Kauravudu
Nagababu’s effortless portrayal

Producer-actor Nagababu, brother of Chiranjeevi, has a penchant for offbeat themes. He made Rudraveena with a big star like Chiranjeevi but did not succumb to b-o dictates. His Kauravudu is again a novel attempt in which he portrays two facets of the character he enacts, a ruthless man and a soft-person, effortlessly and has walked away with acting the honours. Debutant director Jyothikumar handled a serious subject perfectly by balancing the first half with comedy and later sustaining the serious mood till the end.

Though such an approach is slightly ‘risky’ for a Telugu film, the director deserves to be lauded for taking a chance since even seasoned directors are known to disturb the mood just to provide entertainment. Nagababu is the head of a village. He dislikes women folk. No one dares to question what he does as everyone is afraid of him. The convicts are tonsured and all of them wait for an opportunity to teach him a lesson. Ramya Krishna comes to the village as a school teacher and earns the wrath of Nagababu by asking him to repair the school building and also few other things.

Ramya asks his mother (Annapoorna) the reason for his dislike for women, which is revealed in a flashback. Nagababu is a soft person who leads a happy life with his wife and a kid. But all hell breaks loose when he happens to see the wife with another man in his bedroom and he axes him to death. The wife commits suicide thereby planting a wrong notion about women in his mind. The village school collapses and Nagababu realises his mistake for not repairing the building since his own son is also caught under the debris. Now he is a reformed man. He falls in love with Ramya since she shows a liking for his son. Unfortunately, Ramya’s lover (Achyut) arrives.

Nagababu can’t imagine life without her as she rejects his love. Some goons attempt to rape her and when caught they put the blame on Nagababu. With Ramya unwilling to believe him, he tonsures his head heeding to the judgement of the villagers. She leaves the village and later starts disliking Achyut for casting aspersions on her. She finally walks out on him and saves the kid from the jaws of death and all ends well. Nagababu took up an unconventional role maybe because he is vying for a different slot. Achyut shines in a negative role, while Ramya has essayed her role with ease.

Manasuna Maharaju

Fails to impress

Seasoned director Muthyala Subbiah, despite having a good script, fails to make an impressive film. Rajsekar helps poor girl Laaya to join MBBS and when she praises him he wrongly assumes that she is in love with him but on the other side Laaya treats him as God and she can’t think of marrying him. Finally, Laaya agrees to marry him but it looks more out of ‘compulsion’ than ‘love’ since the director hasn’t given sufficient time for the transition in her but has hurried up things. Instead of wasting footage on a lengthy comedy track, he could have utilised it for establishing the ‘twists’ in the script.

Rajsekar again proves himself as an emotional actor and young actress Laaya strides with him by delivering a commendable performance. Dr Rajsekar, son of Manorama, hails from a rich family and is known for his charity. He gains enough respect from the villagers and occasionally fights with Kota Srinivas for his evil deeds. Laaya despite coming first in EAMCET exams is unable to enrol herself in MBBS due to her poor financial status. Rajsekar gets her admitted in MBBS and she starts treating him like her God and philosopher.

When Laaya expresses her gratitude to Rajsekar he assumes it to be love and informs his mother that he will get married to her. After some time, when he realises that she is not in love, he is disturbed. When Laaya’s family fixes her marriage with another boy, he decides to financially help her although everyone is against it. At the mandap, she falls at the feet of Rajsekar and they get married. The director might as well have dispensed with the Ashasini song and track since it doesn’t jell with the proceedings. The songs are worthless. LB Sriram outscores other comedians with his crispy one-liners.

BVS Prakash

Parthean Rasithean

Prasanth and Simran excel

Sharan has created a well-knit screenplay that brings out the love and friendship between three youngsters. Prasanth gives a career best performance as a youth caught between his affection to a girl he is friendly with and a girl whom he loves. Prasanth and Simran are friends. Simran’s brother Raghuvaran is a lawyer and Prasanth is a tenant. The brother and sister do not see eye to eye and it’s left to Prasanth to act as the mediator. A chance meeting with Laila at a bustop results in Prasanth madly falling in love with her. In this matter of the heart, Simran plays the role of Prasanth’s adviser. To wriggle out a situation Prasanth and Simran agree to marry each other but when Laila comes to know of it, she spurns Prasanth.

Simran refuses to walk out of the fake marriage arrangement. She then reveals that she herself is in love with him and that she has no idea of walking out of this arrangement. She then unites with her brother to frighten Laila and make her walk out but it backfires. Laila attempts suicide when Simran (a house surgeon) rescues Laila from her suicide attempt. Prasanth offers to marry Simran if she saved Laila. All this makes Simran realise the intensity of the lovers.

Prasanth, as the troubled lover boy who cannot reveal the secret pact between him and Simran who has been a very good friend but has started behaving like a girl in love and the innocent Laila who cannot understand the complexties of the happenings, has given a very good performance. Laila fits in the role of the innocent girl in love. Camerawork of Venkatesh is eyecatching. Music by Ramani Bhardwaj goes to enhance the entertainment value.

Simhasanam

Vijaykanth shines in triple role

Simhasanam follows the successful “triple role” formula of Vanathepol by casting Vijaykanth again in a triple role and the actor has successfully carried out the task. The only weak link is Rajkumar’s music, which is not very appealing. The film also does not have enough of action usually associated with a Vijaykanth starrer.

Elder brother Vijaykanth, a zamindar married to Kushboo, hates younger brother Vijaykanth who was born out of an illicit wedlock between his father and a maid servant (Viji). Ambika, the mother of Vijaykanth, tells him that his father was murdered by the maid, because of which he hates his step brother. Radhika Chowduri and Manthra are two daughters of Radha Ravi and Thigu, the brothers of Ambika. These girls love younger Vijaykanth. Amidst all this are several political issues including the one about land ceiling, which Vijaykanth has used as a platform to talk about his political interests, hinting at his possible entry into politics.

There are characters in the film story which bear resemblance to real life politicians. Although the combination of political overtones and a family drama is likely to go well with the star’s fans, the film, which lacks action scenes on a large scale, might disappoint action lovers. The heroines have nothing much to do in the proceedings.

Ayyappa Prasad