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Friday, October 06, 2006

Godavari (2006) - Telugu Movie Review

Ranking : 4/5

Cast: Kamalinee Mukherjee as Sita Mahalakshmi, Sumanth as Sriram and Neetu Chandra as Raji
Director: Shekar Kammula
Music: K. M. Radha Krishnan

Cinema can be two things. It can either be a fantasy portrayed on screen or can be reality bought to light. A director should be clear about what he wants. If he is confused then the final outcome is also not great. But if the director knows that he wants to direct a fantasy movie and goes about doing it with great screenplay, setting, story, camera, music, etc then the movie is beautiful. Godavari is a fantastic fantasy. Beautiful scenery, some great acting, and a very simple story backed with a good screenplay and dialogues. The music is also soothing but the background score reminds you sometimes of AR Rehman's Thiruda Thiruda or his older movies. In other words I liked this movie and would strongly recommend others to watch it. Family viewing should bring no embarrassment to anyone.

Sita is a very pampered and spoilt child who wants to achieve something on her own in her lifetime. She is a free spirited independent girl raised to live her life in her own way. Due to pressure she agrees to marry a guy her parents had chosen for her but gets frustrated to realize that the guy had rejected her. So in anger she packs her bags and leave to see Sita-Ram marriage in Badrachalam on a house boat called Godavari on the river Godavari.

Sriram is an US-return software guy who wants to do something for the people of India and hence comes back to India to join politics. He wants to marry his cousin Raji who is also his best friend but her father thinks otherwise and gets her engaged to an IPS officer and the marriage is scheduled to take place in Badrachalam. The entire wedding party is booked to travel on the house Boat too.

Sita and Ram meet in the boat. Sparks fly but nothing is uttered. Before it is uttered there are small confusions and tensions and the story takes a small twist and eventually ends in a happy note. Sorry for giving away the ending. Like you anticipated anything different. It is a Golti movie for the love of GOD! and that too a romantic one!

So in conclusion, a simple predictable love story that is done very nicely. Kamalinee Mukherjee to me seemed to have matured as a Telugu actress in this movie from her performance in Anand. She is cute and adorable and portrays her character to perfection. Sushanth on the other hand seems to lack energy but maybe that is his role in this movie. He can try and do better in his next movie. Neetu as the confused cousin of Sushanth has done a great job too. Her confusion is portrayed very aptly. And last but not the least, the animated talking dog Kotigadu is simply the BEST! He is cute, adorable and funny and not overdone one bit also.

Go and watch the movie if you have not done so yet!

7 comments:

SATYA said...

thanks anu for writing a telugu movie review for me,indeed godavari is a movie worth watching....i was a great fan of the director shekar kammula (anand fame),and more over the wonderful songs of radha krishnas music and penned by veturi....the movie is a good in the sense of girl trying to establish her self in life and getting the thing what she wants....i did enjoy the dog scene and the beatuiful camera work...
My favourite song is Mansa vacha.......

thanks for the review and i enjoy reading ur reviews...G8 job anu

Kasi Alagappan said...

Thanks for tagging me. I ll look into it soon..

Nice Review from you again!
But a small typo I noticed: Hero's name given by you as Sushanth (in 2 places) in place of Sumanth in the last but one para.

Y the blog title got changed? Btw, I felt the title Chennai Talkies (incidentally its blogrolled in this name in my blog!) sounds better than Movie Mania...

Preetha said...

ok was just wondering which Telugu movie to watch. Will watch this one now..trust your comments!

Anonymous said...

I did and twas a pretty decent watch..esp all songs were v nice!!

Kasi Alagappan said...

Tagged post is done! Pls go thru and waiting for ur comments..
BTW why no new movie review from you?? Was Godavari the last?

Anonymous said...

One aspect about the movie is missing. I watched the movie and I felt as if the background score and the songs had a great impact as well. The M.director had used slokas in at least 2 of the 5 songs making it sound very soothing. I disagree with you on comparing this M.director with ARR for the same reasons. ARR will never have any slokas rendered in his songs. Even otherwise, personally I feel he sulks these days. I hope Shankar gets the best out of him. I felt "Uppongilae Godavari" a perfect hit.
Kandupiddi

Anu Russell said...

Mr./Ms. Kandupidi,

I am not entirely comparing the music with ARR's...but yes it has semblances of the same!

And again I disagree with you about ARR not using shlokas...have you forgotten the song Endrendrum from Alaipayuthe? That is from the wedding manthram and I am sure there are many others..

But I completely agree that the movie has brilliant musical score...and thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it!