Movie Review - Gautamiputra Satakarni

Firstly Krish should be appreciated for taking up the tough task of telling the world about Satakarni, the Satavahana ruler. It is not easy to condense a 24 years history into a 135 minutes film. The writer-cum-director's choice of Balakrishna is very apt for the title of this film as only he can do justice to such characters. Krish who is known to choose his artistes well doesn't seem to have been successful in selection of other artistes for the characters. Hema Malini as Gautami and Shriya Saran as Vashishti could not carry the augustness of the characters they represented. Even the characters played by Tanikella Bharani, Sudhakar, Siva Krishna paled in the way they played their roles as messengers to Nahapana(played by Kabir Bedi) and Kalahasteeswara( played by Shiva Rajkumar). Farrah Karimee as Athena is stunning and shined in her role though it was brief. 

Coming to the film, it is Bala Krishna who did the tough job of carrying the story impressively till the end as he has the natural Telugu pride embedded in his personality. The first half doesn't really have anything that kindles the pride of Telugus except for showcasing the wars that Satakarni went to and expanding his kingdom in the whole of south. History may not tell us whether Satakarni slapped his thigh, before going to or after winning a war, but Krish made him to do so just before the intermission. 

In the second half, the film dwells on how Satakarni goes to war to annex Nahapana's kingdom. The war scenes in which Satakarni fights along with his young son Vashishtiputra Pulumavi are a drag and leave the audience with the doubt whether it happened in that way. Bala Krishna did a fantastic job in the scene in which Satakarni dedicates his victory to his mother and calls himself as Gautamiputra Satakarni before taking the throne. The song 'mriganayana .. ' and the choreography for that song are good. The third song before the last war in which Satakarni inspires his army could have been avoided. Through out the film, the background score is a big distraction especially during the war scenes though they were shot well. 

One suggestion I would like to make to Krish and any director attempting such epic stories as films is to please tell audience the story in a narrative manner preferably with voice over so that they can involve and connect more while watching. I am not sure if he has achieved his desired and real objective with this film though both AP and Telangana governments have given tax exemptions.

For the brave effort and road-less-travelled approach of Krish and Bala Krishna's majestic looks as Satakarni, Satyanarayanammaputra Krishna Kiran gives this film a *** 1/2.