Kantri Review

Young Tiger NT Rama Rao, who gave a Blockbuster like Yamadonga after successive flops, was expected to repeat the magic in his next film. There are lots of expectations on the film as it is coming from a prestigious banner like Vyjayanti Movies of a star producer like Aswanidutt. Moreover, the film is directed by Meher Ramesh, a protege of Puri Jagananath, who has two hits in Kannada film industry to his credit. But unfortunately, all those expectations were negated by the poor narration of the director and he miserably failed to safeguard the image of the hero.

Pothu Raju (Prakash Raj) is the best friend of the son of a landlord (Mukhesh Rushi) and the latter after staying in the US for some time, returns to his village with family. He wants to set up a sugar factory. However, Pothu Raju kills his friend and his family to rob the Rs 100 crore, which is to be used for the setting up of the factory. He also kills the others, who helps him in the operation to avoid evidences. However, he spares another person (Asish Vidyardhi), who is his best friend. Pothu Raju tries to take his wife and son also with him but they refuses to go with him. Later, Pothu Raju becomes popular as PR, who does all kinds of illegal business and amasses wealth worth Rs 1,000 crore. On the other side, Kranti (NT Rama Rao) is an orphan and works for the orphanage Premalayam. Whe PR's activities in India, run by Asish Vidyardhi suffer setback due to some professional rivals and Kranti comes to their rescue. Kranti solves the problems even before the job is assigned to him and wins the confidence of PR. He goes to Hongkong to settle some differences there between PR and his professional rival (Murali Sharma). At this juncture, Kranti loses his heart to Varalakshmi (Hansika), daughter of Subbu (Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam), who works in a chit fund company. Once Kranti needs some money but Asish refuses to give the money, which forces him to distance from the gang and Kranti takes advance from PR's professional rival in India (Sayaji Shinde). Learning this, PR reaches India. When they encounter each other, Father Daivadheenam (Kota Srinivasa Rao) reveals that Kranti is none other than PR's son. PR, who doesn't have any sentiments till that day, gets bitten by the sentiment bug. Kranthi joins hands with PR and after a few days, Asish's daughter Priya (Tanisha) reaches India and falls in love with Kranti. However, Kranti makes it clear that he is in love with Varalakshmi. This irks Asish, who plans to grab the entire property by getting his daughter married to Kranti. PR and Asish get separated over the issue. Then all the PR's rivals turn united. They force PR to transfer all the property to Asish, threatening to kill Kranti. However, Kranti takes away all the money and reveals that he is not the son of PR but the son of his friend, who is killed by him. Now, PR joins the entire rival gang to take revenge against Kranti. But in the climax, everyone gets killed in the hands of Kranti.

PLUS: The lone plus point is the performance of NT Rama Rao. He owned the complete responsibility to make the film at least watchable to some extent. He showed good comedy timing, shrewdness in action scenes and good ease in dances. Hansika's role is completely limited to fill the glamour slot and she has no scope for performance. Prakash Raj has once again excelled in his role. Songs by Manisharma are good to listen but their choreography and the timing are not at all impressive.

MINUS: The director needs to take the blame for the failure of the entire film. Neither the screenplay has any grip, nor the story has any stuff but for the routine subject. Moreover, he has failed to establish any character on the screen. A mafia don, who has Rs 1,000 crore property and business, has been shown like a puppet and comedy villain. Not only the villain but almost all the negative characters in the film have been portrayed like comedy villains and there is no seriousness in any of the roles. The heroine's role is also not properly established. Despite the presence of several stalwarts like Sayaji Shinde, Mukhesh Rushi, Asish Vidyarthi and others, the director has failed to make use of any of them. The comedy track shot on Sunil is a parody to Rajinikanth, which is failed to evoke any laughter. Camera work by Sameer Reddy is just okay.

REMARKS: The audiences, who go to the theatres with lots of expectations, feel disappointed at the poor narration of the film. Though the first half is just okay with some comedy scenes and the love track, the second half is a total failure. The director has failed to match the image of NTR and he should realise that mere action scenes and a couple of dances can not serve any purpose in the absence of a gripping story and strong screenplay. The NTR fans will really disappoint at the failure of this movie.

Cast: NT Rama Rao, Hansika, Tanisha, Prakash Raj, Asish Vidyarthi, Mukhesh Rushi, Sayaji Shinde, Murali Sharma, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Brahmaji, Raghubabu, Subbaraju, Satyam Rajesh, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Benarjee, Krishna Bhagawan, MS Narayana, Jayaprakash Reddy, Ahuti Prasad, Brahmanandam, Sunil, GV, Narsing Yadav, Ali, Srinivasa Reddy, Hema, Master Bharat Kumar, and others.

Credits: Music – Manisharma, Cinematography – Sameer Reddy, Edting – Marthand K Venkatesh, Presents – C Dharmaraju, Producer – C Aswinidutt, Story, dialogues, screenplay and direction – Meher Ramesh

Banner: Vyjayanti Movies

Released on: May 9, 2008