Court room entertainer

When comedians turn heroes, it becomes a very effective transformation if they take up weighty roles. It also becomes a sort of tempting for these laughter providers to fall back on their core competencies, as they take up characters which give them a clear heroic dimension.

For instance, take the case of Sunil, who made the cut a few years ago and has recently been facing a series of setbacks, is one such.

Saptagiri, a comedian who has quickly touched the top rungs of stardom builds a brand on his name and comes up with his second film of the year, solely trusting his BO abilities. If the first one was received well, the second one – the recent release - too promises to be a functional, no-frills kind of a film which is a good remake of the Hindi original ‘Jolly LLB’.

Remembered for its engrossing fusion of legalese and a real life horrific accident caused by a celebrity who uses his financial and political clout to wriggle out of the punishment that is to follow, the Hindi version was a sleeper hit, which gained traction among the audience for its topnotch performances.

The Telugu remake fortunately retains the core plot, raises the super heroism of the protagonist a few degrees more and blends in the dream sequences to keep the front benchers happy. The socio-political dimension by bringing in the farmer and his wretched existence manages to combine itself well into the screenplay, giving good scope for histrionics to everyone concerned.

Sporting a Chittoor accent, which has a twang unique to its own, Sapthagiri breezes through the film with very effective support from Sai Kumar who impresses with his legal eagle character. The politician-turned- character artiste N Siva Prasad, completes the court room ambience by essaying his judge role realistically.

The heroine, a new upcountry face, is the usual blink-and-miss person, seen only during dance sequences and the mandatory counseling scene in which she chastises the hero.

Maintaining a credible level to match his physical stature, Saptagiri is given the necessary heft by being a stunt superman once a while but otherwise, seems serious to emerge as a mainstream hero.

The tedium which one would have expected from long court room arguments and counter arguments is also minimal as the environment is realistic, by and large. As the year draws to a close, the Telugu cinema world has been seeing different genres of movies being released in both the dubbed and original categories, to which this flick can also be added to.

By K Naresh Kumar