This review will be quite a contrast to the reviews on a majority of the websites.

First, the movie is strictly for intelligent audience and hence the film opened to a divide talk. The director (Trivikram) assumed his audience are matured enough to grasp his intent - divinity lies within everyone and whoever reaches out to the needy is God – and never bothered to explain it.

Second, it’s an out and out Mahesh film. The prince of Telugu cinema ignites the screen after three years and he looks fresh, energetic, rejuvenated and extremely stylish. He totally moves away from his Okkadu, Athadu and Pokiri image and comes up with a scintillating performance. Anushka looked gorgeous but paled in front of Mahesh’s charisma.

Coming to the movie, people are sure to get reminded of Magadheera for the relationship between the nature and the protagonist, but the comparison ends there. The movie starts brilliantly with superb visuals of a distressed village. Enter Mahesh, the whole look and feel of the movie turns trendy, and immediately begins the laugh riot that runs non-stop until the interval bang. The fight preceding interval, which is choreographed superbly with some breath-taking visuals, gives the necessary impetus and helps in building expectations about the rest of the movie. The songs in the first half are shot brilliantly, especially Piliche.

The second half is like an acid test for any director and Trivikram succeeds to a great extent. A couple of scenes make you stand up and applaud his cerebration. It requires guts and lot of self-belief to take up such a storyline where the protagonist is equated to God. Kudos to Trivikram for the attempt and this reminds me of another Mahesh movie which has lot of divine quotient, Murari - I am dying to write my thoughts on this movie, probably in two parts. Trivikram excells in the comedy and business aspects individually, but loses his way a bit while interspersing comedy in the second half due to which the mood of the film fluctuates frequently. If not for the commercial pressure involved, the second half would have been more serious and crisp.

Mani Sharma gives a stunning background score and proves why he is one of the top-rated background music composers in India. Fights are stylish with limited use of graphics and DI for the movie is superb. Trivikram’s dialogs are not in the same league as Athadu, Jalsa, and Nuvve Nuvve, nevertheless they are effective. A tighter second half could have appeased the first day fans.

My picks:

1.     Sunil and Mahesh meeting

2.     Mahesh’s meetings with Anushka and the ensuing scenes at the garage

3.     Shafi’s characterization

4.     Mahesh’s acting during the whole of God episode

5.     Climax where focus is more on Prakash Raj and the count remaining 534.

PS: It’s gratifying watching Mahesh shoulder the film. What Khushi was for Pawan Kalyan, Khaleja is for Mahesh.
The movie title is not apt.

The Nandi awards (for 2005 and 2006) ceremony held today at the LB stadum resembled more like a film actors-led election campaign for the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh. Most of the the recipients were staunch supports of the ruling Congress government and they have been bestowed upon with many invaluable assets by the State Government.

The timing of the awards is just before the impending elections and a few sops have been offered to the film industry. The venue has been shifted from Lalitha Kala Thoranam to L.B.Stadium to allow superstar Krishna and Mahesh Babu's supporters to pour in. In fact, this was touted as political debut for Mahesh. Of course, Mahesh has said a big no to politics and even warned of skipping the event in case of any political connection.

Now the real story. The winners Nagarjuna and Mahesh Babu, have a great filmy flashback attached to this. Nagarjuna has promised to support Congress in exchange for permission to raise a commercial complex in Annapurna Studios in Jubliee Hills. As the Government rule prevents them from using the land for other than running the studio, Nagarjuna turned to the ruling government for the favor. Mahesh Babu's father Krishna has been a Congress supporter for long and Congress has been desperate to pull superstar Mahesh into politics to negate Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna. Krishna has been awarded NTR lifetime achievement. Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, a popular comedian and strong Congress I supporter, was on the dias right from the beginning. He was offered about 7 acres of land to construct a religious sanctuary by the government. It's reported that the land is under dispute.

With no actor from the Nandamuri tribe or and only Nagendra Babu from Chiranjeevi family present at the event, it turned out to be Congress show all the way.

PS: The whole event was shabbily organized. The anchor seemed to be in a hurry to rush back home to take his wife out for dinner.

Yes! the most awaited movie in the recent times doesn't dissappoint you. In short, full paisa vasool. It has got everything except a great storyline. Yet the maverick writer director Trivikram ensured that there is plenty of fun and jalsaa. The movie is far better than any other recent Pavan Kalyan's movies in terms of screenplay, charecterisation and even presentation.

There is never a dull moment in the first half with Pawan Kalyan stealing the show. Even the flashback episode, supposed to be very very serious, is shown in a lighter vein without disturbing the actual point. When the audience start to feel that the film is heading nowhere, the director introduces Brahmanandam and then the laugh riot starts and it only gets over in the final shot.

Other assets of the film are Mahesh Babu's voice over which runs through out the film and the heroine Ileana. Though Trivikram has failed as a storywriter with this film, he has lived up to his expectations as a poetic dialog writer.

Finally, it was a great experience watching Pawan's movie on the first day and I am planning to go again this Saturday.

Watch it at least once for Pawan Kalyan's audacious and unique style and Trivikram Srinivas' dialogues.