I am not a fan of Mahesh Babu. (Sorry fans!) I am more of a story centric viewer. I was not at all eager to watch Guntur Kaaram. Firstly, I didn’t know it was directed by Trivikram Srinivas, secondly, I didn’t particularly enjoy the trailer! In-spite of this, I watched Guntur Kaaram, because, we have a family friend A, who gave us free passes for the movie! (Fans do so much for their Stars!)
Without much ado, let me review the movie.
Review:
Directed by : Trivikram Srinivas
Released On : January 2024
Actors: Mahesh Babu, Sree Leela, Rao Ramesh, Prakash Raj, Murali Sharma, Jayaram and Jagapathi Babu.
The story starts with a fire accident and the ensuing fight causes Raghu Babu to kill Sunil by mistake. (Sunil in a brief cameo.) Incidentally, the fire also causes Ramana (Mahesh Babu, MB for short in this post) to lose sight in his left eye. (I am not exactly sure about it, but how can a person who is partially blind in an eye, not even show a little bit of discomfort in his fights or dances? That’s hero worship for you, where even the director is blinded by the hero and his fandom!)
The fire accident also causes a rift between both MB’s parents, where his father ends in jail and mom leaves her only child to marry another gentleman, Rao Ramesh. They have a son, Rahul Ravidran (another useless cameo!), who could have been replaced by a card board figure and no one would have known the difference, as such!
Jayaram, plays the father of MB, who does nothing but sit in his corner table and listen to situational songs. (Perfect example of casting an actor for a role without scope for acting. He hardly gets a scene to perform. I loved him in Ponniyin Selvan and even Ala Vaikuntapuramlo)
How would a child turn out if the father lives in his own world and a mom who leaves the child and never stays in touch? The child would have issues, with everyone and everything. That is the reason for MB’s temper issues. (Guntur Kaaram)
Ramya Krishna plays MB’s mom and she gets a scene or two, to show her prowess.
Anyway, Prakash Raj, plays maternal grandfather of MB. As you might have guessed he is the villain, who wants nothing but MB signing off his inheritance and the likes. His lawyer Murali Sharma is incharge of getting MB to sign. This somehow brings Vennela Kishore and Sree Leela into the picture, who are after MB to get him to sign.
That is where everything goes wrong for me. Which lawyer in the world would send his own daughter to pester a man, who is known all around to be Guntur Kaaram, known for his temper issues? Why is there a need for so many cameos? Why did Jagapathi Babu even work in the movie? Why is there a character of cousin in the movie, called Raji? What is the significance? The only thing I could come up with is, Trivikram roped in one actor each from all his hit movies, to give Guntur Kaaram an extra push!
But…
Guntur Kaaram feels similar to Ala Vaikuntapuram.
Rahul Ravindran replacing Sushanth,
Ramya Krishna mirroring Tabu, (both living with their rich fathers)
Prakash Raj – villainous grandfather replacing the lovable grandpa Sachin Khedekar
Sree Leela replacing the dusky Pooja Hegde
Meenakshi Chaudhary and her counter part Nivetha Pethuraj
Mother sentiment in both the movies, even background score is similar to Ala Vaikuntapuram. Lack of creativity and imagination from director and music director is sad.
Trivikram even managed to rope in Eashwari Rao ( the nurse from Ala Vaikuntapuram. She plays MB’s aunt.)
Seasoned actors Prakash Raj, Ramya Krishna, Jayaram, Murali Sharma, Vennela Kishore performed well within the scope of their respective roles. MB never lit so many cigarettes in any movie ever! He has performed better in the dance numbers, probably not wanting to lose to Sree Leela! The movie is worth watching only for its seasoned actors and MB.
I am not a fan of the unnecessary dance performance by Sree Leela, in the godown! We all know she is a fabulous dancer, but the sequence is so out of place. I loved Ala Vaikuntapuramlo better, because, the hero worship was less apparent! (Atleast it had top notch acting from Murali Sharma, Sachin Khedekar and Allu Arjun, while the story was the main hero!)
P.S:
- It has its moments, but it is no ‘Athadu‘ or ‘Khaleja‘. It is just a forgettable Guntur Kaaram! (But fans may disagree with me.)
- I dozed off in the second half of the movie, that sums up everything for you.
- I know a hero needs to cater to his fans, but I was surprised by mass song MB performed at the end! It reminded the song, Ma Ma Mahesha from Sarkar Vari Pata. That is not all. The concept of the heroine approaching MB with ulterior motive is similar to what Keerthi Suresh did in Sarkar Vari Pata. Overall, Guntur Kaaram is a mash up of two hit movies but it still is a mediocre one time watch!
- If you are in a mood for a new movie, with fantastic visuals, goose bump moments and without cheap thrills, head straight to ‘Hanu-Man‘ and thank me later.
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