For nearly one half of the film of
156 minutes, the narration is so filled with songs dance and the feel good
factor you wonder if this from the Sooraj Bharjatiya archives. The syrupy
return to the Hum Aapke Hai Kaun sets gets a tad too tedious for the audience
that is out there waiting for something to happen. Here all the world is but a
family. It is headed by Satti Babu (Satya Raj). The entire squad includes wife
Mahalakshmi (Revati) his brothers in law (Rao Ramesh, Naresh, Shiyaji Shinde
and Krishna Bhagwan). In attendance are their spouses children and the grand
old man of the family Tanekella Bharani. While all the members of the family
lie under one roof Mr. Disgruntled (Rao Ramesh) and his spouse (Jayasudha) and
their daughter Ms Aspiring (Pranita) live separately. Satti Babu’s son is the mainstay
of the family and the script Mr Heir Apparent (Mahesh Babu). Into all this and
the large family enters good friend (Sudhakar) whose daughter Kasi (Kajal
Agarwal) enters the picture from Australia. Her passionate smooch with Do
Gooder disturbs the happiness. Mr. Disgruntled who hitherto was hoping that his
daughter would be daughter in law in the haveli sees his ambitions evaporate.
His revolt results in the change of guard and it’s time for a break
Heir Apparent is however busy having romantic interludes. First with Ms Aussie
Gone Kasi and now Ms From Nowhere (Samanta). Like poles attract is the
magnetism of persons and so Heir Apparent and Ms From Nowhere are quickly
singing songs on sets where they forgot to shoot with Ms Aussie Gone. Also the
twosome a la Alex Hailye and characters in a Paulo Ceholo work go on a road
trip from Nagpur to Haridwar and literally gather their old relatives which
include Sarnaya Povannan, Vennealla Kishore and Mukesh Rishi. Why they need to
fit in and what is the total population of the last group pic is so irrelevant
that the audience has any way lost interest.
You know from the very beginning that the only purpose of the outing is to give
a larger than life canvas for Mahesh Babu. The film sticks to the purpose and
does not care a damn about any their aspect. This includes, story screenplay,
script, or any other ingredient of cinema. It is an all and only about Mahesh
Babu and whether you like the film or not depends upon your take on the star.
After Srimanthudu this is a huge let down for the fans. The hero this time
round is singing songs more often than in a reality dance show and it gets
tiring after a point.
The purpose of creating a new image for Mahesh Babu keeping in view the future
is not a bad idea. However the film maker Sreekant Adella completely looses
tack of the fact that no star is bigger than a film. Here the film maker goes
terribly wrong, completely wrong and resultantly gives you a film that is a
prey to the star and not the cause of the star. Song after dance, dialogue
after scene, we have nothing else but a representation on how good charactered
our protagonist is a, how nibble footed and charming, how committed and
focused. This is Maheshotwavam.
Rating: 3 stars.
_ Too long and purposeless
+ Mahesh Babu
L. Ravichander.