Story

The duo of Srirangam Brothers consists of Srinivasachari (K Viswanath) and Ranga (Srikanth). Srinivasachari is happily married and has no children. Ranga is a widower with two kids. They follow the old tradition of joint family.

Srirangam Brothers are musicians by profession and they become the biggest music directors in Telugu film industry with their traditional and classical music. Surekha (Laya) - an anchor by profession - likes Ranga. Both of them fall in love and get married. After marriage, Surekha starts to feel that her husband is contributing a lot for the success of Srirangam brothers, while Srinivasachari is walking away with all the credit, honor and accolades. She jealously comments about it when Srinivasachari is awarded with Padmasri. Later on both the families get separated and Surekha slowly realizes that the brothers could shine only when they are united, but not when they are divided.

Artists Performance

Male Leads: K Viswanath is exceptionally good in the role of Srirangam Srinivasachari. He embodies the essence of traditional musician and appeared very believable and natural. Srikanth looks pretty routine in the beginning of the film. But he performs well towards the end of the film as the repenting man who had agonized his brother. Sivaji is good as an aspiring singer. Sivaji has proved with this film that he could do any kind of roles with ease. He provided good entertainment as well.

Female Leads: Urvasi is appropriate as wife of K Viswanath. Laya did the role that has a bit of grey shades (pang of jealousy and inclination towards nucleus family). She is good and dubbed the voice herself. The surprise pack of the film is Amukta Malyada. She is outstanding in terms of expression and body language. On the flipside, she does not have charming screen presence for casual scenes (scenes not involving traditional dances). The dubbing voice rendered to her is appropriate.

Others: Sridhar is very impressive as a music loving cobbler. The woman who did the role of Sridhar's wife is also very authentic. Venu Madhav's special appearance as music director is different. Sana is adequate. Naresh, Sivaji Raja and Sakshi Ranga Rao are good. Dubbing Janaki's role of a blind mother is sympathy-evoking. This film supports a huge cast.

Technical Departments:

Story: The story is about how a pair of brothers who dedicate their lives to serve the world, traditional music, by promoting it through films and how those two brothers get separated due to selfishness of a woman who wants her husband to be in the limelight.

Screenplay - direction: There is the mark of K Viswanath in this film. Direction of the film is a bit old-fashioned. Viswanath heavily relies on traditional narration, which is being followed since days of Sankarabharanam. And this kind of narration might not go well with the present day movie lovers. The narration of the film is very slow. There is no compactness in the film as director has taken his own time to establish the characters. However there are some situations in the film that should be appreciated.

1. There is one scene (Sivaji creating artificial environment of his debut singing for the sake of his blind mother) in the film that would bring tears. This scene is extraordinarily handled.

2. Inserting the Cobbler's flashback (showing how he had helped Srirangam brothers) at the time of his funeral showcases the directorial ability of K Viswanath about how to hold the suspense and reveal it at the right time.

3. The love angle between Sivaji and Amukta Malyada is very sensible and romantic.

Music: Music by Vidya Sagar suits the requirements. The song 'Venu gana sammohanam' is the popular one among the 8 traditional songs in this film. Background music also suits the theme of the film. However, breaking into classical songs and dances in many situations in the film makes it a bit uninteresting.

Other Departments: Dialogues by Ramesh - Gopi are adequate. Camerawork by Durga Prasad is good. Most of the film was shot at Ramoji Film City. The other locations chosen like Haridwar, Kasi etc are also good. Editing by Krishna Rao is OK. The production values of producer Kousalyendra Rao are of high standards. This film is richly made.

Analysis: The first one hour of the film is interesting. The tempo of the film goes down from the train song (25 minutes before interval). The second half is a bit boring. Climax is better. The plus points of the film are traditional-taking of the film reminiscent of the K Viswanath's old films with musical backdrop. The negative points are slow narration and handling in the second half. The Telugu film lovers who grew up on the diet of watching K Viswanath films might get nostalgic while watching this film. But the regular crowds might not find this classical film appealing enough!

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