<i>Lakshmi Kalyanam</i> - Review

By Staff

Published: Monday, August 13, 2007, 15:25 [IST]

Friday, February 16, 2007
Nandamuri Kalyanram, who earned a star image with his blockbuster like Athanokkade fell flat as his next film Asaadhyudu failed to match his previous hit. Director Teja, who has had no notable hits in the recent past, had joined hands with this young hero for Lakshmi Kalyanam. The film runs with a rural background right through and Teja once again proved his mettle with brilliant picturisation in the first half though he lost grip over the film in the second half because he replaced the heroic nature of the rest of his role with more of sentriment.

Lakshmi (Kaajal) is the daughter Rayavaram sarpanch (Sayaji Shinde). Ramu is the son of Lakshmi's paternal aunt (Prabha). According a "pact" , Ramu decides to ensure Lakshmi is always happy. They both like each other and are in love. Meanwhile, Ramu's friend Gopalam (Srinivasa Reddy) falls in love with Parijatham (Suhasini) who is the daughter of a prostitute (Subhashini), belonging to Kotipalli. The villagers of Rayavaram and Kotipalli turn rivals over a Siva temple in Kotipalli and the Collector orders that no villager should cross the border of their respective villages and puts a barricade. Kotipalli president's son Giridhar (Ajay) happens to see Lakshmi and loses his heart. In order to marry Lakshmi, Giridhar kills his wife. When Giridhar teases Lakshmi, Ramu challenges to open the Siva temple's doors and perform abhishekam. As he does it, the people of Kotipalli decide to attack the people of Rayavaram. However, Lakshmi's father, who doesn't want to give his daughter to Ramu agrees to marry her with Giridhar. When the villagers oppose the move to Lakshmi's marriage to a rival's son, he proposes to hold a bullock cart race and if Ramu fails to win, he should agree Lakshmi's marriage of her father's choice. At this juncture, Giridhar hatches a plan and convinces Gopalam to prevent Ramu from the race. His plan works out and Ramu fails to participate in the race. As per the word given in front of the villagers, Ramu agrees to get her married to Giridhar. However, by the time of the marriage, Gopalam returns and reveals the truth. Then, as per Lakshmi's wish, Giridhar and Ramu again participate in a race. Despite the crooked plans, Ramu wins the race and wins over Lakshmi.

PLUS:

Kalyanram's performance is the basic plus point of the film. Teja's ability to direct a movie with village backdrop is another highlight. Kalyanram had improved a lot both in performance and in showing good body language since his last movie. Cinematography by RA Krishna is also a highlight of the film. Paruchuri Brothers, who has penned the script for to a Teja film for the first time, did a fantastic job. Especially the dialogues written for Ajay's character have good pun. The dialogues by Subhashini on how the prostitutes win over the properties of those who visit them are also good to listen to. (Pellam Mudda Laantidi... Umpudugatte Uragaya laantidi... Uragaya lekunte, mudda kuda digadu [Wife is like ordinary food and a prostitute is like a pickle. A food is not tasty without a pickle] kind of dialogues evoke applause). Ajay's performance is also commendable. He proved to be a promising villain once again after his impeccable performance in 'Vikramarkudu'.

MINUS:

The slow pace of movement of the film in the second half is the major drawback. The director killed the heroism of the hero and prolonged the film a little too mc to prove that the hero is very patient and will do anything for the sake of his word. The director lost grip in the second half by giving so many twists to the story like water sharing, temple opening and bullock cart race etc. The director sidelined the entire story by incorporating all these issues. None of the songs are hummable to but the choreography of a couple of songs was interesting. In the beginning of the film, the villains kill one old man and slits the tongue of a boy. The fate of the boy was not shown latter. Raghubabu's comedy has failed to evoke any laughter.

Remarks:

The prints of the film failed to reach the theatres in time for morning show. As a result, several theatres could not screen the film from the morning show. It has become common for Telugu films to face release hitches these days. When it comes to the film, it started with an average talk. But for the performance of Kalyanram and the cute looks of Kaajal, the film has nothing much to boast off. One had to wait and watch for the verdict of people, as many of Teja's films start with a divided talk and turn blockbusters after a few days.

Cast: Kalyanram, Kaajal, Suhasini, Sayaji Shinde, Ajay, Harshavardhan, Rallapally, Sudhakar, Raghubabu, Srinivasa Reddy, Lakshmipati, Duvvasi Mohan, Kondavalasa Lakshmana Rao, JV Ramanamurthy, Narra Venkateswara Rao, Telangana Sakuntala, Prabha, Pavala Shyamala, Subhashini and others.

Credits:
Dialogues - Paruchuri Brothers
Cinematography - RA Krishna
Editing - Shankar
Action - Horseman Babu
Music - RP Patnaik
Background score - Manisharma
Presenter - K Mahendra
Producer - K Chandrasekhar (Jeetu)
Story, Screenplay and direction - Teja.