Nagarjuna's tearful eyes have their own way of portraying boundless adulation and borderline-destructive obsession towards his beloved God. But be it the evergreen Annamayya or the almost equally good Sri Ramadasu, what outshined all this desperate glamourization and blatant exaggeration is how consistently excellently Nagarjuna fleshed out his performances every time. A slightly revisionist take of devotee dramas that are very conscious and cautious of the commercial appeal and narrative tautness needed, to the extent that they never shied away from comedy tracks, cleavages and the timeless fruits-on-the-navel routine. Watch it, if you want some Godly feeling to soothe your inner wounds.The Nagarjuna - Raghavendra Rao devotional films have become a genre unto themselves. Its a fresh breeze of lotus (coz lotus is the most divine flower) admist the ugly mound of commercial cinema garbage. Hence this movie could have been better only if, instead of perky songs they would have accpunted for some really good thought provoking conversations between Hathiram and Balaji. We love discussing logical interpretation of scriptures. But yet, the younger generation is not so bad. I agree that a devotinal film is not targeted to the young audience. And the loud comedy, which is too old for this new generation. The only turnoff was the masala content: Two romantic songs which were plainly dream sequences. The director seriously portrayed every bit of his imagination. It is a cinematic treat, with the canvas painted with green mountains and waterfalls, dark clouds, thousands of oil lamps, colourful silks, gold, and raw divinity. The cinematography was the real protagonist of the film. And I must say he did an equally brilliant job as our star Nagarjuna. Saurabh gleamed (as always) as Lord Balaji. I loved the sequence when the sthala purana of Venkateshwara was recreated. Yet his expressions were exactly how they should be. With the make-up and everything he looks so enigmatic that if I had to imagine God, I would rather imagine his face! He didn't know the language and his voice was dubbed. A kind of innocence and piousness which all together looks divine. Now coming to the main guy around whom the movie revolves, Lord Venkateshwara, was the highlight. But the time frame she stays there, she makes the most of it. Krishnamma played by Anushka Sharma was a rather small character whose only job was to "support". His looks, his grace, and his devotion to the Lord Balaji was in simple words: Spellbinding. He shined brilliantly, like a true devotee. No one could have pulled off the character as good as Nagarjuna. It is simply enigmatic and it touches your heart. The character of Hathiram Babaji is a bliss. The subtitles were simple and overall I was drawn to a very different ecstatic divine world where everything is joyful. Top that, I didn't know the language, hence the lyrics didn't bire me either. It didn't bore me with jarring 20th century mixes or honey sing raps (which are TORTURE). This movie is both, and that too in Sanskritic Telegu! Thankfully, the music was soulful. But a devotional a film is not much my type, nor is musical. As I saw him in the teaser of the film, my heart was prepared to spell money on the film. I am huge fan of him and I duely wsh him all the prosperity of the world. But the reason I still went to see it in PVR was for Saurabh Raj Jain, the shy and humble television actor who roped in to stardom due to his role of Lord Krishna in Mahabharat. But never in my life had I gone specially to a theatre to watch a Telegu movie. I was pretty aware of Nagarjun and Anushka Shetty. Though I have seen a lot of Telegu movies but they were all dubbed in Hindi. Well how do I start? I am a north Indian with absolutely no idea about Telegu language.
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