 |
| Video Songs | Reviews | Wallpapers | Events | Gallery | Trailers | Exclusive | Contact Us |
|
|
Home > Telugu Movie Reviews > Devadasu Technique Dominates Narration Aslesha | January 11, 2006 Rating: *** (***** Very Good, **** Good, *** Fair, ** Average, * Bad) Cast: Ram, Ileana, Sayaji Shinde, MS Narayana, Venu Madhav, Ramaprabha, Mukesh Rishi, Vidya and Others. Action: Vijay. Art Director: Anand Sai. Cinematography: Bharani K. Dharan. Dialogue: Chintapalli Ramana. Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao. Lyrics: Chandrabose. Music: Chakri. Executive Producer: Kommineni Venkateswara Rao. Presenter: Yalamanchili Geetha. Producer, Story, Screenplay & Direction: YVS Chowdary. Banner: Bommarillu Vari. Release Date: 11th January, 2006.  This film opens the Sankranthi film release festive season. It could surely draw the audience by naming it after the legendary Devadasu of ANR and Savitri. But the comparison ends there. The title did the job of drawing sizeable audience to the theatre, but fails to retain the interest of the viewer in the drama just because the story line is wafer thin and the picturization is too lengthy, testing the viewer's patience. One cognizant factor about this film is the introduction of two talented artistes Ram and Ileana in the lead roles of Devadasu and his lover Bhanumathi. It is about how a rich girl Bhanumathi falls in love with a poor boy Devadasu and how her father Katamraju (Sayaji Shinde), an American Senator, objects to it and goes to the extent of challenging the young man Devadasu that he would never allow his daughter wed him. And the boy Devadasu betting with the Senator that he will sure achieve his objective of getting married to her even when the Senator takes her away to USA. How this boy finally travels to the US, meets odd persons there and with their help succeeds to trace her and marry her is what the film is about.This journey to the US seeking the hand of the girl Devadasu loves resembles the sequences of the megastar Chiranjeevi starrer 'Jai Chiranjeeva'. The get up of the film and the dialogue and diction resemble the films made for Raviteja. Here too, the director resorts to humor particularly in the second part of the drama, hoping that would entertain the audience. But the mood is not evenly maintained. It a jerky narration - one time looking as a kind of girl's chase college drama and at another sounding the usual father playing a villain in daughter's life. The only element that is new is showing the villain as a Senator. But that does not make any difference except degrading the honor of the American Senate. The student groups of rival colleges resorting to street fights or betting for adventure sport are routine. The funniest part of the show is the way the director forgot the very purpose behind the girl's visit to India from the US – to learn Carnatic music. Once she is in India she is chased by the hero and a student rogue named Bobby. It is the job of the hero to defeat the college rogue in all his acts, some putting him to test. This naturally leads the heroine to fall into the lap of Devadasu. On knowing that his daughter has fallen in love with somebody, her father arrives to delink the lovers and take his daughter back. But we fail to understand what made him to unnecessarily challenge the boy to wed his daughter if he can. The film ends showing the boy doing it.  The film prolongs to vexing levels. Producer-director Chowdary is naturally ambitious to some how make the film a success and hoped what all he was showing would activate the box-office. The hero gets Venumadhav as his sidekick. So does the villain succeeds in finding in his brother-in-law Bangaru Raju (MS Narayana) his assistant. The role of Chandralekha, mother of Katamraju, played by Ramaprabha also goes crazy at times to kick up humor. But every bit of it looks artificial.There is a deliberate attempt to render the film a technical beauty. There is plenty of music. Photography is a visual treat in its close ups. Betting sequences on adventure sports are interesting, though irrelevant. The song sequences are well filmed. There are scenes with pug dog, an item song with Shriya, combat scenes with Ram as Devadasu displaying Karate skills. New faces Ram and Ileana do their given job well. Especially Ram displays the ease of an actor right in his debut making film. But the diction (dubbing voice, I suppose) and mannerism including a small beard appeared to have been influenced by Ravi Teja and his films. Sayaji Shinde and his diction are simply allergic. |