A mass masala film from Vishal

GK Film Corporation, which had brought several action and mass entertainers like ‘Pandem Kodi’, ‘Pogaru’, ‘Bharani’, ‘Bhayya’ and ‘Salute’ with Vishaal, produced yet another mass film with hot and young sensation Shriya in the female lead. Like many other young and upcoming heroes, Vishaal too is getting fixed in a particular image for himself and could not come out of it. Once again, he played hero in an action entertainer. The entire first half was nagging, boring with unnecessary love track with nothing worth watching. However, the story picks momentum in the second half with complete action.

Muralikrishna (Vishaal) lives in a village and he is very courageous and could answer any number of persons with single hand. However, he finds his mother (Gita) always in depression. One day, he asks his mother about the reason for her depressed mood and comes to know that she was thinking of her elder son Rambabu, who left the house in a very tender age of six years, following her chiding. She tells Muralikrishna that she came to know that Rambabu is in Vizag. So Muralikrishna decides to go to Vizag and trace his brother to bring him back. There are two goons in Vizag who rule the entire shipyard and steel plant areas. They are Ramakrishna (Prakash Raj) and Guru. Each wanted to prove their supremacy against the other and in the process, they kill the members of the other group whenever they get a chance.

Once Guru kills a person belonged to Ramakrishna gang right in front of Muralikrishna, soon after he reaches Vizag. Muralikrishna stays with his friend (Ali) in an apartment and begin search for his brother. After a lot of search he comes to know that one Rambabu stayed in an orphanage for some time and is presently working as RDO. One day, Muralikrishna notices Guru chasing Rambabu (Sriman) and saves him. In the process, Muralikrishna stops Guru and gets severely thrashed by him. Surprisingly, Muralikrishna finds that it was Guru who is his brother and not the Rambabu whom he saved. By the time, Muralikrishna wants to reveal the truth, Guru suffers grievous injuries. Now it is Muralikrishna’s turn to teach a lesson to Ramakrishna. After Guru gains strength, he did not listen to Muralikrishna and decides to take revenge on Ramakrishna.

But Muralikrishna cleverly change the situation by diverting Ramakrishna to some other place. After a lot of brain wash, Guru agrees to follow Muralikrishna to his village, but Ramakrishna with the connivance of a political leader (Sayaji Shinde) hatches a plan to eliminate Guru through police. Again Muralikrishna uses his intelligence and diverts the police to Ramakrishna’s den and several goons die in the shoot out. In the climax, Muralikrishna teaches Ramakrishna a fitting lesson and takes a changed Guru to his village and makes his mother happy.

PLUS:

Vishal appeared very energetic in the film. He excelled in dances and action scenes. In fact, it was Vishal, who carried the entire responsibility to run the show on his own. Without Vishal, the film has nothing. Shriya filled the glamour slot. She has not much scope to perform but to shake legs with the hero in the duets. Of course, a couple of scenes involving her evoked laughter in the first half. As usual, Prakash Raj gave an excellent performance as the main villain. The artiste who played the role of Guru also performed well. Behind the screen, music by Manisharma is melodious and all the songs are very catchy. Dialogues by Sashank Vennelakanti are adequate and some of the one liners evoked instant applause from front benchers. Camera by Priyan is okay and editing by VT Vijayan should have been better if he trimmed the fat in the first half.

MINUS:

Though the film is entertaining for the front benchers and mass audiences, it has nothing to offer for those who live in city. The film was aimed at mass audiences with lot of action scenes in the second half. The romantic songs and dances in the first half would be attractive to the mass audiences. The hero failed to break the monotony of stereotype subjects. All his earlier films in his career including ‘Pandem Kodi, Pogaru and Bharani’ were on these lines only. The director failed to make use of senior artistes like Tanikella Bharani, Rallapalli, MS Narayana properly and restricted them to a few scenes to provide comic relief. Though the songs are good to listen, Manisharma could not avoid Tamil scent for many of the songs.

REMARKS:

Of course, the producer and director targeted the mass audiences with their film and the film would reach their expectations in this aspect. The film may go well with B, C centres but can’t expect a good revenue in ‘A’ centres. Director Saba Iyeppa, caught the pulse of the hero and moulded all the scenes to suit his body language and performance. As a result, the audiences could easily find the monotony and similarities of the hero’s earlier films. Those who are interested in action films, Pistha could be a watchable film. For those, who don’t want fights and mass masala elements, the film is a sure no no. One need not regret for avoiding this film. The second half is good to watch than the first half.

Cast: Vishaal, Shriya, Prakash Raj, Ali, Tanikella Bharani, MS Narayana, Telangana Sakuntala, Annapurna, Gita, Surya and others are in the cast.

Credits: Camera – Priyan, Lyrics – Vennelakanti, Sahiti and Anant Sriram, Dialogues – Sashank, Editing – VT Vijayan, Action – Stun Siva, Art – Siva, Story, Producer – Vikram Krishna, Screenplay and direction – Saba Iyappa

Banner: GK Film Corporation

Released on: May 29, 2009