A film in the action genre, Okkadunnadu starts off interestingly enough.
A man appeals for a rare blood group for his ailing mother. The hero, Kiran (Gopichand), who makes an appearance some considerable time after the movie begins, happens to come to Mumbai on a personal, financial errand, and meets Gautami (newcomer Neha Julka).
Kiran meets the man appealing for blood, and offers his own. Sonabhai (Mahesh Manjrekar), a 'mafia Don', has the same blood group, and desperately needs a heart transplant. So he and Nasser (his close associate) send their men in search of Kiran, with the object of hijacking his heart. The rest of the story is consistent with the genre.
The premise is appealing, and it starts off well. But along the way, it tapers off into a mainstream commercial drama laced with violence from the word go.
A story that touches on the organ trade has the potential to be developed along interesting lines, but director Chandrasekhar Yeleti prefers to go the mainstream, blood-drenched route, to the story's detriment.
Some of the action sequences are well-orchestrated, but the ferocity of violence is too much to bear at times. Relief comes in the form of two songs choreographed by Krishnavamsi in Dubai and a surrounding desert; that said, the song pictured in the desert is out of sync with the storyline.
The film also has the mandatory item number, that panders to commercial interests without necessarily adding anything of interest to the storyline. Keeravani's music is on the sober side, when compared to the hard-hitting action.
Chandrasekhar manages to maintain the momentum of this wafer-thin story to a large extent with the help of heart-pounding background music. The first half actually makes better viewing. Post-interval, it takes the rather tame route, concluding in a safe climax.
The focus is on Kiran and Sonabhai, though one wonders how the latter's heart, supposedly weak enough to require urgent transplant, manages to withstand all the ferocity. Neha provides occasional respite from this heavy-duty action drama, that seriously lacks in humor and romance.
Gopichand and Mahesh Manjrekar hold their own in this fight-drama. Gopichand, back as action hero after a rather soft performance in his earlier film Raraju, does not disappoint. His acting, particularly in the action sequences, is quite effortless and natural. Mahesh Manjrekar in his Telugu debut is apt for the role and looks and acts like a menacing don.
Overall, the excessive violence could deter family audiences; it takes a strong stomach to withstand it. And once the novelty of the theme wears off, the rest is just blood and gore, and too much of both.
Rediff Rating:
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