July 27, 2012 Y. Sunita Chowdary
A benevolent and a wealthy man (NBK) continues the tradition of doing good to his people, and the village. When the time for his sister's (Simer Motiani) marraige arrives, he parts with his property bequeathed upon him by his ancestors and gives a share to the person (Bhanuchander) working for his family too. But not satisfied with the dowry, the sister's husband (Sonu Sood) wants the palace and he is not quite happy but gives it away for the sake of his sibling.
There is no treasure in the Gandharva Mahal but the owner is proud of his home only because it is a family property. Now the brother-in-law kills his (NBK's) sister and brings in the mistress (Lakshmi Prasanna) and before he weds her both of them (NBK and Sonu Sood) kill each other. The spirit of each one enters Manoj and Lakshmi Prasanna respectively, one as the custodian and the other as a claimant of the Gandharva Mahal but who is Manoj and who is Lakshmi Prasanna? Why are they lurking around Gandharva Mahal even after the main characters are dead? This is just a part of the story.
The film begins with Manoj arriving on the scene for some shelter and after a full one hour drama between him, the tenants and the Gandharva Mahal's current owner's family he ensures that the unwanted people are evicted from the Mahal precincts. He hangs on to the mahal and Deeksha Seth who is the descendent of the family belonging to the Gandharva Mahal. Manoj's entry on a Harley Davidson with a huge wooden container like stuff that looks as if there is a guitar instead but is a tall sword smeared with blood.
He appears from then on in the song and otherwise in different looks and we are made to believe that there is something more strong and serious coming from him, but is just the entire packaging and the gloss that is given importance. A lot of effort has gone into the design, the costumes and everything to make it authentic but in the melee you realise the substance the fight is going on for is not strong enough. It doesn't match the title at all.
The spirit goes hop skip and jump from one person to the other in the last 15 to 20 minutes and after that it is sheer idiocy. You really don't know how people who are pierced with poles into the tree come alive and fight till the finish. There should be enough depth in each character and if the character doesn't justify it won't make a difference to the film even if the cameo is played by Rajinikanth, Mohan Babu or Balakrishna.
The appearance of Lakshmi Prasanna is too dramatic, allowing her character to become a positive, mellowed and guilt-ridden one right from the beginning did not help the script. Manoj gets to show his versatality through his costumes, looks et al but because of the weak and inconsistent screenplay it ends up as an indulgent story for him. It is a wrong notion that one can get to act better only if the spirit enters a body, Bhanuchander on the other hand does a pretty decent job of his small role.
Dialogues lack spine and not the Gandharva Mahal material. Cinematography and set properties give a rich feel. The ladies are all pretty - Deeksha, Simer and Madhumitha, Lakshmi Prasanna. Prabhu had little to do but he is okay in his role. Uu Kodathara Ulikki Padathara ends as a richly decorated stage drama where the actors are acting out for the gallery and not actually behaving as they are 'the' characters.
One could sit through for the first half of the film only waiting to see Balakrishna, if that is what the focus of the audience is in the first some minutes of the film, then we leave the rest of the film to your imagination. UKUP is much ado about nothing, a rolling stone gathers no moss. Give us a compelling story and narration next time please, we are not asking for Arundathi.
