I had the pleasure of watching a magnum opus Telugu feature film in the form of Magadheera on Saturday at 1:30 AM in Virginia. My sincere efforts to obtain tickets for all earlier shows on Friday (7/31) failed; even my proximity with one of the exhibitors did not change the result. Watching movies at odd hours was an acceptable component of my regular behavior pattern. The difference was watching a Non-Chiranjeevi movie at midnight in the USA.

As soon as I entered the theatre, I found a big hoarding of Ram Charan amidst other Hollywood hoardings. As a Telugu film fanatic, I felt proud and happy. Initially, I thought there will be no one at the 1:30 AM but was surprised to note that people started pouring in by 11:45 PM.

The story synopsis is given by various websites so I am sparing myself of the effort

First things first, what we saw of Charan in his debut movie is like tip of an iceberg. He single handedly carried Magadheera film on his shoulders with a lot of panache and ease. This is truly a great achievement for a 2 movie old young man considering the amount of expectations riding on this film from fans and industry. Charan showed a lot of variance between the two characters he portrayed in the film. He gave a measured and impeccable performance as Kala Bhairava and exuded energy and exuberance as Harsha. His confrontation scene with Srihari where he kills 100 warriors is extraordinary and is the best scene of the film.

Kajal looked very beautiful and Srihari did his part very convincingly. Dev Gill, who donned the role of the villain, did a good job. These are the 4 central characters of the film that are reborn after 400 years to complete their unfinished business from their previous birth.

A special mention should be made of director SS Rajamouli. His secret of success is ensuring that his film is packed with good number of commercial and mass elements. The way he conceives action and hero elevation episodes is praise worthy. He stuck to his guns for this movie as well. The horse riding sequences are excellent and best ever (so far) I have seen in any Indian film.

Rajamouli extracted talent from music and background (MM Keeravani & Kalyani Mallik), cinematography (Senthil Kumar), art (Ravindra), editing (Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao) and action (Peter Hynes) departments in an excellent manner. The result is a magnum opus product that has raised the standards of a Telugu film. Kudos to the director for thanking all his technicians in a rolling titles song.

All in all, watching Magadheera is an excellent experience. The credit of success of this movie should go equally to sensational director SS Rajamouli and MegaPowerstar Ram Charan Teja. Considering the current craze for both these guys and a positive talk all over, sky is the limit for Magadheera from a collections stand-point.

Sreekanth Devarakonda
devarakonda at hotmail dot com