Mahatma – Message Oriented

Starring: Srikanth, Bhavana, Jayaprakash Reddy, Brahmanandam, Ahuthi Prasad, Ram Jagan and others

Director: Krishna Vamsi

Music: Vijay Anthony

Release date: 09 October, 2009

Mahatma is Srikanth’s 100^th film. The film raised a lot of expectations as it has been directed by creative director Krishna Vamsi. Let us see how far the film has managed to live up to the expectations of the audience.

Story:

Dasu (Srikanth) is a small time goonda. He lives with money collected from extortion, settlements etc. He is assisted by a suspended police constable Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, Uttej etc. Dasu comes in contact with a lawyer Krishnaveni (Bhavana) who helps him get bail every time he commits a petty crime.

Krishnaveni slowly begins to like Dasu after seeing his humane side. A big time politician Dada (Jayaprakash Reddy) takes Dasu under his wings and tries to use him in settling a dispute over the construction of Fab City. Dada asks Dasu to bash up the people who are opposed to the Fab City as they stand to lose their houses.

Dada promises to make Dasu a corporator and then an MLA. For this he asks Dasu to surrender to the police and take the murder case of his son on himself. Dasu flatly refuses and then decides to contest against Dada himself.

Bhavana helps Dasu to give up his violent ways and adopt a path of non violence and preached and practiced by Mahatma Gandhi. The rest of the story is whether Dasu becomes an MLA and whether he succeeds in stopping the construction of Fab City and restore the land to the poor people who are about to be displaced.

Performance:

This is Srikanth’s 100^th film and he has put in a lot of effort to make the film memorable. The effort shows and Srikanth comes up with a good performance. He dances and fights well and also is impressive in the sentiment and emotional scenes.

Bhavana gives good company to Srikanth as the lawyer and friend/lover/philosopher/guide. Jayaprakash Reddy plays a wicked politician who is reformed in the end quite convincingly. Ram Jagan gets a lengthy role in the film and he gets to play the roles of Mahatma Gandhi, Potti Sriramulu, Tanguturi Pantulu, NT Rama Rao etc.

Brhamnandam appears in a brief role and he manages to raise some laughter. Ahuthi Prasad fails to make a big impression. The rest of the star cast is okay.

Charmy appears in an item song. The song “Neelapuri Gaula O Neelaveni…” is good and is set to some fast beats and it has also been picturized well.

The film begins on a promising note and it is quite entertaining in the first half. However the film slows down in the second half. The plot loses momentum and the film drags on from there. The film finally ends with an unexpected twist that shows that the hero has really understood the true spirit of Gandhism.

Mahatma is a rather serious film and the subject and heavy message dominate the entertainment elements in the film. The film ends up as a just above average fare.