Movie Review: Shankarabharanam

Rating: 2

Cast: Nikhil, Nanditha, Anjali, Sampath Raj, Rao Ramesh, Saptagiri, Pruthvi, Suman, Sithara and Others.

Music: Praveen Lakkaraju

Cinematography: Sai Sriram

Producer: MVP Satyanarayana

Story/Screenplay/Dialogues/Direction Supervision: Kona Venkat

Direction: Uday Nandanavanam

After having good number of hits to his credit, Kona Venkat earned the reputation of a hotshot writer and his name in the posters & title cards kept drawing good number of crowds to theatres off late. On the other hand, Nikhil created a unique image by scoring hattrick hits with novel subjects. Good Promotional Material and the fact that 'Sankarabharanam' is inspired from a Bollywood flick raised expectations. What this film with Bihar backdrop is all about?

Synopsis:

Gautham (Nikhil), being the son of an Industrialist in USA, enjoys a luxury life style. One day, The spoilt-brat comes to know about how his father lost all the wealth by blindly trusting his friends and would be jailed if he fails to pay $2 million in few days. So, Gautham lands in India to sell his Mother's property 'Sankarabharanam Palace' in Bihar. Its then Gautham gets kidnapped by a Kidnap Gang. Did the NRI succeed in escaping & selling the Palace?

Performances:

The confidence he gained with hat-trick hits could be seen in Nikhil here. However, His dialogue delivery and body language for the NRI role look artificial. While he is good in few scenes, performs ordinarily in the rest. Nanditha hardly got any scope to leave her mark. Anjali's screen time is limited to just 20 minutes and her role wasn't etched well. Sampath Raj is top class. Pruthvi entertains to the fullest in pre-climax & climax. Saptagiri generates few laughs in Second Half. Rao Ramesh, Suman & Sithara were alright.

Pros:

Bihar Backdrop

Pruthvi's Comedy

Cons:

Screenplay

Technicalities:

There isn't much importance for music in 'Sankarabharanam'. Only the melody song shot on Anjali is good and Background Score is just okay. Camera Work by Sai Sriram is appreciable and he utilized the backdrop to the fullest. Kona Venkat who acted like a backbone for the movie failed to entertain or thrill the audience with his writing skills. Production Values were rich.

Analysis:

Usually, Film Folks believe remaking a film which was successful in another language will be a safe bet. But, Any such attempt have to overcome a lot of hurdles to recreate the same magic. People say its just a copy/paste if no changes were made in the remake. At the same time, There is no guarantee of scoring a success even if ample changes were made to suit the nativity. So, Its more like a double-edged sword!

For 'Sankarabharanam', The core story was lifted from Hindi flick 'Phas Gaya Re Obama' and commercial elements were included to suit the taste of Telugu audience. Neither the comedy episodes nor the emotions in the movie hit the right chord with the audience. One can say,  'Sankarabharanam' is a bad remake of 'Phas Gaya Re Obama'.

The 'Bakra' concept is quite common in the screenplays penned by Kona Venkat and even 'Sankarabharanam' falls in the same category. The only difference would be replacement of Brahmanandam with Bihar kidnap gangs. Even though the Bihar backdrop & kidnap gangs is refreshing, Story & Screenplay were pathetic. Especially, Using the same template again works against the movie.

Comic relief & thrills offered by 'Phas Gaya Re Obama' were completely missing in 'Sankarabharanam'. The scenes included to establish the bonding between Hero & his Family test the patience of the audience. Till Hero's Kidnap in the interval, None of the sequences were impressive. Even though Second Half starts on positive note, The 'bakra' game played by Protagonist looks very silly. Inconsistencies in screenplay, illogical scenes and a poor first half play spoilsport.

Bottom Line: A Classy Title Gone Wasted!