Manoj excels in facial expressions

Manoj, though entered into films, a few years ago, failed to leave a mark of his own with no notable hits to his credit. He tried his best in mass, action, comedy and film with a different concept like ‘Nenu Meeku Telusa’, but could not get a necessary break. At this juncture, he got an opportunity to work with an efficient director like Chandrasekhar Yeleti, who is known for best screenplay and films with different concept with movies like ‘Aithe’, ‘Anukokunda Oka Roju’ and ‘Okkadunnadu’. In fact, he is the one and only director at present who dares to chose a concept which is truly different from routine. His latest film ‘Prayanam’ was prepared with one such typical concept of building love in two hours time.

Harika (Harika) pursues her master’s in Lifestyle Designing Academy in Malaysia. She has a best friend (Kalpika). Following a call from her parents, she decides to go to India once to meet her prospective bridegroom. She is the one who likes to make right choices in life. She makes it very clear to her parents that she has to give the final call about her marriage. She is very particular that she alone has to decide whether the boy is a right choice for her or not. Dhruv (Manoj) is an MBA graduate and has a penchant to travel across the globe.

He has two friends (Janardhan and Tamim), since his childhood and always accompany him. Once they plan a trip to Singapore via Malaysia. From Malaysia they have to catch a flight to Singapore. Both Dhruv and Harika meet accidentally at the airport and in no time, Dhruv falls in deep love with her. Generally, it takes at least one or two years to impress a girl and win her heart. But Dhruv doesn’t know how to propose his love and win her heart in a short span of two hours. He seeks his friends help. One of his friends is a psychology student. So, he prepares a perfect plan for two hours divided into 15 minutes slot each.

He tells Dhruv that he had to accomplish each slot perfectly so that he could win her heart. Impressed with the plan, Dhruv decides to follow it and implements it perfectly. Even after the end of two hours, he could not impress her totally. However, the flight gets delayed by another one and a half hours which gives enough time for Dhruv. Somehow, he makes use of the time and finally achieves his love.

PERFORMANCE:

Manoj perfectly fitted in the role and totally involved in his character. Especially, he mastered in the facial expressions. He also improved his body language a lot than all his earlier films in his career. He showed perfect comedy timing too. Though in a couple of scenes he appears overacting, the audiences could consider them with his timely action in many scenes. Even experienced artistes would face jerks while doing such off-beat roles. Debutant heroine Harika is okay in her role as she has a very limited role. She needs nothing to perform because the hero is after her all the way. She is neither extraordinarily glamorous nor has any choice to expose her beauty and talent as the film has no duets nor dream songs. Brahmanandam is the other notable performer in the film. He lived to the expectations of the audiences as well as the director and provided a healthy comedy. The artistes who played the hero and heroine’s friends also did justice to their roles.

TECHNICAL:

It is the directorial ability of Chandrasekhar Yeleti and perfect screenplay which made the film more interesting. The film is completely based on screenplay. Just because of the perfect script, the director was able to handle such a delicate subject. He made the audiences sit tight in their seats with his direction capabilities, though he chose to shoot the entire film in airport. The situational comedy designed by the director provided good relief to the audiences.

Cinematography by Sarvesh Murari also helped a lot in moulding the ideas of the director on the celluloid. The expertise of Sarvesh Murari is visible in the picturisation of the film in a single location — airport. Surprisingly, the director did not dare to leave the location at least for a dream song. Editing was also perfectly matched the mindset of the director. Music by Mahesh Shankar is okay. Especially the re-recording of the film elevated several scenes beyond expectations.

ANALYSIS:

But for a few negligible lapses, the entire film is very neat. The film may not attract the mass audiences as it lacks either commercial elements or duets, dream songs. So that it may not attract the mass audiences. The director needs kudos for choosing a subject knowing fully well that such subjects may not have happy returns at box office. But all those who watch the film would appreciate his effort in running a film with the help of screenplay.

Cast: Manojkumar, Harika, Brahmanandam, Janardhan, Tamim, Kalpika

Credits: Cinematography – Sarvesh Murari, Lyrics – Anant Sriram, Music – Mahesh Shankar, Story, screenplay, direction and production – Chandrasekhar Yeleti.

Banner: Aryaki Arts