Movie: Krishnarjuna Yuddham
Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: Shine Screens
Cast: Nani, Anupama, Rukshar, Brahmaji, Nagineedu, Devadarshini, and others
Music: Hip Hop Thamizha
Cinematography: Karthik Ghattamaneni
Editing: Satya G
Producers: Harish Peddi, Sahu Garapati
Story, Screenplay, dialouge and Direction: Merlapaka Gandhi
Release date: April 12, 2018
Nani has been delivering hit after hit in recent times. Even his average movies have fared well in the recent past and he is in great form. So, every movie of his is eagerly looked forward to by the trade and the audiences as well.
Let’s find out the merits and demerits of his latest movie “Krishnarjuna Yuddham”.
Story:
Krishna (Nani), a guy from a village in Chittoor, has one dream: to make a girl fall for him. The village president’s granddaughter Riya (Rukshar) comes to his village and he falls for her. He tries in many ways to impress her.
In Europe, there is Arjun (Nani) who is a rock star and is a casanova. However, he loves a good-looking Indian girl called Subbulakshmi but she doesn’t fall for his flirting. The stories of Krishna and Arjun are told in back and forth manner.
Half way through the story, both their lovers head to Hyderabad, where they get abducted by a gang. Krishna and Arjun come to Hyderabad in search of them and how they rescue their girls forms the rest of the story.
Artistes’ Performances:
Nani plays double role – a rural guy from Chittoor and a rock star. He is impeccable in the role of Chittoor guy, his body language, his dialogue delivery with perfect Chittoor dialect is a treat. However, he goes completely wrong in the character of a rock star. He doesn’t suit this role. Like the passive role, his acting here too is monotonous.
Both Anupama and Rukshar don’t have much role (except for 10 minutes, they entirely go missing in the second half).
Brahmaji’s role is hilarious and he brings the house down in some sequences. Sudhakar is okay. Devadarshini’s role as Anupama’s aunt provides some laughs in the first half.
Technical Excellence:
Karthik Ghattamaneni’s cinematography is rich. He has shown variation in both the stories of Krishna and Arjun. The production values too are top class.
The pick of the songs is “Daari Choodu”, which is quite good on screen too. There is another good romantic number “Wanna Fly”, but rest of the songs are pretty ordinary.
Editing is neat in the first half of the movie. Dialogues are good.
Highlights:
Brahmaji – Devardarshini track
Some comedy dialogues
Daari Choodu song
Drawback:
Boring second half
Routine Story
Dull direction
Analysis:
“Krishnarjuna Yuddham” begins with an incident that reveals what the movie is all about. The scene shows a guy kidnapping a young beautiful woman. Immediately after, the director cuts the story to introduce two characters Krishna and Arjun.
One guy is in Chittoor and the other guy is in some city in Europe. He contrasts two stories. After establishing some scenes in Krishna’s life, the story cuts to Arjun's track and vice versa. Entire first half is told in this manner to sustain interest.
Till the interval, not much story happens except for establishing the romantic threads between Krishna (Nani) and Riya (Rukshar), Arjun (Nani) and Subbalakshmi (Anupama).
The director takes almost an hour to get to the groove. From then on, he makes the movie interesting with good supply of jokes and humorous scenes till the interval bang.
The ever reliable Nani holds the interest with his act as Krishna. On the other hand, there are couple of superb comedy sequences on Brahmaji and Devadarshini. So, despite bad beginning, the first half of the movie makes a time pass watch.
Like most of the directors, this director goes completely wrong in the second half. Once it is established that both the heroes Krishna and Arjun have one mission: to rescue the girls, the plot turns flat.
Sadly, the director has also not used any novel screenplay to hold interest. The second half goes expectedly and ends as a damp squib.
There are also too many scenes in the second half that focus on Nani’s action stunts as if the director is trying to establish him as an action star. And also logic goes missing here.
There is no scope for heroines to reappear before the climax, the director forcibly introduces a duet (dream song). The moment the song appears, many started moving to the exit door in the theaters.
Overall, Nani’s “Krishnarjuna Yuddham” falters hugely with second half entirely missing direction. Though some comedy scenes and two songs make first half watchable and Nani’s role as Chittoor guy impresses, rest of the movie doesn’t entertain, or hold interest.
Nani picks up another routine story and tries to save the movie with his antics, but how long can one bear his regular musings.
Bottom-line: Bad Mix of Masala