Shankardada Zindabad Review

Friday, July 27, 2007
Dancer turned director Prabhudeva became a big hit with Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana, which was a blockbuster. The film was a hit due to the excellent script by producer MS Raju. The same two people have come together once again but this time they have failed to make an impact as they did the last time. The films have a poor storyline and Chiru has not done justice to his character in the film.

Story:
Shankar Dada (Chiranjeevi) is a local goon, who has an assistant by name ATM (played by Srikanth). They make a living by doing dadagiri and getting paid for it. They use force to get things done by people who pay them to do it. Despite being a hardhearted goon, he falls for a radio jockey, Jhanvi. He is mesmerized by her voice on a local radio channel. Despite not seeing her, he falls in love with her.

Her radio show conducts a contest on trivia on Mahatma Gandhi, which Shankardada finally wins with the help of a few professors. Jhanvi invites him to her residence, Second Innings house, to talk about Gandhi to some of the old men who stay with her.

Not knowing much of the Mahatma, he panics. Not being able to refuse her, he asks for a week’s time and in the week he goes the library to read as much as he can about Gandhi. While he is reading about Gandhi, a chemical imbalance occurs in his brain and he begins to hallucinate about the Mahatma. He sees the Mahatma. Shankardada starts to frequent the Second Innings house to meet Jhanvi.

Now Rajalingam hears that his would be father in law wants the second innings house. He discovers that Jhanvi and family stay there. So he gets them to go off on a trip while he takes the house for himself. Once they hear that he gets hold of the house, Shankar Dada tries to get it back. But this time he uses gandhigiri not dadagiri.

Shankar, Jhanvi and the old men set up house on the street in hope that they will soften the heart of Rajalingam. Soon, Shankar reveals to Jhanvi that he is not a professor but a local goon. Jhanvi hurt, leaves the spot with the old men. Rajalingam’s daughters proposed marriage gets cancelled. Shankar tries to work the marriage out with them. Rajalingam’s to be son-in-law comes out and says that he will marry the girl, being influenced by Shankar. The film ends on a happy note with Shankar and Jhanvi too getting married.

Plus Points:
No doubt, Chiranjeevi has again proved to be an expert with his almost perfect comedy timing, which he has played with great ease. Sayaji Shinde has done justice to his role. The scenes between Shankar dada and ATM are not as funny as one would expect them to be. Most of the songs are just ok,
with a few of them all that good. The cinematography by Chota K Naidu is good. His experience in the field has helped in portraying Shankar Dada’s character very well in the film.

Minus Points:
One big minus of the flick is the heroine model Karishma Kotak. She was neither glamourous nor could she catch the attention of the audience. The film is a remake of Lage Raho Munnabhai but the director didn’t have to necessarily stick with the orignal story, the way it is. All the gandhigiri scenes were shot as if they were simply replicated from the orignal. This shows no originality of the directors part.

Brahmanandam’s role was not created well, despite this it was interesting. There was a lot of hype created around Pawan Kalyan’s role in the film. He had a role that lasted only a few seconds. The other cameos by top Tollywood actors Allu Arjun, Ravi Teja, Devisri Prasad and Prabhudeva too were very small and unnoticeable.

Conclusion:
Prior to Shankar Dada Zindabad, no sequel has been made in the history of Telugu Cinema. It is the first ever Telugu film sequel. The director Prabhudeva has included a few songs that were not there in the orignal film – something that not gone well with the storyline of the film. Debutante Karishma Kotak didn’t have much of a role in the film. Srikanth had a much bigger role with Chiranjeevi than he has in the last film.

Gemini Film Circuit has done a good job with production of the film. The script and dialogues lacked punch. The English translation of Telugu proverbs has not brought smiles on the faces of the audience.

Credits:

Cast: Chiranjeevi, Karishma Kotak, Srikanth, Dilip Prabhawalkar, Sayaji Shinde, Saratbabu, Brahmanandam, Venumadhav, MS Narayana, Rohit, PJ Sharma, JV Ramanamurthy, Kanta Rao, Jenny, Jeeva, GV, Pawan Kalyan, Sada, Raviteja, Allu Arjun, Prabhudeva, Devisri Prasad.

Story: Raju Hirani
Dialogues: Paruchuri Brothers
Camera: Chota K Naidu
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Lyrics: Suddala Ashokteja, Chandrabose, Bhaskarabhatla and Sahiti
Music: Devisri Prasad
Presenter: Gemini Television,
Producers: Ravishankar and Kiran
Screenplay and direction: Prabhudeva.
Banner: Gemini Film Circuit
Released on: July 27, 2007