Reviews : Movie Reviews : Sangamam

Manoranjan Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.
Sangamam (2008)

Cast: Rohit Khurana (debut), Gadde Sindura (debut), Muralimohan, Suhasini, Brahmanandam, Avinash, Raghunatha Reddy, Narsing Yadav, Radha Kumari, Anita Chowdary, Sarajhari (debut), etc.

Dialogues: Surendra Krishna
Costumes: Krishna
Camera: Jayaram, Sandeep Reddy
Screenplay: Rasool Ellore
Choreography: Babu, Vidya
Music Director: M.M. Keeravani
Lyrics: Anantha Sriram
Editing: Gautham Raju
Producers: Ramana Pemmaraju, Krupakar P. Tadikonda
Co-Producer: Suresh
Direction: Rasool Ellore

Date of Theatrical Release: July 11, 2008

Summary:
If Sangamam had created any hype, it's already died down due to the unexpectedly long delay in its release, following its audio release about 9 months ago. The movie does not again raise the expectations either.

What's it all about?
Sanskruthi (Sindura) is the loving daughter of a patriotic, good Samaritan Raghava Rao (Avinash?) in the village of Munaganuru. Due to his brother Jagadish (Muralimohan) who broke his word to the village and left to the USA, Raghava Rao has a serious aversion towards the USA. Still, it becomes inevitable that Sanskruthi goes to the USA, but she is equally averse to meeting her uncle, thus staying with Dr. Geetha (Suhasini) in Washington, D.C. She eventually meets a NRI agriculture scientist Abhiram (Rohit Khurana) who expresses his love towards her. She very well knows of her dad's ideas and turns him down. What roles have Dr. Geetha and Jagadish to play? Does this love story even take off before her stay abroad is complete? etc. are questions whose answers form the rest of the movie.

Performances
Cast:
Rohit Khurana as a debutant is good and natural. However, his looks are far from a typical Telugu hero. With his Salman Khan kind of act and dried-up looks, albeit accompanied by histrionics coupled with ease, it is tough to imagine that he'd continue to play the lead roles in Telugu films. He does however bring to the table what's required through his role. When one is reminded that Vennela-fame Raja was to do this NRI protagonist role originally, one cannot see why he might have been replaced!

Gadde Sindura makes her Telugu debut with this film. She had ample chances for several emotions, and she does a passable job in almost all such scenes. She seemed stiff in some scenes, but she could have been more natural on the screen in general. However, at the end, one can say that she is one of the few plusses of the movie! She gives adequate performance for a traditional, homely Telugu girl. Brahmanandam appears in his real-life role, as a comedian that visits the USA for a Ugadi event in Washington, D.C. He does give some comedic relief in the movie through his role of a "vaaraalabbaayi" going from host to host in the USA as he lost his passport to a tough American girl. There's not much comedy apart from his role, and thus comedy is very limited on the whole; unfortunately, the very first scene with Brahmanandam has a hint of vulgarity too! Muralimohan, as a loving brother trying to get back to his own family, does particularly well in certain scenes that require a shower of sentiment. Suhasini has a limited role as a doctor in the USA who lives in the neighborhood of Muralimohan. Radha Kumari, as the muted paternal grandmother of the heroine who chooses to go to the USA against the wish of her elder son, and Raghunatha Reddy as the heroine's family friend deliver to the expectations of their roles.

Technical Departments:
The story reminds of the ANR-starrer Seetharamaiah Gaari Manavaraalu in its theme, with a trans-Atlantic love story added to it. Direction should have been keener, avoiding inconsistencies such as using north Indian tunes to prayer hymns when emphasizing on Telugu culture all through, showing written dialogue different than the spoken one while writing the diary (with the pen literally running in the heroine's hand), etc. The treatment makes the first half seem dragged and slow and the second half bit rushed up, though the movie has a slow pace to it on the whole. Music by Keeravani is one plus point of the film - songs are good also because of lyrics by Anantha Sriram. The first song chinuku chinuku... is the best as far as the tune goes, and the lyricist's early work from his college days, poota vEsina lEta maavini... (with slight modifications to suit the theme), is the best as far as the lyric goes, but choreography in the songs has not much to be spoken of. In fact, there are inconsistencies such as using modern-styled movements for a traditionally-bred village girl in the very first song of the film (which she sings on the stage without any sort of microphone!). Camerawork is good, given that the director was essentially a man behind the camera for a long time, but there was no particular visuals that highlight the USA or the Indian villages. Dialogues by Surendra Krishna are appreciable in parts. Editing could have been used more effectively to pace up the movie, but probably the development of the wafer-thin story line should have been better really. Costumes needed more care too, because the costumes used in the part of the movie shot in the USA are also very Indian in nature, giving an impression that all costumes were carried from India. On the whole, better production values, slick narration, publicity, and better casting may have saved the movie some. However, given that the movie's release itself was doubtful, there was possibly not much that could be done anyway!

Impressive Scenes/Dialogues:

"prayatnaalu viphalam kaavacchu, kaanee prayatninchaTam viphalam kaakooDadu!" (Sindura inspiring Rohit with his own words)
"...enta nacchaavanTE hard work tappa adRshTaanni nammani nEnu nuvvu parichayam avaTamE naa adRshTam anukunEnta!" (Rohit to Sindura)
"peLLi chEsukunTaamani evarU prEminchaali anukOru... prEminchaam kaabaTTi peLLi chEsukOvaali anukunTaaru!" (Rohit to Sindura)
"ikkaDa vaaraaniki 5 rOjulu oLLu vanchi kashTapaDataaru, 2 rOjulu oLLu marachi sukhapaDataaru." (Rohit to Sindura, justifying weekend parties in the USA)
Sindura: "maaku pErlu peTTElaa mEmunDam...!"; Rohit: "mEmU antE... evaru Em pErlu peTTinaa mEm paTTinchukOmu!" (Hinting the nature of resident Indians and non-resident, second generation Indians)
"maa medical science gunDenu teesi gunDenu peTTE sthaayiki edigindi. kaanee daanilOni baadhani teesEsE sthaayiki edigitE inkaa baagunTundi." (Suhasini to Muralimohan)
"evari andam choostE mind block ayi dil-ku chillu paDutunO... tanE Sanskruthi!" (Rohit)
Brahmanandam's prayer before dinner, similar to the prayer in Meet the Parents (or Nuvvu Naaku Nacchaav!)
Brahmanandam episodes ith coke.
Using Pelli Pusthakam film's title song to introduce Indian traditions to an American girl.
Subtle criticism of government officials' approach towards farmers' problems

Bottom Line:
The reason that this movie made to the headlines was essentially that this movie starred Gadde Sindura, the Telugu girl who went places with her participation in beauty pageants. One can watch the movie to satiate that interest to see her Telugu debut, because there's not much in the movie apart from good music and intriguing debut of the heroine.

Review by NaChaKi

Tailpiece: One of the producers clarified to us that Raja was supposed to act in their Production No. 1, which was shelved and never materialized. Raja was not supposed to act in Sangamam, according to the producers.

Comments

Top of Page