Mana Oori Ramayanam

Plot : Bhoojangam (Prakash Raj) has a name in his village. His money and fame as Dubai returned, gives weight to his words. He is surrounded by all female family and he thinks marriage for his 19 year old daughter a solution for her indifferent behaviour towards him. His mother-in-law taunts him for his actions. He has a follower in auto rickshaw driver Shiva (Satya). Bhoojangam has few friends in the village like the tailor, hotel owner Kamath and few other heads who drink alcohol in the night in his shop. One night when Bhoojangam feels that he has no respect in his family he threatens to not come home for 2 to 3 days. On same night he meets a hooker Bangaram (Priyamani ) on the road and is tempted to spend some time with her. Shiva cracks the deal for him and locks them in his shop has Bhoojangam fears anybody watching them. Meanwhile, Shiva meets a director Gidukki Srinivasarao (Prudhvi) a once well known director who is looking to catch a break by directing a movie with popular hero. He has problem of forgetting his bag at places and he forgets his bag with script in Shiva’s auto. Shiva locks it inside the shop by mistake. Shiva and director are caught by police in drunk and drive case. What seems to be a simple hour arrangement turns into a lock out and fight for pride?! Rest of the story needs to seen on screen.

Performances : Prakash Raj proves again that he understands the nuances of a character pretty well and he is a performer of different class. Priyamani bagged a role that she could be proud off on her resume. She did perform accordingly and made it look more convincing with her act.

Satya again proved that he is one of the bright talents in our Telugu Industry. It would be nice if his talent gets it’s due credit. Prudhvi who has become one of the dependable comedians off late got a serious role with meat. He did perform very well showing off his acting skills in a serious role.

All other actors are from Kannada film industry and they all looked fit to the bill. As the film revolves around 5 main characters none of the others have much to do except for drinking, singing and praising Prakash. Raghu babu’s role could have been extended.

Technicalities : Cinematography by Mukhesh is decent and by the medium budget standard the image quality produced by him should be praised. He maintained a tone through out the film and never let his lens overpower the scene.

Maestro Ilaiyaraja was used to compose back ground music for the film along with one song. He did his job but one start to expect lot more from the man of his stature. Art Direction was so simple and realistic coping up with the theme.

Editing by Sreekar Prasad helps to keep the film in a flow and crisp. Story by Joy Mathew was laced with inner meanings and broader picture. Screenplay and Direction by Prakash Raj once again fall short after setting up an interesting premise.

Prakash even though a brilliant craftsman when it comes to understanding the nuances but he fails to bring them on screen. His films miss out on an all important emotional connect. The original Shutter in Malayalam, tried to showcase a slice of life kind of a narration for its story and succeeded very well. But here Prakash even though publicised it as a bilingual chose to leave most of the scenes with Kannada lip sync and Telugu dub.

With this film, he had a premise to explore the characters, induce meaningful conversations and deliver a hard hitting satire but he lost in translating the nuances on screen again. Few emotions look highly forced rather than free flowing along the story. His direction too, apart from few frames again falls flat on bringing out the suitable emotion. May be there are better directors and screenplay writers who can develop over a source material and it would be better if he chooses to encourage them like he did in the case of Radha Mohan.

Analysis : The original story written by Joy Mathew was more about how indulgent a person can become once he starts believing every shallow praise that money can buy him. It concentrates on the protagonist and his family majorly to explore their emotions in the absence of each other. Prakash Raj fails in bringing out the essence of the story even though he makes a watchable flick. Until and unless a story doesn’t appear to be free flowing on screen with characters and scenes rolling out, it just looks like a serial episode at best. 5 National Awardees came together but none translated that brilliance on screen.

Rating : 2.5/5

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