Panchakshari Review 2010

Film: Panchakshari
Rating: 2/5
Banner: Sri Sai Ratna Creations
Cast: Anushka, Pradeep Rawat, Samrat, Brahmanandam, Ali, Nasser, Raghubabu, Ravi, Sudharani, M S, Jeeva, Chandramohan, Subbaraya Sharma, Telangana Sakuntala and others
Music: Chinna
Dialogues: Thota Prasad
Cinematography: Vasu
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Story: Madhu Vipparthi
Screenplay, direction: Samudra
Producer: Bommadevara Ramachandra Rao
Release date: 11/06/2010

The hot star Anushka who has swept the audience off their feet with ‘Arundhati’ has now arrived with another strong role.

The movie starts with 1985 backdrop where a girl is born at temple on a stormy night for a couple (Chandramohan and Rajitha). The temple priest who witnesses this, names the girl as Panchakshari. He also says that the girl gets goddess in her once in a year and for rest of 364 days she will be like normal girl.

Panchakshari (Anushka) is regarded as godwoman in the village and the pious devotees regularly do poojas in the temple and they also carry on a grand bonalu festival once in every year and sees goddess coming inside Panchakshari. They ask her some questions and clear their doubts and woes.

There is a cruel villain (Pradeep Rawat) in Janagam wants to pilfer the treasure underneath the temple, as reported by a secret Archeologist. Panchakshari and the devoted people in village become hurdles for him. So he wants to eliminate Panchakshari. Did he get succeeded in that?

On the other hand Honey (Anushka) is a fashion designer in city and has big dreams. She has a loving family and they want her to get married.

Sequence of events lead Honey to the Village and she makes few shocking discoveries. Who is Honey? What does Honey do to get out the problems? All this forms the rest of the story.

Performances:
Anushka has done her bit well and she has fitted herself aptly in the form of a city girl and also as a dedicated devotee. However, her character was not etched with intensity which led to hiccups.

Pradeep Rawat as usual flexed his muscles and used the dubbed baritone voice to look heavy. As such, his character could not deliver that evil shade though his screen presence was good.

Samrat was alright, the ‘Magadheera’ track of Brahmi failed to impress, Ali was alright, Nasser was natural, the artist doing Pradeep Rawat’s wife fitted the role well, Chandramohan was usual, Subbaraya Sharma was standard, Telangana Sakuntala, Raghu Babu, Sudha Rani were routine. Others were there to fill the screen.

Analysis:
The film runs on an age old track and we have seen that from the times of K R Vijaya so the content part was very weak.

The narrative was poor and the poor writing skills were seen. Few important scenes lacked conviction and what was meant to be an emotional scene ended up becoming a comedy scene for the audience. There are many inconsistencies in the script and not one track fails to take off for a continuous time to engage the audience. It is like bits and pieces put together. One can clearly see traces of ‘Ammoru’ ‘Arundhati’ etc but there is no comparison between them and this same old story.

Samudra has got a very silly way of having comedy and the same silliness is seen even in some crucial scenes. He sure has to update himself with the taste of the audience and the ability to involve them in the film.

Anushka’s introduction song must have been canned in the backdrop of some mall instead of temple. Wearing western outfits and shaking her ‘back’ in front of camera is disgusting and proves to be a wrong blend.

Anushka failed to show ‘roudram’ in her eyes in climax shot. She kept the tongue out like a patient before a doctor but not as Mahakali.

Screenplay is not intact and failed to pull audiences interest

Chandramohan revealing his connection with Nazar sounded like a comedy. People are laughing at this amateur scene in theater.

‘Magadheera’ comedy of Brahmanandam is not presented well.

Ali’s comedy started with great expectations but ended up weak.

Aghora’s character couldn’t pump in fear factor but boosted up sense of humor among audiences those were seen cracking jokes looking at that character

The villain factor is poor and the protagonist Panchakshari’s character is not presented with elevation. The initial scene says that Panchakshari is going to be powerful divine girl. But that’s not shown in required tempo afterwards.

Songs are good, cinematography is excellent and the art direction is also impressive. On a whole, this movie is ruled out for A centers and it’s a doubt if B, C center audience patronage this as their taste is also changing from decade to decade. This movie recalls the goddess movies of 80s and early 90s.