Film: King
Cast: Nagarjuna, Trisha, Mamta Mohandass, Deepak, Srihari, Brahmanandam, Geeta, Jayaprakash Reddy, Venumadhav, Chandramohan, Bharath, Krishna Baghavan, Shayaji Shinde, and others
Story: Kona Venkat, Gopi Mohan
Dialogues: BVS Ravi
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematography: Prasad Murella
Editing: M.R.Varma
Lyrics: Ramajogayya Shastri, Sahiti
Choreography: Brinda, Rajashekar, Shobi
Fights: Ram - Lakshman
Executive producer: Akkineni Venkataratnam
Produced by: D Sivaprasad Reddy
Banner: Kamakshi Kala Movies
Screenplay and directed by: Sreenu Vytla
CBFC Rating: U
Release date: December 25, 2008
Whats it about
King aka Raja Chandrapratap Varma (Nagarjuna), heir apparent to late Raja Varma, takes over the business of his father after his death and works hard to live up to his fathers name. He has kid brother (Deepak) too and lives with large family consisting of his mom (Geeta) and uncles and their family members. On his business trip to Uttaranchal, he is killed by Swapna (Mamta Mohandass) aided by Kings archrival. Enters Bottu Seenu, a street rowdy, a look-alike of King. Bottu Seenu falls in love with Sravani (Trisha) an aspiring singer who is also sister to don Jnaneshwar (Srihari). To impress Sravani, Bottu Seenu gets introduced himself to her as a software engineer called Sharat. The rest of the movie unravels the mystery behind the killing of King, and the identity of Bottu Seenu.
Analysis
With three hit movies under his belt
Dhee, Dubai Seenu and
Ready, director Sreenu Vytla has garnered the image of a good entertainer. He dishes out another masala entertainer this time with Manmadhudu Nagarjuna.
King is a pucca commercial formula movie designed to cater to the entertainment seeking audiences. It succeeds tickling your funny bone in most scenes. The first half is breezy and has funny moments with a spoof on music director Chakri (Brahmananadams character).
The best part are some hilarious situations, romantic drama between Trisha and Nag, and Sriharis characterization.
But the director stretches the jokes too far in the second half and overshoots by almost 20 minutes. Too much twists and turns towards the climax have worked against the movie in the second half. It needs to be trimmed urgently.
Performances
Nagarjuna
plays three different characters with lan. He looks very handsome compared to his recent films like Don and also the director has extensively used his stylized gait to show the heroism. Nagarjuna is good in action and romantic episodes as ever. He should be commended for accepting to be beaten by comedian Brahmanandam in a scene.
Trisha looks beautiful and chirpy. She walks through the role of an aspiring singer.
Mamta Mohandass proves her mettle again in a character that has negative shades. She looks sexy too. Of the other cast,
Srihari and
Brahmanandam have more footage. Srihari portrays the role effectively. Brahmanandam as music director Jayasurya mimics real life composer Chakri and his comedy is hilarious. The so-called
Om-Shanti-Om like song has little impact.
Technically,
Prasad Murellas cinematography catches the eye. He provides rich visuals and makes Nag and Trisha look even more beautiful. Editing by
M.R. Varma is sharp but he should have trimmed the movie for a faster narration. Music by
Devi Sri Prasad is ordinary except for the title song and the romantic duet shot in Bangkok.
Story by
Kona Venkat and
Gopi Mohan provides enough platform for some funny moments but the twists and turns post the interval too hard to digest. It has shades of too many movies like Bollywood's
Welcome and
Race, and
Chandramukhi,
Chandra Lekha,
etc. Director
Sreenu Vytla shows his comedic touch again but expectations one has from his film aren't quite met in terms of content. He needs to do a check on the receptiveness of same jokes.
Bottom-line
King is masala entertainer with plenty of comedy in the first half. There are many loopholes in the script but the Nags style and Sreenu Vytlas brand of comedy cover them. If you are looking just to pass some time,
King is worth a dekko if you excuse the length and unnecessary twists and turns.
Rating: 3.25/5
by JP
