Premabhishekam - Review

It has become a common phenomenon in the Telugu film industry to use the titles of old hit films for the latest flicks. However, very few films with such old hit titles are proving hits that were released at a latter date. Dasari Narayana Rao gave a fantastic silver jubilee hit with Akkineni Nageswara Rao with a message that sacrifice is greater than love two decades ago. Incidentally, he had scripted a parody for that hit film and gave it to Venumadhav. With great expectations on the story that came from a person with a great stature, Venumadhav himself came forward to produce the film, but chose a director, who gave a flop believing in the strength of the story. However, it proved a mockery as the producer cum hero has no individuality of his own and has a fascination of imitating others.

Tablets Nageswara Rao (TNR) lives in a village with his grandmother Rayalaseema Sakuntala (Telangana Sakuntala). His granny forces him to marry TNR's niece Gajalakshmi (Geeta Singh). When Nageswara Rao refuses to marry her, his granny gives him 100 days time to marry a girl of his choice in the city or else marry Gajalakshmi. So, Nageswara Rao reaches city and meets his friend Muralimohan (Sunil) expressing his wish to marry a city girl. Accidentally, Nageswara Rao happens to see a girl Sridevi (Priya Mohan) and loses his heart. Muralimohan also falls in love with her. However, Sridevi chooses Nageswara Rao and takes him to his house. Sridevi's father refuses to give his daughter and tells Nageswara Rao to earn Rs 25 lakhs first and then ask Sridevi's hand. Nageswara Rao tries his best to earn money by striving hard but can not earn much. So he decides to earn money by bluffing and fooling the public. Noticing Nageswara Rao's intelligence, an ad agency's director (Melkote) appoints him as their ad films director and Nageswara Rao proves his talent and earns money in no time and demands Sridevi. At this juncture, Nageswara Rao suffers ill-health and goes to a doctor for medical check up. Nageswara Rao hears the doctor Gummadi (Dharmavarapu) words about a cancer patient and believes that he is talking about him. He then decides to sacrifice his love as Sridevi may turn a widow because of his death. He plays several tricks to make Sridevi believe that Nageswara Rao is unfit for her. Later, Nageswara Rao goes to Mumbai for an ad film's shoot and a Mumbai model Jayasudha (Ruthika) says that she is in love with him. Jayasudha's brother Hyderabad Haribhai (Srihari) is a big mafia don. Though he refuses her love initially, agrees for their marriage. At this juncture Nageswara Rao comes to know that Muralimohan is trying to trap Sridevi. Knowing well that Muralimohan is a bad guy, Nageswara Rao decides to stop the marriage. Haribhai comes in search of Nageswara Rao. The latter tells Haribhai that he is going to die soon with cancer. Haribhai summons Gummadi, who reveals that Nageswara Rao has no cancer. This clears Nageswara Rao's doubts and again he tries to reveal the same to Sridevi and appeals to her not to marry Muralimohan. Sridevi also speaks to Dr Gummadi and clarifies that Nageswara Rao is telling the truth. In the climax, Nageswara Rao is in soup as Sridevi, Jayasudha and Gajalakshmi forcing him to marry them. Finally, Gajalakshmi agrees to marry an auto driver, while Jayasudha throws her weight to Muralimohan and Sridevi unites with Nageswara Rao and the film ends on a happy note.

PLUS: There is nothing to talk about plus points in this film but for a couple of comedy scenes. Venumadhav bores the audiences with his routine comedy. He has no individuality at all and always tries imitate Rajinikanth, Balakrishna, Chiranjeevi, Pawan Kalyan and do a mimicry artist's job instead of proving himself a hero. Ruthika, though played a heroine, has performed like a vamp with dirty mannerism of hitting the thigh of the males who move by her side. Priyamohan has also tried her best to show oomph, but failed miserably. The only saving grace is the performance of Srihari. His Telangana slang in dialogue delivery evokes good response in the theatres. Nagababu should have refused to do the role in the film as he has nothing much to do in the film but to fire shots from pistols.

MINUS: The film appears like patchwork of some comedy scenes in various films and nothing more. Moreover, neither the hero nor the director has tried to show some novelty in their respective works. When the hero is said to be suffering from an ailment like cancer, he should maintain certain dignity and the scenes around him should evoke comedy and the hero should not do comedy on his own. The action scenes in the film are unnecessary and quite cinematic. The film definitely can not attract any class of audiences including the front-benchers. The only saving grace is Srihari's appearance and performance.

REMARKS: Making a film is not a time-pass work. There should be some kind of seriousness in it. It is absurd if anyone thinks that the audiences will watch anything that is shown on screen. Mere gathering of some comedy skits and making parody of a great classic from a popular hero is nothing but degrading the great heroes of yesteryears. Better our Telugu actors and technicians avoid playing such mischief once again.

Cast: Venumadhav, Ruthika, Priya Mohan, Geeta Singh, Srihari, Nagababu, Sunil, Jayaprakash Reddy, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Melkote, Ali, Brahmanandam, Krishna Bhagawan, Duvvasi Mohan, Srinivasa Reddy, MS Narayana, Kadambari Kiran, Uttej, Kondavalasa Lakshmana Rao, AVS, Sana, Telangana Sakuntala and others

Credits: Lyrics – Chandra Bose and Bhaskarabhatla, Music – Chakri, Story – Dasari Narayana Rao, Camera – Srinivasa Reddy, Editing – Nagireddy, Presents – Trivikram, Producer – Venumadhav, Direction – SS Vikram Gandhi.

Banner: Savitri Cinema