Kodi Ramakrishna’s Nagabharanam (2016) Movie Review

Movie Name: Nagabharanam
Star Cast: Ramya, Vishnuvardhan, Diganth, Sai kumar and Rajesh Vivek Upadhyay.
Directed by Kodi Ramakrishna
Produced by Sohail Ansari & Dhaval Jayantilal Gada
Music Composed by Guru Kiran
Censor Certificate: UA & Runtime: 141 Minutes

Nagabharanam directed by Kodi Ramakrishna is a fantasy film with a prolific cast Vishnuvardhan (reincarnated by special effects), Divya Spandana and Diganth. Kodi and Ramya promise that the movie is one of its kinds and has a potential to cater to audience across all ages. Featuring nearly an hour of special effects and various martial moves, will Nagabharanam find place for itself in the history of Telugu Fantasy films? Can Nagabharanam become a sensation like Arundhati?

All of us are here for a reason so and so is Manasa (Ramya). Nagabharanam is Nagamma/Manasa’s story. It’s about the journey that she embarks on to understand the true destiny of her life. In this process, She teams up with aspiring musician Nag Charan (Diganth) to safeguard the mystic Maha Kalasam (i.e; Holy Pot) exhibited at Delhi Archaeology Department. Kapali, a agora is the evil who wants to conquer the world by winning Maha Kalasam at Delhi Musical Fest with Mukul Dev (Yes, Archaeology Department wants to gift their precious recent find ‘The Holy Pot’ to the winner as it represents Ancient Tradition. Now don’t ask How?) . Will Charan win the Musical Fest? Will our semi-goddess kill the agora with her Naga skills? Oh yes, she will – the movie has a happy ending!

Nagabharanam clearly lacks soul to be a fantasy/mythological film. The movie lies on a wafer thin plot and totally faulty story-line that is weakly narrated. A very important aspect of such films is in fact the characterizations and Naga Bharanam falls short here too. A back story that explains the circumstances by which the characters acquires her powers and motivation for becoming a protector is precipitous (some times it remind us of Arudhanti) and dreadful. So is the portrayal of the characters, the power and the reverberation of both good and bad is not defined. Our protector here doesn’t have a strong story to back up her prowess nor does she have an equally marvelous evil to fight with, here the villain aka. Agora is funny and less palling. Another reason why the movie fails to grab you attention is the lack of connection and continuity between scenes. And that list is endless…. The movie drags and the songs just don’t fit anywhere into the reel and have no significance whosoever. Taking its root from Indian mythology, Nagabharanam had the scope and the command to become a decent fantasy film but unfortunately disappoints. Special effects here are too explicitly tacky to overlook. What’s the point of spending so much money for substandard results? Like those flying poorman’s Persian agora squad or brownish gray ominous curves in the sky, the accident and the illuminated castle or massive electric currents. The excessive computer graphics are almost always noticeable. Even Mukuta VFX used face masking technology to reincarnate Sahasa Simha Vishnuvardhan and it was more like shot with a Snapchat face swap filter than motion capture in the film.

As the mythic messiah, Ramya initially struggles to look kinetic in heavy traditional costumes, but make up for the lack of physical dynamism with her brand of intensity. Even so, the hardhearted close-ups force you to make awkward contact with her the dark circles under her eyes, which go against ever healthy imagery of a (demi)goddess. Although, it isn’t performance oriented film and none of these characters have any real back story or depth, Diganth just doesn’t have the personality or grit to carry the image of a rock star. He is wretched in his expressions. There was no need to reincarnate Vishnuvardhan for this film. Sai Kumar is the only saving grace. He is in fact carries the action part better than re-incarnated Vishnuvardhan.

Dialogues are hideous and cringe worthy. Director Kodi Ramakrishna’s desperate attempt to make a safebet product after Avataram was evident. Cinematography by HC Venu is alright. The music by Guru Kiran is adequate. The placement of the songs is inconsistent. Producers Sohail Ansari & Dhaval Jayantilal Gada have spend whopping budget on this film and it clearly shows.

The story of renascence is nothing new. Enough of excitement has been generated with stories of this sort for long. The underlying conundrum of this theme however does not fail to excite though and there are enough reasons for one to fall prey to lines like this again and again. Kodi Ramakirshna’s Devi and Arundhanti explored the similar themes, being a mixture of both Naga Bharanam fails to recreate the MAGIC of both.

Survi Review: 1/5

Theatrical Trailer: