Movie: Rangamarthanda
Rating: 3/5
Banner: Rajashyamala Entertainments and Housefull Movies
Cast: Prakash Raj, Brahmanandam, Ramya Krishna, Anasuya, Adarsh Balakrishna, Shivathmika, Rahul Sipligunj, Bhadram, and others
Dialogues: Akella Siva Prasad
Music: Ilayaraja
Cinematography: Raj Nelli
Editor: Pavan VK
Art: Dattatreya Jhansi
Producers: Kalipu Madhu and S Venkat Reddy
Screenplay and Direction: Krishna Vamsi
Release Date: March 22, 2023
Creative director Krishna Vamsi is back with ‘Rangamarthanda’, a very important film for him which is a remake of the much acclaimed and successful Marathi movie, ‘Natasamrat’.The movie received a great deal of praise since its early premiere screenings.
The social media is flooded with positive feedback.Is the film really that good? Let’s find out…
Story:
A Veteran stage actor, Raghava Rao (Prakash Raj) retires from his theatre acting and wishes to spend some time with his family.He and his friend Chakri (Brahmanandam) both used to be much-revered stage actors who find themselves struggling to fit amidst the dramatic life outside the theatre, rest of the movie depicts the life journey of Raghava Rao and his wife played by Ramya Krishna going through the hurdles because of their son and daughter.
Artistes’ Performances:
Three actors delivered powerful performances.Naturally, Prakash Raj in the title role walks away with laurels.His acting in the scenes set in the world of stage play appears a little theatrical, but he is fantastic as a distraught parent in the scenes with his children.
Brahmanandam is a pleasant surprise.The veteran comedian steals the show in his full-length serious role.He even breaks down in tears.Be on the lookout for his scene with Prakash Raj, in which he plays Duryodhana and Karna while lying in a hospital bed.
Ramya Krishna brings emotional brilliance to the scenes.Rahul Sipligunj makes everyone surprised as he stands out from the crowd with his genuine performance.
Shivathmika demonstrates that she has great acting potential.Anasuya and Adarsh Balakrishna play their stereotypical roles well.
Technical Excellence:
Maestro Ilayaraja has composed music that adds more gavity to the scenes.“Damidi” is catchy.A song performed by the maestro himself plays in the background.The dialogue flows naturally with the story.The camera work is satisfactory.The editing should have been more crisp.
Coming to direction, we all know how unique Krishna Vamsi used to be bring human emotions quite powerfully onto the screen.He used to make his artists perform so beautifully that even the melodramatic scenes would fascinate us.‘Rangamaarthanda’ almost did bring back that vintage Krishna Vamsi as a director on extracting superb performances from all the actors.However, the writing part by Akella Shivaprasad in terms of dialogues is very good but in adapting the Marathi movie to Telugu cinematic sensibilities seems a bit odd at some times.
The first half kinda bores the audience, many dramatic things happen but except for one or two none of those hit us with strong emotions, the drama looks forced with cliched scenes and on-the-nose messages.One good change they made in the first half compared to original is the witty dialogues by brahmanandam at every possible scene which made the boring first half a bit better.But post interval the movie redeems itself, the writing gets better, the emotions start to elevate, the ever-loving dynamics between Prakash Raj and Ramya Krishna characters warm our hearts, and the scenes between PrakashRaj and Brahmanandam characters bound to tug at your heartstrings.
Highlights:
Prakash Raj and Brahmanandam steal the show with performances Emotional scenes in second half
Drawback:
Old narration
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