Date:27/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/27/stories/2008022750370200.htm

Andhra Pradesh

No saviour for sinking film Film review

Sivaji and Sridevi in Pelli Kani Prasad

Film: Pelli Kani Prasad

Cast: Naresh, Sivaji, Sridevi

Direction: Satyam Dwarapudi

Allari Naresh and Sivaji seem to be a pretty good bet to throw off some laughs, wouldn’t you think? One of them should have been able to do something to save ‘Pelli Kaani Prasad’ but that doesn’t come close to happening because, quite simply, this is one bad script. If director Satyam has been able to give it some pulp or occasionally display a sense of humour, it might have promised a reasonably decent audience, but a pathetic screenplay mars that hope too. Gopal Rao (Raghuvaran) loathes girls who elope and marry against their parents’ wishes and as such wants his daughter to marry someone of his choice but is shocked when his daughter Sujata (Sridevi) expresses her love for a vagabond Varaprasad (Naresh). Like a dutiful daughter, she marries Siva Prasad (Sivaji) and then the story moves on without the steam never building up.

Suddenly, there is a twist which lands on your head like a cat falling off a tree. With regard to performances, both Naresh and Sivaji are not as bad as many people think. In fact, they are the saving grace. They do a good and credible job. Naresh’s role does not have much substance and all he does is crack jokes that fall flat. Post interval, Sivaji’s character is only somewhat more fleshed out, but only in one real direction.

Overall it’s a lousy plot and the film is disastrously directed. Wonder what made the director settle for Tulasi and Raghuvaran when there are so many character artistes languishing in the Telugu industry. About Sridevi, it is unfair to say she cannot run around trees. A painfully inept screenplay and technical aspects that flounder the director just toss up ‘Pelli Kaani Prasad’ in front of the camera with no help whatsoever.

Y. SUNITA CHOWDHARY