<i>Raraju</i> - Review

Wednesday, October 25, 2006
A love story with unimaginable climax

No doubt love is a universal subject and several directors moulded them in different ways. Raraju is no exception to these love stories. Love and sacrifice are two sides of a coin. But the different treatment to a love subject elevates the whole film. Producer GVG Raju had very recently brought out a different love story like Godavari and at the same time director Udayshankar is known for making films with sentiment. These two joined hands and chose a hero like Gopichand who has an action and mass image and a cute girl like Meera Jasmine as heroine for their film and presented a nice film like Raraju which had a right mix of action and love, coupled with a bit of sentiment.

Kali (Gopichand) is a typical personality. He is kind at heart and at the same time very rough when he deals with people in a different way when someone owed him money. He used to arrange public address systems and illumination for public functions and meetings. The local SI (Ankitha) is in love with Kali but the later keeps ignoring her. At this juncture Jyothi (Meera Jasmine) enters his life. Kali falls in love with her. But Jyothi makes it clear that she has a different aim to become an IAS officer and she was already in love with Surya (Sivaji). She explains the tragedy that struck her life in the form of the accidental death of Surya. Learning her aim, Kali decides to help her and discreetly keeps helping her in fulfilling her ambition. She was able to write IAS examination and stands first in it. Surya's father (Chandramohan) tells Jyothi that it was Kali who was behind her achievement and they too are treating him like their son Surya. He tells Jyothi to marry Kali as he is very much in love with her. However, Jyothi could not share her heart with Kali as it was totally occupied by Surya. In the climax, Kali convinces everyone to let her live with Surya's memories and sacrifices his love.

Plus:
Gopichand showed extreme ease in action as well as dance sequences. At the same time, he emoted well in love and sentiment scenes. His performance is the major plus point for the film. Meera Jasmine also gave good performance in a decent way. Ankitha filled the glamour slot. The scene when Kali's mother (Sumitra) explains that Kali adopted her as his mother is heart touching. Another scene that comes before the climax and the entire climax was also shot well and the performance of Gopichand is simply superb. Another scene where Gopichand shuts the mouth of a man not to play with the life of a girl in a marriage scene was also shot nicely. Comedy by MS Narayana and Venumadhav is another highlight. Sivaji, though had a very little role in the film, played extremely well and did justice to his role.

Minus:
The director failed in the characterisation of Jayaprakash Reddy and Asish Vidyarthi. While the first character was kept only for comedy, the other one is for villainy. But he failed to justify both the roles. Action scenes, though shot well, are far from reality and quite cinematic. Timing of one or two songs is also not appropriate. It is not known why the director kept Ankitha role in the film as she has nothing to with the story and only filled the glamour slot.

Remarks:
The first half has routine commercial mass masala and remained a normal entertainer. But, the second half is a bit serious and makes the audiences sit tight to the seats and watch the film. Especially the film picks up momentum with Meera Jasmine revealing the flash back. It has several twists for every 10-15 minutes. The director's expertise could be noticed in the picturisation of climax beyond the imagination of audiences. A film with a right mix of ingredients like action, love and sentiment. Music by Manisharma is average and cinematography by Ramnath Setty is just okay. Music director Raj and singer Chitra appear in their real life roles in the film.

Cast: Gopichand, Sivaji, Meera Jasmine, Ankitha, Asish Vidyardhi, Jayaprakash Reddy, MS Narayana, Venu Madhav, Junior Relangi, Sumitra, Apoorva and others.

Credits:
Dialogues - Chintapalli Ramana
Editing - Marthand K Venkatesh
Cinematography - Ramnath Setty
Music - Manisharma
Producer - GVG Raju
Story, Screenplay and direction - Uday Shankar.
Banner - SSC Arts.
Released on - October 20, 2006.

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Raraju - Movie Stills.

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