Operation Duryodhana Review

Thursday, May 31, 2007
Politics, police, separate state
Writer Posani Krishna Murali turned to film direction some time ago. However, his debut film did not do well. In order to prove himself as a successful director, Posani took up a novel subject. He has chosen a political subject for his latest film and has almost succeeded in driving his message across the society that 'it is the people who are responsible for the maladies of political system'. Unlike other films where the police are treated as buffoons, this film highlights the value of police officials.

Mahesh (Srikanth) is a sincere circle inspector. He has a nice family consisting of his wife (Kalyani), two daughters and a son. Being a sincere officer, he used to get transfered frequently. He doesn't succumb to any kind of political pressures. Once, a farmer dies of electrocution and Mahesh arrests the MLA (Viswender Reddy) and his henchmen. As a result, the MLA is forced to quit politics. He bears grudge against Mahesh and hatches plan to kill his entire family, including his children.

However, Mahesh and his wife survive. Mahesh's wife is in coma and Mahesh decides to teach a lesson to the politicians who are responsible for the death of his kin. He changes his attire and changes his name to Bhagavantudu. With the help of Ruchi (Mumaith Khan), who has good influence in the ruling party gets the party ticket for elections. He gets elected as an MLA. Then he acts like a true politician and ignites ire among the people through his acts. In the process, he also gets the police insulted by the people. He creates a situation where ACP Rangaiah Naidu (Nagendra Babu), who is also an honest police officer and his team, get humiliated by the people. In protest against the humiliation, Rangaiah Naidu, in the capacity of the president of the Police Officers' Association calls for resignation of all the policemen including home guards and special police. With this, the entire police administration collapses. As a result, traffic goes haywire and the people suffer serious problems from goons, thieves and gangsters.

Unable to deal with the situation, the people plead with the ACP to save them. Even the Chief Minister appeals to Rangaiah Naidu to withdraw the stir, with an assurance of no political interference in police administration. The situation returns to normalcy. Bhagavantudu takes revenge against the MLA and eliminates all those who are responsible for the death of his kin. Chief Minister pats Bhagavantudu for enlightening and educating the people on the political and police system. As Mahesh achieves everything, he pleads with the CM to give him back his CI job, as he feels satisfied as a police officer. Bhagavantudu quits politics and turns CI Mahesh again.

Plus:
There are several plus points in the film. Firstly, it is Srikanth's performance as a police officer and as a politician. He showed utmost restraint and truly lived the character. Next comes the gripping screenplay by Posani Krishna Murali. It was tremendous in the first half and above average in the second half, though the director lost grip here and there, for the sake of the story movement. One more highlight of the film is the dialogues. Though a little lengthy in some scenes, dialogues make the audience to rethink what the character says. The film is aimed at imparting a message to the masses and not the political system. With the film revolves around politics and political leaders, the director managed to justify in naming the film as Operation Duryodhana. The satires made on the division of state (separate Telangana, Rayalaseema and Andhra movements) is hilarious and worth watching. Nagendrababu, Prabhakar and Jackie have done justice to their roles and their characterisations are also among the highlights.

Minus:
Though the hero has a heroine and family, there is no song with the heroine. Leave alone duets, there is not even a song with the entire family. There are only two songs in the film and both of them are canned on Mumaith Khan. Kalyani appears as a guest artiste as she is seen only in a couple of scenes. Likewise, the climax is also not impressive. The director should have avoided revenge drama. At least he should have planned in another way than the hero taking revenge.

Remarks:
The film is worth watching for serious viewers. It has very less entertainment values though the satirical dialogues on separate state are hilarious. Paruchuri Gopalakrishna's dialogues in a scene stressing the need for a change in the voters' mindset is worth listening. Serious film watchers should not miss this flick.

Producer: A Mallikarjuna
Banner: Aman International Movies
Direction: Posani Krishna Murali
Cast: Srikanth, Kalyani, Mumaith Khan, Viswender Reddy, Chalapati Rao, Prabhakar, Jackie, Brahmanandam, MS Narayana, Venumadhav, Dharamavarapu Subrahmanyam, Krishna Bhagawan, Lakshmipati, Harshavardhan, Harsha, Venu, Dr Paruchuri Gopalakrishna, Rajani and Aparna
Music: MM Srilekha
Cinematography: AR Raj

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