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A precious gift to Srikanth from Krishnavamsi Krishnavamsi is known as a creative director. Most of his films had very good messages. He always believes that cinema is a powerful medium and anything that was shown on the screen will have a great effect on the minds of people. While he chose ‘Khadgam’ to explain that humanity is greater than religion. Likewise, Krishnavamsi tried to explain the ideals of Gandhiji in order to give a memorable gift to his friend Srikant, who insisted that he should direct his 100th film, which is prestigious for Srikant’s career and it should remain a memorable film. Generally, in Krishnavamsi’s films the audiences could remember the characters and not the artistes. All his films would reflect the director’s creativity. But this time, Krishnavamsi stepped down a little, to elevate the hero in his film.
STORY: Das (Srikant) is a local goon at Gandhi Centre. His job is to settle disputes and earn money. An MLA Kalarani (Jyothi) tries to grab some prime land in the city and bags the Fab City project worth Rs 1,000 crore. However, another MLA Dada (Jayaprakash Reddy) pretends that he was behind the poor people and prevents her from proceeding with the project. He demands Rs 200 crore as his share. Meanwhile, Das, who finds that a hero would earn Rs 3 cr to Rs 4 cr for a film, wants to become a hero. But he could not become a hero. Dada calls Das and makes him to vacate the protesters led by one Tagore (Sekhar) and Das thrashes Tagore and breaks his leg. Meanwhile, Das gets attracted towards a young lawyer Krishnaveni (Bhavana) and the latter too loses her heart to him. In order to take revenge, Kalarani implicates Aadi, son of Dada, in a murder case and he goes to jail. At this juncture, the government declares elections and the party offers a ticket to Dada as usual, but refuses a ticket to Aadi as he was an accused in a murder. In order to help his son, Dada wants Das to take the blame and turn an approver in the murder case. But Das refuses his word as he realised that it is a political drama. Later, Das tries to join a political party to contest as MLA but could not get a chance. So, Das himself starts a political party called ‘Mahatma’ party. But, Krishnaveni dares him to first learn about Gandhi instead of launching a party in his name as it would defame the Father of the Nation. She tells him to follow his ideals like speaking only truth, avoid non-vegetarian food, non-violence and also keep off from liquor. But Das could not resist himself from drinking liquor. When Krishnaveni criticises him as to how he could serve the society, as he himself could not stand by his word. At this juncture, Das learns about Gandhi through a stage artiste (Ram Jagan). When Godse kills Gandhi, Das bashes that person. The stage artiste, while trying to prevent Das saying it is only a drama, gets seriously hurt. Before dying he compliments Das that he truly understood Gandhi as he is the only person who attacked Godse, instead of just clapping after the drama. Then Das realises what is Gandhi and turns a Gandhian. He stands like a rock behind the people of the colony and continues the agitation left by Tagore. The politicians come to an understanding and settle the Fab City dispute. But, the police who come there to evict the slum-dwellers, were forced to withdraw as Das immolates self. Learning that Das had got a good popularity, the political head of a party (Ahuti Prasad) comes to him and offers him the MLA ticket. But Das keeps a condition that all the slum-dwellers should first get pattas to their lands. At a time when Das was about to go to file nomination, Das’ trusted friend Rahman (Uttej), who ditches him at the instance of Kalarani who offers him Rs 10 lakh and offers him kheer mixed with poison. But Das innocently drinks it and presents him a huge amount given by Dada some time ago to Rahman and tells him to settle in his life. Rahman repents for the mistake but by that time, Das gets a call from Dada that he was in danger as his son and daughter want to kill him to get sympathy vote. Das goes to Dada and saves him despite he is getting near to death. Krishnaveni reaches the place in time and saves Das from death. The film ends on a happy note, with Das proposing Tagore’s name for the MLA’s post. PLUS: There are many plus points in the movie. Srikant, who had 99 films to his credit, gave his best of performance as this was a prestigious project. Both as a rowdy and also as a Gandhian, he emoted well all through the film. Especially, his facial expressions in sentiment scenes and in the stage of transformation are very interesting to watch. Another highlight of the film is the taking of Krishnavamsi. When a film was made to give a message to the society, one cannot expect commercial values. But Krishnavamsi mixed the commercial elements perfectly to a movie which has a good message that Gandhi is not just a leader but an ideal which the people should follow. At a time, when many films are coming up with lots of bloodshed with faction as its backdrop, a film, which was brought out to highlight the importance non-violence is really an adventure and Krishnavamsi succeeded in it. Not only the story, the dialogues, the camera work by Sarat, editing by Shankar, music by Vijay Anthony perfectly supported the director to make the film really a milestone in Srikant’s career. MINUS: In one way heroine is the minus point in the film. She could not perform well and her performance appears to be artificial. Another minus point to mention here is that the MLAs who were eyeing property worth Rs 1,000 crore and a share of Rs 200 crore, who were also in the ruling party kept quiet when a street goonda agitating that too in a peaceful manner. But for such simple cinematic errors, there are not many minus points in this movie. REMARKS: Performance of Ram Jagan, Jayaprakash Reddy and the satires on the present political system is very nice to watch. Though the film has a message that Gandhism would prevail upon any other modes of repression, the audiences may not digest the situation that a goon converting into a Gandhian. Brahmanandam was wasted in the character. However, the film is worth watching and could be watched by all classes of audiences, as it has some scenes and songs with mass appeal and a good message for the sake of class audiences besides the love track to attract the family and youth audiences. Cast: Srikant, Bhavana, Jayaprakash Reddy, Ahuti Prasad, Brahmanandam, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, Uttej, Ram Jagan, Sekhar, Raghu, Duvvasi Mohan, Chitti, MS Choudary, Ramesh, Madhu, Naidu Gopi, Jonna, Basha, Appa Rao, Rajesh, Jyothi, Allari Subhashini, Radhakumari, Jayavani, Priyadarshini, Prabhavati, Charmme, Navneet Kaur and others. Credits: Dialogues – Paruchuri Brothers, Uttej, Lakshmi Bhupal, and Krishnavamsi, Music – Vijay Anthony, Camera – Sarat, Editing – Shankar, Lyrics – Sirivennela Sitaramasastry, Suddala Ashok Teja and Lakshmi Bhupal, Art – Srinivasa Raju, Choreography – Siva Shankar, Ashok Raj, Prem Rakshit, Sobi and Dileep, Action – Ravi Varma, Producer – CR Manohar, Story, screenplay and direction – Krishnavamsi. Banner: Golden Lion Films Released on: October 9, 2009
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