ramu could not do the ‘karma’ saying that his wife is not dead. Everyone feel that Ramu is saying out of life. At this juncture, Ramya appears and surprises everyone. Now the game starts between Ramu, Sita and Ramya. Meanwhile, Rajani (Ali) claims that he is an eyewitness to the death on the railway tracks. Soon police arrest Ramu and charge him with murder. As the bag contained the photo of Ramya, Ramu straight goes to her and questions about the mystery behind the death.

Then Ramya reveals that she was cheated by one Venkat (Venkat) in the name of love and it was he who killed another girl, with whom he played a love drama. In the climax, Venkat tries to blackmail Ramu and Ramya and demand ransom by keeping Sita and the granny as his hostages. The film ends on a happy note with Ramu coming to the rescue of his wife and granny.

PLUS:

The movement of the story, though appears to be quite old fashioned, is some what good. Director Srinivasa Reddy, with his vast experience in running comedy films, was able to manage to maintain good pace in the movement of the story. As far as performance, Srikanth is used to such subjects and it was a cakewalk for him to play hero in such films. Meera Jasmine is okay in a homely and housewife role. Sada, who paired up with Nithin for a Telugu film, played a nice role in this film. She appeared cute, slim and glamorous. Other notable performer is Krishna Bhagawan. He got a meaty and full-length role in this flick. He got a very good scope for performance in this film in addition to the routine comedy. A couple of action scenes that feature in the film are apt. Surprisingly, Srilekha gave nice tunes to a couple of melodies and another handful of mass beat songs.

MINUS:

Such triangular love stories, had earlier came on the Telugu screen for several times and the audiences are not new to it. Especially, at a time when the audiences are welcoming several new subjects, which had action, love and college backdrops, such family oriented subjects may not gel well with the present generation audiences. Moreover, the mass beat song with Meera Jasmine and its choreography is in a bad taste and appeared a little absurd. However, such fast and mass beat songs are okay with Sada and Kausha. The separate comedy track with Brahmanandam and Kovai Sarala is in bad taste and it really tested the patience of audiences. At the same time, the comedy with MS Narayana is neat. The slow movement of the subject also proved a draw back. The director, who is an expert in handling comedy subjects, failed to include the action part in a perfect manner. Especially, the character of Venkat was not moulded well. It comes abruptly and ends abruptly.

REMARKS:

The Telugu audiences always look for a good subject and they welcome films with comedy backdrop whenever it was neatly scripted on the screen. But, this time, Srinivas Reddy miserably failed to please the audiences with his comedy flick and the audiences realised why the film failed to see the light and why the film rolls remained in the labs with no one dared to come forward and ensure its release earlier. The performance of Srikant proved futile, like the Teldulkar’s score failed to ensure win to India in Thursday’s match with Australia.

Cast: Srikant, Meera Jasmine, Sada, Venkat, Krishna Bhagawan, Tanikella Bharani, Raghubabu, Brahmanandam, Ali, Sunil, MS Narayana, Surya, Giribabu, Uttej, Pruthvi, Vizag Prasad, Tirupati Prakash, Kausha, Telangana Sakuntala, Kovai Sarala, Kavita, Ramyasri and others

Credits: Story and dialogues – Gollapati Nageswara Rao, Lyrics – Bhaskarabhatla Ravikumar, Music – MM Srilekha, Editing – Gauthamraju, Executive producer – A Sekhar, Presents – Master B Abhishek, Producer – Boddam Ashok Yadav, Screenplay and direction – Srinivasa Reddy.

Banner: Sri Kalpana Arts

Released on: November 6, 2009