Chandamama Movie Review

Film: Chandamama

Cast: Navadeep, Kajal, Shiva Balaji, Sindhu Menon, Ahuti Prasad, Nagababu, Radha Kumari, Uttej etc
Dialogues: Akula Venkat
Dances: Shankar, Nobel Paul
Camera: Prasad M
Music: Radhakrishnan
Producers: C Kalyan, Vijayanand
Director: Krishna Vamshi
Released On: 6th Sep 2007

The film is very much like a ‘Chandamama’. First half is like full moon fortnight and second half is like New Moon fortnight. This waxing and waning is reflected in the film.

Story:
Maha Lakshmi (Kajal) is the daughter of Ranga Rao (Naga Babu) who lives in a village. Ranga Rao is a rich land lord of the place. Rama Lingeshwara Rao (Ahuti Prasad) is another land lord who is a dipsomaniac and flirt. But he is not harmful to anyone. His son is Dora Babu (Siva Balaji) who is very good natured. Elders decide marriage for Maha Lakshmi and Dora Babu. Maha Rani (Sindhu Menon) is the daughter of Ranga Rao’s younger brother. She is very active and eccentric.

After arranging the marriage Maha Lakshmi reveals her past to Dora Babu. She says that she spent a night with Kishore (Navadeep), her friend in the city where she studied. Listening to that, Dora Babu drinks to the full and hits by an accident. That’s the interval shot. But the second half goes in hilarity without any serious things. Who marries Maha Lakshmi? Whate happens to Kishore and Dora Babu? What happens has to be watched on screen!

Performances:
Navadeep is good in his role. He acted very well in first half but in second half the scope to act is very less. Shiva Balaji is just ok. Kajal looked good and her performance is also up to the mark. Sindhu Menon is average.

Ahuti Prasad swept the entire show with his diction and slang. There are no routine set of comedians but Ahuti Prasad filled the gap on single hand.

Naga Babu is apt as reserved elder man and father of Kajal. Radha Kumari’s dialogues and comedy are also subtle.

SM Radha Krishnan’s music is appealing for class audiences again. No song is catchy and none could din in the ears after coming out from theatres. But the picturing of songs is very good. Especially, the first song with Kajal and Shiva Balaji and another one of ‘muddu’ are good.

The hard nuts in narration are:
The set of foreigners living in Nagababu’s house in the village
Characterization of Sindhu Menon

Good things to underline:
Ahuti Prasad’s character- he did wonderful job by delivering dialogues in East Godavari slang with perfect sink.
Radha Kumari’s character is also interesting as grand mother to Shiva Balaji.
Navadeep’s acting in first half.
No violence and vengeance in the film.

Analysis:
The film starts at very good pace but suffers from various bumps in narration. First half goes smooth but second half is elastic. The climax is quite routine and in tune with the expectations of mundane audiences. Krishna Vamshi has chosen a wrong line of story and he failed to develop proper characterizations to lead roles.

Krishna Vamshi is known for showing typical mannerisms on his characters. He also puts a female role that shows eccentricity in behavior like Charmy in Sree Anjaneyam. In this film he has chosen Sindhu Menon for that.

Here in ‘Chandamam’, he made a confused concoction by mixing two things. Initially he intends to give a message that Indians are forgetting their culture but foreigners are getting attracted for the same. But finally, the conclusion is ‘let younger ones marry the ones they love and needn’t bend to whims of elders’. There appears to be some lack of clarity at the end.

We have to see how far the patronage of audiences will be extended for this film.