Sri Satyanarayana Swamy Review

It is common among the people of Andhra Pradesh to perform Satyanarayana Vratam for any auspicious occasion in the household functions. One can find people doing the vratam after marriage, house warming and any other function. It is almost like a ritual and everyone follows it without any chance of missing.

Though people perform vratam, they really don't know the real story behind it and do it as a formality. In order to make people know the real meaning and the reason behind the incarnation of the lord, producer CS Rao came forward to produce a film on the history of Satyanarayana Swamy.

Lord Vishnu decides to manifest on earth to keep the people on a right track. Though in earlier times, he chose to personify on his own in different shapes and avatars, this time, he gives a serious thought that he should include his other counterparts Brahma and Siva also with him.

The Trimurthis join together and get a new shape called Satyadeva, while their consorts also turn one to become Satyavati. In order to fulfil his vow to Ratnakara in Thretha Yuga during Ramavatar, Satyadeva descends on Ratnagiri. Vishnu appears in the dream of Inuganti Venkata Rama Raja Bahaddur (Krishna) who was a devotee of Siva and informs him about his incarnation on Ratnagiri, while Lord Siva appears in the dream of a Vaishnavite purohit in the Raja's court and reveals the same. Both the king and the purohit search for Satyadeva and find him with the help of Nerellamma (Sivaparvati).

As was advised by the Lord, the king builds a big temple and consecrates the idol. After its completion, Lord Rama with his consort Sita from Bhadradri reaches Annavaram and performs the first-ever vratam on the hill shrine, with Narada (Rajkumar) as purohit. After the vratam, Satyadeva directs Narada to publicise about the greatness of the vratam among the public.

However, Narada wanted to do it in a different way by asking his father Brahma to create people with various vices and evil minds full of 'Arishadvarga' (eight kinds of evils) namely Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Mada and Matsarya. Both Narada and Satyadeva ensure that the vratam is performed by the people facing these evils. Then everyone comes to know about the greatness of Lord Satyadeva. The stories and histories of these people who were rid of those evils are now being narrated as six separate stories during the Satyanarayana vratam.

Suman sported 10 different attires and excelled in each of the character. Super Star Krishna as Raja Bahaddur, Bhanuchandar as Tungadhwaja, Ravali as Bhuvana, Vijayarangaraju as a tribal king, Ranganath as Ratnakara, also performed extremely well in their respective roles. Pinky Sarkar as Lakshmi failed to emote well.

The first half of the film ran with good tempo. However, the pace lost its speed in the second half, as the director tried to narrate the stories in a lighter vein by mixing some commercial elements. The graphic works in the film are good enough, while cinematography by Vijay C Kumar is adequate.

Songs tuned by Vandemataram Srinivas are truly devotional and melodious. Moreover, the lyrics were also scripted with good literary values.

The only drawback in the film is the dialogues by Sai Madhav which were not up to the mark. They looked routine way and failed to give the touch of a mythological film. There are however, no glaring flaws in the film as a whole.

Really the film was brought out well, though the director is a novice. Nagesh Naradasi did a great job in explaining the reason for the Lord's incarnation, the prominence of the Satyanarayana vratam.

Cast: Suman, Krishna, Bhanchander, Krishna Bhagawan, Karthik, Ranganath, Sudhakar, Rajkumar, Subbaraya Sharma, Vijayaranga Raju, Kavitha, Sivaparvath