Maharajasri - Review

Raasi entered the film industry as a child artist, later she acted as heroine in a few films. After sometime, she shook legs in a couple of item songs and then played a vamp role under Teja's direction. Now, she took a new avatar as the presenter of a film introducing her husband Nivas as director. Nivas, though a novice, chose a typical love subject with action backdrop. Though a newcomer, he handled the subject decently. However, the direction appeared old and he failed to show any novelty in it. Rishi, who made his debut through A Film by Aravind played the role of hero and Nikhita of Hanuman Junction-fame played the role of heroine.

Rajani (Rishi) is a mechanical engineer. He runs a workshop and appears as a mechanic. He prepares a car, which can be run by blind people and sells the patent to a foreign company. He throws a big party for all his childhood friends and Neelima (Nikhita) attends the party. Rajani proposes to Neelima at the party. But Neelima refuses it. He continues to follow her. Once he dares Neelima to spend one week with him during which period he makes her to fall in love with him. Neelima agrees to the proposal but gives him only one hour per day to him. His efforts to convince fail for six days. On the seventh day, he tries to convince her. Incidentally, Neelima already loves Rajani but simply teases him all the six days. At this juncture, Rajani tells Neelima that he would like to take the blessings of her brother Parthasarathi (Saikumar) as he was the lone elder for both of them, he being an orphan. Unable to refuse his idea, Neelima takes Rajani to her brother. Surprisingly, Rajani shoots down Parthasarathi right in front of Neelima. When Neelima questions Rajani as to why he killed him, Rajani reveals the flashback, where Parthasarathi killed his lover Anu (Anu Mehta), mistaking her as a girl from his rival group. Rajani later confesses that he really did not love Neelima but lied. But unintentionally he gave his heart to Neelima. When everyone thinking that the film has ended, another villain Chinna (Shafi) enters the scene and fires at Rajani. He threatens to kill Neelima as well. At this juncture, a police officer comes to his rescue and kills Chinna and Rajani comes to know that he is none other than the brother of Anu.

PLUS: The director has maintained good suspense in the film. No one believes that Rajani kills Parthasarathy. At the same time, nobody predicts why Chinna is after Rajani. The screenplay is good and tight. However, the director has wasted the entire first half to establish love between the hero and heroine and has given a surprise at the interval bank as to why Rajani kills Parthasarathy. Again he reverts to the routine flashback kind of episode. Sunil's comedy is excellent and his dance (item song) in the remix song of Naamam Pettu Naamam Pettu College ki… of Prema Sangamam is a highlight. Camera work by Jaswant is good and MM Srilekha's background score has elevated the mood of the film on various occasion.

MINUS: The major minus point in the film is the dragged scenes. Several scenes have been unnecessarily dragged beyond the line and made the audiences feel impatient. Songs are also not that impressive. The director has ignored to establish the villainy of Saikumar in a proper way. Even the characterisation of Chinna is full of loopholes, though it helped to maintain the suspense. Vinod Kumar has no big role to play but for a few minutes before the climax. Comedy by Brahmanandam is not very impressive. It is not known why the director has inserted the he parody to Premiste in the film.

REMARKS: Those, who are interested in action films, can watch the film once. Though old-fashioned, the narration of the film is okay for a newcomer like Nivas. Production values of DS Rao are okay. Editor Nagireddy should have sharpened his scissors a little more. The dialogue by SS Nivas to justify the title is good to remember. As a whole, the film started with a below average talk and one had to wait and watch how far it could fare in the market, especially in the wake of the release of a big film like Don on December 20.

Cast: Rishi, Nikhita, Anu Mehta, Saikumar, Vinodkumar, Sunil, Shafi, Brahmanandam, Venumadhav, Melkote, Abhinayasri, Ramyasri and Allari Subhashini

Credits: Lyrics – Chandrabose, Bhaskarabhatla Ravikumar, Music – MM Srilekha, Camera – Jaswant, Editing – Nagireddy, Presents – Raasi, Producer – DS Rao, Story, dialogues, screenplay and direction – SS Nivas.

Banner: Sai Krishna Productions

Released on: December 15, 2007