Director Chandra Siddharth deserves kudos for making an‘idealistic’ film which definitely came as a breath of fresh air amidst sickening potboilers. He also extracted good performance from Rajendraprasad.(who bagged state award deservingly). However by making his upright ‘protagonist’ to commit suicide after borrowing money he punctured his characterization (one yamadoot keeps asking-mandini munchi atmahatcha chesukunnava) Undoubtedly he was a true journalist and a philanthropist who spent half his income to help others but he was inept in driving sense into the minds of his three grown up kids. He doesn’t even try hard to change their mindset; rather in a frustrated mood he borrows and ends his life (forcing us to doubt his wisdom). If director’s intention was too make his grown up kids realize his ‘great personality’ he should have explored other options than making the character malign himself by consuming poison. Probably director was inspired by “Citizen Kane”, one of the greatest Hollywood classics which tried to explore the ‘absolute personality’ of a dead baron but fails to pin him down to a ‘specific trait’ since he was a complex man. Instead of adding just one negative shade (suicide) to otherwise a righteous and humanistic personality, director should have added few more shades to make him ‘complex’ and `intriguing’ and also to deliver an more enchanting movie.

Director Siddarth establishes his noble protagonist who believes in strong values and possesses an heart-of-gold. He voluntarily helps orphans, mentally-challenged and even saves a Muslim family from a raging Hindu mob. He is a name to reckon with in society but fails to take up the challenge of putting his grown up kids in the right frame of mind. He is never seen counseling his grown up kids about the ‘virtues’ of righteous living (barring a scene with his daughter after donating her money to an ailing kid) but has enough patience to lead a mentally ill patient to hospital and admit a kid in orphanage. A real challenge for any father is to convince his grown up kids when they are grown up but he just out rightly rejects their ‘demands” and later blames them for choosing unlawful path (we are not definitely supporting their illegimate demands but we are questioning his man-management skills). After strangers accepting his ideas, probably he couldn’t tolerate ‘no’ from his kids forcing him to banish their ‘point of view’, even if it doesn’t match his ideals, and also failed to provide them legitimate options for their careers (hope my friends would agree that even serious issues can be resolved with a sensible discussion by two individuals even with contrasting views). He should be lauded for accepting the ‘love’ of his daughter but getting them married even without a job for the ‘groom’ doesn’t look a matured idea. (probably director wanted a ‘black’ character to enter protagonist’s house). And he had no other choice than to ‘face’ the consequences of his miscalculated deed. But his reluctance to offer bribe for job and against paid seat is justified but he doesn’t have time to sit and discuss with his grown up kids few other options that suit them mutually. He does follow up on his daughter and signs her marriage register even though she doesn’t inform him but shows no such special interest for his two sons.

We need to also blame his `temperamental’ personality to some extent since he resigns and re-joins job in a huff. Similarly he agrees to arrange 15 lakhs for his grown up kids without even thinking about his ‘sources” and then encashes his goodwill with three persons. But while returning home he takes a hasty decision to commit suicide without even thinking about the ‘consequences” (While two lenders are rich but what would have happened to the Muslim family who treat them like their son). He claims that he believes that ‘love’ is superior than ‘money’ (we do agree with it) but he fails to share his abundant love with his two sons forcing death upon himself. An unfortunate end to a great man who failed to understand the anguish of his kids.

More Different Perspectives by Friendly Viewer:
• Aparichitudu
• Krrish (Hindi)
• Sri Ramadasu
• Vikramarkudu
• Don (Hindi)
• Pokiri
• Stalin
• Bommarillu

Tell us how you liked the article