Ullasamga.. Utsahamga.. Review

The day Dil Raju announced that he is going to distribute the film 'Ullasamgaa. Utsahamgaa.' directed by Karunakaran, the expectations on the success of the movie went up, in view of his experience in judging the saleability of the flick. Moreover, the film came from a successful Kannada producer like BP Somu. Director Karunakaran who gave a blockbuster with Pawan Kalyan like 'Tholiprema' could not repeat the magic once again, while trying to promote the producer's son Yasho Sagar as hero. The storyline has not much new to talk about, but for the twists and gimmicks added by the director. Sneha Ullal's glamour and performance also went waste in the absence of mass masala elements in this love subject.

Dhanalakshmi (Sneha Ullal) is the lone daughter of a landlord who has over Rs 50 crore property. As she lost her mother in her childhood, her father marries another woman (Kavitha). However, Dhana faces neglect from her stepmother. After Dhana's father passes away, there is no one to console her and the only friend who showed affection was Balaji. He too leaves her after she completes her Class X. After Dhana grew up, she bequeaths her father's property and her mother eyes it and wanted to marry Dhana against her wishes. So Dhana escapes from house and takes shelter in her friend's house in Hyderabad. Aravind (Yasho Sagar), son of a mechanic, who moves like a vagabond with friends sans any responsibility. He comes across Dhana and loses his heart to her. However, after a few encounters, Dhana gets caught by her stepmother and when she was about take her away, Aravind helps her from the abduction with the help of police. This makes Dhana to befriend with Aravind and she reveals her childhood friendship and tells Aravind that she is in love with Balaji and can't imagine any other in his place. After refusal, Aravind decides to go to Kolkata in search of a job and at the same time, Dhana also comes to know that Balaji is in Kolkata. They both again meet in train and accidentally Dhana misses the train during the journey. So Aravind helps her reach Kolkata to meet her childhood friend Balaji. In the process, Aravind gets severely hurt in the hands of a criminal, who tries to implicate Dhana in a narcotics case. Later, Aravind takes Dhana to Balaji's house in Kolkata. Dhana's stepmother also reaches Kolkata and agrees for Dhana's marriage with Balaji. When the marriage was about to take place, Dhana realises that her stepmother enacted a drama and created a fake Balaji to impress Dhana. Again Aravind comes to her rescue and at that time Dhana realises that she was in love with Aravind and the film ends on a happy note with the success of love between Dhana and Aravind.

PERFORMANCE:

Yasho Sagar performed well to a certain extent, though he was a novice. Especially he showed good ease in dances. His facial expressions are fine but his body was a little rigid. Had he improved his histrionics and body language, he could be said as a promising artiste. Hopefully, he could improve his rigidness by his next film. Next comes Sneha Ullal. Though the hero is a debutant, the heroine is not a novice and already faced camera for a Bollywood film, opposite Salman Khan for 'Lucky'. All the other characters like Chandramohan, Kavita and LB Sriram did justice to their respective roles. However, some characters appeared doing a little overaction in the film. Especially, Sudha, Surekhavani and Satyakrishnan appeared a little overenthusiastic. Comedy by Brahmanandam, Suman Setty, Sunil and Venumadhav tickled the funny bone and evoked laughter from the audiences.

TECHNICAL:

The director failed to manage a good tempo all through the film. The entire first half was devoted to show the mischievous acts of the hero and to build the love and friendship between the hero and the heroine. It appears the director did not concentrate well on the screenplay as he lost grip on the script for several times in the entire first half and a considerable part in the second half. But for the scenes about 15 minutes after the interval and before the climax, the remaining part of the film appeared bored. However, the only solace is the music by GV Prakash Kumar, nephew of AR Rahman. All the songs are lilting, the costumes and the choreography of songs are worth watching. Camera work by Andrew is just okay while editing by Marthand K Venkatesh is adequate. But for a couple of unnecessary scenes, which escaped from the scissors of Marthand, on an overall basis it is okay. Chintapalli Ramana's dialogues are good in parts.

REMARKS:

The promos that were released and telecast in various private channels made the audiences to decide that the hero is promising. However, when it comes to the film, the hero appeared very rigid and the movement of the story is full of ebbs and tides. Moreover, the film doesn't have any kind of mass masala elements and were shot in a routine and old fashioned way. Unless the film gets a good mouth publicity, the survival of the film is in a limbo.

Cast: Yasho Sagar, Sneha Ullal, Chandramohan, Brahmanandam, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Sunil, Venumadhav, LB Sriram, Prasadbabu, Gauthamraju, Kavitha, Sudha, Satyakrishnan, Surekhavani, 'Allari' Subhashini, Sobharani, Apoorva and others

CREDITS: Dialogues - Chintapalli Ramana, Lyrics - Anant Sriram, Editing - Marthand K. Venkatesh, Camera - I Andrew, Music - GV Prakashkumar, Art  - Chinna, Action - Vijay, Choreography - Kalyan, Producers - BP Somu and GS Ranganath, Story, screenplay and direction - A Karunakaran.

Banner: Amrit Amarnath Arts.

Released on: July 25, 2008