RK (Jagapathi Babu) owns a business empire. He wants his son Harsha (Mahesh Babu) to take over the operations but Harsha has other plans – serving people.

Harsha likes Charusheela (Shruti), a post graduate student studying Rural Development, and joins her college to study the course. Both fall in love. But when Charusheela comes to know that Harsha is son of RK, she stops seeing him.

Harsha asks her for the reason, she tells him about her Devarakota, a small village in Uttarandhra. The village’s tank is grabbed by local rowdy Sasi (Sampath) who is the right hand man of central minister Venkata Ratnam (Mukeshi Rishi).

The villagers start migrating to the cities but Charusheela’s father tries to stop them in the hope that good-days would come soon.

What has this plight of the village got to do with Harsha’s father and what does Harsha do when Charusheela tells him this? Watch it on the silver screen.

Director Siva Koratala has proven that he could present regular mass movies in style with ‘Mirchi’. In Srimanthudu, he has used the same style but has strong content and has narrated the movie in focused manner, not deviating from the story.

While watching the movie, you will also spot the similarities with Mirchi like father’s love for son (Jagapathi Babu/Sathyaraj), hero entering into a village on a certain mission.

Also, Koratala selected a topic that rings well with the current mood in the nation – adopting the villages. One can also find influence of Ashutosh Gowariker’s ‘Swades’.

No special intro is given to Mahesh Babu. He comes into the story with a song and then the story is told in leisurely.

In the first one hour, it goes on sluggish pace but picks up later. Even in the first hour some scenes like Mahesh Babu confronting Mukesh Rishi at his residence in Delhi, fight sequence in wedding get highlighted. Second half the movie takes a gripping turn.

“You have earned respect through sheer hardwork, let me also earn it,” tells Mahesh Babu to his father Jagapathi Babu in one scene. Such class scenes laced with dialogues and liberal dose of English are welcome change.

Then there is also one gripping sequence in the second half when Mukeshi Rishi invites the hero to his mango farm. The movie is dotted with many scenes that elevate heroism to the peak.

Dialogues written by the director will also make the fans happy. When Mahesh beats a rowdy, another one comes forward to beat him, then Mahesh tells to this guy: "Nenu Ikkade Untanu..repu kooda untanu..vaade kadatledu..mundu vaani choodandi." Mahesh taking selfie with a rowdy is another hilarious moment in the film.

Mahesh Babu’s class performance, Shruti’s charm, good message, right mix of mass and class elements make the movie a good commercial entertainer.

All in all, Srimanthudu is the movie where content and commercial elements have blended well.


Greatandhra