Film: Parugu
Cast: Allu Arjun, Sheela, Prakash Raju, Subbaraju, Poonam Bazwa, Ali, and others
Dialogues: B V S Ravi
Music: Manisharma
Cinematography: Vijay Chakravarthy
Art: Anand Sai
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Produced by: Dil Raju
Story, screenplay and directed by: Bhaskar
Release Date: May 1, 2008
What's it about!
A rich landlord Neelakantam (Prakash Raj) has two daughters. His elder daughter (Poonam Bajwa) elopes with her boyfriend on the day of marriage. Neelakantham finds all the friends who helped his daughter getting eloped. One among them is Krishna (Allu Arjun). He is happy lucky go person. One day he falls in love with Meena (Sheela). It is love at first sight for him. The twist in the tale is that Meena is the younger daughter of Neelakantham. Now, it is time for Meena to run away with Arjun. But will it happen? The guy who helped his sister in getting married secretly will do the same? The rest of the movie runs on this aspect.
Analysis
Director Bhaskar comes with new movie - Parugu after winning accolades for his debut film Bommarillu. Apart from directing, he has written the story and screenplay, so if there is one person to blame for this boring movie, it ought to be Bhaskar. This is quite uninteresting fare.
In Bommarillu, he has dealt the theme of a son searching for his own identity under overprotective father. And in Parugu, he tackles the pain of a father when his daughters got married against his wishes. Does that ring any bell? Well, you guessed it right! The movie, intentionally or co-incidentally, has similarities to that of Chiranjeevi's daughter Srija's marriage.
Although it is very topical issue, the scenes and dialogues that resemble Chiru and his daughter become tedious after a point of time. The director starts off the movie interestingly but he loses the track. Although first half is laced with good humor, post interval it is completely out of line. Climax is a big disappointment.
Adding salt to injury, the movie is very slow-paced and lengthy (2 hrs 50 mts). Towards the end of the movie, one wonders who is the hero - Allu Arjun or Prakash Raj as they go for reversal of roles!
Performances
Allu Arjun
does his role with ease as he has already done such roles (happy-go-lucky guy) in the past. He looks stylish but he wears only few costumes.
Prakash Raj once again steals the show. As 'Annayya', he proves that he has no replacement for such roles. Heroine
Sheela is miscast. She doesn't have the required innocence and charm that her character demands.
Poonam Bazwa is okay. Ali brings enough entertainment. Sunil too evokes laughter. Subbaraju's character is okay.
Music by Mani Sarma is a big letdown. Vijay K.Chakravarthy's cinematography looks cool as he uses bright lighting always. Some of the dialogues (BVS Ravi) are good and catchy.
As a screenplay writer, Bhaskar fails miserably. He proves that he can extract good performances from actors, but this time he fails on script.
Bottom-line
Parugu has some good moments in parts but on the whole it is a big bore and huge disappointment.
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewed by Chandrika
