Geethanjali Review

Imagine the famous TV shows host Suma in the role of a devil.  Watching Anjali in such a role feels like the same.  Except saying ‘Emo.. Naku artham aipothayi anthe’ with a mega-benign face, Anjali looks like that Seethamma who is casually imitating a devil to entertain children around her in that one difficult scene for her.  With the extended story, dialogues and screenplay written by the Brahmi-loving, comedy-obsessed Kona Venkat, the way the devil makes facial grimaces evokes laughter, if not sheer disgust, when she appears in the climax after Rajiv Kanakala invokes the (stree) ‘shakti’ to stamp out the evil.  Everything about the climax is so improper in that when the formerly much-victimized devil is around, everyone with the exception of the one at the receiving end of her aggression is trying their best to make us laugh!  With a climax like this, you can imagine what kind of a film it is.

In the half-hearted, good devil’s revenge story with a high primacy for comedy and buffoonery, not to speak of the extra-happy lady (Anjali), there is place for everything and everyone except the devil.  When the D-Day comes amid high-decibel welcome song from a ‘poonakam’-filled Rajiv Kanakala, the geographically mobile devil comes and finishes her long-pending task without giving a single expression that mirrors the trauma and the bloody longing to eliminate her enemy. After the bloodbath, the sister comes with an expression that makes us wonder if she has been late to a kitty party!

If the devil is an under-performer, the enemy is an over-performer.  He tries to be a Rao Gopal Rao on steroids, acting with extra energy to no good effect.

To begin with, Srinivas Reddy wants to be a film director and during his trials, he comes across a businessman, Ramesh Rao (played by Rao Ramesh), who has an unfulfilled promise to his dead father: to win a Nandi Award.  Srinivas wants to convince him to produce his movie by promising that it will win a Nandi for sure.  He starts narrating the story of four youngsters who end up in the same apartment where a woman committed suicide some days ago.  The youngster, who is imagined to be Srinivas himself for the sake of narration, doesn’t want to stay in the apartment as it abuts a graveyard, but his friend thinks that it has good vastu and insists that they stay there.  Curious things start happening, even as Anjali visits Srinivas every night in his apartment for she likes his coffee.  Two other youngsters (played by Shakalakha Shanker and Sathyam Rajesh) too are scared that they are living with a devil that is fond of everything from Paradise Biryani to sweets.  As days pass, Srinivas comes to know that Anjali has been dead in reality.

It’s at this point that the narrator tells Ramesh Rao that he doesn’t know what happens next as the events that he has narrated have been happening in his life.

The first half is well-narrated and well-executed.  It feels fresh up to a point because one sees Srinivas Reddy in a full-fledged role.  In how many feels do we get to see the members of a haunted house being scared by the devil (comically referred to as ‘papa’ by them) only to be immediately greeted with a smile by a beautiful lady?  The Atreya-Arudra track is not a new idea but the dialogues work and their acting is good.  If this part is entertaining, the film descends into a routine trajectory later.  The screenplay goes for a toss and even Brahmanandam, in the role of a psychiatrist with chutzpah, fails to salvage the film.

Sapthagiri, Vennela Kishore and Tagubothu Ramesh are seen in cameos.  But it is the RGV-mimickin Shakalakha Shanker who is more entertaining than everyone else.  For Srinivas Reddy, it’s a good role and he is convincing in that.  Anjali is a disappointment.

The visuals are good.  Nothing home to write about the music or the BGM.

Verdict: The half-hearted revenge story of a geographically mobile devil doesn’t cut the ice.

Rating: 2.5/5

తెలుగు రివ్యూ కోసం ఇక్కడ క్లిక్ చేయండి