Andhra Pradesh

A messed up movie with senseless

Film: Nagaram

Cast: Srikant,Jagapati Babu

Direction: C. C. Sreenivas

Nagaram looks to be a consummate pot-boiler but it isn’t. The director does have a story - about two hired killers (Srikant and Ajay) working for Pradeep Rawat and the latter succeeds in antagonizing him, and Pradeep Rawat has him killed. If you are expecting Srikant to take revenge immediately it doesn’t happen. The director in an effort to make a difference to the story creates a gap and fills it with a senseless sub-plot. He wants to show that the gun-trotting Srikant is a reformed man and has given up all forms of violence, so brings in a heroine. Love develops slowly between Srikant and Kaveri Jha who is out to do a research on rowdies, ditto what Nayantara did in Yogi. Curiously the newcomer has nothing much to do except running around trees and is frankly unappealing for the Telugu film standards. Jagapati Babu plays a cop who appears in a few scenes and is always seen shooting criminals point-blank., The camaraderie between Ajay and Srikant also is not developed properly.

The film lacks energy and compactness and all you can see towards the end is some bone-crunching action. The characters don’t connect with the audience and is shrill and shallow throughout. Raghu Babu plays a mildly interesting role but that too fizzles of towards the end. Ali, Brahmanandam, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam are loud and boring.

The song composed for Srikant and Kaveri Jha is intended to titillate but it even fails to deliver that.

The biggest mistake the director does is treating Srikant like a dummy, and the absence (transfer) of Jagapati Babu helps the villains dominate the entire second half. While the main characters are kept at a distance, the plot loses it’s appeal. Photography is okay and editing is flawed, music doesn’t impress.

Y. Sunitha Chowdhary

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