Story

Arjun (Mahesh Babu) and Meenakshi (Keerthi Reddy) are twins. Arjun and Meenakshi complete their graduation. Meenakshi and Uday(Raja) who study in the same class fall in love and they do not express it when they leave the college. Raja's marriage gets fixed by his Madhurai based parents Bala Nayagar (Prakash Raj) and Andal (Saritha). Raja sends an invitation card along with a letter expressing his love to Meenakshi and she expresses her feelings to Arjun. He goes to Madhurai along with his parents and gets Uday and Meenakshi married to each other. Bala and Andal are cold-blooded murderers and they are not happy with this. Arjun foils all the attempts by Bala and Andal to get rid of Meenakshi from the life of Raja. The rest of the story of the film is about how he exposes the evil nature of the in-laws.

Artists Performance

Mahesh Babu: Mahesh Babu is extraordinary as the caring brother. He is very stylish and charming, yet looks down-to-earth with boy-next-door demeanor. Mahesh is extremely good in emotional scenes involving sister. Mahesh Babu characterization is done in such a way that though there are enough mass elements in the film, the class presentation of Mahesh is intact.

Heroines: Shriya has got very less footage as her character has nothing to do with the main thread of the film. She wore a deep-neck for the teasing song 'Raa Raa'. Keerti Reddy impresses everybody with her histrionics. She has the typical sympathy factor of being sufferer going her way.

Others: Raja is adequate for the role of Keerti's husband. Suresh played these kinds of roles in the past. Saritha and Prakash Raj did the roles of cold-blooded murderers in the guise of respectable people. Murali Mohan and the other actress who acted as the mother of Mahesh are adequate and they go missing in the second half. Kalabhavan Mani did the routine role of a contract killer who is after Mahesh. Nassar and Rajan P Dev have pretty short roles. Veerendra Chauhan is impressive as the goon.

Technical Departments:

Story: Story of the film is a typical sister sentiment film. These kinds of stories have come aplenty in the past. Mahesh Babu always had a flair for selecting roles that expose new dimension to him with each new film. An action orientation is added to make this story take different proportions.

Screenplay - direction: Taking and technique of Guna Sekhar is excellent. The framing of shots is superb. Screenplay by Guna Sekhar is a bit on the slack side as he took too much of time to establish the simple story and characterizations. Taking of the film is stylish. Direction of the film is adequate, but action orientation dominated sentimental scenes at times. The narration of the film is pretty slow.

Music: Background score by Mani Sharma is terrific. Songs are better on the screen compared to listening on the audio player. My personal favorite is 'Sambhavami' that has excellent stylish presentation in video album style. The next best song is 'Dumdumare' song that is shot in Madhura Meenakshi temple set with the night effect. The next choice is the teasing song 'Raa Raa'. 'Madhura Meenakshi' song is also good. The remaining two duets between Mahesh and Shriya could not make much impact, as they do not have proper lead scenes.

Dialogues: Dialogues by Paruchuri brothers are apt and situational. They did not try to deliberately insert punch dialogues. There is one particular dialogue in the film that justifies the acts of Mahesh Babu in the entire second half -

"Madhurai ni kapadataaniki Meenakshi amma vundi.
Naa meenakshi (sister) ni kapadukovataniki nenunnanu'

Other departments: Photography by Sekhar Vincent is excellent. The visual effects are seamlessly integrated into the film without making them look artificial. However, the graphics work appears not so impressive in the climax scene where logs from lorry were slipped on to the road. Artwork by Thota Tharani deserves a special mention. He recreated the magic of Madhura Meenakshi temple with such a realistic finesse. But Madhura Meenakshi temple is not used to the maximum effect in the film. Editing by Srikar Prasad is good. Stunts by Vijayan are good, but too much of threadwork made the fights appear superficial and there by overshadowed the sentiment factor in certain vital scenes. Color grading of the film is impressive.

Production: Producer G Ramesh Babu should be commended for making a film on such a grandeur style without bothering about economics and viability. Each and every frame of the film oozes richness and majesty.

Analysis: The movie starts with a terrific frame of Mahesh narrating his story. First half of the film is fair. There is no bang/twist for the interval. The graph goes down in second half. Action sequences dominated the sentiment feel in the climax of the film, which made the climax unimpressive. The film closes with Mahesh revealing his name as Arjun. (In the entire film nobody calls him Arjun). The strengths of the film are Mahesh Babu's performance, Guna Sekhar's taking and Ramesh Babu's lavish production values. This film suffers with lack of having a powerful villain who can withstand the mighty heroism of Mahesh Babu. There is no much comedy in the film except for exams episode. The movie's duration is more than 3 hours, which is very lengthy. But people who go to watch this film with the expectations of another Okkadu will be disappointed. This film has both sentimental feel and action orientation. The fate of the film would depend on how family crowds (especially ladies) and masses receive sentiment and action scenes respectively.

Arjun Links
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Sreya audio review
Arjun set 1
Arjun set 2
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Keerti Reddy stills
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Jeevi reviews of previous 5 films
Valliddaru Okkate
Intlo Srimati Veedhilo Kumari
Naa Autograph
Donga Dongadi
Pallakilo Pellikoothuru
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