Shirdi - Review

Saturday, September 08, 2007

The producers of the film are staunch devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba. They not only adore him but also constructed a temple for Sai at their own home at a whopping expenditure. They strongly believe that their wealth and their present status were nothing but the blessings of Baba. In a bid to prove their devotion and love towards Him, Suresh and Lalitha brought out a film under the direction of Bipin. However, the director failed to come out of the stereo-type subject and made the film a laughing stock with nothing to say novel.

There are two brothers Krishna (Krishna) and Kiran (Sai Kiran). As Kiran's mother dies when he was a child, Krishna's wife (Radhika) brings him up as if he was their own child as they have no children on their own. While Krishna is a staunch devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba, Kiran is an atheist and doesn't have any belief in God. However, his wife Santhi (Manasa) is again a strong believer of Baba. Despite severe persuasion by his brother and his company MD (Mallikarjuna Rao), Kiran did not believe Baba. Once, an idol of Baba breaks in the hands of Kiran and Krishna feels bad about it and suspects that something wrong was about happen in their house. As was predicted by him, Santhi slips on the staircase and gets admitted to hospital. Doctors say that she was suffering from blood cancer / leukaemia which has no cure. However, miraculously she gets cured because of the prayers offered by Krishna. This makes Kiran believe that Baba is all-powerful. When Kiran asks Krishna to tell me something about Baba, he gives the life history of Baba and asks him to read it. From then on, the director portrays the life history of Baba, the same old story narrated for several times on the screen.

PLUS: The performance of Surabhi Leela Papa Rao, who had presented over 3,000 stage shows wherein he portrayed as Shirdi Sai Baba, was the only saving grace for the film.

MINUS: The director tried to present the entire life history of Shirdi Sai Baba as was narrated in the 'Shirdi Sai Sacharitra' (Nitya Parayana Grandham) (Regular reading book) and this was done by many directors earlier and there is nothing new in it. Despite the presence of huge star cast including stalwarts like Super Star Krishna, Suman and Kaikala Satyanarayana, the film failed to please the audiences. The director could not utilise the services of any of the artistes in the film.

REMARKS: Had the director chose to portray something novel on the screen, the film would have run for more days. Instead of narrating the same age old story, he should have tried to explain the miracles of Baba and the experiences of the people from present generation, the film would have more appeal. As a whole the film can't be recommended for ordinary viewers and those who preach and strongly believe in Baba could watch the film.

Producers: G Suresh and G Lalitha

Executive producer: Chittibabu

Banner: Sri Shirdi Sai Creations

Story, screenplay and direction: Bipin.

Cast: Krishna, Surabhi Leela Papa Rao, Suman, Sai Kiran, Manasa, Chittibabu, Gundu Hanumantha Rao, Kaikala Satyanarayana, AVS, Ali, Mallikharjuna Rao, Anant, Ravi Kondala Rao, Narra Venkateswara Rao, Vijayaranga Raja, Velu, Ramakrishna, Gauthamraju, KK Sharma, Tirupati Prakash, Junior Relangi, Sudarshan, Jenny, Bobby, Aditya, Swarna Babu, Potti Veeraiah, Sivaparvati, Kavitha, Jayalalitha, Bangalore Padma and others

Dialogues: Aditya, Bipin

Cinematography: V Srinivasa Reddy

Cameraman: Alla Rambabu

Editing: V Nagireddy

Music: Lalith Suresh, Srinivas