What’s it about!

Ashok Deva (Arjun) becomes a don in Mumbai after fighting against a mafia leader. Soon he loses his wife in the fight in mafia rival killings, so he leaves the city and lands in a village on the banks of Godavari in Andhra Pradesh. He stays in the village along with his sister Priya (Priya Anand). And the village head’s son Rama Krishna (Ram) falls in love with Priya and in one of his encounters with another mafia don, he comes to know the real story of Ashok Deva. How street smart Rama Krishna solves the problems in the end forms rest of the story.

Analysis!

Biggest problem with so-called mass-masala action entertainers in Telugu is that they lack proper script. Most directors just mix several blockbusters together and write one or two interesting scenes (for them ‘blocks’), and try to put them in new bottle (in new cans). Director Sri Vaas, who made debut with ‘Lakshyam’, has done the same: he tried to rehash Rajnikant starrer Basha with other commercial hits of Telugu films. None of the scenes – heroine falling in love with hero after initial misunderstanding, a maradalu chasing bava for love, a father scolding hero, a mother supporting him, a brother behaving like a dummy, a gang of friends praising the hero - are novel. Everything is predictable and routine. Where the director has succeeded is that he didn’t put audiences in guessing the next scene as everyone easily tell what follows the next.

Sri Vaas’s first Lakshyam was also predictable mass flick but it had ‘sentiment and emotional’ backdrop to hold the audiences’ interest. Here it doesn’t work. A very tedious exercise in making another masala fare.

Performances

Ram is known for bringing high energy on to the screen. He does justice to his role. Arjun has not much length of role but he has brought dignity to the character. Priya Anand as the main heroine is okay. Bindu Madhavi plays unimportant second lead but it is nice to see Telugu speaking girls playing the lead roles. Gracy Singh as Arjun’s wife in a brief role is okay. Brahamanandam has tried to provide comic relief.

NTR has provided an introductory voice-over but that hardly has any scope for a big star like NTR to narrate it. A big hero like NTR should accept such obligations only when his voice brings some value to the film/story, as it was in the case of Mahesh Babu doing for Jalsa and Amitabh’s for Lagaan, other wise it would remain just a gimmick like what Chiru did for Varudu.

Technically too the film doesn’t score much brownie points. Sekhar V Joseph’s has done what is required for the film through his lenses. For a 200th movie, one expects better musical score from M M Keeravani. His songs are uninspiring. Ratnam’s dialogues are adequate. Action stunts (by Vijay) are good but they are too lengthy. Director Sri Vaas has failed both as story writer (by rehashing from several scenes) and as director to sustain the interest. Probably second movie syndrome! Producer Dil Raju has put on lot of expenditure to make the film grandeur but he should have concentrated on script than providing budget.

Bottom-line!

Rama Rama Krishna Krishna is an attempt to put old wine in new bottle but both bottle and the wine are not attractive. An outdated script with predictable narration.

Rating: 2.5/5