Sri Mahalakshmi - Review

Monday, May 07, 2007
It is Srihari all the way!
Srihari proved himself as a versatile artiste in the Telugu film industry. He started his career as villain. Later he played character artiste roles and then turned hero. However, there are no notable hits in the recent past for Srihari as hero, though his films in which he played character artiste were blockbusters. His very recent release Hanumanthu won critical acclaim, but failed to do well at the box-office. This time, he played hero in Sri Mahalakshmi, which is a remake of Malayalam hit Chintamani Kola Case. It is being produced on their own banner Sri Chalana Chitra. It is like for Srihari, by Srihari and of Srihari. You could watch him on the screen in details. It is learnt that Dasari Narayana Rao who had the remake rights had offered it to Srihari, when the latter pleaded him.

Lakshmi Krishna Devaraya alias LK (Srihari) is a popular criminal lawyer. He always fights for the hardcore criminals and help them win the cases. However, LK feels that he is the representative of God. After winning the case, he used to kill the accused on whose behalf he argued case and made them emerge victorious in the name of cosmic law and cosmic justice. The reason is that if some others argue the case, the accused gets scot-free and might do similar crime. In the process LK kills Isra Quresh (Ajay), who raped and killed a teacher. Likewise, LK kills Pondicherry Varadan. At this juncture, some NRIs plead with LK to save their children, on whom a murder case was pending. As per the facts of the case, one Sri Mahalakshmi (Shamna), an MBBS student, daughter of a teacher Sambamurthy (Sri Tilakan), was killed by some nine NRI girls. They agree to pay Rs 1 crore towards the fee. LK agrees to argue the case. He makes a thorough research on the subject. He gets the girls acquitted with his fantastic argument. However during his investigation, LK finds that the real culprits are the hostel matron Olga Rose Mary (Sana), the medical college principal Bhogendra Bhalla and public prosecutor Janardhan (Sayaji Shinde). Though the NRI girls rag Sri Mahalakshmi they bore no grudge against her. But Olga Rose Mary takes the frightened Sri Mahalakshmi to Bhogendra Bhalla as some other NRI offered Rs 50 lakhs for the medical college seat. When Sri Mahalakshmi tells him that she will not leave the college and threaten him that she would move court, Janardhan and Bhalla rape the girl and throw the case on the NRI girls. In order to implement the cosmic justice, LK kills the three. The film ends with Sri Mahalakshmi getting justice.

PLUS: Action choreographer Vijayan, who directs the film has given a gripping screenplay. The entire film is a one-man show of Srihari. It is full of court scenes and action scenes. Srihari steals the entire show with his incredible performance. He has a different hairstyle and the director has given him a different characterisation as an aggressive advocate. The scenes where he implements the cosmic law are tremendous. The director has managed to make the audience believe that the NRI girls killed the title character. They can't imagine the twist in the story that was narrated in the climax. Shamna, though a novice, performed well and emoted the fear well in her face. Manisharma gave good background score and elevated certain scenes with his music.

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