Ontari Review

Gopichand had a strong connection with the Ee Taram banner. In fact, the banner was launched by his father T Krishna along with Pokuri Babu Rao. After the demise of T Krishna, Pokuri Babu Rao continued to produce hit films like 'Neti Bharatam, Repati Pourulu' under the banner. T Krishna's son Gopichand made his debut under the banner in the blockbuster 'Ranam'. Now the success of this producer – hero combination has been repeated – this time under BN Ramana's direction.

Story:

Vamsi Krishna @ Vamsi (Gopichand) is the son of Muddu Krishna (Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao) and is the third son in the family. He loves his family very much. Everytbody in the familt get along each other. Raghava (Rajiv Kanakala) is Vamsi's best friend and is an MLA. Vamsi wants to make him a minister. Kanaka Mahalakshmi @ Bujji (Bhavana) is an orphan and is pursuing her B. Sc (Computer Science). She is very kind hearted.

Vamsi falls in love with Bujji at first sight. Bujji cheats Vamsi's brother and takes 15,000 from him – an amount that she needs for a child's operation. She later returns the money. Using this as en excellent opportunity to meet her, Vamsi introduces himself as a CBI officer and keeps meeting with Bujji. He later tells her that he loves her.

A local goon (Ajay), Mahankali's brother (Asish Vidyarthi) - a local mafia don, teases Bujji and gets a thrashing from Vamsi. In taking revenge, Mahankali kidnaps Bujji and whom his brother rapes. To do this, Mahankali takes Raghava's help. Like a true politician, Raghava stabs Vamsi in the back. Bujji dies after the rape incident and Vamsi goes into coma.

After gaining consciousness, Vamsi starts suffering from visual hallucination and thinks that Bujji was still with him. Vamsi decides to take revenge against all those who harmed them and starts killing them one after the other. He ends up killing Raghava too. Raghava death creates a sensation, him being a minister. The police go after Vamsi accusing him of killing Raghava.

Special officer (Sayaji Shinde) calls Vamsi's parents and comes to know the real story. Mahankali makes a plan and tries to kill Vamsi in jail but Vamsi escapes with the help of the special officer. Finally he kills Mahankali and his brother. Then Vamsi realizes that Bujji died long ago and that hew indeed lonely (Ontari).

Plus Points:

Gopichand's amazing acting is the primary reason that the film will do well. His energetic fights, six pack body and the excellently choreographed action scenes stand out. Gopichand was portrayed glamorously in addition being very handsome in the film. He showed a good amount of ease in the dances and action scenes. However, he still needs to improve his comedy timing.

Bhavana looked very apt in her role and the pair appeared to be made for each other. Other artistes including Sayaji Shinde, Asish Vidyarthi, Rajiv Kanakala have done justice to their roles. The comedy by Sunil and Ali is good. The camera work by Sarvesh Murari is good. Manisharma's music is good in parts. A couple of songs have choreographed well.

Minus Points:

Though the director maintained the suspense and tried directing the film a little differently by including the flashback episodes inbetween adequate breaks, he has appeared to have lost grip on the film overall. The slack in the film can be noticed in many places. The audiences will have a feeling that the director could have shot the scenes better.

Though the director tried to include family sentiment in the film, he could not highlight it properly. Killing of a minister is not as easy as portrayed in the film. Escaping from the scene walking off after the murder is also exagarated. It is a surprise that the heroine renders a sloka on Lakshmi, standing in front of the idol of Saraswati and that too in Sakhambari alankaram, claiming that it was Sravana Sukravaram. Such lapses could have been avoided. It has also become a common phenomenon among the Telugu directors to make a police officer free the hero and advise him to take revenge thus not doing hid duty. The director should have been more cautious with the wardrobe used in the film. The hero's dresses especially during song sequences were quite old fashioned.

Conclusion:

Producer Pokuri Babu Rao for the first time deviated from bringing out a message-oriented film to a commercial film. Another feature of the film is that for the first time, a film made under Ee Taram Pictures banner, was shot in foreign locations. Two songs were shot abroad in locations like Seychelles islands in New Zealand. The film spurned an above average talk on the first day first show as it has several mass elements. Gopichand once again proved that he is a minimum guarantee hero for the producer. Telugu film industry had got one more good heroine in the form of Bhavana.

Cast: Gopichand, Bhavana, Rajiv Kanakala, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, Sayaji Shinde, Asish Vidyarthi, Ajay, Sunil, Ali, Naresh, Raghubabu, Supreet Reddy, Chitti, Rajitha, Indu Anand and others.

Credits: Dialogues – Marudhuri Raja, Music – Manisharma, Cinematography – Sarvesh Murari, Art – Venkateswara Rao, Editing – Gauthamraju, Action – Vijay, Presents – Pokuri Rama Rao, Producer – Pokuri Babu Rao, Story, screenplay and direction – BV Ramana.

Banner: Ee Taram Pictures

Released on: February 14, 2008