Kalidasu Review

Sushant, who hails from the family of film artists like Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Nagarjuna and Sumanth, has a passion towards acting. He is also the nephew (sister's son) of Nagarjuna like Sumanth. In order to promote him as hero, his mother A Naga Suseela in association with another producer Chintalapudi Srinivasa Rao to produce Kalidasu. Annapurna Studios came forward to present the film, though the film is being made under the banner of Sri Nag Corporation. Tamanna, who bagged a hit like Happy Days recently, played the female lead. The story for the film was penned by the producer itself. Though the first half of the film is routine, the director is able to show some novelty with twists and mind game in the second half.

Kalidasu (Sushant) is the son of a sincere police officer (Nagababu), who gets killed in the hands of a factionist (GV). However, Kalidasu kills that factionist and escapes from Rayalaseema and reaches Guntur. Kanakadurga (Jayasudha) brings him up along with her son Dev (Kumar). Kalidasu helps Dev to continue his studies in Hyderabad, by turning himself a car-lifter. Baba (Chalapati Rao) buys such lifted cars. His son Basha (Sunil) also becomes his good friend. Once, Kalidasu lifts a car and finds a girl hiding in it. The girl says that her name is Mirchi (Tamanna) and pretends that she is a lunatic. But Kalidasu does not believe that she is lunatic and suspects her that she is pretending. Once some goons led by Pratap and Ajay (Vinodkumar and Ajay) reach Guntur and take away Mirchi after killing Basha. Kalidasu goes to Hyderabad after noticing Dev's photo with Mirchi in her mobile phone. However, after going to the college, the principal (Tanikella Bharani) reveals that Dev is killed by the goons led by a political leader (Rajan P Dev) and his henchmen Pratap and Ajay to save the college maintained by Archana @ Mirchi. Kalidasu decides to take revenge against the killers of Basha and Dev. Then Kalidasu starts his mind game and plays a trick, which makes Pratap to kill his own brothers. Later, Ajay kills his brother-in-law Pratap. In the climax, Kalidasu's trick again makes Ajay meet his own death. The film ends on a happy note.

PLUS: Through out the film, the director has maintained good tempo and did not lose grip on the story. Though it is the debut film for the hero, Sushant showed excellent ease in dances and action scenes. Tamanna is gorgeous in the film. Her outfits, costumes make her appear very romantic. She has not much scope to perform but for a couple of scenes in the first half. Another major plus point is the performance by the villains, Vinod Kumar and Ajay. Songs by Chakri are just average. Performance by Jayasudha and Tanikella Bharani are routine, while comedy by Sunil and Ravibabu is hilarious.

MINUS: Debutant hero Sushant is not glamorous and appeared like Taraka Ratna in some scenes. If he is serious to continue in the profession, he needs to improve his glamour, by getting his teeth cut with cosmetic dental surgery kind of thing. Once he could elevate his glamour, he has all other qualities to get a mass hero image. Though the director has tried his best to run the film with good tempo, he made minute mistakes here and there. Like students keeping quiet while the goons stabbing the hero and their failure to realize their mistakes. There is a lot of wire work during the action scenes.

REMARKS: Despite less glamour, the debutant hero, Sushant, is able to gain mass hero image. There are several elements in the film like sentiment, glamour, action and love scenes in the film to cater to the needs of all classes of audiences. The film does not appear like a debutant's film and the production values of Sri Nag Corporation are adequate.

Cast: Sushant, Tamanna, Vinodkumar, Rajan P Dev, Ajay, Sunil, Kumar, Santosh Pawan, Nagababu, GV, Jayasudha, Hema, Surekhavani, Shakeela and others.

Credits: Dialogues – Rajasimha, Camera – Akhilan, Music – Chakri, Lyrics – Chandrabose, Action – Kanal Kannan, Presents – Annapurna Studios, Producers – Chintalapudi Srinivasa Rao and A Naga Suseela, Concept and direction – G Ravicharan Reddy.

Banner : Sri Nag Corporation.

Released on: April 11, 2008