`Even as cinema is laughing its way
to the Bank with B and BB we have Mahesh Babu keep his Friday tryst. The crowds
are returning to the theatres in hordes. At 4 a.m. before the milk vendor and
the newspaper boy are out on their errands the glitter unfurls on the screen.
The opening scene has the Rama Navami celebrations underway and as the
Superstar hones his dancing skills and he does Rama Rama Rama Rama the crowds
get hallucinated. When you are reiterating the old conflict – between the rich
and poor, good and bad, rural and urban, the film maker says: search for
something to ensure that your statement is heard – at least made!! The Director
(Koratla Shiva) decides to up the style quotient and does it with panache.
The film starts with the Prince refusing to be King!! Harsha (Mahesh Babu)
refuses to inherit rich Dad Ravikant’s (Jagapati Babu) business empire. He
obviously is listening to a different drummer. The large family of brothers
(Subba Raju in a role as important as the furniture), wife (Sukanya), nephew
Karthick (Rahul Ravindran) walk in and out of the script as Harsha’s character
is slowly established. He is the guy who is in search of the elusive solution
and for the mirage of happiness. He meets and falls in love with Charuseela
(Shruti Hassan). The boy meets girl love story takes its usual course through
wooing and songs, dances and romance. In the meanwhile we have a parallel track
where in the village of Devarakota we have the local goon Shashi (Sampath Raj)
and the village idealist Narayana (Rajendra Prasad). The humility in the
village gets so unacceptable that there is a near exodus out of the village to
the city. Dad Ravikant is a tad disappointed that the son is not falling in
line with his financial scheme of things. Harsha gets involved when the son of
a Union Minister Venkataratnam (Mukesh Rishi) walks into his Dads office and
talks brawl. Harsha promptly returns the compliment. After the pleasant laying
out of the characters the simmering conflicts are placed in perspective. We
have Charu refusing to wed Harsha when she comes to know that he is the heir to
the wealth of Ravikant and a tale to match. We have Minister in conflict with
the hero. When Harsha’s family past is rolled out to him he decides to make
amends to a sad past and return to the village of Devarakota where death mines
are in mangroves. So there is new conflict between Shashi and Harsha. The
rich-poor, rural–urban (read urbane) conflict is between Charu and Harsha, the
good Vs bad is between Harsha and Shashi. All the characters walk into the
loose pieces of the script to complete the larger picture.
The romantic part of the tale is very elegantly etched and is surely worth
watching. It sure gives some a sense of hope and some a sense of nostalgia!! It
is far more urbane than the usual formulistic pattern – take for instance the
way Harsha gets Charu’s feet back when it touches him accidentally. All this is
well within the drawn commercial fence. Not many chances taken. Only told with
a lot of style. Even the fights till the climax are more stunts (ANL Arani)
where style gets the better of gory blood. There is a spell in the film when we
have Harsha transforming the village that looks borrowed from a Manoj Kumar
film and the finale where you could believe it to be straight from the archives
of any f the faction love stories. These minor irritants notwithstanding the
film maintains a fine tempo. Every fifteen minutes the audience gets delirious
when Mahesh Babu breaks into a dance or makes pulp of the baddies. Either way
he is the darling in fine form and mettle. He ensures that the fans who are
waiting eagerly in long queues are not disappointed. There are no half ways. He
goes ballistic and gets his fans into a highly energised mode. Like a side kick
in the film describes him he can be summed up: Item anna vaadu.
You know that in a film that is so hero oriented, the rest have minor jobs.
Shruti is her usual effervescent self – do not miss her wonderful costumes from
Kalamkari lehngas to Mangalgiri kurtis. Rajendra Prasad hams and rest do their
job with dignity.
Watch the film. The pace and narration is fizz filled, the entertainment is
absorbing and as the song would suggest: Dhimma Tirige la.
Rating: 3.5.
+ Style and Mahesh Babu.
– Inevitable succumbing to formulistic treatment.
L. Ravichander.