Story

Sandhya (Niharika Konidela) is a medico at a hospital in Vijayanagaram. Surya (Naga Shouya) is a dutiful son who wants to model his career as politician after his MLA uncle. They fall in love. Being a hot-blooded guy, Surya gets in trouble and goes to jail. Sandhya who believes that love is so pure that it belongs to only one man waits for him unconditionally. Rest of the story is all about what Sandhya does when Surya is caught up between love and family responsibilities.


Artists Performance
Actors: The light-bearded look has suited Naga Shourya very well. He has shown a lot of maturity in his acting. It’s such a rare character where you need to underplay, yet make an impact. It’s a good debut for Niharika Konidela. Since, it’s a single dimensional character, one can’t judge her overall effectiveness as heroine. But she is good for the role she has done. Her character is subtle and very traditional. People who have seen her on TV shows might expect a chirpy role for her in films. Rao Ramesh plays a role of a father who wants to see his son to fulfill his unfulfilled dreams. Pragathi plays heroine’s single mother. Srinivas Avasarala does a supporting character. Vennela Kishore has a cameo. Mirchi Hemanth gets a meaty role of hero’s buddy and plays it convincingly.

Technical departments

Story - screenplay - direction: The storyline of the film is wafer-thin. It’s very difficult to make an engaging fare out of such a thin story. Director Ramaraju who made an impression as a passionate storyteller with Mallelatheeramlo Sirimalle Puvvu tries another film with similar flavor, but adds few more dimensions to the story. Iit’s about pure and immortal love, the several kisses that are shown on screen are limited to kisses on cheeks. Some decisions in the story appear too slow and some are real quick (ex: moving in). The way hero character is lead to a point where he is framed between love for girl and love for father is pretty interesting. The scenes leading to climax point should have been more clear. The tempo towards climax is not built properly. Though the narration is poetic, the pace of the movie is very slow.

Other departments: Music by Sunil Kashyap is the lifeline of the movie. All songs are pleasant to hear and are soothing to watch. Background music is seamless with classical touch and complements the mood of the film. Cinematography by Ram Reddy is another asset. He has not only captured the movie in right frames, but also explored green locations well. Dialogues by Ramaraju are thought provoking and have deeper meaning (manishe political animal). Editing is neat though most of the people might try to blame editor for lack of pace in narration (director’s call). Production values are good.

Analysis: Oka Manasu is a film that's done with a lot of conviction and passion. Plus points of the film are lead pair, music and cinematography. The snail-paced narration is a big minus. The film also lacks the contemporariness in terms of orientation. This film will appeal to the people who connect with this kind of storyline and narrative. On a whole, Oka Manasu is a poetic film with very slow narration and limited appeal!