Virodhi Review

Politics, Power, People, Emotion, Explosion are the words used in the trailers of 'Virodhi'. Unlike anyother film in the recent past, 'Virodhi' managed to capture the attention of thinking man. The trailers have generated curiosity amongst many who are craving to see some intelligent cinema in Tollywood.

Award winning film director Neelakanta is back to direction with this movie after making Mr Medhavi in 2007.Neelakanta spent two years writing stories for television serials and dialogues for Kamal Haasan and Venkatesh starrer 'Eenadu'.

After a sabatical, Neelakanta directed 'Virodhi' which by the look of it appears to be dealing with Naxalism and cop fight.Hero Srikanth played the role of a Jayadev a Journalist. Kamilini Mukherjee plays his love interest while Kamal Kamaraju,Sivajiraja and his son Vijay , Ajay and Sriramya are seen in important roles.

Though Naxal-cop tussle is not a new story line in Telugu cinema, it has been long ever since this issue was filmed.Thanks to cholcate boy movies and mass commercial flicks, epic dramas, socio-political cinema as a genre is almost forgotten by our film makers. Neelakanta's 'Virodhi' is releasing this Friday, at a time when audience are vexed with cliched epic dramas, silly love stories and boring family dramas. Though there have been R Narayanamurthy movies on Naxals and cops, they are predictable and most often one sided.Neelakanta's 'Virodhi' is perhaps the only biggest attempt by a director on this topic after Krishna Vamsi's 'Sindhuram' 15 years ago.

Srikanth's brother Meka Anil is turning producer with this movie while R P Patnaik composed tunes for this action thriller. Though the music is not on the charbuster list, audience hope R P delivers relevant background score for this action packed movie. None of the songs have become popular in this album. But from what appears in the trailers, the background score sounds intense, which is a must for such films.

H M Ramachandra who worked as cinematographer for actress Soundarya's national award winning Kannada project 'Dweepa', handled camera for this flick.

The movie was extensively shot in Hampi, Gangavati, Bellary and surrounding areas of Karnataka. Srikanth is believed to have played the role of a journalist who explores the Naxal world and is caught between Naxal and cop fight.

Hero Srikanth whose last movie 'Ranga The Donga' tanked at the box office, has high hopes on this low budget project. The only other movie that is releasing on July 1st is Varun Sandesh's 'Bramhigadi Katha'. We are yet to see how audience will respond to Neelakanta's comeback with this socio-political cinema.