Pardhu - Review

Raghava Lawrence, who joined the film industry as a fighter, later joined a dancer in a group, then turned a choreographer with the blessings of Tollywood top stars. He was elevated as director through 'Mass' by Nagarjuna. He proved successful as director as well. On the lines of his mentor Prabhudeva, Lawrence too tried his hand in acting and turned a hero through 'Style'. He also played solo hero with 'Muni'. Now, he played the main lead in the latest film 'Pardhu' a film which was simultaneously made in Tamil as well as 'Pondy'. This time, he played the role of hero alone and gave the choice to direct the film to Madhuravan, unlike earlier films in which the film was directed by himself. However, the story line is quite routine and there is nothing novel to boast about.

Pardhu (Lawrence) is a carefree youth, who spends his time with his friends. He is quite irresponsible and always gets chided by his father Sitaramaiah (Nazar), who was a school teacher. However, his mother Janaki (Sharanya) pampers him. He has an elder brother Siva Prasad (Sreeman), and three younger sisters. Once, Pardhu cuts the tongue of a goon when the latter speaks ill about his mother and goes to jail. Being a wayward youth, the village elders assign him a job to bring a Ganesh idol by stealing it from some place for the Brahmotsavams. While bringing the idol, Pardhu comes across Bhavana (Sneha) accidentally and falls in love with her. Though Bhavana dislikes him in the beginning, she starts loving him later. At this juncture, Sitaramaiah wants to get his daughter married to a boy and mortgages his land and brings Rs 1 lakh. Two days before the marriage, the money disappears from the safe. Everyone suspect Pardhu behind the theft, but they come to know that Siva Prasad took away the money to elope with his lover.

Then Pardhu comes to the rescue of his family and brings money from his friends to perform his sister's marriage. Then Sitaramaiah realises the greatness of his son. Later, Pardhu also marries Bhavana, against the wishes of her father, who was a police officer. When the moneylenders force Pardhu to repay the money, he takes the help of his friend who returned from Dubai and promises him that he would do any job to earn money. That friend clears all the debts and helps Pardhu to go to Dubai.

After reaching Dubai, Pardhu saves money by doing regular and part-time jobs there and gets the other two sisters also married. Meanwhile, another teacher Kalidas working in the school bores grudge against Sitaramaiah for not opting for VRS, which enables him to become headmaster. He tries to eliminate Sitaramaiah but in the process Janakamma dies in the accident cased by Kalidas. But, the family does not inform the matter, as it would cost Pardhu's job in Dubai. After the contract period, Pardhu returns to India only to learn about the death of his mother. Coming to know about the accident caused by Kalidas from his friends, Pardhu thrashes Kalidas. In the process, Kalidas gets killed and the film ends on a happy note.

PLUS: The performance of Lawrence, the glamour slot filled by Sneha and Namitha and the mother-son sentiment all through the film are the major plus points of the movie. Lawrence, being a dancer by himself, showed good ease in dances and action scenes. He lived to the expectations of the mass audiences as the entire film was aimed at front benchers. It is quite surprising that Sneha, who was known as a girl who plays family girl roles, started oozing glamour. She sported modern dresses and acted in a romantic way. The audiences were made dumbstruck when she danced in a romantic way in two songs — 'Nee Kallu Sexy…' and another remix song, 'Yenno Raatrulostayigaani…' of 'Dharma Chakram'. Namitha appeared in a couple of songs, as she played the role of a recording dancer. Nazar and Sharanya are adequate, while Ganja Karuppu, Sriman and Illavarasu did justice to their roles.

MINUS: With the storyline being a routine one, the film failed to evoke any big response from the audiences. Moreover, many scenes were beyond logic. Especially, a wayward youth gathering money for his sister's marriage, especially from his friends, who were also nincompoops is above logic. At a time, when he has no money in hand, how the hero was able to fly abroad was also shown on the screen in a simple manner of his friend helping him.

REMARKS: The director chose a subject which had already appeared on the screen way back in 80s. But for the dances and the romantic appearance of Sneha and Namitha's oomph, there is nothing much to talk about the movie. Though the Tamil version may go well, the success of the film in Telugu is doubtful.

Cast: Raghava Larencce, Sneha, Namita, Nazar, Sharanya, Ganja Karuppu, Sriman, Izhavarasu, Rajkapoor, Mayilsamy

Credits: Music – Srikanth Deva, Producer – Manyam Ramesh, Story, screenplay and direction – Rasu Madhuravan.

Banner: Manyam Entertainments