Senior hero Venkatesh’s new film, Narappa opted for a direct OTT release. Directed by Srikanth Addala, the film is out on Amazon Prime Video today. Let’s see how it is.
Story: Set in a rural backdrop, the film showcases the life story of a middle-aged person named Narappa (Venkatesh) from a small village near Anantapur. Narappa along with his wife Sundaramma( Priyamani) and three kids lead a happy life but the happiness will be distrubed by a powerful landlord Panduswamy. What kind of hurdles will Narappa’s family face when his elder son Munikanna(Karthik Rathnam) lock horns with Panduswamy and where it ends forms the rest of the plotline.
Performances: Venkatesh literally lives in the character as Narappa and delivers a career-best performance. From body language to typical Rayalaseema slang, as a habituated drinker, Venky did a tremendous job as a middle-aged Narappa. His markup work and costumes are also done in a perfect way.
But Venky’s look and his romantic drama with Ammu Abhirami looks odd on the screen. Leaving aside Venky’s younger version look, he impresses big-time with his screen presence as a protective father and gives a career-best performance in his own style.
Karthik Rathnam, who played the role of Munikanna shines in his aggressive natured character. So is the case with Rakhi, the child artist who did Narappa’s younger son Sinappa’s character.
Priyamani is convincing in her role as a courageous and caring mother. Rajeev Kanakala is good in the given crucial character. Ammu Abhirami is gorgeous and did a decent job in the given limited screen timing.
Noted actors like Brahmaji, Nassar and Rao Ramesh are wasted as they are roped in for roles that did not have much prominence. The village people and Panduswamy’s gang members did a decent job in their respective roles.
Technicalities: Music by Mani Sharma is top-notch as his background score breaths life into the family emotional scenes. Though Mani reused a few bits from the original version, on the whole, his BGM works well. But the songs in the film may not get universal applause as they are situation oriented.
Cinematography by Sam K Naidu is good as he followed the original and managed to present the film in a rustic manner by incorporating a realistic tone. Editing by Marthand K Venkatesh is neat.
The production design is nice as the team has done a good job in identifying countryside locations and so is the case with the production values for this star-stunned film.
Analysis: It is well-known that Narappa is an official remake of the Tamil film, Asuran which sails on strong emotions and intense performances but team Narappa has cleverly designed the nativity to suit the taste of the Telugu audience.
Though Venky looks a bit odd in the flashback episode as a young guy, the drama and action part in the episode has been presented neatly. Especially, the dialogues are apt to the plotline and bring a lot of depth to the proceedings.
Director Srikanth Addala has proved that he can even handle intense action flicks with Narappa. Despite the fact that Narappa is a frame-to-frame remake of Asuran, Srikanth took good care in presenting the film in an engaging manner without missing the emotional connection. But the screenplay and the slowed-paced blocks in the second half may disappoint the moviegoers, who are directly watching the Telugu version.
Overall, Narappa is Venkatesh’s one-man show as he carried the entire film on his shoulders with his emotionally charged intelligent acting and makes it a one-time watch.
Verdict: Venky takes charge in this faithful remake!!!
Rating: 2.5/5
