 |
| Video Songs | Reviews | Wallpapers | Events | Gallery | Trailers | Exclusive | Contact Us |
|
|
Home > Telugu Movie Reviews > Lakshmi Intense Drama Narrated In Flashbacks Aslesha | January 14, 2006 Rating: **** (***** Very Good, **** Good, *** Fair, ** Average, * Bad) Cast: Venkatesh, Nayanatara, Charmme, Rajeev Kanakala, Sharwanand, Sayaji Shinde, Pradeep Rawat, Sameer, LB Sriram, Ahuti Prasad and Others. Action: Kanal Kannan. Cinematography: Chota K. Naidu. Story & Dialogue: Akula Siva. Editing: Goutham Raju. Lyrics: Chandrabose, Kulasekhar & Viswa. Music: Ramana Gogula. Script & Direction: VV Vinayak. Presenter: Baby Bhavya. Producer: Nallamalupu Srinivas (Bujji). Banner: Lakshmi Narasimha Productions. Release Date: 14th January, 2006.  The film opens with childhood drama, showing in black and white, a small boy going to the rescue of two other children being beaten by some urchin. He then comes to know that the boy beaten by the urchin, sprinkled ink on the latter's shirt. He then punishes the child who did that. Then the film enlarges into a canvas of big cinema - colour - showing them grown up. The boy who protected the other two children surfaces as Lakshmi Narayana (Venkatesh) and the other two are his younger brothers played by Rajeev Kanakala and Sharwanand. Thus the director establishes Lakshmi, the title character, as a creative man who is judicious in handling the youngsters, and responsible too.It opens with the usual college ragging and one scene after another steadies the character of Lakshmi, as heroic, who can handle any number of rowdies single-handed. The heroism dominates with display of super power of hurling the enemy across with such ease as if throwing a tennis ball. He goes to the rescue of his sister being ragged. The rest of the important roles get revealed one after the another and their relationship established, finally dividing them into two groups, good and bad, with Rawat and Sayaji shinde and their stooges on one side and the righteous Lakshmi Narayana on the other side. The story from then on takes many twists; most of them are stories coming to us through unending flashbacks. Then, in between, there is a picture of a girl in coma in a hospital under the care of a doctor (Ahuti Prasad), who tries to revive her. The first three reels establish the nature of Lakshmi, like helping his factory worker Sivayya (LB Sriram) financially, by donating money to his cause and making other workers too donate. By now we understand, Lakshmi is everything in this family, with his two sisters under his care. There is a mother, a widow, too, who looks at Lakshmi with awe. A flashback then reveals that Lakshmi is not their real son, but a caretaker, following the death of the main man of the family, played by Ranganath, who brought him up and his sister, both orphans, from almost their childhood.  Some events show that after the old man's death Lakshmi becomes the caretaker of the house and builds the factory and wealth of the family. But the two boys Rajeev and Sharwanand become tools in the hands of Sayaji, who once worked for the same factory, looted it and put Ranganath into trouble. Rawat's is a different story. His son played by a new face, wanted to marry the girl in the hospital (Nayanatara), but drove the girl into misery and she receives a head injury pushing her into the hospital. And yet another flashback reveals that Lakshmi fell in love with Nayanatara and when she was cornered by Rawat's dirty son, he goes to her rescue and beats Rawat's men and his son so badly that the ugly man too becomes mentally deranged. Rawat's aim is to discover who Lakshmi is and take revenge on him. Then in parallel, Sayaji Shinde too continues his mischief, making the selfish Rajeev and Sharwanand, Ranganath's sons, slaves to women and wine. How Lakshmi in the process of reforming them gets revealed that he is not the real son of Ranganath, but one who was brought up by him along with his sister comes later in yet another flashback. The rest of the story narrates how Lakshmi keeps himself away from the wealth of the family and yet keeps an eye on the prospects of all the true heirs of the family. In doing so he punishes Sayaji Shinde, Rawat and his son.The story is pretty long and takes enough time to unwind the stories of each one of the characters. Lakshmi opens the eyes of the two sons and daughter of Ranganath and rejoins the family on the request of the widow of Ranganath, who goes to the extent of threatening her own children that she would bequeath all her property if her children do not change. At the same time the drama also leads to the recovery of Nayanatara to rejoin her lover Lakshmi. The love drama too takes some more length. The other girl is played by Charmme, the Personal Assistant of Lakshmi in the factory who hoped to marry him, misunderstanding his affection to her as love. If one goes on narrating even the important twists in the story line, that will go to three times the length of what is already mentioned. There is a deliberate attempt to render the film action oriented, which Venkatesh needs badly these days. The film that way is a success and has emerged as the most rewarding exercise among the four films so far released. It has all the ingredients of a mass drama. One would sure enjoy this, if one forgets the possibilities and probabilities. Venkatesh offers good histrionic talent in all the chunks of drama with well-measured performance. Of the villains Rawat excels as usual, though his role is limited to the final phase of the drama. Sayaji Shinde's role is more as a conceit and a schemer with an intention to erase the entire family and to usurp their estates. The film that runs beyond three hours duration is still worth watching, for its technical beauty and intense drama. Sunil plays the son of Sayaji and gets the opportunity of revealing his histrionic skills in the last parts of the drama. |