When you walk out of the cinema hall, you smile ear-to-ear recalling some of the funny scenes and trying to correlate them with the original film sequences on which the Sudigadu team has parodied. Sudigadu will make you laugh till your sides hurt and Bheemaneni Srinivasa Rao has to be appreciated for taking on filmi clichés. But does it measure up to all the expectations it generated through a brilliant promo?
The director doesn’t waste any screen moment. Sudigadu begins its journey of spoofs right from its opening credits, with a young girl asking her father to recite a story. Reminds you of Eega ? We’ve just got started. A typical Telugu film hero, as most of our directors would like us to believe, have super-human powers and are born to save ordinary mortals from the clutches of tyrants.
A sepia-tinted episode leads us into the hospital in which Kamesh (Allari Naresh as the father) and Hema’s son is born. He is no ordinary child. He is born with six packs and quickly earns the wrath of the villain Thikkal Reddy (Jayaprakash Reddy). The goons wants to finish off the child but the parents make a lucky escape and hand over the child to his grandmother (Kovai Sarala) who brings him up in Hyderabad.
The film takes you through the boy’s unusual childhood, his adventures as a youngster and his revenge on Thikkal Reddy. In the process of narrating this predictable revenge drama, the director makes fun of all the clichés of the Telugu and Tamil film industries. From Rajamouli’s fetish for unusual weapons to Shankar’s films clamping down on corruption, Prabhudeva’s famous Bharatanatyam sequence from Premikudu to punch dialogues and thigh-slapping of ‘mass’ heroes, nothing is spared. Even television soaps, reality shows and commercials of mobile phone service providers are spoofed upon. In particular, the parody on Omkar’s reality show will leave you laughing for a long time.
Sudigadu takes on blockbusters such as Gabbar Singh , Shiva, Bharateeyudu, Robot, Bommarillu, Gharshana, 7G Rainbow Colony, Ye Maya Chesave and characteristic traits of actors (Pawan Kalyan, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Mahesh Babu, Venkatesh, Nagarjuna, Balakrishna among others). There’s also the lost and found angle typical of the 70s and 80s, with a hilarious family song thrown in.
There are plenty of things to like about the movie. But a bunch of gags strung together alone don’t make for a good film. The screenplay remains incoherent and the pace slackens during the second half leaving you quite bored for a while. Even the genuinely funny interludes fail to salvage the long-drawn, lame climax. A better musical score would have helped too.
Allari Naresh does an excellent job with quite a bit of help from Kovai Sarala, Shayaji Shinde and Brahmanandam. Monal Gajjar doesn’t have much to do.
Despite its short comings, Sudigadu is definitely worth a watch. The humour, here, is without malice and that itself is a big plus.
SUDIGADU
Cast : Allari Naresh, Monal Gajjar, Kovai Sarala and others.
Direction : Bheemaneni Srinivasa Rao
Plot : A child born with heroic powers takes on the baddies in true filmi style, in the process spoofing some of the biggest hits.
Bottomline : Plenty of laughs guaranteed in this parody, but a little bit of finesse wouldn’t have hurt.
