After playing a trigger-happy cop in Gharshana, Venkatesh impresses as a soft-spoken brother in his latest release Sankranthi, the Telugu remake of the Tamil film Anandam.
The star of the feel-good genre plays the self-sacrificing and idealistic head of a joint family. He runs a supermarket, and is reluctant to marry. In a flashback, it is revealed that he broke off with his true love (Aarti Agarwal) when she asked him to leave his family.
Venkatesh's parents and brothers are trying very hard to get him to tie the knot. Finally, Venkatesh approves of Sneha, and they get married.
| |||||||||||
Young actor Srikanth plays an obedient brother to Venkatesh. Srikanth marries Sangita, Aarti's sister, and she starts questioning Venkatesh's authority. Srikanth blindly believes his brother and even overrules his wife, but Venkatesh starts doubting Srikanth's intent.
Meanwhile, the other brother (Sai Balaji) falls in love with the daughter of a dreaded don (Prakash Raj). Sai decides, keeping in spirit with this filmy household, to sacrifice his love when the don threatens to eliminate his family if he does not leave his daughter alone.
The rest is predictable, clichéd, and quite boring.
Director Muppulaneni Siva could have made this regular sentimental family drama interesting by triggering some pragmatic conflicts, but he relies on trivial issues.
His predictable screenplay is monotonous, and he could not even cover up the obvious similarities with Maa Anaiya.
In fact, Venkatesh's role is quite similar to Dr Rajsekar's in Maa Anaiya. It doesn't challenge the actor, and he just goes through the motions.
Veteran actress Sarada, on a comeback, performs the mother's role with consummate ease. Sneha, who is doing 'selective' roles in Telugu cinema, plays Venkatesh's docile wife. It's an outdated sati-savitri kind of role, and she should shrug off her traditional image to experiment. Sangita, so far confined to glamourous roles, plays the troublesome daughter-in-law. The talented Prakash Raj attempts to bring life into a caricature.
Director Siva, known for hits like Gilligajalu and Raja, captures some good performances from his lead artistes. But neither his screenplay nor the comedy track holds the interest.
Composer S A Rajkumar, who carved a niche for himself with Telegu hits like Suryavamsam and Raja, fails to come up with soulful music. He is now rehashing old hits instead of discovering fresh melodies.
Producer R B Choudury, the man who gave Telugu film buffs a series of hits, is now totally banking on this remake to revive his sagging career. But the déjà vu feel of his latest film could spoil his dreams.
