Poor comedy track spoiled the tempo

Stories with faction backdrop is not new to the Telugu audiences. Like the cowboy films, these faction-related subjects though narrated with different heroes, they always appear to be very similar and the audiences would always try to equate them with other films. In case of Gopichand’s latest film ‘Sankham’ too, which has faction in its backdrop, failed to offer anything new and it appeared like an old wine in new bottle. The movement of the story too had no twists. The good performance by the hero and the glamour of the heroine too failed to save the film from earning a just below average to average talk on the release day.

Chandu (Gopichand) was brought by his maternal uncle (Chandramohan) in a foreign country by concealing the fact that he was the son of a big faction leader called Sivayya (Satyaraj) in Rayalaseema. In fact, when Chandu was a small child, his mother and brother get killed in the hands of the rivals of Sivayya. However, Sivayya is a God for the people of the region as he donated a good amount of his property to clear the debts of the people and get them relieved from bonded labour by his rival Pasupati (Kota Srinivasa Rao). Chandu’s mother Parvati (Sita) gives away her son to her brother and pleads with him to bring him up away from the factional feuds. However, Chandu’s uncle is in touch with Sivayya and used to send his pictures at regular intervals showing his growth.

At this juncture, Chandu falls in love with a girl called Mahalakshmi (Trisha). Though she refuses him in the beginning, she too develops soft corner towards Chandu latter. At a time when she was about to reveal her love, Maha’s aunt (Sakuntala) takes her to India to get her married to her son (Venumadhav). Somehow, Maha contacts Chandu and reveals all this. Soon, Chandu too lands in Maha’s house and dares his men. Pasupati is none other than Maha’s father. Pasupati identifies Chandu as the son of Sivayya and instigates him to settle scores with Sivayya to get his daughter married. Innocently Chandu goes to Sivayya’s house and get a severe thrashing in the hands of Sivayys’s followers.

While taking his body away, Sivayya recognises that Chandu is none other than his son and admits him in hospital. Sivayya calls up his brother-in-law (Chandu’s uncle), who reveals the relationship between Sivayya and Chandu to the latter. With the union of father and son, the story takes a new twist. At this juncture, Maha reaches Sivayya’s house and Sivayya decides to unite the lovers. Did he able to complete the task? Did Maha’s father allows the marriage? How Chandu takes revenge against Maha’s father and his brother, who killed both his mother and father? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

PERFORMANCE:

Gopichand gave a power-packed performance in the film. His well-toned body made him to flex his muscles against his opponents in the action scenes. One can give full marks to him as far as action scenes. He also shook his legs with the heroine in right spirit for a couple of songs. However, Gopichand could not maintain the comedy timing properly and all the comedy scenes penned for him proved a big flop. Trisha played a cute girl’s role and it appeared a continuation of her role in ‘Athadu’. She filled the glamour slot excellently and at the same time, she is okay in giving comic relief in some scenes.

Satyaraj, who had good following in Tamil film industry, played a role in a straight Telugu film after a long time, did justice to his role. However, there is no need to bring the other language artiste for that role and our Tollywood had many artistes who could fill that slot. Kota Srinivasa Rao and Katraju were at their usual best and showed a routine villainy. Chandramohan did justice to his role, while comedy by Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Krishna Bhagawan and Venumadhav remained just average.

TECHNICAL:

As far as technical aspects, music by Thamas is average. Some three songs are foot-tapping and catchy with mass beat and the audiences could enjoy the audio as well as visuals in these three songs. Background score, though not very impressive, remained average. Camera work by Vetri is good especially during the action scenes. Editing by Marthand K Venkatesh needs some more sharpness. Especially the nagging comedy scenes should have cut to length in the first half and the huge bloodshed in the second half. The basic drawback of the movie is the haphazard screenplay and poor directorial abilities. Though the combination of Siva and Gopichand brought out a hit like ‘Souryam’, they failed to repeat the magic once again in this film. Especially, the director failed to show any kind of novelty in the movement of the story. Despite the electrifying performance by the hero, the poor narration of the story played the spoilsport making the film earn an average to below average talk.

ANALYSIS:

The film has all the ingredients to entertain the masses. Especially the story has nothing novel and it remained a routine subject with factionalism in its backdrop. Had the director concentrated only on action and faction as the main elements, it would have impressed the audiences, but the nagging comedy tracks spoiled the mood of the audiences.

Cast: Gopichand, Trisha, Satyaraj, Chandramohan, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Katraju, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Ali, Venumadhav, Krishna Bhagawan, LB Sriram, Raghunatha Reddy, Srinivasa Reddy, Benarjee, Prasadbabu, Fish Venkat, Sita, Rajita, Telangana Sakuntala and others

Credits: Dialogues – Aril Ravipudi, Music – Thamas, Camera – Vetri, Art – Vivek, Editing – Marthand K Venkatesh, Producers – J Bhagawan and J Pulla Rao, Story, screenplay and direction – Siva.

Banner: Sri Balaji Cine Media

Released on: September 11, 2009