Movie Review ‘Sankarabharanam’: Kitschy NRI story in Bihar
The title Sankarabharanam is only to garner attention and has nothing to do with the story
By : suresh kavirayani
Update: 2015-12-05 01:05 GMT
Cast: Nikhil, Nandita Raj, Anjali, Rao Ramesh, Prudhvi, Saptagiri, Suman and Sithara
Director: Uday Nandanavanam
Rating: 2.5 stars
Following a series of hits, Nikhil has teamed up with top writer Kona Venkat for Sankarabharanam, which is broadly along the lines of the Hindi film Phas Gaye Re Obama. Gautham (Nikhil), son of a rich businessman (Suman), is a young NRI living in the USA. When Gautam’s father tries to kill himself due to financial losses and huge debts, his mother (Sithara) tells him of her ancestral house called Sankarabharanam in Bihar which costs nearly Rs 10 crore. Gautham reaches Bihar to sell the property, but finds that his relatives and cousins have been living in the house for many years. If he wants to sell the house, he has to get no objection certificates from all of them. Gautham’s relatives think that he is a billionaire and the word spreads in the village. He also finds Happy (Nandita), his uncle’s daughter, in the same house. In the meantime, gangs try to kidnap Gautham.
Though the film has been directed by Uday Nandanavanam, most of the film has been handled by Kona Venkat. While Kona has taken the plot from the Hindi film, he has changed it completely for the Telugu version. This has made the first half uninteresting, there’s nothing to entertain the audience. The story actually starts in the second half and reaches a peak once actor Prudhvi enters. The last 30 minutes is hilarious and is the highlight of the film. When it comes to the performance, Nikhil is good as an NRI. He has toned his body and worked on his body language for the role. And while he has tried his best, the story itself is weak and he couldn’t do much about it. Nandita is a big waste as a girl crazy about English and the NRI. There’s nothing interesting about her character. Anjali as a lady don is good and the song on her is also nice.
The other highlight is comedian Prudhvi, and once he appears on screen the film comes to life. From then on it’s hilarious and credit goes to Prudhvi for the second half. His dialogues are also well written. Comedian Saptagiri, too, generates a few laughs. Sampath, who generally plays the villain, has an interesting character while Rao Ramesh and Sanjay Mishra have done their bits in supporting roles. The cinematographer has captured some nice locales in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The music, however, is average as most of the songs have Hindi words and also sound like Hindi songs. The title Sankarabharanam is only to garner attention and has nothing to do with the story. Also, the Bihar backdrop is not suited and it’s a big minus point.
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