Ever since it was announced that Jr.NTR will be donning a subdued role in ‘Brindaavanam’, the industry has been abuzz if he will be able to justify such role. There haven’t been many expectations on director Vamsi Paidipally because of his first film ‘Munna’. However, the success of its audio and the ‘little but enough’ promotion has given some expectations for ‘Brindaavanam’. Let’s see if Jr.NTR will be able to beat his ‘mass’ image and if Vamsi Paidipally makes a mark.

What’s it about: Krishna (Jr.NTR) and Indu(Samantha Prabhu) are a ‘couple’ who live in Hyderabad. Seeing her close friend Bhoomi (Kajal Agarwal ) getting married to some goon, Indu sends Krishna to stop the marriage. The plan is that Krishna will act as Bhoomi’s boyfriend and convince her dad to stop the marriage. When Krishna lands in Bhoomi’s village, he finds that Bhoomi’s dad Prakash Raj is a terror in both her house and has a strange animosity with another village. The reason is Prakash Raj’s step-brother, who is the head of the other village. Krishna, as anyone’s guess, manages to win the hearts of all in Prakash Raj’s family and ensures that the vengeful brothers re-unite again. Krishna is so good that he wins the hearts of Prakash Raj and his family too! Prakash Raj hurriedy plans an engagement. Problem is, Indu is a close relative of Srihari’s wife, and he is bent upon getting her married to her boyfriend, who of course is Krishna!

In the mean time Bhoomi has fallen for Krishna making the plot all the more complex, just as Indu arrives to the same village. How will Krishna solve his problem and whether he will be able to keep the brothers united even though he has to choose only one of the girls forms the rest of the story.

What is Good: Jr.NTR is terrific as an actor. There are so many close up shots, where Jr.NTR wears a half smile and manages to impress one and all. There is nothing new to be said about his exceptional dancing skills.

While Prakash Raj, Srihari, Kajal Agarwal give decent performances, it is Samantha who slightly manages to steal the show from the other heroine. It is rare for a three film old actor to don two completely different roles and come out with acceptable performances.

Venu Madhav pairs up yet again with Jr.NTR to give out some laugh out loud scenes of the film. And then there is Brahmanandam. He got as many whistles for his entry as Jr.NTR received upon his entry! The comedy is all the more enjoyable because it is intertwined with the story, and keeps the story moving to the climax.

Kota Srinivasa Rao reminds us of his act in ‘Intlo Illalu Vantitlo Priyuraalu’. However, it is Thanikella Bharani who takes the cake from all other character artists inspite of having a very small role.

The first half of the movie has some emotional movements, which will be appreciated by all family audiences. There is an ease with which the comedy and emotional scenes merge into each other. All said and done, it all boils down to Jr.NTR who carries the film on his shoulders, and if not for him and his acting the movie could have gone completely wrong.

What is bad: Technically speaking there is nothing new in the story. Sobhan Babu, Balakrishna, Jagapathi Babu have done such films already, though the packaging of this one is different from the old ones. The story doesn’t clearly establish why the step brothers actually fought. It also isn’t clear why in the climax Krishna has to choose between the two girls, while he never has any feelings towards the other girl at all! The director depends entirely on the comedy track in the second half, because most of the plot is revealed in the first half. However, the comedy makes the difference to the film as we wait for a hurriedly treated climax.

Technical Departments: As already said there is nothing quite new in terms of the story. The dialogues in the first half have been carefully done. Background music by Thaman is a revelation, and if he can cut a bit of energy in his songs, he can make quite an impact. Songs have been treated well in the film. The fights are done well too. The huge sets of the palatial bungalow are quite neatly done, and the production values are appreciable. Cinematographer Chota K. Naidu knows how to elevate Jr.NTR quite well and he does a good job too. Director Vamsi Paidipally comes out of the rut that he created for himself with his debut movie ‘Munna’.

Final Point: The film has the mix of all the required masala for a Telugu film. There is action, drama, comedy, fights and then there is Jr.NTR with two glamorous heroines. There is nothing bad in the film, except that the climax raises few questions. However, ‘a possible romance between three people’ kinds of stories have been plenty in Telugu films and none of them have explained the possible reasoning behind such stories on a serious note. Someday, one hopes, our directors would be inspired by a book titled ‘Stree’, written by Chalam.

Click here for Review by Aks

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