Charminar

A year after the release of Ko Ko, director R Chandru, who has hogged the limelight with Taj Mahal and Mylari, has made a grand comeback with his latest venture Charminar. He has teamed up with Nenapirali fame Prem Kumar. Prior the release of the film, he had created huge hype for the film through extensive publicity and the movie surely lives upto it with its sound production values and emotional story.

Charminar is a romance drama with a few commercial elements and Prem Kumar's brilliant performance is the main attraction in the film. R Chandru's story, screenplay and dialogues, Hari's music and Gurukiran's background score, KS Chandrashekar's cinematography, Rangayana Raghu's comedy, art direction, beautiful costumes, makeup and locations are its other highlights. The snail-paced narration is a big drawback.

R Chandru has chosen a realistic story of four stages. The movie throws light on the rural life and the emotional bond in the family. Charminar has a universal subject packed nativity and emotions. It is a trip down memory lane and it is about the fun days of school and college life.

The director has brought these aspects on screen with a beautiful screenplay and maintained the element of curiosity well. R Chandru, who has earlier made you cry while watching Taj Mahal, has once again made sure that the story strikes the emotional chord in you. But there are some dragging moments which might bore the mass audience.

Prem Kumar, who appears in four different getups in Charminar, has delivered wonderful performance and he is sure to impress you in all these looks. Especially, he rocks you in schoolboy and farmer's getup. Meghana Gaonkar steals the show with her good body language and acting in sentimental sequences. Rangayan Raghu, Suresh Mangalore and other artists have also done a good job.

In technical front, Hari's music is the main highlight in the film. His compositions like 'Aa Chigurina', 'Cindrella' and 'Olava Modala' are good to listen. Gurukiran's background score, which is another highlight in the film, helps the director to elevate the intensity of emotional scenes. R Chandru's dialogues are very heart touching. KS Chandrashekar's camera work is also a big strength of the movie. But KM Prakash's editing is average. If he had chopped down lengthy and dragging sequences, the film could have been even more impressive.

Overall, R Chandru has made a different attempt, when everyone is busy with commercial entertainers. Prem Kumar has shouldered him to carry out his vision. Charminar is a good entertainer and it should be watched and encouraged.