Reviews : Movie Reviews : Rajanna

Film: Rajanna
Cast: Nagarjuna, Sneha, Annie, Shweta Menon, Nasser, Ajay, Supreeth, Pradeep Rawath, Mukesh Rishi, Sourabh Dubey, Ravi Kale, Vijaykumar, Sravan, Sammeta Gandhi, Ashok Sammardh, Sridhar Rao and others
Music: M M Keeravani
Lyrics: Suddala Ashok Teja, K Shiva Dutta, Ananth Sriram, Chaitanya Prasad
Cinematography: Shyam K Naidu, Anil Bhandari and Poorna
Dance: Shivashankar, Swarna
Art: S Ravinder
Action director: S S Rajamouli
Editing: Kotagiri Venkateshwara Rao
Fights: Vijay, Ram Lakshman, Selva, Salomon
Visual Effects: Vensat, Firefly, EFX
Banner: Annapurna Studios
Executive Producer: Supriya
Produced by: Nagarjuna Akkineni
Story, screenplay, and directed by: Vijayendra Prasad
Release date: Dec 22, 2011
CBFC Rating : U/A

What's it about!

Set in a village called Nelakondapalli in Adilabad district in early 1950's, the film tells the story of Mallamma (Annie) and her father Rajanna (Nagarjuna), a freedom fighter. After the death of her father and mother (Sneha), a villager brings up Mallamma and her only passion is singing. But the village's dorasani orders to kill this little nightingale. She is saved by her music teacher (Nasser) and he tells her to go to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru so that the village gets freedom from the Nizam ruling. She sets out for Delhi on bare foot and as soon as she reaches to meet Nehru, the village dorasani and her men land in Delhi and abscond her and lock her and her music teacher in a room. Her teacher tells the story of Rajanna, her father, and a revolutionary who taught the villagers to fight against the atrocities.

Analysis

On August 15th, 1947, India freed from British rule but one of her princely state - Hyderabad state was still ruled by Nizam kings and the Nizam's ambition was to secure Dominion Status for his State. Razakars, a private army of Nizam and the zamindars in the villages did heinous crimes on Telangana people and their atrocities were horrible to even to write. This is history. Rajanna just took one aspect from the history and put fiction around the facts to make a beautiful and heartwarming story. It is more about a girl's fight for her personal freedom to live without fears and a revolutionary's struggle to bring freedom to his village. Less of history, more of a heart-touching story.

Without a doubt, Rajanna is one of the best movies to come out from Tollywood in the recent times. We should commend Nagarjuna, the producer for backing up such a movie in which the girl (played by Annie) gets more focus than him. We should also appreciate him for donning the role that is offbeat, yet inspiring.

Songs are Telangana's intrinsic culture - you hear people singing for every occasion from Batukamma festival to a movement for separate state. So director Vijayendra Prasad beautifully told the story with songs and used songs as plot device. The beauty in the script lies in making the girl as a singer and Rajanna as balladeer. Music genius M M Keeravani has put in his best for this movie and lifted many scenes with his impeccable recording. Added to that the girl's performance, Nagarjuna's inspiring act in second half are plus points to the movie.

Lot of scenes in the movie stand out (spoilers, ahead)!

1.    When Nag returns to his village and meets a woman who is singing a lullaby for her dead child thinking she is alive.

2.    A razakar trying to put a tax for beautiful women and the subsequent scenes

3.    A kid springing from a hut to kill off the villain in a emotional scene

4.    Mallamma chasing the thief for her bag to get the soil of her village

On the down the side, the movie's pace goes down in the second half. And the climax song is poorly scripted and executed. There are also some factual errors like Mayabazar (1957) song being played on Radio when the movie is set much before than its release.

Performances

The film completely belongs to the child artiste Annie and Nagarjuna. Annie gets more footage and she steals the show. She gets it perfect in expressions, accent of the language. You empathy with her and also feel sympathy for her plight. She gives award-winning performance. Nagarjuna has tried to emote with his eyes in most of the scenes in the film. He is terrific in the song - Veyyi Veyyi. In some patriotic scenes, he is too good but his character should have written with more depth to bring out the feel and fervor.

Among other actors, Sneha as Lacchamma is apt. Swetha Menon as villainous Dorasani fits the bill but her costumes are no way related to Telangana culture. Sammeta Gandhi brings the authenticity to his character. Nasser as the music teacher is okay. Supreeth, Pradeep Rawath, Sravan as Nag's friends are good.

The film's soul is its music and M M Keeravani lives up to his name and fame by giving one of the best musical scores in Telugu cinema. The film's musical score ranks among his best. Gijigaadu, Ra Ra Royi, and Veyyi Veyyi are best songs while background score deserves all the praise. Amma Avani song (composed in Mohana Ragam) is similar to that of Nee Swasa from Nenunnanu.

It is surprising to find that despite three cameramen (S hyam K Naidu, Anil Bhandari & Poorna) filming it the quality of visuals are topnotch. The film has rich production values. Editing by Kotagiri is perfect. S S Rajamouli's style and his touch are clearly visible in action episodes and in the song of Veyyi Veyyi. Production designer (art) S Ravinder has brought authenticity with his set work by recreating the bygone era. Especially his village set is too good.

As a writer and director Vijayendra Prasad should be commended for penning this script. It is beautiful story and his screenplay also is very interesting. He also has taken care in dialect for most characters. Nagarjuna has shown guts to be a part of commercial movie in which he does not appear for almost an hour and back the film by producing it in richly.

Bottom-line

Rarely do we get to see a very honest and beautiful film like Rajanna. It is an emotional film with a heart-touching script. With terrific performance from Annie, topnotch musical score by music genius M M Keeravani, rich production values, non-gimmickry scenes, the movie is one of the best movies to come out from Tollywood in the recent times. Go for it, for its honesty and genuine effort.

Rating: 4/5

Reviewed by JP

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