It won’t take an intelligent guess to know the commercial ingredients that Kona Venkat squeezes into Shankarabharanam (a remake of the Hindi film Phas Gaya Re Obama ) to pep up the energy quotient. There’s a big joint family thriving in an ancestral mansion (named Shankarabharanam ), a regional sidekick in the form of Saptagiri, a corrupt cop like Prudhvi Raj leading the pack amidst forced dream sequences. The writer as always does well to overestimate our appetite for lengthy-unending verbose overtures.
All in all, in a film that’s supposed to be a slick crime caper with intermittent doses of dark humour, the narrative gets stuck in the barge of a family entertainer. Shankarabharanam is clueless on whom it’s trying to please.
The film commences in Bihar to throw in a glimpse of the political mafia in the Motihari town and moves on to the US. The situation in fact turns very ripe for the NRI-return series to continue in Telugu cinema. Facing a financial problem, the US-based young hero, who was once filthy rich but irresponsible, comes back to his home land with the hope of selling his mansion to clear his debts.
Here he falls in love with a girl (Nanditha) — the vice-versa happens first for a change— and the values that co-exist between people here. But before you set off for a yawn, you get reasonable snapshots of the mafia, thanks to Sanjay Mishra who holds fort, despite the slackening pace and Saptagiri’s indulgence.
The dialogue-heavy zone eventually affects the film’s narrative; there’s melodrama on one end, humour on the other and mild gore too. The mix gets uneasy over time and the interval bang comes in as a welcome relief.
The second hour fares marginally better but for the length. The number of characters just multiply scene after scene, bringing in Rao Ramesh, Viva Harsha, Krishna Bhagawan, the character named Pooja Kapoor, Anjali with the buffoonery between them all over the place. The songs are a curse for the flow. While Saptagiri’s role is nothing new, the bulk of the laughs are provided by the coolly subtle Prudhvi Raj. Anjali’s brief appearance as the no-nonsense gangster, her energy levels and the body language provide a rare zing to the proceedings.
Nikhil is a joy to watch, as long as he remains the underdog. He tries hard to not make the NRI a ‘yo-yo-man’ caricature. However when he gets into the fighting-the-goons rituals, or strikes an emotional chord, as a good son, lover, a family man, he just doesn’t feel the part.
Nanditha’s presence hardly adds value. Over two and a half hours, it becomes too big a shoe to fill in when the content fizzles out. The repair-work is done with the ending, but the damage too has been done by then .
Cast: Nikhil, Nanditha, Saptagiri, Sampath, Prudhvi Raj
Genre: Crime-comedy
Director: Uday Nandanavanam
Music: Praveen Lakkaraju
Bottomline: Same template in a new garb
