Greed is a universal phenomenon. And it's like quicksand which sucks the individual into its vortex. And its ensuing effects can be disastrous. This, in short is the story of the Telugu film Idi Sangathi. Well, the film revolves around money in human relationships and the extent of its impact on the lives of its protagonists Satyamurthy (Abbas) and Swarajyalakshmi (Tabu).
Satyamurthy is a crime reporter who is more occupied in making money than doing his job. His wife Swarajyalakshmi dreams of riches and all the goodies money can fetch. Satyamurthy and photographer Neeladri (Sunil) are asked to report about a train accident.
They rob the victims of their jewellery and run away with the boxes. As luck would have it, one of the boxes contains diamonds worth a king's fortune which they come to know of through their editor. These diamonds are supposed to be in the box of the Prime Minister (Kota). All hell breaks loose when he realises the box is missing. The police are then spurred into action.
In the midst of all this, Swarajyalakshmi gets the box opened and finds the bag of diamonds. Greed gets the better of her and she hides the bag and the information about it even from her husband. Thus the operation to reclaim the bag begins involving a big thief called Clover King (Raja), a retired judge and police officials (all intent on getting their slice of commissions).
The movie meanders to the climax which, though loaded with a simple message, seems to be an anti-climax -- and a rather tame one at that given the ordeal the characters go through. In short the director wanted to send the message across by testing the patience of the audience. The pace of the movie slows down quite a bit in between.
In a film which is talking about greed and its effects, the director has made Tabu and Abbas gyrate to a sensual number and Raja, Anita and Samiksha in an 'item' number. The 'light' vein element is provided by Sunil and Venu Madhav. All these ingredients -- the staple of most Telugu films -- irritate most of the audience.
For Tabu this role is a cakewalk as there is nothing very challenging about it. She looks pretty and glides through the film effortlessly looking quite sensuous in the song. Abbas is quite convincing in a different look -- a de-glamorised one. Raja's cameo is satisfactory.
Technically the film is just about average.
Chandra Siddhartha has chosen a topical theme but fails in his depiction of it as the treatment is quite bland. Quite a disappointment, considering the good cast.
Rediff Rating: 
