Mahesinte Prathikaaram started a wave in Malayalam Cinema, where simple narratives along with coming of age and slice of life films can find mainstream success at the box office. It became a big turning point for actor Dileesh Pothan to become a respectable filmmaker. After impressing many with his original debut film, C/O Kancherapalem, Venkatesh Maha decided to remake the popular Malayalam film into Telugu as Uma Maheswara Ugra Roopasya with Satyadev in the lead role. Movie released on OTT Platform Netflix, on 30th July, 2020. Let’s discuss about the film now …
Plot: Maheswara Rao (Satyadev) runs his father (Raghavan)’s photo studio and he is a talented photographer. At a funeral he falls for Swathi (Roopa Koduvayur) and they both decide to convince their parents for marriage. But Swathi chooses an NRI over Mahesh and he decides to move on with life. Before their break-up and her marriage, Mahesh gets into a fight with Joginath (Ravindra Vijay) trying to stop another fight.
This leads him to take an oath that he will not wear slippers or any kind of footwear until he takes revenge. To be able to achieve his goal, he starts learning Kun Fu. He has a trustworthy friend in Suhas (Suhas), who works with his neighbour Babji (Naresh), a bone specialist in home medicine. Mahesh unknowingly falls for Jyothi (Hari Chandana), who asks him to take a great photo to enter a competition. She happens to be sister of Joginath. What happens next? Watch the movie to know more …
Performances: Satyadev in comparison to Fahad Fassil from the original Malayalam movie, Mahesinte Prathikaaram is very different and he should have avoided following Fahad’s typical style in few scenes. As a performer, he has grown leaps and bounds from Jyothi Lakshmi film time and that was visible in the film. On the whole, Satyadev’s performance even though uneven at times, carries the movie on its shoulder without any problem. Like always, he committed himself to the character and that quality should be appreciated.
Hari Chandana has a beautiful smile and the makers have explored it very well. She was highly confident in the film and we hope to see her in more varied roles in future. Roopa was cute in her role. Naresh, Suhas and Raghavan impress us. As ruthless Joginath, Ravindra Vijay was believable and his performance has the potential to land him more opportunities in Telugu.
Technicalities: Writer Venkatesh Maha kept the dialogues very casual and simple, just like his previous film. Hence, few lines don’t have the impact that he was going for. Still, the actors have delivered them so well, that you can easily neglect them. But like the perfect shot or photo in the film, if some lines had that slight tinge of salt for dramatic effect, this film would have benefitted greatly.
Cinematography by Appu Prabhakar was good but he seems to have been given very less opportunities to try something on his own as mostly he seemed to follow the original. Yes, even with color palettes. Action choreography needs a special mention for being brutal and real. Music by Bijibal doesn’t feel native for Telugu Cinema. Editing by Ravi Teja was a smooth sailing.
Analysis: Venkatesh Maha wants to keep things real and simple. He established this with C/O Kancherapalem already. But every film doesn’t fit into that category. There are films by Bapu – Ramana combination and Jandhyala to get the Telugu nativity part right while keeping things real. Muthyala Muggu, Mana voori Pandavulu, Srivariki Prema lekha, Muddamandaram kind of films are handled by these masters in a way that we feel the everyday essence at the same time, we are captivated by simple narration too.
Bapu got the nativity of Telugu families perfect to the tee in Radha Kalyanam, a remake of Bhagyaraj’s film, Antha Ezhu Naatkal. The movie did not lose essence or emotions from the original too. Even Mana voori Pandavalu and Vamshavruksham don’t feel like remakes, if you’re aware about their originals. Venkatesh Maha tried to follow Bapu in making style and mixed it with original film’s true to native structure. This alienated the film from being a complete Telugu remake of a Malayalam film. Well, the background score used as it is from original also did not help much. Anyways, the effort gets high percentage of marks and for a change from regular Telugu films, you can definitely watch this. If you have already seen original, you can skip this!
Bottom line: Misses the magic but good effort.
Rating: 3/5
Available on Netflix
Based on Mahesinte Prathikaaram
