Jeevi Rating: 3/5 (Three)
Genre: Family Drama
Cast: Nagarjuna, Soundarya, Shehnaz & Yamuna
Music: SA Raj Kumar
Story, Screenplay & Direction: Jonnalagadda Sreenivas
Producer: D Siva Prasad Reddy
Theatrical Release Date: 30th March 2001

Story

Surya Murthy (Nag) is the head of a village where he is respected with a lot of reverence by the entire village except for the trouble shooting Nazar. Surya Murthy stays with his grandfather (Satyanarayana) and grandmother (Showkar Janaki) and a 6-year-old girl Vaani. He has a younger look-a-like brother Satya Murthy (Nag again) in Hyderabad completing his engineering in computer science. Satya Murthy has a non-Telugu-speaking girl friend Sri (Shehnaz).

Satya Murthy has a worrying factor now. His elder brother Surya Murthy has decided not to marry in his life. Hence Satya Murthy starts looking for a suitable bride for his elder brother. There he meets Vasundhara (Soundarya) at a temple and decides that she is the right choice for his elder brother. He approaches Vasundhara and asks her hand for marrying his elder brother. Later on, Vasundhara happen to observe the heroism and goodness in Surya Murthy when he comes to Hyderabad to meet Satya Murthy.

Later on Vasundhara comes to know that Surya Murthy and Satya Murthy are the younger brothers of the man who married his elder sister Yamuna. Yamuna tells Vasundhara that Surya Murthy played a villain role in their life and he was instrumental in her husband dying after prolonged boozing due the compounding problems. She also tells that after her husband's demise, Surya Murthy forcibly took away her daughter Vaani.

After coming to know about her elder sisters flashback, Vasundhara decides to take revenge by marrying Surya Murthy and then slowly destroy the entire family. She accepts the proposal of Satya Murthy to marry his brother Surya Murthy. Then they start doing a drama by making Vasundhara stay in the village of Satya Murthy and creating situations where Vasundhara saves Vaani from the perils.

After the repetitive requests from his family members and Vaani, Surya Murthy marries Vasundhara. First step of Vasundhara after marriage was to postpone the first night by 22 days by bribing the priest. Then she transfers the money and jewelry to his sister's house with the help of a petty thief. But that thief runs away without giving jewelry to her sister and gets caught by the police. Meantime, Satya Murthy realizes the intentions of his bhabhi Vasundhara and explains her the flashback of Vaani and tells her that it was Yamuna who was a characterless lady. By the time Vasundhara realizes the fault of her, the thief was presented in the house of Surya Murthy and was interrogated about who give him jewelry. To save his bhabhi, Satya Murthy behaves in a strange manner and tells Surya Murthy that he wants his partnership in the property. He tells that he stolen the jewelry and want the thief to sell that off so that he can start his software business (all college passouts can get some ideas about putting a startup after watching this film).

With that incident, the brothers split. The rest of the film is about how the brothers get united and decimate the villain gang.

Performances:

Artists:

Nagarjuna: Nag did essay both of these roles with fine performance. You can see a brand new Nag in a never-seen-before get-up in the form of Surya Murthy. Even the role of Satya Murthy is also equally powerful. All the people who does criticize nag that he can't act in matured roles can take a hike and watch Nag giving wonderful performance as Surya Murthy.

Soundarya: She is at her best in this tailor made role. But her not-so-pure Telugu-speaking accent is going to cause the listeners a bit of disgruntling. But she did do her part of contribution with great ease.

Shehnaz: She did prove that a successful anchor might not become a successful actress. Her role in this film is very artificial. So is her acting. Much to the discomfort of the viewers, her role speaks only English and a few badly accented Telugu words in between.

Technical Departments:

Screenplay & direction: Jonnalagadda Srinivasa Rao, the debutant director, did show his mettle in a few sentimental scenes and the portrayal of the character Surya Murthy. But he is insensible in handling class scenes. He tried to give a mass appeal to the film, which made this film lose its sophistication. The director has poor taste in selecting the colors. He preferred black and maroon attires with zari edge to it.

Production: D Siva Prasad Reddy is a lover of mass film. Checkout his track record with Nag. Film Vicky Dada was a mass film. Allari Alludu was a super hit and a massive mass treat for the viewers. Auto Driver was a mass film that bombed at the box-office. Seeta Rama Raju too is a mass film that drew mixed reactions. Likewise, this film too tends to be another mass film.

Music: Audio of this film is a weakling. But the background music is good. The background music of the scenes where Surya Murthy walks is outstanding. 'Enaadina Anukunnana' and 'Dam Dama Dam' are good in this film as they are inserted in the gripping part of the story.

Analysis: This film fallows the trend of Bobbili Brahmanna, Peda Rayudu and Peddannayya where the hero played the duel role as bothers. One is the head of village and other one is posh guy with phir-bhi-dil-hain-hindustani attitude. This film also showcases the freedom Nag gives to his director in the filmmaking. LB Sriram provides some relief with his comedy. Full of sentiments and sacrifices, this film is targeted the mass viewers. But the questions is weather the viewers appreciate the routine time tested formula of the village-head kind of characters again and again. This film may get negative talk in 'A' centers. Fate of 'Eduruleni Manishi' would depend on how the mass audiences embrace it in B and C centers.