Anaganaga O Dheerudu Movie Review

Behind the Movie Anaganaga O Dheerudu: The lethal combination of K. Raghavendra Rao and Disney raised the expectations on this flick to a new high. Attractive trailers along with Siddharth, Shruthi Hasan, Manchu Lakshmi looking at their best in fantasy look, it is Prakash Kovelamudi who ran the entire show. Let us see, how fantastic was this fantasy?

In the Movie Anaganaga O Dheerudu: Sangha Rashtra is the land in the shape of a tear drop which is under the control from the dead soul of a witch queen Irendri (Manchu Lakshmi). Agartha, a village in Sangha Rashtra is affected by the poisonous airs of Irendri and the only savior to heal the children in village is godly Moksha (Baby Harshitha) living in Pushpa Giri guarded by blind swordsman named Yodha (Siddhartha).  Druki (Ramji), a villager in Agartha starts his voyage across Sangha Rasthra to bring Moksha from Pushpa Giri in order to save the children. 

In the mean time, flash back of Irendri and Yodha is revealed and it goes like this. Irendri possessed with Sarpa Shakthi wants to achieve Maha Shakthi (Divinity) but she is killed by the good men in Sangha Rashtra which makes her dead soul to get trapped in a locket called as ‘Kalanetri’ which is wore by her great grand daughter Priya (Shruthi Hasan) who falls in love with brave Yodha. A local bandit Sudi Gundam (Ravi Babu) is also wooed by the beauty of Priya. An attack by Sudi Gundam on Yodha makes him blind and the locket in Priya’s neck falls down to free the devastating soul of Irendri who creates her own kingdom by imprisoning Priya.

As Moksha, Druki and Yodha start their journey to Agartha; the freed soul of Irendri is informed that ‘Nara Bali’ of Moksha on the day of ‘Chandra Grahanam’ will give her the power to achieve Maha Shakthi. How did Yodha save Moksha? How did he finish the evil spirit of Irendri? How did he save Priya from the custody of Irendri? form the climax.  

Values of the Movie Anaganaga O Dheerudu: Story of the movie is like a fairy tale which we read in any of our childhood fantasy books. It is the way of story telling which mattered here with volumes of settings and aesthetic locales. Prakash Kovelamudi has not just written the story for himself as his belly full of dreams brings the characters out into reality from dreams. Superb was his visualization. Mind blowing was the assistance he got from DOP Soundara Rajan who took us to Sangha Rashtra, Agartha and Pushpa Giri whom you or your children might have never dreamt of; Art Work by Bhupesh R Bhupathi is top most as every frame in the movie lived to the essence of story; Editor Shravana Katikaneni couldn’t have done anything more than this. Music by Keeravani, Koti, Mickey J Meyer, Salim - Sulaiman was soothing in songs and background. Stunts by Dee Dee Ku and William Ong reminded us a ‘Magadheera.’ More than every one, designer Raj Golay and Visual Effects by Firefly served as oxygen for movie making us sit two hours forgetting the world in which we are living.

Performances wise Siddharth did a wonderful job as Yodha. With a lean body build up, he worked more on body language, costumes and perfected stunt sequences along with dialogue delivery making himself the best suit to Yodha character. Shruthi Hasan is the eternal beauty South film industry never witnessed in recent times. Especially in romantic episodes, Shruthi was a feast to eyes with shining body and expressive eyes. Next is Manchu Lakshmi Prasanna who took off the breath with her deadly costumes, makeup which gave Irendri an immeasurable power. The crystal clear dialogue delivery from Lakshmi will remind you the modulations of Mohan Babu. She is just brilliant. Baby Harshitha was quite good in portraying innocent, cute expressions that measured the strength in her character. Ravi Babu with mannerism of ‘Amma Daanimma’ is at his best while Ramji got enough screen time with Siddhartha. Comedy by Ali, Brahmanandam was just average.
   
Out of the Movie Anaganaga O Dheerudu: From the first go in the very first scene till last frame, every where we see the movie filled with Visual Effects. Watching the amazing color combinations, relieving finely polished texture, magnanimous creative work; we can’t ask anything more for a movie with grandeur. The point where ‘AOD’ lacks is in the emotional content of movie. It would be amateurish to call ourselves (Tollywood) technologically below the top grades in entire world after watching the movie. The intensity with which the story telling was started didn’t continue till the end. Various places we see the peaks in graph falling down. Although characters in the movie have done their best work, it is the fault of Prakash depending too much on VFX rather than concentrating on building some emotions and excitement in story telling. 

This is what happens when one tries to give life to fiction backdrops and fairy tales. Stories like these are superb when we visualize in dreams or enjoy reading them in books but presenting them on screen will end up with loopholes here or there. Indeed Prakash seems to have gone back to childhood days to match the depth in designing the art work in which Disney have already made their unbreakable mark. AOD is nothing less than a Hollywood fiction movie and the only flaw is lacking of anxiety factor.

First half was much better with introductions of dreadful Irendri and darling Priya. Romantic episodes between Priya and Yodha were dealt well leading to a satisfied interval. Post interval, the enthusiasm falls down as story goes on expected lines leading with extremely well picturized song on Irendri and then the climax which was filled with visual effects. Overall, this is fairly a good show for entire family on Sankranthi and if you have kids at home, just run to theatres as they will judge AOD much better than us.