<i>Yugantham</i> Review

Monday, January 01, 2007

A theme similar to this film had already hit the Telugu screen and that too from a popular director like Chandrasekhar Yeleti. In Anukokunda Oka Roju there is a hysteric behaves typically and gathers some like-minded people that he is getting answers from some unknown Gods and when that hysteric patient was about to go into Samadhi, the heroine accidentally stops him and the followers of that fellow keep trying to kill the heroine. But in Yugantham director Yaar Kannan had slightly modified this line and tried to add some science and research to change its colour. However, the science and the superstition fails to sync and the end result is a big zero.

Narendra (Nazar) is a space scientist and Bhanu is his assistant. One day Narendra notices that a meteor falling from the sky at a high speed. He finds that it is Proxima Century Meteor and is very dangerous. It is so big and heavy that itcould destroy the entire earth. He doesn't know what to do and how to avoid the mishap but contacts a senior scientist Elizabeth Thomas, who is doing research on meteors. However, when Narendra meets Elizabeth, she reveals that there is another danger that is lurking the mankind. According to her, 'Agora' is spreading his tentacles and is ready to destroy the people on the earth. She says, a human being who voluntarily dies (commits suicide) with a wish in mind, could fulfil his/her wish through Atma. As long as the body remains without burial, the Atma continues to move in a bid to fulfil its wish. She names that atma as 'Agora'. She claims that there will be one 'Agora' everywhere and is invisible. Those who preach Agora include Bhanu's father (Charu Hasan). Bhanu accidentally comes to know about it and had a chance listening that Bhanu's father ends life to stop Elizabeth from revealing the details about Agoras. The 'Agora' devotees chant word is 'Keep the Secret'. Soon Elizabet disappears. Meanwhile, a group of students led by Sri (Rishi) meet Narendra to help and guide them to research on meteors. One of them also watches Agora devotees and he too disappears. Though Narendra did not believe all this, he is forced to believe when Agora whisks away 'Hari', one of the students into the sky like a bird. Then Narendra and his students decide to bust the mystery and catch 'Aravind', an Agora devotee. Despite lot of persuasion, Aravind did not want to reveal details about Agora, but only says that they want to build a clean society by eliminating all these selfish people. However, Narendra reveals that there is a big danger from a meteor, which is about to destroy the moon first and then come towards the earth for destruction. Aravind could not even visualize earth without moon and understands how would be the condition of earth if everything was destroyed. So he accepts to help Narendra and reveals many secrets. In the process, Aravind tries to stop a leader among them who wanted to attain super power by getting into samadhi with hundreds of bodies and get the power from all those dead into him. The only way to stop that is to burn the bodies. In that process, Aravind also dies. Noticing this, one of the students gets frightened and returns to his house from Narendra's house and informs police about all this. Narendra gets arrested and there was a lot of ruckus over his arrest. Finally Sri (Rishi) brings evidence that Narendra is innocent. In order to stop the innocent suicides in the name of 'Agora' Narendra and Sri plays a trick and imbibes fear for life in the minds of Agora's followers to stop the destruction and succeeds. At the same time, the meteor also changes its track and the earth turns safe.

Plus: The graphics of Agora, the scientific reasoning in parts and the screenplay for the thriller part is the plus points in the film. The hero Rishi has nothing to perform much. Nazar takes the cake with good performance and has a major footage in the film. Others did justice to their roles.

Minus: The director failed to synchronise the science with superstition. There are many questions left unanswered. How can an Atma attack a person. When the scientist who believed that there is atma and gets attacked by it was able to change the mindset of hundreds of people by a simple trick. Many more such doubts would still ring in the audiences mind without any answer. The director should have avoided songs in the middle. The timing of songs too was improper and had spoiled the tempo of the film

Remarks: The analysis on the effect of Pancha Bhutas on the human beings is good. A dialogue says, 'Tsunami' attack (Water) destroyed thousands of people, Bhopal gas tragedy also destroyed several people (Air), Dhanushkodi fire mishap where several hundreds died in fire mishap (Fire), hundreds perished in earthquakes in Latur and other areas (Earth). Like this, four elements out of five (Pancha Bhutas) had shown their impact on the mankind. Now the only one left is Sky. And something from the sky (bolt from the blue) will have to show its impact. However, the film neither has a good message nor the performance of any character is worth watching. An avoidable movie.

Cast: Rishi, Swarna Malya, Charuhasan, Nazar, Sukumar, Manikanta, Santoshi, Shanti and others.

Credits: Action - Kanal Kannan, Anil Arasu
Editing - Trinath
Music - Dina
Dialogues - Shashank Vennelakanti
Lyrics - Vanamali
Presents - Ads O Ads Studio
Producer - Gogineni Balakrishna
Story, screenplay and direction - Yaar Kannan

Banner: Sensational Movies

Released on: December 30, 2006.