<i>Bhagyalakshmi Bumper Draw</i> Review

Friday, November 17, 2006
A time pass film for two hours
Remakes are not new to the Telugu film industry and the latest is Bhagyalakshmi Bumper Draw which was the remake of Malamaal Weekly. However, director Nidhi Prasad and popular writer LB Sriram tried to rehash the entire story to suit the nativity. As promised by the director when the film is on sets, it is a total entertainer. At the same time, the film failed to convey anything though it is understood that one should not vie for unexpected and unwanted gains.

Bullabbai (Rajendra Prasad) is a lottery ticket vendor. He lives in place which is neither a village nor a town. He keeps selling tickets to Tea stall owner Mallika (Bhuvaneswari), Pala Pullayya (Tanikella Bharani), Varadarajulu (MS Narayana) and Yesudas (Ali). Once he learns that one of the tickets sold by him had bagged Rs 1 crore prize. He could not trace to whom he sold the ticket. So Bullabbai throws a dinner by mortgaging his house and invites the villagers to the party with the lottery ticket. Finally, he learns that it is Yesudas who had not come for the dinner and he has the ticket with him.

On the other hand, Srinu (Rishi) works as an assistant to Pullayya as Srinu's father Varadaraju (MS Narayana) owed some money to Pullayya. Srinu and Pullayya's daughter Bhagyalakshmi (Farjana) fall in love with each other. However, the richest woman in the village Ranikasula Renuka Rani (Kiran Rathod) wanted her brother Minor Babu (Venumadhav) to get married to Bhagyalakshmi. As Pullayya owed her some money, he has no option but to accept her offer.

At this juncture, Bullabbai goes to Yesudas' house only to find that he is dead of heart attack. But while snatching the ticket, both of them fell on the ground and Pullayya realizes that Bullabbai is planning to snatch the ticket. To avoid him spreading the word, Bullabbai decides to share the prize money with Pullayya. Then they decide to make the body disappear and in the process takes the help of Srinu and promises him another share. Now, Yesudas' brother Jashua (Brahmanandam) and sister in law Mary (Kovai Sarala) come to the village knowing that his brother had got a prize. Yesudas' wife Parvathi (Abhinyasri) also comes to the village. Like this, the incident comes to light in the village to everyone and almost all the villagers (key persons) decide to share the prize money. When an officer from the lottery office (Nagababu) visits the village, the villagers show Jashua as Yesudas and manage to get the ticket. However, a problem arises in the form of Ranikasula Renuka Rani as Pullayya decides to marry Bhagyalakshmi to Srinu. She plans to reveal the secret to the officer. But accidentally she comes in the way of the officer in a motorcycle and hit the car of the officer and slips into the nearby river canal. The villagers tell the officer to forget everything and leave the place and promise no harm to him. The film ends on a happy note.

Plus:
The major plus point in the film is that the film had almost all the Telugu comedians in the Telugu film industry. As a result, the film forcibly turned into a comedy flick, without any specific effort. Another plus point is the screenplay given by LB Sriram. After becoming an artiste, LB Sriram kept himself off from the writing for quite a long time. When he got an opportunity, he utilized it in the best way. Both the screenplay and dialogues penned by him were the highlights. They helped the director to run the film very smoothly without any hassles.

Minus:
Though the heroine is quite homely, she did over-action in many a time. She performed in excess and did not show any inhibition to show her sex appeal at any given time. There is no need for such hot scenes in a comedy flick, especially in the song 'Bigi Kaugillo...' the romantic scenes were quite sizzling. The song by Mumaith Khan is also unnecessary. Shankar should have used his scissors for some more time in cutting some unnecessary scenes which prolonged the run of the film.

Remarks:
The regular film viewers experience a feeling that they are watching a film which has the shades of both Vamsi and Jandhyala. The long runs, chases, the village scenes everything reminds us of both the directors. There is nothing as a whole in the film. However, those who sit in the theatre forget themselves for all the two and a half hours. But once they are out, there is nothing to talk about the film. A time pass flick.

Cast: Rajendra Prasad, Rishi, Farjana, Ram Jagan, Nagababu, Krishna Bhagawan, LB Sriram, Tanikella Bharani, Mallikarjuna Rao, MS Narayana, Ali, Brahmanandam, Kondavalasa Lakshmana Rao, Kadambari Kiran, Venumadhav, Kovai Sarala, Kiran Rathod, Mumaith Khan, Bhuvaneswari, Abhinayasri and others.

Credits:
Choreography - Ashok Raja
Art - Peketi Ranga
Editing - Shankar
Lyrics - Veturi, Vennelakanti, Bhuvanachandra and Chandrabose
Music - Chakri
Camera - Sarat
Presents - Pradeep Gaekwad
Action - Ram Lakshman
Producer - Raju, Praveen
Story - Priyadarshan
Screenplay and Dialogues - LB Sriram
Direction - Nidhi Prasad
Banner - Silver Screen Movies
Released on - November 16, 2006

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