Gunturodu - Movie Review

Story:

Kanna (Manchu Manoj) is a mildly irresponsible son and a totally eccentric, angry young man.  Just two people boozing on the roadside against his wishes can cause itch in his palm, which means he will toss their bodies in the air in an action sequence!

Seshu (Sampath Raj of 'Mirchi' fame) is destined to lock horns with this fiery youngster.  A professional (a criminal lawyer at that), he behaves like a consummate rowdy sheeter.  Forget challenging him, he will get violent even when he is disturbed.  While celebrating a tea boy's birthday, Kanna and friends unknowingly disturb Seshu, who beats up one of the friends, inviting Kanna's predictable wrath.  

The stage is set for a hunt.  Seshu's ego is badly hurt and he wants his henchmen to murder Kanna beyond recognition.  All the while, he is ignorant of how Kanna looks (he had cream applied on his face when he beat up Seshu).  What is worse, Seshu doesn't even know that his beloved sister (Pragya Jaiswal as Amrutha) is in love with Kanna!  

The hero has his task cut out: he has to stave off threat to his existence from the influential villain, save his father's (Rajendra Prasad as Surya Narayana) honour and win Amrutha against all odds.

Analysis:

'Gunturodu' comes with an utterly predictable story line and screenplay. To make the hero-villain fight appealing to family audience, the element of father-son sentiment is introduced in the second half. But even that goes for a toss after just a scene. There is no emotional intensity once the hero gets released from jail, with even his father not worried a bit until he is once again captured and beat up by the villain!

Our filmmakers are obsessed with sting operation-type scenes mounted by the hero. Whatever may be the problem, the hero is shown coming out of it with utmost ease by placing the camera at the right angle! 'Gunturodu' falls back on this time-tested idea to show the hero bring the villain to the negotiating table.

At least the last 20 minutes should have thrown up exciting screenplay.  Here too, the routine idea of everyone conspiring to help the hero win is used. Among those everyone is one Minister (Rao Ramesh in a cameo)!

Praveen and Sathya as the hero's friends are reduced to irrelevance right from the beginning. In the match-seeing scene where they are shown to become glutton over sweets, they have no role in doing comedy.  

Pragya Jaiswal as the sister of a rich guy is that Telugu cinema heroine ever ready to show gratitude towards the hero for renouncing cigarettes and liquor for love.  It's not just cool to watch the lead pair song after song. At least two numbers can be purged out.

Manoj tries his best to look spine-chilling whenever he is talking to the villain, whether on phone or in person. But he completely looks overweight in the film. Sampath Raj is dignified. As a sadistic villain, he is convincing.  Rajendra Prasad is routine. Prudhvi delivers a few laughs. Kota Srinivas Rao as the villain's well-wishing MLA is good.  Pragya Jaiswal is good too. 

Chiranjeevi's voice-over has not helped much. As a tribute Chiru, Manoj's interval bang line is 'I am waiting' ('Khaidi No 150' style). 

The technical departments deliver a so-so job.  DJ Vasanth's songs are okay. Siddharth Ramaswamy's cinematography is adequate wherever it can be. The director S K Sathya has totally failed in delivering a decent mass movie. His ideas are archaic. 

Bottom line: At outset 'Gunturodu' is typical mass-action movie but the scenes and narration are too formulaic and cliched. Everything in the film gives deja vu feeling.