Telugu cinema owes it's life to actors like Savitri and it's our responsibility to pay some respect.
Rating : 3.25/5
Tagline : An honest attempt to showcase the life of a legend
Tagline : An honest attempt to showcase the life of a legend
"Legend" is a very strong word made for a very few people in the world and actor Savitri is undoubtedly eligible to be termed as a legend in Indian film industry. Director Nag Ashwin who received heavy praises after "Yevade Subramanyam" takes up the challenge of directing the biopic of the greatest Indian actress ever, "Mahanati". Let's see if this attempt of his is worth a praise.
Nissankara Savitri (Keerthy Suresh) loses her father at a very young age and grows with her mother at her uncle K V Chowdary (Rajendra Prasad) and aunt (Bhanupriya) 's place. Savitri was a determined kid who always proved the people who write her off wrong. She learns how to dance to prove her uncle that she is talented and then goes on to act in stage plays at her village. He sees an acting spark in her and takes her to madras to try her luck. After facing many rejects deeming to be too young to be an actor, she is seen by Gemini Ganeshan who takes a photoshoot of her. This photoshoot of hers brings her first call up to act in the movie Samsaram against ANR (Naga Chaitanya) directed by LV Prasad (Srinivas Avasarala). Owing to nervousness in her first attempt at acting, Savitri messes up her first scene with ANR in the movie and is taken out of the movie. But later director K V Reddy sees a spark in her and casts her in her first big break Pelli Chesi Choodu. After getting her first big break, she bursts into fame immediately and is casted to Devadasu movie and parallelly acts in her tamil debut Manam Pol Mangalyam against Gemini Ganeshan. Ganeshan helps her learn Tamil after seeing her struggle with the dialogues in Tamil and they fall in love with each other. But, Gemini Ganeshan is already married with 2 kids. How will this pair overcome the obstacle and in what circumstances do they marry? What happens to their relation after marriage? Known for her charity, how does Savitri lose it all in her life at the end forms the rest of the story.
Keerthy Suresh as Savitri is one of the best characters portrayed by an actress in the recent times. You got to give credit to the director for choosing her in this biopic. I don't think there is any character of Keerthy which would ever come close to this one. Every frame of her reminds you of the legend. No one could have done this character better than her. Dulquer Salman as Gemini Ganeshan is unbelievable. His acting is so natural. Rajendra Prasad as K V Chowdary was at his usual best. Samantha as Vani was good and Vijay Devarakonda as Anthony was okay. Naga Chaitanya as ANR gets an extended role and was so much fun to watch. Mohan Babu in the role of S V Ranga Rao was amazing. Director Krish as K V Reddy did a good job and I loved the dubbing and acting of Srinivas Avasarala as L V Prasad. Shalini Reddy played a brief role of Savitri's friend. Jabardasth Mahesh gets another good role as an assistant to Savitri. All other roles made their presence felt.
To start with, a big shout out to the director Nag Ashwin for bringing this biopic to the audience in such an honest way without compromising anything to make it commercial. It is a big challenge to take up this project and he did a commendable job. The production values are brilliant and the cinematography is amazing. The music by Mickey J. Mayer had his mark and the second song Sada Nannu was so soothing to the ears.
The background score brings back the memories of our retro movies. I love films in retro backdrop and this movie is the best form of retro. Whenever Savitri acts in a film, it was shown in black and white backdrop which made it look so natural. Not to forget, the make up and costumes of Keerthy Suresh brings Savitri in front of your eyes. Especially in the scenes of Maya Bazaar. Terrific.
Coming to the story, every life has a happy and a sad phase. So did Savitri's. The entire first half is a happy phase while the second half depicts how much struggle she went through in her life even after so much stardom. The major highlight of the film is the love thread between Savitri and Gemini Ganeshan. Every frame of this was absolutely brilliant. The second half gets a bit slow with more of emotional elements. After marriage, everyone's life is complicated as we see and so is Savitri's life too. Gemini Ganeshan cannot withstand the fame of Savitri exceeding his while Savitri tries to do everything she can to make Ganeshan happy. But it gets out of hand. All the struggle is like a reality check that even an actor of Savitri's caliber and fame had to face struggle and lose everything in life. This makes you sad but such is life.
There are so many aspects which you will love in the movie but the main talking point is definitely Keerthy Suresh. You just cannot forget her portrayal of Savitri. I wonder how many movies and how many times she has seen Savitri's movies before accepting this role. Right from the scene where Savitri tries to become an actress till Savitri gets illness including all the close up shots, every frame was duplicated by Keerthy in an unbelievable manner. Especially when Savitri gets fat in the later stages of her career.
