Anaganaga O Dheerudu – Movie Review

A folklore tale in latest narration

Prakash Kovelamudi, son of popular director K Raghavendra Rao, tried his hand in acting but failed. Later, he took up film direction and earned good recognition by earning a national award for a film produced by Rana Daggubati, who is now established as a hero with Leader. After achieving an award, now he is making an attempt for a reward by bringing out a film with the co-operation of Walt Disney Pictures. He penned an excellent folklore story, and in order to translate his imaginative skills on the celluloid, he needed not only money but technical expertise and hence he entered into an agreement with Walt Disney and achieved what he wanted through Anaganaga O Dheerudu.

Irendri (Lakshmi Prasanna) is a sorcer player, who captures sarpa sakthi (serpent power) and tries to terrorise people of Anga Rashtram. So, a guru arrests her and doesn't allow her to play with the lives of people and destroys her. Even before she was destroyed with the sarpa sakti, Irendri takes her soul away and traps in a locket. Though she dies, her soul (atma) lives in the locket. Her great great grand daughter is Priya (Shruti Hassan) and she lives as a gypsy.

However, she too possesses some magical powers, as she was born into a sorcerers" family. Yodha (Siddharth) is a person who always lures girls and romances with them at whenever there is opportunity. He is smitten by Priya"s beauty and falls in love with her. Sudigundam (Ravibabu) is a local goon and he attacks the gypsies" village. Yodha prevents him and defeats him in a fight. However, Sudigundam makes another attack and ties the hands of Yodha and sets afire the entire village.

In this process, the locket in the neck of Priya falls down and Irendri"s soul comes out with the touch of fire. The sarpa sakthi tells her that she could gain power with the drop of blood of Priya. So, Irendri takes away Priya and imprisons her. Meanwhile, Yodha turns blind as Sudigundam pierces his eyes. However, Yodha gets saved by a swami (Subbaraya Sharma) and appoints to save a girl named Moksha (Baby Harshita), who has divine powers. Irendri, in order to take revenge, attacks Agartha, a village in Anga Rashtram and make the children of the village senseless.

Druki (Ramji) goes to Pushpagiri to bring Moksha, who could save their children. So, Druki, Yodha and Moksha start from Pushpagiri and reach Agartha. At this juncture, the sarpa sakti tells Irendri that the blood of Moksha would make her Maha Sakti if it was taken by her on lunar eclipse day. So, Irendri sends her men to capture Moksha. But Yodha kills all of them. Irendri again sends Sudigundam, the commander-in-chief, to bring her. Yodha follows them in search of Moksha and finds that Priya was alive and saves both Moksha and Priya. Moksha with her divine power brings back Yodha"s vision. Then, Yodha decides to completely destroy Irendri as she is trying to harm people and succeeds in the climax.

PERFORMANCE:

The hero"s characterisation in the film is an innocent village boy. Prakash chose Siddharth as he had no great image but is well known among the family audiences. As the character"s name is Yodha, the hero should possess six-pack body. But, in reality, a warrior should have shrewdness in mind and will power but it doesn"t lie in a well-built body as per the thinking of the director. Siddharth too did justice to his role all through the film. However, the dialogue modulation did not suit well for a folklore film. Shruti Hassan is a feast to eyes with a slim physique and her expressive eyes gave the audiences a fresh look. Lakshmi Prasanna too performed well. Her costumes are deadly and her make-up too is extravagant. She tried to imitate her father while delivering the dialogues but she stood up to the expectations. Other artistes, including Ravibabu, Subbaraya Sarma, Ramji and others did justice to their roles. Comedy by Ali is okay. Brahmanandam was wasted.

TECHNICAL:

The film once again stood at one of the top slots technically after Magadheera on the Telugu screen. Especially, cinematographer Soundara Rajan"s expertise is excellently visible on the screen. He was properly assisted by the art director Bhupesh R Bhupati, who designed excellent sets for Agartha, Pushpagiri and each and every scene was quite impressive with the combination of these two. Prakash"s directorial abilities lessened the work of Shravana Kartikaneni, who gave a crisp editing to the film. The speciality of the film is that four music directors worked for the film, and Salim-Sulaiman among them took care of background score. Designer Raj Golay and visual effects by Firefly added spice to the film. Dialogues though not extremely good, but adequate and could be adjusted as it is a folklore film. He should have avoided words like Jaffa in the dialogues.

REMARKS:

The film would be the best gift to the children below 10 years and they could enjoy the film more than adults. However, the elders too could go down their memory lane and recall their childhood while watching this movie. As a whole, it is the safest film for this Sankranti to those who want to watch film along with the entire family. Though the film is not so great to boast of, it will be a nice watch for family audiences. Extensive publicity with good word of mouth could make the film a commercial hit.

Producers: Devineni Prasad, K Prakash
Banner: A Bellyful of Dreams Entertainment
Director: Prakash Kovelamudi
Cast: Siddharth, Shruti Hassan, Manchu Lakshmi Prasanna, Ramji, Ravi Babu, Tanikella Bharani, Ali, Brahmanandam, Subbaraya Sharma, Baby Harshitha and others
Cinematography: Soundarrajan
Editing: Shravan Katikaneni
Music: Keeravani, Koti, Mickey J Meyer, Salim- Sulaiman
Dialogues:Prakash Kovelamudi