Nagavalli Movie Review

Behind the Movie Nagavalli: Super hit run of Rajinikanth’s ‘Chandramukhi’ raised expectations on this sequel psychological thriller ‘Nagavalli’ which has versatile Venky to lead with bunch of six beautiful babes. Was Director P. Vasu successful in repeating the thrills and frills? Let us see how shocking is this ‘Nagavalli?’

In the Movie Nagavalli: Shankar Rao (Sharat Babu) and his wife (Prabha) live in Tirupathi with their three daughters Gayatri, Gowri, Gita (Kamalini, Richa, Shraddha Das) and along with them are two more daughters of his brother-in-law (Dharmavarapu) Puja, Hema (Poonam Kaur, Sujatha). Gayatari, the classical dancer wins a competition to receive the portrait of Nagavalli and the very next moment she goes into severe ‘mind block’ loosing her lover in an accident and becomes mentally handicapped. 

All of the sudden fear surrounds Shankar Rao family when the engagement of Gowri is broken for a shocking reason that a 30 feet snake is seen in his home. Shankar Rao invites Ramachandra Siddhanthi (Avinash) to solve the problem in his home and Siddhanthi is shocked to see this portrait of Chandramukhi which he has seen five years ago in the house of Ganga (Jyothika). 

Siddhanthi invites doctor cum psychiatrist Vijay (Venkatesh), student of Eeshwar (Rajinikanth) to clear the puzzle. Vijay starts unveiling the mysteries, finds that the girl in portrait is Nagavalli Chandramukhi (Anushka). In the case solving process, Vijay goes through the biography of King Nagabhairava Rajashekharudu (Venkatesh) of Venkatapuram province and how he brutally killed the dancer Nagavalli (Anushka) and her lover Gunasekhar. 

The ghost soul of Nagavalli moves with the portrait and takes the body of one of the daughters of Shankar Rao to take the revenge on Nagabhairava who is still alive at the age of 130 years living in Rudra Kona. How did Vijay find out the trace of Nagavalli, did Nagavalli succeed in taking the revenge forms the climax episodes.

Values of the Movie Nagavalli: Basically story and script of Nagavalli is no different from Chandramukhi. Director P. Vasu struck to his old type of narration which makes movie not an edge of the seat thriller. Interest wanes off gradually with the low grip in content and missing of soul. Pathetic was direction department which made none of the episodes in entire movie interesting. Background by Guru Kiran was vibrating in many scenes while music for songs was suicidal. Cinematography by Shyam K Naidu was good work while editing by Marthand K Venkatesh was full of jerks. Dialogues by Paruchuri Brothers failed to create an impact. Visual Effects aren’t innovative as most of them remind us ‘Arundahthi.’ Grandeur in Art Work was visible to eyes but never lived to the essence and demand of story. Production values of Bellamkonda Suresh are good but wasted.

Performance wise Venkatesh has got three roles to shoulder. Best of the lot would be that of Doctor (or) Psychiatrist. As young King Nagabhairava, it was like making fun with the image of Venky. The last was 130 years old King role which was good in makeup but not in performance. Anushka as Nagavalli is a complete mismatch. She gave dud of a performance and Kamalini was the superb in entire team. Richa Gangapodhyay can’t do anything better than this mediocre level while Shraddha Das has no lip sync with dialogues. Poonam Kaur and Sujatha were mere waste. Sharath Babu and Prabha were again in their routine. Dharmavarapu, Brahmanandam failed to evoke a single laugh. It was Avinash who did his role up to the mark. No more significant characters to mention.

Out of the Movie Nagavalli: To bring out a sequel on par with Chandramukhi is a tough task and P. Vasu is completely stumbled. Though we find the screen full of glamorous artists and grandeur, never we get into the groove of his narration. Problem with Nagavalli is the weak characterizations of lead artists. Last 30 minutes of thrilling moments was the key hold in success of Chandramukhi is completely broken in this sequel. Lengthy story and tedious picturization made movie pale without substance. Venkatesh tried his best to lift the movie, failed miserably. Venky correctly plucked the Rajini’s histrionics and not that perfect in execution. 

First half of the movie brings some boring episodes to remind us the connection between Chandramukhi and Nagavalli. Late in the movie, story really picks some momentum and interval block which was supposed to be a thrilling experience disappointed. Second half we get into the Kingdom of Venkatapuram and the non sync between Anushka and Venky still pull the movie down. Going towards climax, again it was same kind of twists and turns which are again ineffective with lack of interesting moments and intensity in story. 

Cinejosh Verdict of the Movie Nagavalli: Driller in the name of Thriller.

                                                                               Reviewed by Srivaas