Vihari Review

Tulsikumar made his debut into the direction through 'Harischandra' (Annee Abaddhale) with JD Chakravarthy as hero. This time he chose a love story as the theme of his film. It is a triangular love story, but Tulsikumar tried to portray the point on the silver screen that true love would never look for an alternative though it was a failure due to unavoidable circumstances. At the same time, the director made a bid to explain that the taste of true love with Indian tradition and culture in the backdrop.

Arthi (Polin) is a girl from an Indian Telugu family, born and brought up in the US. She gets used to enjoy life on the lines western culture. A boy Raj (Vasu) falls in love with her and proposes her. But Arthi did not accept his proposal. She feels that she needed a good break from the boring western life and go on vacation somewhere in the world. She chooses her destination as India and thought of visiting Kanyakumari to spend some time there.

She meets Chandu (Mithun) a tourist guide in India. Chandu tells her about the greatness of Indian culture and tradition, but did not get lured by her advances and keeps himself off. Arthi likes the gentleman quality in him. Later she comes to know from Chandu's friends who were also the tourist guides that Chandu was in love with Kavita (Nikeesha), who was no more.

In fact, Chandu was from a rich family and visits Kanyakumari on a study tour and settles there after falling in love with Kavita. Chandu marries Kavita against the wishes of her maternal uncle Samudra (Raviprakash). Chandu starts earning money by working as tourist guide and they lead a happy life.

One fateful day, when Chandu and Kavita were on outing, Kavita drowns in the sea in a hurricane attack. After Kavita dies, Chandu loses interest on life but remains alive only to fulfil her wish to give life to art and crafts. After coming to know all this Arthi proposes to Chandu but he refuses saying that he still loved Kavita, though she is not alive.

Raj comes to India in search of Arthi and instigates Samudra against Chandu. In the melee, Samudra dies in the hands of Chandu and surrenders to police. Arthi stays back and makes efforts to fulfil the dreams of Kavita. Soon after Chandu's return from jail, he comes to know how Arthi fulfilled Kavita's dream. As Arthi fulfilled the dream of Kavita, Chandu turns very happy and dies with satisfaction.

Mithun, who was basically a Kannada hero made his debut appearance in Telugu. He looked imitating Aravinda Swamy in many scenes. Though not a novice, he still needs to improve his body language.

Nikeesha is a bad choice as she had neither glamour nor acting talent.

Polin, though a foreigner, gave a good performance. She looked more beautiful in traditional Indian saree. She played with good ease both in emotional scenes and dance numbers.

Cinematographer Ramana Raju did a good job in capturing the natural beauty of both Kanyakumari and also the foreign locales. Some of the graphics used in the film (especially the hurricane in the sea) are good to watch.

Production values of Dasami Creations are good. Bharadwaja's music is not that appealing while a couple of songs are good to listen.

Director Tulsikumar could not narrate the subject properly and it is the screenplay that played a spoilsport.

Cast: Mithun, Nikeesha, Polin Misha, Raviprakash, Vasu, LB Sriram, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Krishna Bhagawan, Kadambari Kiran, Rajesh, Ravikanth, Yousuf, Sandeep, Vijayasai, Vizag Prasad, Sudeepa and others

Credits: Camera - Ch Ramanaraju, Music - Bharadwaja, Lyrics - Ramajogaiah Sastry, Editing - Nandamuri Hari, Presents - Revuri Chiranjeevi, Producers - G Prab