Story
Karthik (Charan) is a happy-go-lucky guy and the only son
in a wealthy family. His mother Lakshmi (Poonam Dhillon) and
father Chakravarthy (Sarat Babu) take care of him very well.
Neha (Sreya) is the daughter of Subbu (Chandra Mohan) and
she is motherless. Karthik is the senior of Neha in the college
and rags her a lot.
Neha
rescues Lakshmi at an incident and joins her in hospital.
Over a period of time Neha and Lakshmi become thick friends.
The family member of Neha likes Karthik. The family of Karthik
loves Neha a lot.
Lakshmi
refuses, when Subbu proposes to the parents of Karthik to
marry off Karthik and Neha. If you want to know why she refused
to marry this pair off and how these guys work hard to impress
upon the parents, you gotta watch this film on the silver
screen.
Artist
Performances:
Charan:
Charan is an average looking guy with ease in acting. He suited
the role well. His action is natural. He resembles Pawan Kalyan
in a few frames. For a starter, it's a good debut. The dubbing
aspect of Charan is not convincing as the dialogues and the
lip movements are not in sync.
Shreya:
She is the main asset of the film. She is very beautiful and
extremely talented in acting. She has got wonderful smile
and has enticing and expressive eyes. She resembles Keerthi
Reddy. But Sreya is a much better than Keerthi Reddy in all
proportions including height. No wonder, Nag has taken her
as the heroine in 'Santosham'
Poonam
Dhillon: She got a vital role in this film and she justified
it with her histrionics. But, they should have considered
the problem of nativity.
Technical Departments:
Story - Dialogues - Screenplay - Direction: The taking
of the film is refreshing. The shot making abilities of the
director duo 'Vikram-Raj Kumar' are worth applause. Some of
the scenes in the film are brilliantly executed. The scene
in which the hero and heroines communicates their love through
symbolic means, is very romantic. Dialogues of the film are
apt, but needs comedy touch to them. Screenplay of the film
needs a bit more homework. The vital drawback of the film
is that the story begins in the film after 4 songs are over.
The viewer is kept on wait for 1 hour and 45 minutes to know
what the story of 'Istam' is all about. Another drawback about
the film is the Lakshmi's opinion that her son is a worthless
and irresponsible guy. Any mother in the world thinks that
their son is the best. In this film, Lakshmi who always boasted
that her son is a bright guy turns the table around and refuses
to marry Karthik with Neha quoting that her son is not worthy
enough to marry a responsible girl like Neha. This decision
(and only twist in story) is very unconvincing. The directors
have a very good aesthetic sense and have the capability to
come up with blockbusters if the chose good convincing stories.
Music:
Music in the film is fresh. Out of six songs, three songs
are situational. Three melodious songs in this film are very
good. The debutant music director Gopinath is talented one.
The canning of second song (between Lakshmi and Neha) and
fourth song (between Charan and Neha) are very poetic.
Photography:
Photography is another asset of the film. All the frames in
this film are rich and colorful. V Sreenivasa Reddy has done
an excellent job.
Production:
Ramoji Rao has come with a novel storyline again. He should
be commended for the kind of freedom he is giving to his crew.
His effort to induct new blood into industry is praiseworthy.
Analysis:
The film has got good music, photography, direction etc. But
what this film terribly lacks is the entertainment value.
In addition to this, there is a overdose of sentiment for
this film. The story preaches that the undergraduate lovers
should not elope and they should find the reason for their
parent's refusal and work towards rectifying the defects.
This film has a good message. But the message should be sugarcoated.
The sugar (in form of comedy) is missing in the film. After
watching this film, you would be in a dilemma weather to tag
it as a good or bad cinema. If you look at the technical aspects,
it's a good film. If you look at the entertainment value,
it's a bad film. This movie may not go well with the youth.
It may find takers in the matured audiences. We have to wait
and see what box office has in store for 'Istam'. Though it
may sound incidental, the basic storylines of 'Jabili' (which
released on 29th Nov.) and 'Istam' (released on 20th Nov)
are same.
Istam
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