Mallepoovu - Review

Thespian Sobhanbabu's Mallepoovu was a big hit during those days. The film had several good qualities and the title was very apt for it. But using the same title for the latest film just because the heroine's name is Malliswari is nothing but simply cheating the audiences. The latest film of Samudra has neither softness nor any other good quality to use the title. The entire film has plenty of lapses. Making a film with a love subject is okay. Doing a film with action backdrop is also okay. Terrorism is not an ordinary subject to be linked with anything. But the director has choden to link terrorism with love and thus embarrassed the audiences.

Koti (Muralikrishna) works as a labourer in a construction and he always plans to go to Dubai and earn lots of money. Chanti (Samudra) is his close friend. Once another labourer, brings a person called Malli to the mason couple (RK and Kovai Sarala) and pleads with them to give a job. Till that time, Koti used to serve tea and meals to the labourers. Realising that the person is quite tender and unable to do labour work they swap the jobs and this irks Koti and he bears grudge against Malli. Later, he finds that Malli is a girl, but keeps quiet. Once the police reach the place in search of a girl. Likewise, some terrorists are also in search of the girl. When Koti gets his passport, he thinks of proposing to Malli and finds that the police are chasing Malli. He tries to save Malli, but finds that some goons have kidnapped her. Police take him into custody and thrash him severely believing that he too had links with that girl. The labourers are surprised at the turn of events as they continue to believe that Malli is a boy and learns that she is a terrorist. But, Koti believes that Malli is innocent and decides to save her at any cost. Accidentally he finds Malli is in a brothel and pleads with its owner (Sakuntala) to send her with him. But she demands Rs 2 lakh. By the time Koti arranges the money, the terrorists kill the people in brothel and take Malli away. But they could not get the mobile SIMs with her and come to know that they are with Koti. They call up Koti and order to bring them. In the climax Koti succeeds in saving Malli from the terrorists and also hands over the SIMs to the High Court and get her acquitted from terrorist brand. Malli returns to Bangladesh where her parents stay.

PLUS: Bhumika has given a fantastic performance all through the film and has done complete justice to her role. The director has kept very few dialogues for her as she has the capacity to express many feelings though expressions. She emotes well both in general scenes as well as sentimental scenes. One needs to appreciate her for her mute expressions with wide and smart eyes. Especially she has given brilliant expressions, when the secrets start unravelling in the second half,. Muralikrishna too shows good ease in performance. He bears similarities with Srikanth regarding his facial features and has quite a rugged face. He needs to improve his diction and body language. Samudra has a supporting role in the movie as hero's buddy but it appears a little bit of overaction. All the songs in the film are good to listen. Maestro Illayaraja has scored the tunes for the songs.

MINUS: There are many lapses in the film. When a person is branded as a terrorist and when he is from another country, there will be some interaction between both the countries. The heroine is branded as a terrorist in India, but her parents do not know it. It is absurd to say that mere SIM cards would help in blasts. It will have several other modules. The tender face of Bhumika will not give a feel to the audiences to believe her as a boy just by making her wear a man's clothes. The storyline itself is poor and is a direct lift from an Iranian's movie. It is a surprise how the story prepared by Ramesh Varma impressed a great maestro like Illayaraja and a good heroine like Bhumika so much. Though the basic storyline is okay, the movement is very poor and boring. Taking lengthy footage, Samudra has done injustice to the hero to some extent. None of the artistes including RK, Suman Setty, Kadal Sukumar, Venumadhav, Kovai Sarala and Gita Singh could tickle the funny bone. It is a surprise how Farzana agreed to do a sizzling item number in the movie.

REMARKS: The efforts of the director, the production values of Sri Samudra Silver Screens banner of Mohan Vadlapatla, are just okay. The film may not be a hit due to the slow movement of a major part of the first half Samudra devoted the entire second half to unravel the secrets that were kept in suspense in the first half.

Cast: Muralikrishna, Bhumika, RK, 'Kadal' Sukumar, Suman Shetty, Sameer, Hemasundar, Tilak, Farzana, Kovai Sarala, Abhinayasri, Geetha Singh, Telangana Sakuntala and others.

Credits: Story – Ramesh Varma, Dialogues – Vemagiri, Camera – Anil Bandari, Editing – Chandu, Nandamuri Hari, Music – Ilayaraja, Lyrics – Veturi Sundararamamurthy, Choreography – Suchitra, Krishna Reddy, Swarna, Raju, Vidya, Art – Ramana Vanka, Presents – P Prasad Raju, Producer – Mohan Vadlapatla, Screenplay and direction – V. Samudra

Banner: Sri Samudra Silver Screens

Released on: September 20, 2008