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Join UsStar Cast: Mahesh Babu, Sreeleela, Meenakshi Chaudhary, Ramya Krishnan, Jayaram, Prakash Raj, Jagapathi Babu
Director: Trivikram Srinivas
What’s Good: Mahesh Babu’s effortless charm…
What’s Bad: …but that charm gets on your nerves for getting monotonous without any solid narration to back it
Loo Break: More than a few; use all the songs!
Watch or Not?: If you can watch a film purely for a star & nothing else, watch Mahesh Babu’s wallpaper on your desktop because more thoughts might’ve gone into making that
Language: Telugu
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 162 Minutes
User Rating:
In an adamantly abrupt opening flashback sequence, we witness how Ramana’s father (Mahesh Babu) Satyam (Jayaram) mistakenly murders someone and is jailed for it. His mother, Vasundhara (Ramya Krishnan), abandons their family to return to her influential father, Venkata Swamy (Prakash Raj). Twenty-five years later, Satyam is out of jail, living a minimal life & Ramana turns into a flirty man looking after his father’s Chilli business.
His mother has now become the Law Minister, so his grandfather wants him to sign papers saying he’s not the legal heir to the film. This is done only to push Vasundhara’s son from the second marriage to enter & rule politics on her behalf. He, of course, won’t sign the papers, but how he will manage to dodge the political angle to solve the personal relationship with his mother is what the story is about.
Guntur Kaaram Movie Review: Script Analysis
It’s official: the reshoots have adversely impacted the film’s narration, as everything is messy from the word go. Trivikram Srinivas’s story isn’t as detailed to warrant a 2-hour-39-minute time, which is majorly used to fit in unnecessary clutter. I’ve never minded films that are all about ‘stardom showcasing,’ but this one fails at making it even that interesting.
A few scenes work & the credit goes solely to Mahesh Babu for that. Cinematographer P. S. Vinod (Aaranya Kaandam, Vikram Vedha) left the film midway to get replaced by Manoj Paramahamsa (Leo, Radhe Shyam) & I think he knew where this film was heading. In a scene, a character greets Mahesh Babu by saying ‘Namaste’ to which he replies, “You & your stupid Hindi greetings.” This was unnecessary and uncalled for, especially after he declared Ranbir Kapoor as the best actor in the country.
In another scene, Mahesh Babu’s Ramana, amidst a conversation in front of Sreeleela’s Ammu, says, “They (girls) barely have flesh on them these days.” I thought she’d give him back for saying this, but she got up and started dancing to showcase her ‘fleshy’ body & said, “(I am an) updated piece.” A fight sequence in which Ramana gets beaten up by ladies ends with him showcasing his power & giving them a pan, saying, “Get down to the cooking… Biryani should be yummy.” Such things are passed as casual sexism in 2023.
Guntur Kaaram Movie Review: Star Performance
Mahesh Babu carries the entire film on his charm & it hampers when things get repetitive. In a movie of about 3 hours, we’ll need something more than solely star-worshipping. The humungous 26-year age gap between Mahesh Babu & Sreeleela gets awkward most of the time as her character is written purely to be only around him.
Meenakshi Chaudhary, as Ramana’s cousin, hardly gets any importance and screentime. I wonder if Pooja Hegde was considered for this role, or they shuffled it to get Sreeleela in? Ramya Krishnan doesn’t leave any impact as Ramana’s mother because of the lousy writing. Jayaram & Prakash Raj act well but hardly get any meat to rise as important characters.
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Guntur Kaaram Movie Review: Direction, Music
Trivikram Srinivas misses it badly this time, possibly because of the struggles this film has faced since the beginning. From Cinematographer PS Vinoth leaving the film due to creative differences with Trivikram to Pooja Hegde allegedly charging a bomb to be in it exiting anyway, some reports also stated that Bob wanted to replace the Music Director Thaman with Anirudh midway, but that didn’t happen.
Thaman’s background score is all noise and no substance. The sudden songs only to showcase Bob’s dancing skills start getting on your nerves because they are not even appropriately synced with the screenplay.
Guntur Kaaram Movie Review: The Last Word
All said and done, there’s a sequence in which Mahesh Babu gets drunk & forgets everything that’s happening around him; I wish we could do something similar with this film.
Two stars!
Guntur Kaaram Trailer
For more movie recommendations, read our Ayalaan movie review here!
Guntur Kaaram released on 12 January, 2024.
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