Koratala Siva’s Srimanthudu (2015) Movie Review

Koratala Siva’s Srimanthudu (2015) Movie Review

Opened on August 7th, 2015
Star Cast: Mahesh Babu, Shruti Haasan, Surekha Vani, Jagapathi Babu, Sampath Raj, Poorna, Sanam Shetty, Somya Janu,
Music Composer: Devi Sri Prasad
Director: Koratala Siva
Cinematographer: Madhie
Censor Certificate: UA Runtime: 163 Minutes

What is the purpose of an art film?
To satisfy director’s vision

What is the purpose of a commercial film?
To fill producer’s pockets

Then what is the purpose of an art film with commercial hero?

When a big star makes a movie like Swades , though it gets attention , reviews it all pales down when a similar big star makes a movie like Bhajrangi Bhaijan. The commercial aspect, the connect with the masses and more importantly the box office mask the flaws, trivialization of the plot and eventually Bhajrangi Bhaijan will be called a classic by more people than Swades will ever be called in the eventual course of history.

Mahesh Babu is like Shahid Afridi of Telugu Cinema. Amir Sohail once recalled when he and Afridi were batting together in a crucial situation, he went and asked Afridi to takes things slow and stabilize the innings. Afridi after listening to Amir Sohail, converted the next ball to a six. After experimenting with Takkari Donga, Nani, Business Man, Nenokkadine and literally after coming after 2 disasters with Srimanthudu is a testament to the fact that either this guy is so matured to know that Srimanthudu will be a blockbuster or he just went by his instinct of making good cinema again with that risk of delivering a hattrick of flops.

Srimanthudu is a sugar coated version of movies like Swades aimed to cater mass audience. When I say mass audience its about paying audience. Audience who come to watch movies in theater instead of downloading torrents and appreciating cinema in arm chairs. It has inconsistent characterization of a hero, who is supposed to be chinnodu of SVSC but ends up acting like an assassin of Athadu. He stalks the heroine only to fall in love with books, he is even more prepared than villains to kick their ass, even after developing one village doesn’t have any plan to do in his life(talking about scale when he has 25,000 crores in his bank). But with all these flaws, its Mahesh show all the way. He is a one man show and makes us believe that even girls like Shruti Hassan will hit on guys. If he could pull that off then he could pull off anything.

Mahesh just announced from the roof top that heroes like him and Pawan Kalyan just need a non-bad film to create records. He is well supported by DSP who did not give bad music. Same with Madhie who did not thrill us so much as he did with Run Raja Run or Siva Koratala who gave us that goose bumps scene in Mirchi. Everyone made sure that they made a honest attempt at not delivering a bad film. They took a story with a message weaved in a commercial format and made sure that people cannot complain that it is vulgar/depressing/confusing.

Will this movie be a hit if it comes when Mahesh has a streak of hits? I don’t think so? It will be blockbuster for the same reasons as Atharintiki Dharedhi was an industry hit. Was it Pawan’s best or Trivikram’s best? No would be my answer but people flocked in theaters more than ever in history for that movie. If there was no Baahubali Srimanthudu would have been Industry Hit too.

Right Right…

Theatrical Trailer: