Movie Review - Srimanthudu (Telugu)

This is one film in which the entire screen time and space is completely occupied by the hero with not much scope for any other actor. The movie should have been named as ‘Fightman’tudu rather than Srimanthudu.

The story as lot of people know by now is about how a young man Harshavardhan( Mahesh Babu), son of a self-made billionaire adopts his father’s (Ravikanth played by Jagapathi Babu) village to create facilities for the people living there. Jagapathi Babu’s action was so-so and Sukanya, who played the role of Hero’s mother was more ornamental than anything else. She failed to get into the skin of a mother. The conversations between Mahesh and Jagapathi Babu were not really like between a father and son. Except for the point of adopting the village and a few touchy scenes, the movie is a bit slow and doesn’t meet the usual Mahesh’s movies which cause adrenaline-rush for the viewers. The fights are overdone and don’t match with the title of the movie. They remind one of Prabhas’s movie Mirchi.

The hero was stiff throughout the movie for reasons best known to the director. The female lead Charuseela played by Shruti Haasan is so-so as there was nothing for her to do like the other characters. Rajendra Prasad who played the role of Narayana Rao, heroine’s father, seems to have lost his acting spirit going by his monotonous way of delivering the dialogues. Vennela Kishore’s comedy is a little relief and he tried to carry himself well as Appa Rao. Though the screen has the presence of Ali, there was not much use of the same. The negative roles played by Sampath Raj as Sasi and Mukesh Rishi as Venkata Rathnam as central minister is too routine like and fail to make an impact. The other roles too played by Shivaji Raja, Surekha Vani, Subba Raju, Tulasi et al looked patchy. Tulasi The climax seems to have been made in a hurry to end the story as it was too unrealistic to believe even by Tollywood standards.

Though the screenplay is poor, the Director Koratala Siva was at his best in directing a few of the scenes especially the one in which Harsha convinces Narayana’s brother’s wife to not leave the village. The settings are good and the costumes are well designed throughout the film. Music by Devi Sri Prasad is good and the lyrics by Ramajogayya Sastry are rich in content. Jago, Rama Rama and Charuseela are well shot and are entertaining.

Major highlight of the movie is the way Mahesh looks. He is definitely getting younger with each movie and looks good. It is a treat for his fans to watch him.

Overall, it is a film which can be enjoyed because of the sheer power of the theme – village adoption. Most Indians believe that villages are the backbone of our nation and the successful ones wish to do something for their native place. The movie scores high in touching upon the same.

I would give 3 out of 5 for this movie.