Right platform for Chaitu

Dil Raju is known as the Golden Hand in the Tollywood as he is the most successful producer in recent times. Almost all his films are hits with a few films which crossed the range of above average movies. He introduced several directors and other technicians to the Telugu film industry and he got an opportunity to introduce Naga Chaitanya, son of Nagarjuna and grandson of Akkineni Nageswara Rao, who is also the nephew of Venkatesh and grandson of Dr D Ramanaidu. With lots of family attachment to the film industry, Naga Chaitanya made his debut through ‘Josh’ with lots of expectations. The film also had a debutant director Vasu Varma and a new heroine Karthika, who is the daughter of Radha, heroine of yesteryears.

Satya (Naga Chaitanya) is quite an intelligent boy. He is first in class since childhood. His father always supports him, as he believes that whatever decision Satya takes would be wise. After completing Intermediate Satya joins degree and feels that life is there to enjoy and mere education won’t fetch anything. However, his principal used to advise him to concentrate on studies as he was a brilliant student and could reach any height in education, which always falls on deaf ears. One day, at a seminar, Satya speaks eloquently and explains his views on education with a view to disturb it but his views inspire the principal, who compliments Satya. With a bad mood, Satya participates in a bike race where the principal’s son, who was accompanying him, dies in an accident. This makes Satya to realise the value of life.

He realises that the present educational system or the teachers are not at fault, but it was the youth and their age play truant. With the haunting guilty consciousness, Satya could not stay in the college or in Vizag, he decides to leave for Hyderabad by turning a college dropout. He stays with his maternal uncle (Sunil) there. With his uncle’s help Satya gets a job in a nursery. One day, he had an accidental meeting with Vidya (Karthika), a nursery school teacher. Friendship develops between Vidya and Satya and soon it turns into love.

On the other side, MGM college had two student groups and both of them move under the instructions of JD (JD Chakravarthy), an old student leader of the college and later turned a youth leader in a political party. The students used to help JD in holding dharnas and protests besides creating ruckus in the society. With his political clout, some of the students behave like goons and tease girls and rag the juniors. Satya lodges a complaint with the police when they were destroying RTC buses, cars and other vehicles. The students try to attack Satya. To reform them, Satya too joins the college. How he reformed them? Whether his efforts bear fruit? How did he teach a lesson to JD? What happened to the love between Satya and Vidya? Answers to all these questions form part of climax.

PERFORMANCE:

Though facing the camera for the first time, Naga Chaitanya did a neat job. He is quite casual and showed good ease in dances and action scenes. Still, he needs to improve his body language further. Debutant heroine Karthika too appeared fresh and did not resort to any kind of skin show, like any of the present generation heroines. She is homely and donned the role of a girl in the next door kind of character. Prakash Raj is at his best as usual and his character was very limited. However, he delivered the best in those couple of scenes. JD Chakravarthy, who once played villain and then turned a hero and next as director, once again played villain. It is a sheer co-incidence that JD Chakravarthy played villain in Nagarjuna’s blockbuster ‘Siva’ too. Other artistes including Sitara, Hema and others did justice to their roles. Comedy by Sunil and Brahmanandam is okay.

TECHNICAL:

For the first time, Red Eye camera was used to shoot the film to shoot the film in digital mode. Audio by Sandeep Chouta was extraordinary while listening to the audio CDs / cassettes. However, only handful of songs is okay and good to listen, as their choreography lacked the youthfulness in total. Almost all the songs were shot like an ordinary commercial film of 80s and 90s. Camera by Sameer Reddy and editing by Marthand K Venkatesh are okay. Storyline is the highlight of the film. The director chose a novel subject with a hidden message. However, the film doesn’t appear as a message-oriented film as it ran as an undercurrent. Director Vasu Varma needs to be complimented for choosing such an off-beat story. He moulded the hero’s character with good precision and tried to elevate his image with a slow and soft nature. However, he failed to present the story properly on the screen with immatured direction. The film targeted the youth but it lacked the youthfulness. Especially, the hero’s character could not enthuse the youth as the character moves in a slow motion.

REMARKS:

The film had lots of expectations, as the debutant hero is representing two stalwarts of the Telugu film industry like Akkineni Nageswara Rao and D Ramanaidu. Moreover, acting is in his blood with his Nagarjuna and his maternal uncle Venkatesh, both in acting profession. He carried a lot of responsibility in this regard. The expectations though not reached fully, some how made the audiences feel good after watching the film instead of holding head for watching a boring film. Of course, he had lots of scope to improve his acting skills and could overcome all the hiccups he faced in his debut film. Hope that Naga Chaitanya would better himself in the next film.

Cast: Naga Chaitanya, Karthika, Prakash Raj, JD Chakravarthy, Brahmanandam, Sunil, Surya, Sitara, Hema, Anand and others

Credits: Camera – Sameer Reddy, Editing – Marthand K. Venkatesh, Lyrics – Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry and Chandrabose, Music – Sandeep Choutha, Presents – Smt Anita, Producer – Dil Raju, Story, screenplay, dialogues and direction – Vasu Varma.

Banner: Venkateswara Creations

Released on: August 5, 2009