Gunturodu Review

Gunturodu Review, What’s Behind: Rocking Star Manoj Manchu hasn’t got his due share of hit recognition despite known to be a passionate actor. He teamed up with debutant director SK Sathya for an action entertainer starring Pragnya Jaiswal as heroine. Let us how spicy is this Guntur Mirchi?

Gunturodu Story: Khanna (Manchu Manoj) is short tempered, emotional and intolerant at injustice from his very childhood days making a simple, happy living with father (Rajendra Prasad) in Guntur. Fortuitously, Khanna gets into a quarrel with egoistic and famous criminal lawyer and aspiring MLA Seshu (Sampath Raj). In parallel, Khanna also falls in love with Seshu’s sister Amulya (Pragnya Jaiswal). One side Seshu begins the chase for Khanna and on the other side Khanna gets so close to Amulya. Following is the game of action and wits between Seshu and Khanna leading to climax.

Gunturodu Artists and Technicians: ‘Gunturodu’ has a simple story from SK Sathya executed with an instinctive screenplay elevating the action side and heroism. A boy falling in love with girl and taking rivalry with her brother sounds like a very popular line. Sathya bought son-father emotional formula in tandem giving lead space for high voltage stunts. However, an inconsistent narrative took foil on and off which made graph go swinging. The moment you enjoy a satisfactory and powerful action block, very next moment Sathya goes feeble. There’s a definite vulnerability in Sathya’s direction exposed due to lack of experience. Writing department did a fine job. Siddharth Ramaswamy’s camera work is excellent. All the action episodes and songs are shot supremely well. Editing by Karthika Srinivas is also good. DJ Vasanth scored couple of enjoyable songs and BGM is also a decent job. Stunt masters need to be appreciated for putting the best efforts. Lastly production standards from Varun, Claps and Whistles banner are fine.

Onto artists, Manoj Manchu re-defined himself in a copybook modeled hero characterization. There was wide scope for emotions (father-son sentiment), cheeky romance (with heroine), courage (with villain) outburst in the character. Except the physical oddity at looks, he remained so sincere at work. Pragnya Jaiswal for the first time got an ultra glamorous role and struck well. Sampath Raj more or less resembled Prakash Raj in Idiot and Badri. Yet, he showed the mettle. Kota Srinivas Rao was apt as aged politician. Rajendra Prasad binds the emotional quotient in film. Pruthvi, Rao Ramesh, Kasi Vishwanath are fine. Comedians Sathya, Praveen and rest does their duty.

Gunturodu Advantages:

- Manchu Manoj Stunts

- Pragnya Jaiswal

- Well Composed Action Blocks

Gunturodu Drawbacks:

- Climax

- Execution

- No Entertainment

Gunturodu Rating Analysis: Basically, Manoj Manchu is known as a passionate artist who gives the best shot for every film committed. After over experimenting on different genres, he picked this regular commercial script devoid of novelty. More the director tried to shoulder movie on hero and high octane action, more it went out imbalance as none of the other ingredients came in support working in favor. For a film to click in lower order centers and front benchers, along with action and sentiment, there’s also a need to treat them with hilarious content at least in regular portions. Sathya seems to have wasted crucial runtime on undeveloped stuff thus remaining the overall impact incomplete.

From the very go, first half highlights Manoj’s characterization since childhood days besides the doting father Rajendra Prasad. Bang introduction fight is well canned. In parallel, Sampath Raj’s introduction scenes looked exciting early on. Pragnya Jaiswal’s entry shifts the focus on love track which had enough of glamour with feeble treatment. Love track was really extensive, boring at times and illogical. Towards interval, the way Manoj and Sampath Raj challenge over phone with a deadly rain action episode is too good.

Into second half, cat and mouse game between hero and villain centered on Rajendra Prasad demanded a far better enactment. Manoj locked in prison and Rajendra Prasad begging Sampath Raj for his son though bought in emotional strength, the follow up clever heroic scenes are unintelligently dealt. These are the portions, film has really dropped. What is called as brilliant sketch by Sampath Raj for Pragnya’s secret marriage by bringing in new artist Rao Ramesh into story is as old as Aravallis. Climax is bland and hurried.

All in all, ‘Gunturodu’ once again bought Manoj Manchu’s best of the abilities to perform dare devil stunts. A little more cautiousness by Sathya into remaining departments could have made the film a real feast for masses and this is just a miss. CJ goes for 2.5 stars and there is high probability for film to click well in B, C centers. 

Gunturodu Cinejosh Verdict: Just One Man… Manoj Manchu Show.

Gunturodu Cinejosh Rating: 2.5/5.0

                                                                                                      Reviewed by Srivaas