Punnami Nagu – Review

Though the film has been titled Punnami Nagu, it has nothing to do with the Chiranjeevi blockbuster Punnaminagu. Despite being directed by a senior director like A Kodandarami Reddy, the film has failed to offer anything novel. Several films have come with two King Cobras moving together and one of them getting killed by villains and the second one taking revenge. The director has failed to serve the old wine in a new bottle in a different flavour and style.

Sorceress Karjari (Nalini) plans to grab the powerful Nagamanis from two snakes to become the monarch by. Another sorcerer Namboodri (Sajid Khan) also tries for the same. Karjari takes the help of a group of people (Vinodkumar, Varni, Lochan) who have been researching on snakes and finds the snake couple. On a full moon day, the snakes decide to submit their Nagamanis to Lord Mahesha and come under Karjari"s scanner. Karjari uses her tantrik power to capture them, but the three people who helped Karjari try to grab the Nagamanis. One of them shoots the snakes and the male snake dies of bullet injury and the second snake escapes. Karjari tells them to capture a girl with a specific mark on her back, which will help her capture the snake who escaped from the spot, with the other Nagamani.

In a bid to capture that girl, the group starts kidnapping girls from hostels. ACP (Nizhalgal Ravi) decides to arrest the culprits by gathering evidence with the help of his daughter (Mumaith Khan). However, the gang murder the ACP and grievously injure his daughter. A petty thief gang (Rajiv Kanakala and Srinivasa Reddy) rescue her and admit her to a hospital. Karjari finds the girl with specific mark with her tantrik power and directs the mafia gang to catch her and put the Nagamani which was taken from the male snake into her body. They threaten the doctor and complete the job. But, the ACP"s daughter after recovering from wounds start taking revenge on those who killed her father. Surprisingly, one after the other dies of snake-bite. Karjari realises that it is the Nagin who is killing them by taking the physical body of the ACP"s daughter. On the next full moon day, Karjari decides to capture the Nagin. As per the routine belief good always prevails over bad, the Nagin kills Karjari and submits both the Nagamanis to Lord Mahesha.

PLUS:

The film has nothing new to offer and the graphic work remains to be a small solace. Mumaith Khan's oomph remains the only added attraction for the mass audiences. Apart from showing her physique in two-piece dresses and shaking legs for a couple of action scenes, Mumaith Khan has failed to impress the audiences. The comedy track involving Rajiv Kanakala, Suhasini, Srinivasa Reddy and MS Narayana is just okay. However, Suhasini too has not performed well as an innocent girl. Camera work by PN Babu is adequate and he has been able to use the graphics that have come as an inter-section in an effective way.

MINUS:

The earlier film with the same title was a blockbuster and had a meaningful story. Chiranjeevi and Madhavi had really lived their characters and was brought out by a prestigious banner like AVM. By choosing the title, director Kodandarami Reddy has miserably failed to impress the audiences. The narration is atrocious and screenplay is very old-fashioned. At a time, when the people are admiring films like Arundhati with excellent graphic works, a socio-fantasy film like Punnami Nagu has proved how the graphics have been poorly used in the film. Despite the presence of good artistes like Varni, Lochan, Rajiv Kanakala and Nalini, the director has failed to extract the real talents in them in the absence of a gripping story and improper screenplay. Even the dialogues penned by Veligonda Srinivas lacked any punch. Music by SA Rajkumar is average and none of the tunes are catchy or hummable.

REMARKS:

Just by listening to the title, and watching the attractive posters of Mumaith Khan, if any goes to the theatre to watch the movie, he would realise that the film is far below the expectations and would curse himself for wasting his money and time. Mumaith Khan should restrict herself to item numbers instead of craving for heroine roles. Definitely it is not a must watch movie and one need not blame oneself for not watching this movie.

Cast: Mumait Khan, Rajiv Kanakala, Suhasini, MS Narayana, Vinodkumar, Varni, Lochan, Nizhalgal Ravi, Sajid Khan, Srinivasa Reddy, Madhu, Nalini, 'Allari" Suhasini and others.

Credits: Story – Yandamuri Veerendranath, Dialogues – Veligonda Srinivas, Screenplay – Swamiji, Music – SA Rajkumar, Camera – PN Babu, Editing – Nandamuri Hari, Art – Krishna Maya, Action – Vijay, Choreography – Sivashankar, Pradeep, Anthony and Swarnababu, Presents – Maheswara Reddy (Sai Reddy), Producer – G Vijayakumar Goud, Direction – A Kodandarami Reddy.

Banner: Sound and Claps.

Released on: April 10, 2009