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 Sarcastic remarks on election eve (Rating: 3 / 5)
Dasari Narayana Rao is known for his boldness and he brought many super hit films. Moreover, he had to his credit many films which will have sarcastic remarks on several contemporary issues. In fact it was Dasari who had exhorted the need for ‘social justice’ through his film ‘Manushulu Marali’ long ago. His films like ‘Bobbili Puli, Osay Ramulamma, MLA Yedukondalu, Police Yenkatasami and the like’ were nothing but satires on contemporary issues. However, he was off the film industry after his joining the Congress and becoming a Union minister. With the end of the present government’s term, Dasari got an opportunity to revert to his parent film industry and he chose to appear before the camera with a nice subject. He had taken a political satire as the plot and mixed it with some action scenes for commercial values.
Palakollu (Dasari Narayana Rao) is an ordinary worker in Vizag port. He says he is illiterate but solves the problems intelligently. He helps all the workers in the port and becomes a favourite to everyone. The port workers take the help of one Dayanidhi (Vijaykumar), a freedom fighter, Gandhian and Sarvodaya leader, to get house sites for them. With Dayanidhi’s recommendation the Chief Minsiter (Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad) passes a GO allotting the house sites to them. Again it was Palakollu, who help them to register the land in their name and this makes him to turn a Mestri (Leader) for them. Everyone start giving respect to him. In fact, Palakollu is not an illiterate but he is a Major in the Indian Army called Major Viswanatham. He changes his attire and joined as Port worker to take revenge to the killing of his close friend Major Devaraj, a Dalit by caste, but saves over 500 km range of Indian sub-continent. As a result Major Devaraj gets Sourya Chakra from the President of India and the government sanctions 5 acre land to him. However, some land sharks occupy that land and wanted to set up an SEZ there. When Devaraj tried to thwart their attempts, they kidnap his daughter. In a bid to save his daughter, Major Devaraj gets killed in the hands of the land mafia leaders. In this backdrop, Major Viswanatham turns Palakollu. Now Palakollu comes to know that Dayanidhi, who is being treated as a Gandhian is not really a patriot but the kingpin behind the land mafia. How, Palakollu @ Viswanatham taught a lesson to Dayanidhi and other land mafia leaders, how Palakollu thwarted Dayanidhi’s attempts to become a chief minsiter had to be seen on the screen. PERFORMANCE: Dasari Narayana Rao played the title role as Mestri and did complete justice to the character. In fact, Dasari himself penned the story and hence it is just a tailor-made role for him. Mohanbabu played another dignified Army Major’s role in the movie and he excelled in his role and gave complete justice to it. Srihari’s role, though not very important in nature, helps the lead character in the climax to unveil the true colours of the villain. There is no heroine in the movie, but Sujitha’s character tried to fill the gap. Other artistes including Chandramohan, Suttivelu, Sayaji Shinde, Pradeep Rawat and Vijaykumar are okay in their roles.  TECHNICAL:
All the songs tuned for the film are situational and all were melody based. With no specific hero and heroine all the songs appear message-oriented. But the songs penned to highlight the greatness of Telugu and how the fans were losing lives and getting involved in problems due to road shows are good to listen with high literary values. Dialogues penned for the film are okay to some extent and good in parts. Especially the satires on the political parties evoked instant response from the audiences. Camera work by Ch Ramana Raju is average, while the canning of action scenes are cinematic and beyond logic. ANALYSIS: Dasari Narayana Rao straight trained his guns on the Praja Rajyam and the Telugu Desam by highlighting the problems faced by the people and families due to the road shows organised by them. The direct satire on Praja Rajyam that it is collecting huge amounts in the name of party tickets drew good attention from the audiences. The song on the value of ‘vote’ would definitely made everyone to rethink. As a whole the film is okay in the first half and appeared stretched in the second half Cast: Dasari Narayana Rao, Srihari, Dr Mohanbabu, Vijaykumar, Chandramohan, Sutti Velu, Sayaji Shinde, Giribabu, Gauthamraju, Vizag Prasad, MS Narayana, Kondavalasa Lakshmana Rao, Sujitha and others. Credits: Music – Vandemataram Srinivas, Camera – Ch Ramana Raju, Editing – Gauthamraju, Story and screenplay – Dasari Narayana Rao, Presents – Dasari Padma, Producer – K Ramakrishna Prasad, Direction – Suresh Krissna. Banner: Siri Media Pvt Ltd., Released on: March 12, 2009 Click for Photo Gallery and Trailers of Mestri |