The parent generation would absolutely cherish all the memories of Savitri while watching this movie. Especially, small things like a reference of Shavukaru movie for which Savitri tries to get a role, the scenes of Maya bazaar where Savitri acts like S V Ranga Rao, scenes between ANR and Savitri. If the small things like these made me feel so good, I am sure our parents would love it. The last thing we can do for an actress like Savitri is watching her biopic and please don't miss watching this movie.
- Chaitanya Somavajhala (@ChaitanSrk)
Nissankara Savitri (Keerthy Suresh) loses her father at a very young age and grows with her mother at her uncle K V Chowdary (Rajendra Prasad) and aunt (Bhanupriya) 's place. Savitri was a determined kid who always proved the people who write her off wrong. She learns how to dance to prove her uncle that she is talented and then goes on to act in stage plays at her village. He sees an acting spark in her and takes her to madras to try her luck. After facing many rejects deeming to be too young to be an actor, she is seen by Gemini Ganeshan who takes a photoshoot of her. This photoshoot of hers brings her first call up to act in the movie Samsaram against ANR (Naga Chaitanya) directed by LV Prasad (Srinivas Avasarala). Owing to nervousness in her first attempt at acting, Savitri messes up her first scene with ANR in the movie and is taken out of the movie. But later director K V Reddy sees a spark in her and casts her in her first big break Pelli Chesi Choodu. After getting her first big break, she bursts into fame immediately and is casted to Devadasu movie and parallelly acts in her tamil debut Manam Pol Mangalyam against Gemini Ganeshan. Ganeshan helps her learn Tamil after seeing her struggle with the dialogues in Tamil and they fall in love with each other. But, Gemini Ganeshan is already married with 2 kids. How will this pair overcome the obstacle and in what circumstances do they marry? What happens to their relation after marriage? Known for her charity, how does Savitri lose it all in her life at the end forms the rest of the story.
Keerthy Suresh as Savitri is one of the best characters portrayed by an actress in the recent times. You got to give credit to the director for choosing her in this biopic. I don't think there is any character of Keerthy which would ever come close to this one. Every frame of her reminds you of the legend. No one could have done this character better than her. Dulquer Salman as Gemini Ganeshan is unbelievable. His acting is so natural. Rajendra Prasad as K V Chowdary was at his usual best. Samantha as Vani was good and Vijay Devarakonda as Anthony was okay. Naga Chaitanya as ANR gets an extended role and was so much fun to watch. Mohan Babu in the role of S V Ranga Rao was amazing. Director Krish as K V Reddy did a good job and I loved the dubbing and acting of Srinivas Avasarala as L V Prasad. Shalini Reddy played a brief role of Savitri's friend. Jabardasth Mahesh gets another good role as an assistant to Savitri. All other roles made their presence felt.
To start with, a big shout out to the director Nag Ashwin for bringing this biopic to the audience in such an honest way without compromising anything to make it commercial. It is a big challenge to take up this project and he did a commendable job. The production values are brilliant and the cinematography is amazing. The music by Mickey J. Mayer had his mark and the second song Sada Nannu was so soothing to the ears.
The background score brings back the memories of our retro movies. I love films in retro backdrop and this movie is the best form of retro. Whenever Savitri acts in a film, it was shown in black and white backdrop which made it look so natural. Not to forget, the make up and costumes of Keerthy Suresh brings Savitri in front of your eyes. Especially in the scenes of Maya Bazaar. Terrific.
Coming to the story, every life has a happy and a sad phase. So did Savitri's. The entire first half is a happy phase while the second half depicts how much struggle she went through in her life even after so much stardom. The major highlight of the film is the love thread between Savitri and Gemini Ganeshan. Every frame of this was absolutely brilliant. The second half gets a bit slow with more of emotional elements. After marriage, everyone's life is complicated as we see and so is Savitri's life too. Gemini Ganeshan cannot withstand the fame of Savitri exceeding his while Savitri tries to do everything she can to make Ganeshan happy. But it gets out of hand. All the struggle is like a reality check that even an actor of Savitri's caliber and fame had to face struggle and lose everything in life. This makes you sad but such is life.
There are so many aspects which you will love in the movie but the main talking point is definitely Keerthy Suresh. You just cannot forget her portrayal of Savitri. I wonder how many movies and how many times she has seen Savitri's movies before accepting this role. Right from the scene where Savitri tries to become an actress till Savitri gets illness including all the close up shots, every frame was duplicated by Keerthy in an unbelievable manner. Especially when Savitri gets fat in the later stages of her career.
The parent generation would absolutely cherish all the memories of Savitri while watching this movie. Especially, small things like a reference of Shavukaru movie for which Savitri tries to get a role, the scenes of Maya bazaar where Savitri acts like S V Ranga Rao, scenes between ANR and Savitri. If the small things like these made me feel so good, I am sure our parents would love it. The last thing we can do for an actress like Savitri is watching her biopic and please don't miss watching this movie.
- Chaitanya Somavajhala (@ChaitanSrk)