One more disaster from a senior director

Director Kodandarami Reddy gave several hits and blockbusters with several artistes including Chiranjeevi. Especially, ‘Khaidi’ directed by him gave a big break to the Mega Star. He is not only excellent in directing action films, he also gave good comedy flicks like ‘Ramarajyamlo Bheemraraju’ with Super Star Krishna. Many of his films ran for 100 days. Of late, his sharpness faded away and he has no notable hits to his credit. His latest film ‘Godava’ with his son as hero too failed to make a mark. To regain his past glory, this director tried a film with sizzling actress Mumait Khan, an item girl, as heroine, with a hit title ‘Punnami Nagu’. However, the poor storyline, old-fashioned narration and improper screenplay made the film a disaster.

A group of people, in a bid to gain control over the entire world, takes the help of a sorceress called Karjari (Nalini). Karjari, using her tantrik skills plan to grab two powerful Nagamanis on a full moon day. Unfortunately, the group members shoot the snakes in haste to grab the Nagamanis. As a result, the male snake dies and the female snake Nagini (Mumait Khan) escapes from the place. Though Karjari was able to grab one of the Nagamanis from the dead male snake, she tells the group that the expected powers could be get only by joining the female snake’s Nagamani.

She directs them to capture a girl with a particular mark on her back, so that they could grab the female snake’s Nagamani with her help. The group starts kidnapping girls for the girl with that particular mark and catches the attention of police. One police officer (Nizhalgal Ravi), with the help of his daughter (Mumait Khan), gathers evidence to arrest them. But the group mercilessly kills that police officer. So, the police officer’s daughter decides to take revenge against that group. As the Nagini, who also wreaks vengeance against the same group, start her hunt with the help of the police officer’s daughter. How the Nagin took revenge against the culprits? Did Karjari succeeded in her attempt to grab the Nagamanis? What kind of revenge the Nagin took against Karjari? How she taught lessons to the wicked group? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

PERFORMANCE:

Though Mumait Khan has a very flexible body, she failed to impress the audiences with her performance. As she is very comfortable in dances and had no inhibitions to expose her glamour, it has become a cakewalk for her to do this role. However, while doing the revenge scenes, she failed to show expressions in an effective way. Rajiv Kanakala played a different role in this film. He played a petty thief and tried to tickle the funny bone of audiences, by trying his hand in comedy. However, the role failed to suit him at all. Suhasini was roped in as his pair and she was so poor in performance and could not leave any impact on the audiences as an innocent girl. Srinivas Reddy and Madhu are okay as hero’s buddies. Popular and glamorous Tamil actress of yesteryears, Nalini, played the sorceress. She suited the character well but the dialogues penned for her lacked punch.

TECHNICAL:

The audiences turned more intelligent these days and in order to please them, the present day film-makers are using graphics for a better impact on the film. Cinematographer PN Babu though not very impressive throughout the film, did his best while incorporating the graphics in the film. Editing by Nandamuri Hari is okay. Choreography of songs is average and the audiences became bored of watching Mumait Khan shaking her legs in the same fashion till date. However, the remix song from the earlier hit film ‘Raguluthondi Mogali Poda…’ with clippings of Chiranjeevi and Madhavi enthused the audiences. Music by SA Rajkumar is another drawback. None of the tunes were impressive and foot-tapping, leave alone none of the tunes are hummable. Dialogues by Veligonda Srinivas lacked the adequate punch. As far as direction, the senior director failed to extract the real talent in any of the artistes.

ANALYSIS:

Paper flowers look good to watch, but they could not provide any fragrance. Likewise, a film with the title of a blockbuster, remained an artificial flower before that hit film and the latest film lacked a gripping story, horrendous screenplay. The director ignored to give a good climax to the film. It is not known why he chose a separate comedy track. Moreover, he ignored to take suitable artistes and tried to give a new image to Rajiv Kanakala. Suhasini too could not prove herself fit in the role of a comedy heroine and she miserably failed in performance. The narration in an old style made the film boring.

Cast: Mumait Khan, Rajiv Kanakala, Suhasini, MS Narayana, Vinodkumar, Varni, Lochan, Nizhalgal Ravi, Sajid Khan, Srinivasa Reddy, Madhu, Nalini, ‘Allari’ Suhasini and others.

Credits: Story – Yandamuri Veerendranath, Dialogues – Veligonda Srinivas, Screenplay – Swamiji, Music – SA Rajkumar, Camera – PN Babu, Editing – Nandamuri Hari, Art – Krishna Maya, Action – Vijay, Choreography – Sivashankar, Pradeep, Anthony and Swarnababu, Presents – Maheswara Reddy (Sai Reddy), Producer – G Vijayakumar Goud, Direction – A Kodandarami Reddy.

Banner: Sound and Claps.

Released on: April 10, 2009