Cast: Sagar, Sakshi Chowdary, Ragini Nandwani
Banner: Ramadhutha Creations
Editor: Prawin Pudi
Cinematography: S Gopal Reddy
Music: Mani Sharma
Producer: Dasari Kiran Kumar
Director: KV Dayanand Reddy
Tagline: Mogalirekulu is far more engaging! Not an impressive debut by Sagar aka RK Naidu
Plot:
Surya Pratap (Sagar) hails from an influential family in Rayalaseema. However under mysterious circumstances Surya is deported to Malaysia where he falls in love with Sahasra (Ragini Nandwani) without revealing his true identity and turbulent past to her. Eventually Sahasra gets pregnant and Surya who is not aware of it rushes back to India to settle a serious dispute with his arch rival Ankineedu’s family. What are the circumstances that brought Surya & Sahasra and what is the fate of their love story forms the crux of the plot.
Performances:
Sagar aka RK Naidu is a star in the Telugu television circuit. But cinema and winning the hearts of the masses is a different ball game altogether. Sagar deserves a tap on the back for a decent attempt and the lack of those run-of-the-mill commercial feats is quite appreciable. The actor has a good screen presence but his character ‘Surya’ is in fact a squib. Sagar tries to impress with his subtle performance but it was largely banal. Neither the emotions of his character nor his performance had the essential connect! More author backed roles and vivacious performances can help him make the cut.
Ragini Nandwani: Guess this senior television artist turned heroine can inspire Sagar better. She is good looking and has indeed delivered a decent performance (wish she had better make up along with an author backed role).
Ajay: He too deserves a tap on the back not for his usual able performance but for playing the routine villain despite the monotony - However less yelling and stupidity this time!
Sakshi Chowdary: She is lucky to enough to have got a decent lead role with zero skin show (perhaps for the time in her career).
Satyam Rajesh, Thagubothu Ramesh, Prabhas Seenu give the much needed comic relief in the second half.
The rest of the cast including Kota Srinivasa Rao, Subbaraju, Ranveer, Sana, Banerjee, Kishore Das, Nagineedu & others did a decent job.
Analysis:
Siddhartha has been touted as an action entertainer and given names of who’s who of the industry like Paruchuri Brothers, Cinematographer S Gopal Reddy, Editor Pravin Pudi, composer Mani Sharma et al, expectations are naturally sky-rocketed.
But simply getting the best men onboard doesn’t yield a good film and Siddhartha proved it again. Apart from the fact that it is not a film with the run-of-the-mill absurdity, Siddhartha still couldn’t completely fall out of the box. The director’s sincere efforts to mark his style are pretty evident. The director had an able cast and he could extract subtle performances from them which were aided by decent cinematography, editing, back ground score and production values.
All that the film lacked was a strong story and refreshing presentation. The plot is ridiculously predictable which indeed could be penned by an average cine-goer. However, neither the screenplay nor the performances could keep it engaging (guess you are aware that this film has no other so called commercial entertaining ingredient). It is the shoddy writing and an insipid narrative that marred Siddhartha!
Merits:
- Performances
- Cinematography
- Editing
- Music and back ground score
- Satyam Rajesh-Thagubothu Ramesh comedy
De-merits:
- Story and Screenplay
- Sluggish Narration
Music:
The songs are rather situational and it is indeed music for the ears of Mani Sharma’s fans. Nevertheless his earnest back ground score did have a robust content to shine!
Others:
Nothing special to mention.
Verdict:
Siddhartha is a decent yet dull film. It has got nothing new, heartening or worth watching that we haven’t before except for its hero and heroine. It is purely for someone who wishes to encourage them whatsoever.