Super Cowboy - Movie Review

Raghava Lawrence entered the film industry as a dancer and shaked his legs as one among the group of dancers. Noticing the spark in him, some top artistes promoted him as choreographer and he proved his mettle and rose to a greater height. Nagarjuna, who noticed his enthusiasm to direct a movie gave him an opportunity and he proved his worth as a director. Later, he had a couple of hits to his credit as director. He also showed his enthusiasm towards acting and he proved to be a good actor aswell. However, he was not seen on Telugu screen for some time. After a little gap, he is back on screen through a dubbed film Super Cowboy. Despite his best efforts, the film proved to be just a so… so… film and failed to make any impact on the audiences.

Simhachalam (Lawrence) is a watchman and is supposed to guard Texas Mullangi, a rare diamond. However, the diamond goes missing and he is sentenced to death. At a time when he is getting hanged, a group of cowboys (Ramesh Khanna, Izhavarasu and others) save him and take him to their village. The cowboys tell Simhachalam that once there was a Cowboy called 'Simham" (Lawrence) in their village, who was a sharp shooter and another group led by Nalla Trachu (Nazar) could not even see when he was alive. But they start intimidating the village, once Simham is missing.

Incidentally, Simhachalam is just a look alike of Simham and hence appeal to him to come to their village so that the villagers would gain strength and could thwart the attempts of Nalla Trachu. The village doctor (Padmapriya) falls in love with Simhachalam when he reaches their village. Though Simhachalam is innocent and timid, he is intelligent and could manage things well. He manages to chase away Nalla Trachu"s right hand (Saikumar) and his men out of village.

Nalla Trachu abducts a few scientists and intelligent people and imposes restrictions on the villagers. At this juncture, Simhachalam gets caught by Red Indians in their neighbourhood. However, with his dancing capability and music sense, he impresses everyone and get engaged to Indu (Sandhya), daughter of the head of Red Indians. So, with the help of the Red Indians, Simhachalam agrees to find out a treasure trove to get the abducted scientists released. Did he completed the task? What happened to the scientists? How Simhachalam taught a lesson to Nalla Trachu and his henchmen? Whether Simhachalam could secure another Texas Mullangi (diamond). Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

PERFORMANCE:
Raghava Lawrence has given his best as an artiste. He has impressed the audiences with his dances and other histrionics. He maintained perfect comedy timing and showed good mannerisms and evokes laughter. Padmapriya was cute and subtle. She filled the glamour slot and has given a nice performance. Lakshmi Rai played the villain"s buddy who had a soft corner towards the hero. Sandhya played a Red Indian. Though she shook her legs for a couple of songs with the hero, the director has failed to establish her role properly. The role abruptly disappears without any notice. Saikumar had a typical make up in the film and he infused life into the film with his performance and dialogue modulation. Nazar played the main villain. Though his character had comedy shades, he emoted well and suited best in the character. The comedy track between MS Bhaskar and Vayyapuri, as a leader of Red Indians and as a translator was good. Manorama, Delhi Ganesh, Ramesh Khanna, Izhavarasu did justice to their respective roles.

TECHNICAL:
Music by GV Prakash is mediocre. Neither the tunes were foot-tapping nor the background score was impressive. He failed to help the film in any way to elevate any of the scenes. Had the tunes and songs were impressive, Lawrence"s dancing capability would have saved the film to a great extent. Art department did a perfect job to erect huge sets of mountains and the treasure trove at a whopping budget and they are quite impressive. Cinematography by Azhagappan is nice and the cinematographer shot the film that suits the mood of a cowboy film. He was able to capture the beauties of outdoor locations as the film was shot in Thenkasi, Thada, Madhya Pradesh, Rayachoti, Sathunur, Bengaluru, Pune, Nagpur, Palghat, Amba Samudram and Pondicherry. It is the director who played the spoilsport and made the film a little boring with improper and mediocre screenplay and not so gripping story with slow movement. The storyline is quite predictable and he maintained to infuse good emotions in the characters of the film. As a whole the film had a lots of Tamil scent, which Telugu audiences could not digest.

REMARKS:
Though it was claimed that the film was simultaneously made in Telugu and Tamil, it is clear that it was only a dubbed version of the Tamil film Irambu Kottai Murattu Singam and the director tried to cook a story by combining stories from English and Telugu films of cowboy nature. Few scenes could be identified as a lift from Kodama Simham and McCann"s Gold. The narration is very slow as the content is delicate. Of course, dialogues by Sriramakrishna are good in parts. The overall appeal of the film is just a below average. The first half appear a little stretched and it picks up the pace in the second half. The film could be avoided if you are really going to watch an entertainer.

Cast: Raghava Lawrence, Padmapriya, Lakshmi Rai, Sandhya, Saikumar, Nazar, Manorama, Senthil, Mouli, Delhi Ganesh, Izhavarasu, Vaiyapuri, M.S. Bhaskar, Ramesh Khanna and others

Credits: Dialogues – Sriramakrishna, Cinematography – Azhagappan, Editing – Raja Mohammad, Music – GV Prakash Kumar, Lyrics – Vanamali, Presents – Kalpathi S Agoram, Producers – Kalpati S Ramesh and Kalpati S Ganesh, Story, screenplay and direction – Chimbu Deven

Banner: SGS Entertainments