‘Mystical’ fare fails to pack a punch

Young hero Sai Srinivas who has a burning ambition to be a top hero has had a steady output of releases at regular intervals. With his producer - father connections, the canvas for his films have been huge, befitting a big star and the packaging complete with top names in the industry involved in its making, including hot heroines, Pooja Hegde, in this case. 

Four years and into his fifth film, Srinivas, on the surface, seems no different from the scions of film families who have all been invading the Telugu film market one after the other.  He has a beefed up frame, maintains  a swag and works up an average level of performance. Like his youthful counterparts, his films too suffer from a severe monotony most of the times but unlike his competitors, he has not been able to rustle up a decent hit over these years.

Director Sriwass, who has a few films behind him with Balakrishna and Gopichand over the past decade, stays very much in the masala zone but wants to narrate his story in a mystical, religious background where the virtual meets the real. He invokes a far-fetched theory of how Nature conspires to rid itself of the evil forces, when everything else fails and human wickedness reaches its nadir.

Shifting his action from America to Andhra, as the film runs into its first hour, Sriwass packs in everything – two songs, one fight and a few comic scenes- to ensure the minimum entertainment expected by the front benchers. He intertwines a video game plotline of a revenge drama which actually takes place as that is how God has ordained it. 

Here is where the entire story lies – one that of how the hero is orphaned right in his childhood and how over the years, he retraces his steps to vanquish and avenge the death of his family by four goons who run the town like their own fiefdom. Liberally sprinkling the proceedings with references to mythological tales and blatant appeal to the faithful in the audience, this flick is a mishmash of the retro era where God intervenes and restores order when humans are unsuccessful. With such a dated, over-the-top venture, it is the Almighty alone who can save the hero once again and save his film from sinking without a trace.

BY K Naresh Kumar