Dookudu movie review

Film: Dookudu
Rating: 3.25/5
Banner: 14 ReelsEntertainment
Cast: Mahesh Babu, Samantha, Prakash Raj,Sonu Sood, M S Narayana, Brahmanandam
Music: S S Thaman
Dialogues: Kona Venkat
Cinematographer: K V Guhan
Editing: M R Varma
Story, screenplay, direction: Srinu Vaitla
Producers: Anil Sunkara, Achanta Ram, AchantaGopichand
Release date: 23/09/2011

The much delayed and most awaited movie has finally arrived. It has broughtMahesh Babu along with Samantha under the direction of Srinu Vaitla. Let ustake a plunge into the details.

Story: 
Shankar Narayana (Prakash Raj) an honest man with ideals whodoes a lot for the poor. His good deeds find enemies (Kota, Supreeth, Sayaji). Shankar’s son Ajay(Mahesh Babu) grows up to be an honest and tough cop.

While the whole world thinks Shankar Narayanais dead, he is actually recovering in a hospital. Meanwhile, unaware of allthis flashback Ajay sets on a mission to hunt Nayak (Sonu Sood), a dreadedmafia don. In this process, he comes across Prashanti (Samantha) and falls inlove with her. Meanwhile, Shankar Narayana recovers but he is not supposed togo through any sort of stress.

For this, Ajay starts doing all sorts of thingsto keep him happy. The story takes a turn when Ajay discovers about the attackon his father and decides to take revenge. How does he do that? Whether he issuccessful or not forms the rest of the story. 

Performances:
Mahesh Babu gives a powerhouse performance. His versatility in acting andemoting of various expressions is impressive. As usual, he rocks with his styleand handsome looks. 

Samantha looks sweet. She manages to do justicein songs and the light romance track. However, she must reduce her dose ofmakeup and start focusing on adding few extra pounds, that will make her doublesexy.

Prakash Raj was matured as usual. Though hedoesn’t have intense scenes in it, he maintains a contained act and does hisbit as required.

Sonu Sood looks stylish as a villain but hischaracterization is not that powerful. This time, he was not able to create therequired impact. 

Nasser was natural, Brahmanandam was hilarious,M S Narayana was fantastic, Vennela Kishore brought few extra smiles and madehis presence felt, Sonia was alright, Subbaraju made his presence felt, Kota was effective,Sayaji Shinde was standard, Aditya Menon was apt, Tanikella Bharani waselegant, Supreeth was okay. Special mention must be made of Parvathi Melton.Her item song and her oozing sex appeal is a visual delight. The others didtheir bit as required and added value. Highlights:

• Mahesh Babu’s performance
• Brahmi, M S Narayana comedy
• Second half
• Parvathi Melton’s item song

Drawbacks:

• First half
• Length
• Routine Vaitla formula
• Weak romance track
• MLA get up Mahesh Babu got wasted

Analysis:
The two names, Mahesh Babu and Srinu Vaitla, are enough toset high expectations for the film. But the best way to enjoy this film is togo with an open mind. As such, this is a typical Srinu Vaitla film and hisformula and pattern is the same from start to finish.

Subba Raju’s character resembles Jaya PrakashReddy in ‘Dhee’. Brahmanandam’s character resembles what he portrayed in‘Ready’.

Only difference is, the commercial elements arehigh and for a change he has shown villains as villains and not converted themto good beings.

As usual, Vaitla relied on his strengths iecomedy and dialogues. During the first half, things are quite erratic and it ishard to connect. Many were looking at their watches for the interval bang.During the interval many gave thumbs down reactions and somewhat negativevibes.

The much hyped Mahesh Babu’s MLA get up iswasted in the film. The purpose of raising curtain for a reality show by MaheshBabu is not at all convincing but boring. Taking the bigger risk of realityshow to keep father happy is like a cock and bull story. The entertainmentgraph falls down suddenly due to that. Audience gets disconnected to the filmat that moment for about 20 minutes. Although the purpose of that reality showis not convincing, the pattern in which it goes with other artistes brought thehumor.

But second half covered up the entire thing andno one looks at the watch anymore. There are few points which are worthmentioning here:

• When Dharmavarapu faxes a celebrity photo to the villains. All are shocked. You must watch the film to enjoy that.
• The scene between Sonu Sood and Prakash Raj. It is a straight lift from ‘Sarkar’ scene between Amitabh Bachchan and Zakir Hussain, but a weak imitation.
• Last twenty minutes comedy and the dialogues of Brahmi and M S Narayana

Overall, the film has the right ingredients toappeal the family audience and though most of it is expected, it is the paceand ability with which the audience is engaged and the entertainment value theyget.

At the box office, with no other film in sight and the hype created, the filmwill be invincible. 

Bottom-line: Routine Vaitla'sflick

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