Brindavanam Review

I've always had a soft spot for Nandamuri Taraka Ramarao Junior (Tarak). I found him adorable as this massively chubby kid that was larger than life on screen. I know, he was 17 when he did Ninnu Choodalani, but still, he seemed liked a child. Even when he did his macho thigh-slapping in Aadi, it was more funny than ferocious. Anyway, fast forward 10 years, major flops and awesome blockbusters, 2 years of recovery from a near fatal accident and his first release of 2010, we have his latest flick with Vamsi Paidipally. The director is wielding the megaphone after his directorial debut, which didn't so well. The gap between the actor and director, and their films [Adhurs and Munna] created more hype about this film than most anticipated. Add to the basket Kajal Aggarwal, Samantha Prabhu and S.Thaman and you have Brindavanam. 

So what is it about? It’s about 2 families, a friendship and the importance these two have in the protagonist's life. Yes, it does have the violin effect in the background during some of the speeches Tarak gives and some may speak of common sense, but we all know that it ain't that common. So we begin in a typical Tarak fashion with some stylish fight sequences to show Krish [Tarak]'s strength and some fun yet sentimental scenes to introduce his parent [Pragathi and Mukesh Rishi]. Cool, calm and immensely confident, he is their only son. Their apple of their eye and the heir to more money than anyone cares to ellaborate. Enter the glam doll Indu [Samantha] and the girl-next-door Bhoomi [Kajal]. The former is his girlfriend and the latter is her friend. While Krish's parents have given the go-ahead for his own love story, Bhoomi is stuck in an alliance she doesn't want to go through with. Even though her father [Prakashraj] has arranged it and is aware she wants to go overseas to study, he is stubborn. To break this alliance, her grandfather [Kota Srinivasa Rao] says a lie. A lie which Bhoomi through Indu, gets Krish to make believable. But the fun doesn't stop with their little act. Add in a possessive "bava" [Ajay], an enmity of dire straits with the neighbouring town head [Srihari] and lots of comedy from Venu Madhav and Brahmanandam, and you have yourself a commercial pot-boiler for the family with Tarak in a slightly different role.

Let's begin with my soft-corner. Tarak is larger than life again, but in a subdued manner. This may be contradicting but as Krish, he looks the part and performs it well. Yet you will get the feeling he takes over each scene he is in. As the catalyst, I guess its warranted but except for the confrontation between the family and Prakashraj and Kajal's outburst, the other characters seemed overshadowed. Hence the larger than life statement. Kajal Aggarwal doesn't do much and was down-right annoying. Yes, she is supposed to be a little tame and less bubbly like her last film, Darling, but she pretty much uses 3-4 facial expressions and does not seem convincing on the story-within-a-story level. Samantha on the other hand, is cute and plays her smaller role as the girl/friend well. There are stages in the film that she seems completely forgotten and they add balcony shots to remind the audience she is there. However, I would say she left more of an impact that Kajal. The secondary casting all have limited scenes and play them well but one would expect more from biggies such as Prakashraj, Kota, Srihari, Ajay but Tanikella Bharani as Ajay's father, does seem a little odd in his sinister-ish role.

Moving on to the music, it has all the elements of a "mass" album. With a blend of western and folk, Eh Raja, Chinnado Vaipu and Yuvakulu will have you tapping your feet without you realising. Not clear if the music is supposed to be his trademark tuning or not, as sense of de-ja-vu comes to the fore and plays spoilsport in some cases. However, there’s a huge disappointment with the blatant use of DB Boulevard's Point of View in Nijamena [You too, Brutus]. On the visual front, it looks good, barring the obvious affection to blue [Another reference back to Krishna?] Vamsi has done an ok job with such a big cast but as mentioned, his concentration is apparent, especially, the ending. What’s worse is the film has so much potential to be a laugh-a-thon but it drags at the points where it should flourish.

Tarak is the backbone and probably will be the sole reason this film runs.  Rating: 3/5