Mumbai, July 22

By Our Bollywood Reporter Ms Divya Chawla

Lakshmi Roy makes a debut with this film. Her looks are good. She has yet to develop that histrionic sense needed to give a convincing performance of a difficult role.

Lakshmi Roy Photo Gallery

Cast: Srikanth, Lakshmi Roy, Satyanarayana, Annapurna, Kondavalasa, Sunil, Venu Madhav, Krishna Bhagavan, MS Narayana, Rajitha, Ali and Others.
Camera: Poorna.
Dialogue: Marudhuri Raja.
Editing: Srikar Prasad.
Music: KM Radhakrishnan.
Story, Screenplay & Direction: Parthasarathi.
Producers: Potluri Satyanarayana & KV Krishna Rao.
Banner: Ramya Movies.
Juvvalapalem is a coastal village in Godavari belt.

Click here to see Lakshmi Roy Photo Gallery

But what actually this film intended for is not clearly defined. Does the story writer-cum-director wanted to make it as a comedy or a crime drama? The man who is doubted to be a criminal is introduced in the opening parts of the drama. He is then sent to jail and then brought back only towards the end to present a blackmail drama through him. He is a young man who was jailed following the complaint made by one Sirisha (Lakshmi Roy). After completing the jail term, the young man comes straight to her to settle old score. By then the narration of the main line drama is complete.

But a look at it makes us feel it is a half-baked theme and equally half-hearted narration. There are plenty of characters and if you start naming them, you will understand they are all humor zoomers. Even Ali is brought in the last parts of the drama in an irrelevant scene to the main theme. Obviously the filmmakers understood that the intended main emotion – comedy – is not there. Even dialogue did not help.

It is about the family of a retired judge Viswanath (Satyanarayana). Annapurna plays his wife, who is sick by the time the film opens. The reason: The couple lost their daughter when she was a five year old or so. The search is on for her all these years. Viswanath's nephew Sudershan is everything for them. Sudershan is also awaiting the return of the child, named Kanchanamala. He even wants to marry her. Now that Annapurna is sinking, a lawyer friend (Tanikella) of Viswanath brings a girl named Sirisha (Laskhmi Roy) and plants her as the lost and found Kanchanamala. Except the lawyer and Viswanath none knows her real identity. Annapurna believes the story and recovers fast. Sudershan too starts pampering her introducing himself as her 'Bava'. Now it is a difficult role she is playing in the house. And her friend Usha also starts helping her. Meanwhile, Sudershan's cable TV business starts sinking as none in the village take the connection. He uses the cable TV as a weapon to expose the dirty acts of the married men and then convinces their women that the cable TV is an essential part in their life – to keep a watch over their husbands. And these husbands are sore with Sudershan for telecasting live, a dance program they arranged inviting some call girls.

Most of the length of the film is used only to picture the brackish behavior of the men of the village. They either drink or bid their time in gambling. One (Krishna Bhagavan) of them maintains a concubine. When time comes for Sirisha to leave the country for her studies abroad, Sudershan and Annapurna come to know of her real identity. That is also the time the blackmailer reappears. The story gets a twist here and runs as a crime drama, with Kanchanamala never to be seen.

Lakshmi Roy makes a debut with this film. Her looks are average. She has yet to develop that histrionic sense needed to give a convincing performance of a difficult role. For Srikanth this role is a cakewalk. Quite a number of comedians fill the rest of the roles, but only Sunil and Krishna Bhagavan stand out. KM Radhakrishnan's music is passable. -