Om Namo Venkatesaya Telugu Movie
Rama (Nagarjuna) is a child who craves to witness God and influenced by the teachings of his Guru (Sai Kumar), he develops interest in meeting God. After reaching the marriage age, his parents fixes an alliance with Bhavani (Pragya Jaiswal). But Rama shows no interest in marriage and leaves home in search of God. He lands in Tirumala and fights against the unruly behaviour of the temple authorities (Rao Ramesh, Raghu Babu) and others. Slowly, Rama gains fame reached the King who handovers the temple responsibility after which Tirumala starts developing. But then there comes a situation where Rama has to prove he is a real devotee of Lord Venkateswara. Rest of the story is all about - What is that situation? Will Lord Balaji showers his love on the devotee? How did Rama become Hathi Ram Baba?
Nagarjuna is simply effortless and walked through the role of Hathi Ram Baba with tremendous ease. He is very natural and gets us a feeling that there is no one in Telugu Industry who can suit as a devotee better than him. His emotional act in the climax is a testimony of Nagarjuna's elegance as an actor. Saurabh Jain is excellent as Lord Balaji and his screen presence is just incredible. Hema Chandra's dubbing suited him well. Anushka carried herself very well as Krishnamma. Pragya Jaiswal is good in a limited role especially in that song. Rao Ramesh is rocking as usually in the negative role. Sandeep Raj, Vennela Kishore, Sai Kumar, Jagapathi Babu, Vimala Raman, Ashmitha, and others are okay in their limited roles.
To this generation, Devotional films are more like off-beat films. The very effort of trying such genre should be appreciated. Moreover, the story of Hathi Ram Baba is an interesting choice given that there are not many details available. However, Raghavendra Rao ensured that the first half ends on an interesting note. The second half is a bit monotonous and the climax feels like is dragged a bit. Even though there are some drawbacks in the script, the film still goes on to impress the devotees of the Lord with good screenplay and direction.
Keeravani has come out with wonderful melodies praising the Lord. But then some of them have worked in the film while others are not. Art director did a good job with the necessary sets. JK Bharavi should be commended for developing a story with very little detail. The dialogues are also good. Editing should have been better in the second half while the Production Values are average.
Om Namo Venkatesaya is not as memorable as Annamayya nor does it have haunting music like Sriramadasu. But then the movie is charming in its own way. A decent fare.
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