There are two categories of directors in Tollywood. Intelligent directors and Smart directors.
Intelligent directors are the ones who come out with innovative story lines, tighter screenplay, interesting narration and well - etched characterizations.(Eg: Neelakanta, Mohan Krishna Indrakanti, Bhaskar, Sukumar, Krishna Vamsi)
Smart directors are the ones who use the "old wine in Tetrapack" kind of technique. Which means they take an old story, add all formula - driven techniques and present them.(Eg: V.V.Vinayak, Raja Mouli, Puri Jagannadh)
Neelakanta, as I mentioned above, is a perfect example of Intelligent director.This movie is an example of intelligent script-writing.
Story: The story of this movie revolves around a selfish and intelligent guy by the name Vishwaksen(Raja). Viswa is an orphan. He is an intelligent guy and Shankaram Master(Tanikella Bharani) recognizes the spark in this guy and brings him up(till his high school days) Viswa considers Shankaram as his god. During his high school days Viswa bumps into Swetha, the daughter of an NRI, who comes to his village on a vacation. Friendship buds between them and Viswa likes her immensely. Later she leaves for Canada. Shankaram dies due to ill-health and Viswa grows up by making use of other’s weaknesses as opportunities to step up the ladder. He even gets a job in a reputed organization by using the weakness of the HR manager as an opportunity.
Swetha comes back from Canada and she happens to be Viswa’s boss’(Suman) daughter. Swetha tells Viswa that she is in love with Siddharth(Sonu Sood) and this comes as a shock to Viswa as he loves her immensely. The remaining story is about how Viswa wins Swetha’s heart.
Performances: Raja - We could see an entirely different Raja in this movie. His performance deserves an applause. He gelled very well to the character of Viswa and performed to the tee. His histrionics are very good. I have also noticed an immense improvement in clarity and pronunciation in his language when compared to his earlier movies.
Genelia - She has been very choosy in selecting her characters and Mr.Medhavi is a perfect example of that. Her performance is very good and Swetha’s character suited her very well.
Sonu Sood’s performance is mediocre considering the importance of Siddharth’s character. I somehow feel that he is a mis-cast. Other artists including Dharamavarapu, M.S, Suman, performed well. Brahmanandam’s character doesnt have much importance and he is at ease, as always.
Screenplay, Direction and Dialogues: The story revolves mainly around human behavior, emotions and sentiments. Such a story needs a very tight screenplay and Neelakanta comes out with flying colors. The screenplay is very interesting. He followed a "narration" technique, in which the main characters talk to the audience about their story. This is new to the Telugu audiences and Neelakanta uses this technique very well. The dialogues in the movie are very good. They are simple, crisp and up to the point with subtle humor. Neelakanta used "HR - SWOT" analysis concept, which is not familiar to most of the audience, in a very easy - to - understand way. However, I dont think the character of Brahmanandam is necessary for the movie. I also feel that Sonu Sood is a mis cast as his performance is just average considering the importance of the character. Also, on the flip side, the narration is a bit slow which results in boredom at times.
Techical details: Photography(Sunil.K.Reddy) of the movie is very good. There is no heavy usage of ramping shots, and other techniques as the story doesnt demand. This is a good aspect of the movie. Editing(Nagireddy) is good.
Music: I would say that the music in this movie is OK and not up to the mark. Though the songs are fine("kalakaaduga" is a good tune - however most of the songs are inspired, rather copied, from Hindi numbers), the background(BGM) music is not proper. Sometimes I felt that the BGM is very loud making the audience difficult to understand the dialogues. I have observed this in most of the movies of Chakri.
Bottom line: Mr.Medhavi is a good movie and is a must-watch for everyone. The movie potrays the importance of human relations. The movie also says that human being is not an object to just use and throw. I would recommend this movie to everyone and I feel that Neelakanta is the real hero of this movie.
Three Cheers to Neelakanta!