If evil can rise with resilience again and again, then even Good should fight it with ultimate vigor and passion. But it won’t be easy! While Evil draws strength from our weakness Good remains as a subsidiary power within. We need to be strong enough to win such a battle! So what will be our strength? In extreme calamities who will help us??
PLOT : All the angels and Gods store their power in an earthly holy pot during the rare solar eclipse and during the time, many many evil forces look to grab the kalash and drink the holy water, so that they can be the ultimate force in the universe. Sivayya (Sai Kumar) family fights the evil forces with vigor and human strength. They never let any evil win even if they are in a position to loose their life. But one time Manibushana ( Vishnu Vardhan), the holy ornament of Lord Shiva, directly fights with the evil. Why?
Manasa/ Nagamma (Ramya) tracks down Naga Charan (Diganth) the musician whose only aim is to make Lord Shiva dance with his music. But his aim changes to winning the divya Kalasa ( Holy golden pot) which was announced as a prize in International music competition in Delhi! On the other hand an Aghora Kapali (Rajesh Vivek) rises from dead with great boon of Asura powers. His aim is to capture the Divya Kalasa! So who will win? What is connection between Manasa and Naga Charan? All these mysteries will be solved at a screening near you!
Performances : VFX should be credited for playing an important role in holding the interest of viewers even though they were bit tacky the huge amount of work behind recreating Vishnu Vardhan should be applauded. Being the major leads for the film they played their role very well.
Diganth was playing lead in a typical Kodi Ramakrishna Graphics oriented film. The work of the lead actor would be to either act as possessed or help the heroine in a flimsy fashion by praying to Gods. Here too he does the same. He hardly looked like a Rockstar or could he dance well to the tunes. He was able to emote with sufficient ease.
Ramya was ok in her character that was designed keeping previous hit movies of the director, but she looked completely out of sort while dancing in songs. Her emotions were fixed to either being angry or trying to act like possessed person. All in all she did try to be Anushka’s Jejamma but remained as a Vajamma (poor copy). This might sound bit too harsh but aping a well worked out scene in the manner they did on screen would make you feel the same way too.
Late Rajesh had nothing special to do rather than look menacing on screen. Mukul Dev, Kale played another been there done that sort of roles again. They were just there to emote anger, remove shirt and fear staring at a VFX dot. Sai Kumar was an asset.
Technicalities : Music by Guru Kiran played an all important role in keeping the scene and mood intact but sound designers and engineers should have advised him to leave few scenes without the BG Score. The loud BG at times swallowed the dialogues and it is hard to make out what the villains or leads were saying. The theme score for the film will be one of his best.
VFX artists apart from Muktha, who worked on recreating Vishnu Vardhan, did a great job in creating the huge snakes but they did miss target while snake was hitting human beings to the walls and chasing them. It looked like another render could have helped them in bettering the output. Budget constraints may be.
Dialogues, Editing and Cinematography by Y Suresh, Johny Harsha and HC Venu are good and adequate for the film. Mainly going with the absurd filmmaking technique used by the Legendery Director, where one scene and another would never feel like they are free flowing or in one order, they should be credited for working patiently to render an output.
Kodi Ramakrishna turned to graphics as he always wanted make films with his rural upbringing and values intact. He tried to better Tamil Devotional Fantasy Filmmakers who made movies to sell the religious beliefs in a glorified fashion using latest techniques. In their films tree could dance, snake could chase down a person turning into whatever ridiculous shape it can assume and fans and lights would also fall conveniently on the people who wronged them. But in Kodi Ramakrishna films, there would be an Aghora, few Tantriks and the leads would be a goddess or a devotee.
In his quest to make fantasy wonders he sold the blind beliefs in his films. Keeping aside the morality code his making style worked in films like Ammoru, Devi, Devullu, Arundhati and Trinetram. At the same time his style of depending overtly on graphics also backlashed in films like Anji, Avataram and many others. He should be given credit for being able to actively direct films even at this age but even his retirement age has passed the expiration date. As a creator of Tarangini, Ankusam, Ahuti, Ammoru and Arundhati he will always be remembered for trying different subjects and changing his style accordingly. It would be great if he can assume the role of a professor with his experience.
Analysis : Few films and stories need not be told that too when they are this old and tacky. The story is taken from previous hit movies and sequences are clubbed into a film with no proper connection from starting to end. It appeared that producers and Director had an after thought to add Vishnu Vardhan into the mix. Their effort and money spent on bringing a dead Legend back to life is appreciable has they did not back out from spending. But they should have worked on script and characters even more. Few young talent are waiting for chances with similar scripts, giving them a chance with budget might bring in much better results. Well coming to the film, it is a waste of an effort.
Lastly : Nagabharanam needed Lord Shiva to script a different ending where rather than Vishnu Vardhan coming down to earth people should have been given a pat on the back for daring to watch a film that is this disjointed.
Rating : 1.75/5
