yatra

YS Rajasekhar Reddy made an effort to change the political scenario in Andhra Pradesh when opposition looked like a mere spectator. His efforts changed the direction of the politics and Mahi V. Raghav tried to give it all a cinematic form. Let’s discuss how it is …

Plot:: YS Rajasekhar Reddy (Mammootty) became one of the legendary political leaders in Telugu state political history. His status from another famous politician to a leader started with Padayatra and the story behind the historic event forms the plot of the movie.

Performances:: Mammootty as YSR did a very sincere effort to bring him to life on screen. His screen presence is a big boon to the film and he did shoulder the movie. His voice and the way he took note of minute variations in the body language of YSR, is commendable.

Rao Ramesh, Jagapathi Babu, Chandrasekhar, Kalyani gave good performances to elevate the movie.

Technicalities:: Sreekar Prasad made a crisp edit and he delivered a very compelling cut that otherwise could have ended up as a rich documentary.

K a.k.a Krishna Kumar gave decent music to the film. He even though had good enough BGM tracks they were too loud and diluted the dialogues.

Satyan Suryan’s visuals are very good and he did give the movie huge boost. His work is very very apt to the mood of the movie.

Mahi V. Raghav, the writer, and director of the movie tried to convert his research into a story. Had he concentrated on the back story of YSR before starting padayatra and then showed how it changed him and even impacted the politics in Telugu states. YSR became the pioneer of welfare scheme politics and that should have reflected even more.

Analysis:: Mahi V. Raghav as a writer and director tried hard to find the core of the story of YS Rajasekhar Reddy from the paper clippings that highlighted the padayatra. Actually, YSR said that he changed a lot after padayatra and to give his words cinematic relevance, the director tried to create fictitious elements around his popular schemes that made him the powerful and most popular leader, ever.

Well, he did execute what he wrote effectively on the shoulders of a great actor like Mammootty. Had he tried to go fully into the life of YSR than just Padayatra, the movie would have been a comprehensive story with more emotional weightage. Still, it ends up as a watchable movie.

Rating: 3/5

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