State Rowdy - Review

State Rowdy is the remake of a successful Tamil film Yediri directed by KS Ravikumar with Madhavan and Sadaa playing the lead. Sivaji, who had so far played in soft films with family subjects, in a bid to gain mass image ventured into the project. Debutant director SS Vikram Gandhi tried his best to mould the film on the screen in an entertaining way. Though the film is a little distant to justify the title, he was able to make the film a laughing riot.

Rambabu (Sivaji) is brought up by his brother-in-law (Benarjee), who is a jailer. Rambabu's niece falls in love with a boy, who needs Rs 25,000 to pay deposit to get a job. Rambabu's friend autostar (Venumadhav), in a bid to help him arranges the money from one Bongarala Subrahmanya Sarma (Chandramohan). In fact, some students, who let out a portion in Sarma's house neither pay rent nor vacate it. So Sarma seeks the help of autostar to get them vacated and the latter tells Rambabu to pretend like a famous rowdy Bullet Babu. As Rambabu does not agree to marry his niece, his brother-in-law necks him out. Hence, instead of vacating the students, Rambabu also settles in the room along with them. Sarma has a daughter called Vimala (Madhusalini) and Rambabu tries to lure her in the name of love. In a bid to help one of the students (Santosh Pawan) to marry his love, Rambabu goes to a marriage function hall and kidnaps Priya (Mallika Kapoor). A few days before, Priya loses her heart at first site to Rambabu. However, Priya's father Veerabhadra Reddy (Vijayaranga Raju) wants to marry her to Punjagutta CI (Subbaraju) as the latter does a favour to him and saves him from a murder case. But on learning that the CI was a bad guy and killed his first wife, Priya tries to convince her father but fails. So, she attempts suicide. By the time, she consumed poison, Rambabu kidnaps her. On coming to know that she was not the bride, Rambabu admits Priya to hospital. Priya, who resues her death from poison, again attempts another suicide, only to be saved by Rambabu. Later, Rambabu takes her to Sarma's house. After a few turn of events, Priya reveals her story and also tells Rambabu that she loved him. Will Rambabu able to win her love? Will the CI catch Rambabu, who kidnapped his would-be wife Priya? Will Veerabhadra Reddy able to get back his daughter? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

PLUS: The major plus point in the film is comedy. All the artists in the film, including the hero, villain, hero's sidekick have given a very good comedy through their performance. Though the film is intended to give Sivaji a mass hero image, it is proved good in the other way and he earns a good name as a hero with good comedy timing. Venumadhav's performance is hilarious. He has proved once again that he is an expert in delivering comedy. Mallika Kapoor and Madhusalini fill the glamour slot though there is not much scope for performance. Other artists Chandramohan, Subbaraju, Vijayarangaraju have done justice to their respective roles.

MINUS: To certain extent, the music of the film has turned a minus point in the film. Most of the tunes look old stylish and remind the audiences some old tune from some old film (already heard tunes). It seems the director has tried to copy the original Tamil film for most of the time. Picturization of songs is also not that impressive except a couple of songs. The cinematographer's attempt to experiment some shots is not impressive. Dialogues by Ramesh-Gopi are good in part. Though there is a good comedy in the film, it appears the director failed to extract the performance completely from the artists.

REMARKS: As the film is titled State Rowdy, the hero should have a good personality, though not a six-pack body at least three-pack body. The character has become a little heavy for Sivaji, though he has struggled a lot to meet the mark. There should be more comical action in fights instead of serious action scenes, giving the dosage of comedy in the movie. The director should have concentrated more on boosting the image of the hero in a mass style.

Cast: Sivaji, Mallika Kapoor, Madhu Shalini, Chandramohan, Subbaraju, Venumadhav, Vijayaranga Raju, Chitram Sreenu, Ramireddy, Krishna Bhagawan, Jeeva, Kondavalasa Lakshmana Rao, Lakshmipati, Duvvasi Mohan, Santosh Pawan, Hema, Master Bharat.

Credits: Story – Kamalesh Kumar, Dialogues – Ramesh-Gopi, Lyrics – Bhaskarabhatla, Music – MM Srilekha, Camera – B Vasu, Producers – Kattekola Srinivas and JV Umamaheswara Rao, Screenplay and direction – SS Vikaram Gandhi.

Banner: Galaxy Multimedia

Released on: December 7, 2007