Andhra Pradesh

Sibling love sans novelty

Film: Gorintaku

Cast: Rajashekar, Meera Jasmine

Direction: V.R. Pratap

After a dashing role of a police officer in ‘Evadaite Nakenti’, Rajashekar makes a subdued appearance in ‘Gorintaku’, the remake of a Kannada hit ‘Anna Thangi’. ‘Gorintaku’ is a sentimental drama that revolves around the brother-sister bonding. Director V.R. Pratap takes full advantage of the emotionally fertile premise and dishes out old wine in a new bottle.

Rajashekar plays a dual role. After his death, his children, again Rajashekar and Meera Jasmine grow up to be good people in the village but things go wrong once they are married. An old lady who claims to be a relative seeks an entry into Rajshekar’s home and begins to disintegrate the family.

She actually is out to take vengeance and that flashback is revealed too soon, she then creates difference between Meera Jasmine and Aarti Agarwal (Rajashekar’s wife) and between Meera and her husband’s family. By the time Rajashekar realises the wile plan, it’s too late.

The story is melodramatic but the B and C class audiences might find it absorbing for all the family values and all that emotional terrain that the director covers. The climax is little too hard.

The director chooses to avoid a ‘feel good’ ending and bumps off the siblings in the climax, to justify the brother-sister bonding. There is no attempt to make the story look different or breathe life to this extended sob story that resembles one of Ekta Kapoor’s serials.

Meera Jasmine looks pretty and benefits from having the best-written character in the film, Aarti Agarwal does her part well. All that Rajashekar had to do in the film was to look conventional, unobtrusive and for most part be either sad or happy. A few numbers are good but technically the film fails to impress.

Y. SUNITA CHOWDHARY

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