Chandamama Movie Reviews

Director Krishnavamsi is known as a creative director. His films like 'Sindhuram' and 'Khadgam' proved his calibre the could present different subjects on the screen effectively, while the films like 'Ninne Pelladatha' and 'Murari' proved that he is an expert in presenting family subjects too.

However, the sharpness of this creative director had witnessed a break and he had a bad time in the recent past. Many of his films including 'Sri Anjaneyam, Danger and Chakram', failed to make a mark at the Box Office, while Raakhi gave him a little solace but not at the expected level. Keeping his bad experiences in view, Krishnavamsi had come out with a family subject again in which he was proved an expert. Produced by C Kalyan on the banner of Teja Productions, the film 'Chandamama' is a typical and different love subject and is basically a treatment-based movie.

Ranga Rao (Nagababu) and his brother are landlords in a village and are kind-hearted. Ranga Rao is a widower and Mahalakshmi (Kaajal Agarwal) is his only daughter. He loves Mahalakshmi more than anything in his life. Ranga Rao's brother also has a daughter called Rani (Sindhu Menon) and a son (Satyam Rajesh). Theirs is a happy family. As Mahalakshmi completes her education, he decides to marry her. The family invites another landlord Ramalingeswara Rao (Ahuti Prasad), who has a son Dorababu (Siva Balaji), for an alliance. Dorababu likes Mahalakshmi and the elders fix the alliance.

However, Mahalakshmi tells Dorababu that she loved Kishore (Navadeep), a TV journalist in the city and also dated with him. Mahalakshmi tells him that Kishore had cheated her and did not want to marry her. She makes it clear that she doesn't want to cheat an innocent like Dorababu by hiding all this. Finding that Kishore played a practical joke and he still loves Mahalakshmi, Dorababu brings him and joins the lovers. Rani notices this love drama and she falls in love with Dorababu and vice-versa. However, none of them could dare to tell the truth either to Ranga Rao or to Ramalingeswara Rao. They come to a decision to elope and marry at their will. But Mahalakshmi could not cheat her father and confesses to him. Whether the girls were able to win the love of their lovers and become one with the acceptance of their elders? Whether the family relations between the families gone into rough weather or had a smooth end? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

Performance:

Sivabalaji: Sivabalaji played hero in several films earlier, Krishnavamsi gave him a good footage in this film. He also played a Good Samaritan's role, who joins a love couple. Sivabalaji showed good ease in his performance all through the film both in regular scenes and also in the dance sequences and at the same time maintained perfect comedy timing. He is really a good choice for the role.

Navadeep: This is the character of a chivalrous boy who always plays practical jokes. The director ran a good love track between Navadeep and Kaajal and it has some novelty. Navadeep also maintained perfect comedy timing, especially in the love track that runs in urban backdrop. His performance made the audiences to believe that he is doing a character with negative shade. He doesn't mind to appear in a girl's dress in a fashion show during a song sequence and that really evoked good laughter.

Kaajal Agarwal: Generally in the films of current generation, there won't be much scope to perform for the heroines and basically they are being used to fill the glamour slot. But in this movie, Kaajal Agarwal had got good opportunity to prove her acting talents. She did justice to her role as a girl who loves her father very much and could not hide anything from him. Even on the glamour front she looked good.

Sindhu Menon: This girl played a chivalrous character. She had good choice to make loud noise in the film both with her performance and the role she played itself is quite chirpy. The director did a good job by replacing Madhushalini with Sindhu Menon, as the scene in which she laughs at the hero during phone conversation, and the other scenes in which she appears with the hero is worth watching just because of her.

Nagababu: Nagababu had got a very nice character artiste role in this movie. As the film is a delicate sentimental drama which was moulded on the celluloid in a careful way, the father's role played by Nagababu who loves his daughter than anything else in his life is unbeatable. His character had elderliness, gentleness and goodness. Surprisingly, this role has got a good chance to show comedy and Nagababu also showed good comedy timing.

Other artistes including Ahuti Prasad, Radhakumari, Uttej and others also did justice to their respective roles.

Technical:

Lyrics: Suddala Ashok Teja, Ananta Sriram, Peddada Murthy, Vanamali, Lakshmi Bhupal and Sai Sriharsha scripted songs for the film. Of all, 'Mukkupai Muddupettu' song penned by Sai Sriharsha is worth listening as it has good literary value and describes several kinds of kisses. All the songs were situational and were perfectly placed.

Music: KM Radhakrishnan who scored music for 'Anand and Godavari' gave melodious tunes to all the songs in the movie. The background score and re-recording was also done with perfect precision and like all his earlier presentations, Radhakrishnan filled good melody in all the songs.

Camera and editing: Prasad Murella worked in complete sync with the mindset of Krishnavamsi and portrayed the feelings, relations and the beautiful landscapes on the celluloid with excellent cinematography. Editing by Shankar needed to be sharpened little more. Some scenes were stretched a little bit but not boring. Especially, the love track between the Navadeep and Kaajal was stretched a little.

Story, screenplay and direction: Director Krishnavamsi once again proved that he could efficiently present the human relations and family relations in a very natural way on the celluloid. The storyline is quite delicate and there is not much to talk about the story but for the love and the lovers. However, the perfect screenplay by Krishnavamsi gave the necessary treatment-based narration coupled with good comedy. Even in directing movie also he chose the already treaded path on the lines of 'Ninne Pelladatha and Murari'.

Remarks:

The film was titled 'Mallepuvvu' at the time of the launch of shooting. However, it was changed to 'Chandamama' later. Like the change in the film title, the heroines were also changed at a latter date. In fact, a Mumbai girl Andhraiti and Madhushalini were roped in as heroines first, but after shooting a part of the film, Krishnavamsi had changed his mind and replaced them with Kaajal and Sindhu. It is worth mentioning here that producer Kalyan claimed that 'Chandamama' is an extraordinary art piece painted by Krishnavamsi on the celluloid. It bagged an above average talk with the morning show. However, mouth publicity could attract more number of audiences.