'Maro Charitra’ Review

Film: Maro Charitra
Rating: 2.75/5
Banner: Sri Venkateshwara Creations
Cast: Varun Sandesh, Anita, Shraddha Das, Adarsh, Prathap Pothan, Urvashi, Naresh, Kota, Venu,
Music: Mickey J Meyer
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Dialogues: Umerjee Anuradha
Story: K Balachander
Screenplay, direction, cinematography: Ravi Yadav
Producers: Dil Raju, Sirish
Release date: 25th March 2010

Dil Raju has come up with yet another venture and this time, he has teamed up with Varun Sandesh to re-create the yesteryear’s classic hit made by the legendary K Balachander. How successful was he in bringing it to this generation? Is this film worth muscled to create charitra? Let us see.. StorySet on the backdrop of US, Balu (Varun) comes home discontinuing his course at college and chances upon his neighbor girl Swapna (Anita). It is love at first sight for both but trouble is with Balu’s father (Prathap) and Swapna’s mother, America Durga (Urvasi). Anyhow, both of them come to a formal agreement in front of their parents that they will not see, talk, meet each other for one full year to prove their love. What happens in that year, whether they are successful in their love test or not forms the rest of the story.

Performances:Varun Sandesh is energetic as usual and fits the bill of a desi US lad. However, he must put on some flesh to get that manly look and that will help him for the future. He must also control his body language during emotional scenes to show maturity. Anita is sweet looking and has a natural sex appeal in her. She has the potential to grow but she has to change her dubbing artist. Performance and glamour is proportionate to her in this movie but her character was not etched out strongly. Shraddha Das has a meaty role and she has shown the actress inside her unlike the regular sex doll image. She looked elegant and level headed. Adarsh is an apt choice for a negative role, he has the right kind of attitude for such roles. One can see more of him in the coming days. Prathap Pothan was standard, Urvashi did her bit as required but something is not right about her dubbing artist, Thalaivasal Vijay was not used to the fullest, Kota was as usual, Venu was brief, the lady doing Varun’s mother’s role was neat and timing was good. Highlights:CinematographyMusic (although ‘ye teega poovuno..’ and ‘bhale bhale magaadivoy..’ are inferior to original tracks)Heroine (credit goes to make up, costume and camera departments) Disappointments:Mishandling second halfScreenplay hiccups in maintaining emotion graphDubbing given to heroine and Urvasi

Analysis:The movie fails to bring in the emotional depth that is required. The audiences get connected to the scenic beauty on screen and the quality presentation but not to the spirit of content. Certainly, this movie is not for masses. The youth audiences try to connect to some extent but the last few minutes make them laugh at the emotion that is depicted instead of shedding tears. Here are a few scenes those make audience crack jokes and get digressed from the narration. Hero and heroine recognize each other with heart beat. The scene can be used for perfume Ad but not so fitting here. Heroine’s father starts giving a speech when he sees her daughter jumping into Niagara along with her boy friend. After his speech, he starts weeping….(audiences laughed at this scene conception). Shradhdha Das’ character got elevated when she sacrifices her love. Audiences got connected to her grief. But immediately when Babu (Kota Sreenivasa Rao) expresses his feeling with a dramatic liner, the graph has fallen down. On a whole, the first half of the movie sounds normal and second half suffers with many ups and downs in graph. The movie can be watched just for witnessing some quality presentation and well canned songs but not for an emotional ride. Locations in USA are rightly exploited by camera.