What's Behind
Popular Kuchupudi dancer Sandhya Raju's Natyam captured the imagination of all with traditional entertainer Natyam. Top stars like Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh, Ram Charan, Balakrishna, Venkatesh and Raviteja promoted the film. The film hit the screens today. Let us find out what Natyam offered to movie lovers.
Story Review
Rohit (Rohit Behal) aspires to represent India in dance competitions in the USA. However, he gets rejected and one of the judges asks him to come with some interesting and creative concepts to consider him as a wild card entrant. The judge recommends him to go to the village Natyam where people practice Natyam as a religion. He goes there and meets Sitara (Sandhya Raju), a Kuchipudi disciple of Guru (Aditya Menon). She dreams of getting into the good books of his Guru so that she can do her Arangetram. Guru's son Hari (Kamal Kamaraju) promises to help her. Sitara dreams of showcasing the unforgotten and untold story of Kadambari but many oppose as villagers believe that Goddess in the Temple curses whoever tries to tell the tale of Kadambari and takes out their lives just like how Guru's wife Lakshmi lost her life. To find out whether Sitara and Rohit are able to achieve their dreams from the crux of Natyam.
Artists, Technicians Review
Director Revanth Korukonda decided to attract movie lovers by showcasing the traditional dance form on-screen through Natyam. The narration starts in an interesting manner with the historical backdrop and village atmosphere. The traditional dance form of Kuchupudi increases attention. Curiosity is increased with Rohit coming to the village to find out an interesting concept and the talk of the untold story of Kadambari.
However as the narration unfolds, boring and routine elements creep in turning everything uninteresting. Except for the traditional dance forms and the exhibition of Kuchupudi skills by Sandha Raju, everything turns routine and monotonous. The romantic angle and what follows next turns out to be extremely routine. However first half turns out to be passable.
The second half shifts to Hyderabad and from there Natyam undergoes a transformation from classical to western and this dissolves the entire intention of Natyam. Revanth failed to connect chords with the viewers as the emotional scenes looked forced and artificial. Despite his best attempt, Revanth failed to elevate Natyam to another level. He failed in his execution as his screenplay and direction turned out to be disappointing.
Revanth himself handled the editing and cinematography apart from coming with the story. Out of love and passion for his story, he failed in his editing department. The cinematography is ok but could have been far better. Instead of trying to be a jack of all trades, Revanth should have roped inexperienced persons for cinematography and editing. Shrawan Bharadwaj's music is good and all the songs are well shot. However, he failed to make a powerful impact with his background music. Revant should have worked on the script and turned characters even more powerful and paid importance to the emotional content. Production values are good.
Sandhya Raju showcased her dancing talent and she came with good expressions and emotions as a dancer. She herself handled the dance choreography and it is of top class. Even the art and settings are grand. Sandhya for all her hard work however failed to do full justice to her acting skills. Kamal Kamaraju did well as a dancer. He worked hard to get his dance movements right. However he came with just a single expression through out the film. Rohit Behal performed well showcasing the youthful exuberance.
Subhalekha Sudhakar, Aditya Menon and Bhanu Priya did their roles accordingly. Others performed as per their roles.
Advantages
Sandhya Raju's dances
Music
Choreography
Disadvantages
Screenplay, Direction
BGM
Cinematography
Lack of commercial elements
Few routine elements
Slow pace
Rating Analysis
The moment popular dancer Sandhya Raju announced Natyam, everyone expected a classic like Sagara Sangamam, Swarna Kamalam, Mayuri, and Ananda Bhairavi. Sandhya Raju did full justice to her role and showcased her dancing talent on screen. However, Revanth for all his good intentions, failed to catapult Natyam to another level as the film lacked the emotional connect. Sandhya Raju and Revant missed a golden opportunity to create a sensation turning Natyam into a classic. Considering all these aspects, CJ goes with a 2.25 rating to Natyam.