Nagavalli Review

Considering its the Bean Counters Age, that is an age that intends on milking anything for all its worth, movies are turning out to be much the same. If a film does exceptionally well, there is most certain to be a sequel/another episode. Whether its Speed, Die Hard, Bad Boys or movies like Shrek, Toy Story or Madagascar. In Indian cinema, particular Telugu cinema, the fashion is not as common but it is sure to pick up as remakes have, since they were a taboo subject also. The first part 2/another episode that I witnessed from TFI was Shankar Dada Zindabad. Although I loved Chiranjeevi and Srikanth in it, the female lead Karishma Kothak was not up to par so what could have been an awesome remake of Lage Raho Munnabhai, skimmed by on the camaraderie of Chiranjeevi and Srikanth, and awesome music by Devi Sriprasad. Then came Aarya 2. I loved/love this film to bits. Beyond the story, its presentation, the soundtrack, the performances were simply superb! But wait. What does this have to do Nagavalli? Much like the two, Nagavalli was a film of interest because it is a sequel to the massively successful Chandramukhi. However, in this version, none of the original cast return to reprise roles. How do they fare? Lets jump right in to find out.

Nagavalli begins with the painting that was seen in Chandramukhi of the dancer changing location and becoming a prize for Gayathri[Kamalini Mukherjee] and her husband in a Bharatha Natyam dance competition in the presence of Gayathri's parents [Sarath Babu and Prabha]. Cut to 5 years later, we enter the household of Shankar Rao[Sarath Babu] in Thirupathi. Here he lives with his wife, 2 daughters Geetha[Shraddha Das] and Gowri[Richa Gangopadhyay] and his brother's family. Its a special day as his daughter Gowri has been approached for an alliance and is about to be engaged. But all is not well in the house that the portrait inhabits. The most obvious would be absence of their eldest daughter. Just as the formalities are to begin, the groom who was taking a look around the house, runs down the stairs scared out of his wits and out of the house, screaming "The alliance is off". On the other side of the house, Gowri's friend faints when she sees a 30 foot snake. Having seen the skin of a snake several years ago but unable to convince his family, Shankar Rao is worried but calls for a snake charmer[M.S.Narayan] to find and get rid of it. But just as mysterious as the snake itself, the snake charmer is found dead shortly after going to the top floor. With no other option, they turn to Siddhanti [priest] Ramachandra[Avinash]. Having dealt with Chandramukhi, he instantly recognizes the painting and calls for back up. But his friend Eeshwar[Rajnikanth as a photo] is away in US and cant make it. So Eeshwar sends his assistant Vijay[Venkatesh] to handle the crisis. Although true to his mentor's ways, Vijay has a positive attitude that steers clear of blind faith [mooda nammakam]. Yet, Vijay is not adverse to the supernatural and will have more than one ghost to deal with. In the closets that Shankar Rao and his wife keep hidden lies the secret behind their eldest daughter Gayathri. Mentally unstable, Siddhanti believes it is she who is possessed by Chandramukhi. But the truth is never that easy to find. So as the mysterious attacks on Vijay and Siddhanthi continue, Vijay pursues on to find out who is behind them and is Chandramukhi really back. A journey that will have him go back in the past 100 years ago when Nagavalli[Anushka] lived. When King Nagabhairava Rajasekhara [Venkatesh again] dominated a kingdom. For Vijay, the solution to the present lies in the past but with it,there also lies more than one surprise. 

First of all, the movie does start at the end of Chandramukhi and for the minute group of people that haven't seen Chandramukhi, it may be a blessing. Venkatesh has large shoes to step into and he does make an honest attempt. The accusations that he is copying Rajnikanth is rather ridiculous as there will only be so many words that you can use for the common man to understand psychology and furthermore, I have yet to meet a student that does not have any resembling characteristics in working style of their mentor. You the reader can correct if you want on this. Furthermore, there are significant [and insignificant] changes in characters that P.Vasu has introduced so in essence the Nagabhairava Rajasekhara character is of the era but different from that of Rajnikanth's portrayal. Regardless, Venkatesh is stepping out of his norm and tries his best at a supernatural theme with Nagabhairava yet retaining a cool character withVijay which I believe he does best. Coming to the leading ladies, in honesty there maybe 6[Shraddha,Richa, Anushka, Kamalini, Suja and Poonam] but the only ones that were able stand above the rest were Anushka, Kamalini, Richa and Shraddha in that order. Suja played the same role in the Kannada version Aaptha Rakshaka and it baffles me why she did it again. Poonam on the other hand, has gone back a few steps to junior artiste level, after tickiling the funny bone in RRKK and Vinayukudu. With them aside, Anushka by far leads the pack. How one wishes her crash course in Bharatha Natyam had more steps and was more believable as her acting. It may be the post I recently saw by Amaluu but it is blatantly obvious that the actress has little or no clue as what she is doing with her dancing. The actress tries to make up for it and emotes quite well but really misses out on the elegance of dancer because of this. Kamalini makes significant impact in her small but important character and deserves a mention for her more convincing dancer act. Richa is quite brave to do a character like this in her second film and shows that she's not just an NRI pretty face trying her hand at acting to pass time. Watch as the actress transforms on screen and you will know what I mean. She may have won accolades in Hindi for Lahore but Shraddha was brought to the limelight by Telugu Industry. Yet, it is only now she is able to prove her capacity that which you can see in Lahore. Brahmanandam is one of my most favourite comedians in TFI but whether he was imitating Vadivele or trying his own version of it, his comedy falls flat on its face. Even the scenes with Venkatesh could not get enough giggles and the same goes for Dharmavarupu Subrahmanyam. Avinash is somewhat arrogant and irritating in portions. Understandably he has some powers but the way in which he dismisses so many things so easily is in complete contrast to the enlightened soul he plays. The remaining cast is stricty ok.

On the technical side, the film looks good with camera work by Sam K Naidu. The sets used in the flashback sequence [Chinna] are in tune with part one without going on a complete tangent. While the general idea and certain portions keep you interested, repeating the same scenarios with small changes or lines said previously will test your patience. P. Vasu has made some classic hits like Panakkaran, Chinna Thambi, Mannan and of course, Chandramukhi, all of which were remade or dubbed into other languages. But the last time I saw such writing from him, was in the box office dud, Love Birds. Giving each member of the cast a valid stand point is hard and the struggle is evident in his writing. Where he gains brownie points in the way the story progresses forward, it is clear he hasn't given enough importance to validity of the story. Changing the name of characters and introducing new ones is fine but the film lacks the flow that Chandramukhi had. This is mostly due to the fact I've watched Chandramukhi and there was more than one occasion in which I thought Nagavalli takes away from the logics of Chandramukhi. But the film itself, refers back several times and keep in mind, this is supposed to be a continuation, not another episode. The penultimate 25 minutes that is supposed to be the heartbeat of the film, turns into a ridiculous affair with the fight sequences. More fighting, less prancing around please. Gurukiran may have scored with the Kannada versions Aaptha Mithra and Aaptha Rakshaka, but the music for this film is very situational and just about ok. A special note to the choreographers, please rethink your strategy as it could have saved this film [and us].

As you can see with the number of times I've said Chandramukhi in this review, Nagavalli is one film that asks you to leave your logic brain at home to enjoy it and although, you will, please be oblivious to Bharatha Natyam and Chandramukhi as well. If you do so then Venkatesh and the lovely leading ladies will give you a treat to watch.

Rating: 2/5