Mallanna (2009) Review

Mallanna (2009) Movie Review

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Film: Mallanna
Rating: 2.75/5
Cast: Vikram, Shriya, Krishna, Prabhu, Brahmanandam, Mumaith Khan etc
Camera: NK Ekambaram
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Direction: Susi Ganesan
Producer: Kalaipuli S Thanu
Released On: 21st Aug 2009

The much publicized ‘Mallanna’ arrived today. The openings are very strong and let us see if the maker made it right or wrong.

Story:
Mallanna (Vikram) is a CBI officer who stands like Robinhood in disguise for suffering poor people. He forms a secret group and makes them collect the wish-list of poor devotees at Srisailam Mallanna temple those get tied regularly to a tree in temple premises. The wishes range from a need of Rs 10000 for poor bride’s marriage to a bigger thing like injustice from government officials. Mallanna pilfers the black money from rotten rich people with his intelligence and fulfils the needs of poor people in the disguise of God Mallanna. People believe that God Mallanna is answering their wishes.

Subbalakshmi (Shriya) is the daughter of a cruel and rich man (Asish Vidyarthi) and she become love interest of Mallanna. She has the shades of both good and bad.

An intelligence officer (Prabhu) comes into the scene to make people develop faith in system but not Mallanna. He works to prove that Mallanna is not a God but a human being. Finally, will he succeed in that attempt? That forms rest of the story.

Performances:
Vikram:
He is a perfect actor but the director exploited him in wrong way with Cock get up. He is ok with lady’s get up but the movements he delivered are very bad. The best part in him with respect to this film is singing his own songs. That’s matchless indeed. He proved more than a professional playback singer.

Shriya:
She enthralled with ‘Allegra…’. All these days people know the expression ‘shake it like Shakira’. But now after watching this song, one has to say ‘Shake it like Shriya’. Rest is ok.

Susi Ganesan:
He appeared in a not so important role chasing the protagonist till Mexico.

Krishna:
He is ok as CBI Joint Director

Prabhu:
He is too heavy to watch on big screen. His body language is not convincing to be an active intelligence officer.

Choreography:

* Saroj Khan’s choreography given to the number ‘Dil ye be-chen hai…’ in Taal is directly copied here for ‘Allegra…’
* Shriya’s facial movements given for ‘Excuse me Mr Mallanna’ song are interesting
* ‘Mambo Mamiya’ and ‘Meow Meow’ also dealt reasonably well
* ‘Naa pere kanyakumari…’ of Mumaith Khan scored big by mass audiences

Highlights:

* Music
* Energy levels in Mumaith Khan’s number

Disappointments:

* No Comedy- Brahmanandam’s presence added fuel to the pain instead of bringing laughs
* Weak narration- The need of unearthing the black money from crooked rich hasn’t conveyed with right spirit
* Poor Editing- No frame sustains for more than 2-3 seconds and that cause huge disturbance to eyes and audience feel it difficult to get connected to screen
* Substandard Cinematography- For the budget incurred on movie, the camera would have captured things better
* Worst Fight Sequences- Needless to say
* Length of the movie- It’s really a longest torture with 3 hr 10 minutes.

Analysis:
Telugu audiences have seen films like Azaad, Bharateeyudu etc with the kind of Robihhood elements. Mallanna also falls in that wagon. Concept is ok. But the execution is very bad.

Mallanna’s character was carved with the inspiration of Batman but that didn’t gel well with the taste of majority Telugu audiences. Eccentricities were seen in the character with the get up of Cock. The concepts of this sort sound better when dealt with convincing scenes those are close to reality. Although cinema liberties can be taken they cannot be of this extreme.

Romance part is very weak in the movie and that is another big minus. Shriya was given a tomboyish type of character and she could justify up to that.

On a whole, the movie is a disappointment and didn’t meet the expectations