Tulasi Review

Friday, October 12, 2007

Boyapati Sreenu wins over sentiment

There is a sentiment in the Telugu film industry that all the second films of the debutant directors would be a flop. Most of the films that came up in Telugu film industry proved this sentiment as true. However, Boyapati Sreenu, who made his debut in Bhadra with Raviteja as hero proved a hit director in the first film. Damocles' sword is hanging on his neck, when he got an opportunity to direct Venkatesh for Tulasi as it was his second film. But Boyapati Sreenu wins over the sentiment, with the support by music director, cinematographer, action choreographers, and the technical crew as a whole.

Parvataneni Tulasiram in Tulasi (Venkatesh) is a native of Palnadu region. As his region is well-known for factional feuds, his father Dasaratha Ramayya (Vijayakumar) keeps him away in Hyderabad and get him educated and makes him an architect. Once he goes to an abroad trip, where he comes across Vasundhara (Nayanatara) and loses his heart. He marries her and they continue to lead a happy life. When Vasu turns pregnant, Tulasi takes her to their native place to share the happy moments with the entire family. He turns violent when a rival faction pushes his father and teaches all of them a big lesson with a lot of bloodshed. Even as he was silent, the factional feuds continue to haunt him and Vasu couldn't digest the violence and deserts him with their son Harsha (Atulith), when her brother (Sivaji) dies in the attack by factionists. Later, Tulasi comes to know that Harsha has a blood clot in his brain and it may cause hemorrhage. With the help of Dr Surekha (Ramyakrishna), he summons specialists from abroad to get him operated. When everything is ready for the surgery, a gangster (Asish Vidyarthi) takes away the boy, as both of his sons got killed by Tulasi. In the climax, again Tulasi turns violent and kills everyone to save his son's life. Learning that violence would not only take the lives but also saves lives, Vasu reunites with Tulasi and the film ends on a happy note.

Plus:
It is Venkatesh all the way and he completely held the responsibility of making the film a big hit. He changed his body language a lot in this film. His character was moulded in two different shades, silent and violent. His performance in sentiment scenes was excellent and his action in emotional scenes too was portrayed excellently on the screen. Next comes the music. Devisri Prasad, who worked for the first time for Venkatesh's film gave his best. Though some of the tunes appeared old, they were quite catchy and the choreography of songs was attractive. After that comes the action choreography by Ram-Lakshman and Kanal Kannan. The fights were stylish and very touching to suit the taste of mass audiences. The director's ability in sentiment scenes is noteworthy and the screenplay made the audiences sit tight in the seat. Whenever the audiences get the feel of boredom, he covered the situation with a fight or a song. Child sentiment was aptly utilised for the climax.

Minus:
Though the film was brought out in a different passion, the excessive dose of violence might keep the family audiences away from the theatre. Despite good family and child sentiment, love episodes, the overdose of violence may turn a draw back. The director failed to establish the character of Asish Vidyarthi properly and the role of Jayaprakash Reddy was also underplayed. The thread of love and the separation of the hero and heroine were also not properly explained by the director. It is not fair that the heroine deserting the hero for resorting to violence, when both of them had a bond of love.

Remarks:
Dialogues by Paruchuri brothers are partly good and the director tried to use emotion as the main thread to run the story and gave less importance to dialogues. However, the explanation of the meaning of marriage in the first half, and the flashback episode narrated by Ramyakrishna were good to watch. As a whole, the film would be a hit for masses, while it is above average for family audiences. But certainly, it is a hattrick for Venkatesh after two successive hits like Lakshmi and Aadavari Maatalaku Ardhale Verule.

Cast:
Venkatesh, Nayanatara, Sivaji, Uttej, Vijayakumar, Jayaprakash Reddy, Ahuti Prasad, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, Paruchuri Gopalakrishna Ali, Narsing Yadav, Tanikella Bharani, Asish Vidyarthi, Rahul Dev, Riyaz Khan, Subba Raju, Raghubabu, Allari Ravibabu, Benarjee, Sivaparvathi, Ramyakrishna, Master Atulith and others.

Credits:
Music – Devisri Prasad, Story – Akula Siva, Dialogues – Paruchuri Brothers, Cinematography – Balamurugan, Editing – Marthand K Venkatesh, Action – Ram-Lakshman and Kanal Kannan, Choreogrpahy – Raju Sundaram, Brunda and D.K.S. Babu, Presents – Dr D Ramanaidu, Producer – Suresh, Screenplay and direction – Boyapati Sreenu.

Banner: Suresh Productions Pvt Ltd.,
Released on: October 12, 2007