'om shanti' movie review

Film: Om Shanti
Rating: 2.25/5
Banner: Three Angels Studio
Cast: Madhavan, Navadeep, Nikhil, Kajal Agarwal, Aditi Sharma, Bindu Madhavi, Murali Mohan, Ravi Kale, Sunil, Pragathi, Raghu Babu, Siva Reddy and others
Music: Ilayaraja
Dialogues: Gandham Nagaraju
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Cinematography: Jai Vincent
Director: Chaitanya Dantuluri
Producer: Seshu Priyanka Chalasani
Release date: 13/01/2010

The second venture from the house of Aswini Dutt has got ready and the expectations were high since the storyline and the aspect of multi-starrer was applied. Has it really worked? Let us see.

Story:
It is about five characters – Meghana (Kajal) who believes in variety and wants thrill at every second of life, Teja (Nikhil) who aims to be the next Ravi Teja in the film industry, Anand (Navadeep) who got rejected 8 times by prospective brides and is now working a way with the 9th alliance Anjali (Aditi), Noorie (Bindu) whose marriage gets fixed with an army man and she is waiting for him, a farmer’s wife (Pragathi) who has to bow to the pressures of her son and give away their farming lands. Each of them has their own story and how that brings about a change in them forms the essence.

Performances:
Kajal:
She is glamorous, she is seductive in one song and looks cute as usual in few scenes, otherwise not much for her in the performance department. She has repetitive expressions which must change.

Madhavan:
He is a surprise package and though his presence was brief, thanks to ‘3 Idiots’ his screen aura is maintained here as well.

Navadeep:
He has come up with a regular performance and did justice to his role. Usually, he has sparks of brilliance when it comes to comedy but here his character was different so just pass mark.

Nikhil:
He has shown tremendous energy and has got a very expressive face. His role could have been developed in a better way and mixed with dose of humor, that would have worked.

Aditi Sharma:
She did her bit as per the standards so not much complaints from her.

Bindu Madhavi:
She has got the most minimal role in the entire lot and the contrast from a Brahmin girl in her debut to a Muslim girl in this one was visible.

Others:
Sunil gave a highlight performance, Raghu Babu managed few smiles, Siva Reddy was wasted, Murali Mohan was alright, Tanikella was not used to the fullest, Ravi Kale is another talent that was wasted. Even the guy who did the cop’s role is a good talent but his role was not given proper justice.

Analysis:
One must have experience and the finesse when it comes to running several tracks and converging them into one. While the thought process of the director can be appreciated, he was not able to get it onto the screen successfully. His amateur handling of the script was quite visible and that’s why the film fails to impress. The dialogues were okay, the script was weak and the screenplay was erratic. Music department was a major disappointment despite the presence of Ilayaraja. Cinematography was better. Costumes were neat and the art department was apt. Technically, the film has scored well and the production values were high as well but the content and delivery of the product was not impressive. The film would have been a lot better if crisp stitching of each character was made instead of complicating it with several different scenarios. Overall, the film might have good opening collections due to the star power but eventually it may not be a success at the box office.

Bottom Line: Not entertaining