<i>Mahanagaramlo Mayagadu</i> - Review

Tuesday, October 03, 2006
In the wake of several dubbed films becoming major hits, Lakshmi Harshita Creations had dubbed a popular Mammotty starrer in Malayalam, Taskara Veeran in Telugu. Mammotty is well known among the Telugu audiences, and the film's heroine Nayanatara became a heartthrob of Telugu audiences, with her successive hit films like Chandramukhi, Lakshmi and the very recent Boss. Producer Gaddam Siva tried to cash in on the images of the lead pair. However, the film failed to evoke any response as it remained like a documentary, with the hero looked as if he is doing a research on how the villain is cheating the bank and duping the public as well as the government. Earlier, the producer dubbed a Hollywood flick as Pathala Bhairavudu.

Stuartpuram Balu is Chanti (Mammotty) is the grandson of Michael. It is a well-known secret that Stuartpuram is a synonym to cheating and looting. Michael is a big cheat and his son Jacob also a cheat. Jacob along with Malayan Thomas cheats a group of handloom weavers and make huge money. However, Malayan Thomas backstabs Jacob and becomes a millionaire. Balu goes to Mumbai and becomes a big don of the underworld and he helps the mafia people. Balu has a great art in him to change the attires while cheating people. After spending some time in Mumbai, he returns to his native place to live a normal life. However, he wants take revenge against Malayan Thomas. He starts running a film theatre 'Mary Mata Talkies' and falls in love with Nagamani (Nayanatara) who is doing poultry business. Balu decides to teach a lesson to Malayan Thomas and wanted to hit his gold business. In the process, he snatches some gold which is being transported from Mumbai to Andhra. But, it was found that the gold is being brought legally. During his investigation, Balu finds that Malayan Thomas is running a fictitious account in a bank on a benami name. Balu goes to the bank like an old man, as the account holder by preparing fake documents by himself with the help of three youths. He withdraws the entire money kept in the account, a whopping Rs 9 crore, from the account. He distributes the same money to the handloom weavers, who were cheated by Malayan Thomas and his father Jacob. The film ends on a happy note.

Plus:
The opening of the film and the first 45 minutes are nice to watch with Mammotty playing the mafia don. The action episodes and others are good to watch. Mammotty sported some eight different get-ups in the film, which were nice and suited good to the hero. Nayanatara looked gorgeous in sarees. However, the film looked as an ordinary commercial masala film, as changing of get-ups have become redundant and outdated these days.

Minus:
Though the director tried to prove that the hero could change his faces frequently, in the real life it is quite hard to prepare rubber masks so easily. The acting talents of several talented actors like Rajan P Dev and others were not properly utilised by the director. Even the way the hero narrates his plan of action was looked like watching a documentary film. Nayanatara remained an ordinary girl and neither she was projected glamourously nor she had any chance to perform. The artiste who played the villain 'Malayan Thomas' did well but the director failed to mould the character well. He is supposed to be a clever personality, but he was made a puppet by the director and his character ended like a comedy villain only. There are only a couple of songs, penned by Vanamali, which were not very impressive.

Remarks:
The film has lots of Malayalam flavour and lacked the Telugu nativity. At least the producer should have reshot certain scenes where the Malalayam signboards appear on the screen. Nayanatara's glamour remained waste. A film which could be conveniently ignored.

Cast: Mammotty, Nayanatara, Rajan P Dev, Subbaraju, Sheela and others.

Credits:
Dialogues - Rajasekhar Reddy
Lyrics - Vanamali
Music - Aus Pachan
Producer - Gaddam Siva
Story, Screenplay and direction - Praveen Pappan.
Banner - Lakshmi Harshita Creations.

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