Heroine Anushka has got style, glamour, and an image that no other heroine had in the recent times. With ‘Panchakshari’ she will hope to reach out to the audience like she did with ‘Arundhati’. Also director Samudra, haven’t had decent hits of late. Will he be able to take Anushka’s help to rejuvenate his career?

What’s the Story : ‘Panchakshari’ is about two similar looking cousins. The first one ‘Honey’, is a fashion designer and model, and wants to build a career. In order to delay marriage, and to focus more on her career she devices a plan. The plan backfires and invites a strange person to her home.

Also following her is another young man, Sri Ram, who looks like he is wooing her, but somehow her diary has landed in his hands. Seeing that she is already in trouble with one person, she goes to claim her diary. There she finds few videos of her. Angered, she asks Sri Ram about the videos. Sri Ram tells Honey the story of Panchakshari. Who is Panchakshari, what is the connection between Honey and Panchakshari, why Sri Ram and a strange person chasing her forms the rest of this story.

What is Good: The film completely belongs to Anushka, and she is there on screen almost 90% of the film. Now that’s a huge on screen time for even a top heroine. She carries the role of Honey glamorously and the character of traditionally brought up Panchakshari easily.

Brahmanandam’s comedy with Ali is good and spoof on ‘Magadheera’ with Anushka is funny. There is hardly one dedicated song for song’s sake, and the other three songs move the story forward. Pradeep Rawat tries his best to be the bad guy.

What is bad: For a film to be good, it needs a strong screenplay, and an equally good execution. Panchakshari doesn’t have either. The screenplay in the first half drags on and on, but not without giving us some hope with actor Ravi Prakash’s scenes. And for all of it, his character is extremely useless. The film could have been made even without his character!

Also Anushka dances to the song ‘Ne Lookesthe Luckele’ in a temple. One thought that such a song could go in as an item number. In the same song Anushka takes her coat off. The step is part of dance, that can be understood; but how can one justify that dance for a ‘Bonalu’ celebration, that too in a temple is beyond logic.

In the recent times the cinematography of Telugu films has been moving for the better. With Panchakshari, we will feel the other way.

It is obvious with the presence of an aghora, that ‘Arundhati’ is a huge inspiration. The computer graphics formed a core part of ‘Arundhati’s narration and in Panchakshari they are there at the most useless scenes!

While the entire movie runs around Honey and Panchakshari characters, the climax, suddenly inspired by ‘Ammoru’, doesn’t raise the character graph of either Honey or Panchakshari. Instead it makes these characters fall flat on the ground. In the end, the climax is unconvincing, and the aghora character is completely left out for its own good!

Technical Departments: Screenplay and Direction by Samudra could have been better but he should be appreciated for taking the bold step of trying to emulate the magic of Arundhati, which is almost impossible as of now. Few comedy dialogues evoke laughs. The computer graphics in the climax of the film are good.

Bottomline: ‘Ammoru’ and ‘Arundhati’ films stand out in the history of Telugu cinema for a reason. The audiences were captured on their seats as the film flows with logic in storytelling and best graphics available for Telugu cinema till then. These two movies had the ability to connect an emotion of a character with a viewer. Panchakshari doesn’t do any such thing. Watch it if you are great fan of Anushka. Greater still if you can watch Ammoru or Arundhati!