Mahathma Review

It has been a while since the film `Mahathma' has become the talk of the town and true to its fame, it has got into few hitches with the censor board as well before hitting the screens. Well, the film seems to have lived to the hype and in a way got the audience to come out with a new impact.

A social treat, the story begins with a fight between the rich and powerful Kala Rani (Jyothi) and the local MLA Dada (Jayaprakash Reddy). This is regarding the slum NTR Nagar and Kala wants to convert the place into a SEZ. In this lives Das (Srikanth), a street side ruffian who does anything for money and due to few situations, he decides to get into movies. Knowing that Dada has connections in the industry, he joins his camp and Dada realizing Das's potential tries to manipulate him. Soon, Das realizes this and he decides to contest on his own. Meanwhile, Das also chances upon Krishnaveni (Bhavana), the local lawyer who bails him out whenever he gets into a tussle. Soon, their introduction turns to love. The story takes a turn when the local artist Ballari (Jagan) enlightens Das about Gandhiji and his doctrines. Whether Das gets influenced by this or not and does he try and bring any change or not forms the essence.

The director has come up with a very different concept which is unlike the regular themes that we see in movies today. The presentation and narrative has been quite in tandem.

The dialogues were good, the script was strong and the screenplay was adept. Background score and music was neat and three songs are worth taking home. Cinematography was top notch and editing was crisp. Costumes were apt to the theme and the art department was quite realistic. Fights were natural and overall, the technical aspects were impressive.

Highlights:

•     Srikanth's exceptional performance
•     Good narration by Krishna Vamsi
•     The concept of the movie
•     High technical values
•     The courage to attempt such a social theme
•     The political flavor

Drawbacks

•     Lack of strong comedy
•     Deglamorised heroine
•     Not much of entertainment factor

This is more of a serious movie and the film has definitely got something for the audience to take home. With the universal appeal that Gandhiji has got, the makers came in with a revolutionary attempt and taking up a real life situation and getting it onto the screen is worth appreciating. This will appeal to the youth audience and also the mass since the story backdrop connects to them well. Maybe the focus on the plot and not diverting into weak tracks like romance and songs would have made the movie more intense and got better results.

Srikanth has done justice to his 100th performance and his faith in Krishna Vamsi is also kept.

Jayaprakash Reddy was super, Uttej was neat, Jagan was class, Bhavana was alright but she should have focused on her looks, Brahmanandam was limited to one scene, Jyothi did justice, Ahuti Prasad was interesting, the others contributed in their own way.

Overall, this is a film that is thought provoking and the opening song which talks about the greatness of Telugu people and the pride of Telugus is hair rising. Good effort by the team!!!

Released on: 9th October, 2009