Direction: Krish Jagarlamudi
Cast: Balakrishna, Vidya Balan, Rana Daggubati, Kalyan Ram, Poonam Bajwa, Manjima Mohan and Sachin Khedkar
Producer: Sai Korrapati, Vishnu Induri
After charting NTR’s cinematic journey in NTR Kathanayakudu, Krish Jagarlamudi is back with NTR’s political journey in NTR Mahanayakudu. How NTR fights back on the coup layed by his own Finance Minister? Will he be successful in outing his couple is to be seen.
Story:
The movie starts from where it ends in NTR Kathanayakudu who is shown as taking political plunge. Right at the outset, NTR show as people’s man sweeps the elections putting down his detractors who thought him to be novice. Right after winning elections, NTR inducts his son-in-law Chandrababu Naidu (Rana Daggubati) into his cabinet. The film like first part shows NTR in reverential tone. During the course of the film, NTR at the time undergoing heart surgery, gets a jolt by his finance minister Nadendla Bhaskar Rao (Sachin Khedekar) who plans a coup against him to get into chief minister’s seat. How he overpowers Rao forms the Crux of the story.
Performance:
Balakrishna seems to be apt for enacting older NTR that the younger version. Having said that Balakrishna does Justice in NTR Mahanayakudu. On the other side, Vidya Balan gets a meat role who does compete justice to her character. Other artistes, like Sachin, Manjima among others played their role well. However, the surprise element is Rana Daggubati who sinks his teeth into it. From his look and body language Rana nailed Chandrababu’s look.
Technicalities:
The art work done by Gnanasekhar VS has come out well. The art scenes of bygone era have been estbalished well. Music director MM Keeravani’s BGM elavtes the proceedings, however, other tracks not worth to remember. The makers who took liberties in the first part realised the gaffe in second part making the editor Arram Ramakrishna to chop off the unrequired scenes.
Analysis:
Mahanayakudu charts the political journey of NTR. But the film swings between showing love story and dramatic thriller and becomes a mix of the both. While, the film shows political journey of NTR, it only continues the tone of reverence depicting him the man of masses. But Krish doesn’t justifies in showcasing NTRs true political journey like taking about loopholes and backstabbing among others. It neither talks about his administration skills nor schemes implemented by him.
Positives:
- Balakrishna, Vidya Balan, Rana, Kalyanram and Sachin Khadekar’s performances
- Climax scene
Negatives:
- Fails in charting crucial political phases
- Few lags in second half
Verdict:
Half-baked political story
