Swami Movie Reviews

If you are a serious film buff, sometimes some of our movies can leave you depressed.

Swamy is one such movie. It is not a bad film seen in isolation --- it has its moments through sentiments and action.

But seen contextually, Swamy is a letdown as it ploughs every cliche in the book and some more. It has not even a single frame or idea which can be called original and new. It begins predictably, moves predictably and ends predictably --- and you come out with a predictable disappointment.

How many times have we seen the doting but naive man out to take revenge on the killers of his sisters? It is a story as old as Indian cinema itself. And this forms the core of Swamy --- of course there are other formulaic ingredients. But overall it is maudlin and mediocre.

Swamy (Hari Krishna), a simple-minded straight-thinking man has two loving twin sisters Seeta and Geeta (Uma). Swamy, a country bumpkin, goes out of the way to get his sisters enrolled in medical college. But the sisters fall prey to the machinations of a scheming villain (Rajiv Kankala) and both get killed.

Not knowing the whereabouts of his sisters, Swamy lands in the city and comes to know about the end they met with. So what does he do? He wreaks vengeance on the villain even while finding time to dance and duet with the heroine and dancers. He bellows thundering dialogues, makes larger-than-life speeches. In the end, all is well that just ends well.

Hari Krishna hams outrageously. He goes over the top at the drop of a hat. There is not even a shred of novelty in his role or his performance. The story may be from his father's days. But that doesn't mean he should still have the same mothball-smelling loud theatrics. In fact, during some scenes (especially when he harangues about the judicial system obtaining in the country) it is like having jumped into a time machine that is going back into the 60s. What more, Hari Krishna even wears some of the dresses that his father had made famous.

For the heroine Meena it is yesterday once more. Her role is like a janata meals --- highly limited. She has to cry and smile just depending upon the mood that the hero is in. Uma, as the twins, is adequate. Rajiv Kanakala, in a typical villainous character, is okay. Ammani (as the principal) and Asha Saini (in a pelvic-thrusting song) just add up the numbers just as this film will add up to the number of movies released this year.

Even the technical aspects (music by Mani Shrama, camera by Madu Naidu) are not redeeming.

The film's director (the story directs itself and even a LKG student could have handled the megaphone) is said to have been inspired a real life incident that happened some time ago.

That should have been some incident!