Maheshotsavam

For nearly one half of the film of 156 minutes, the narration is so filled with songs, dance and the feel good factor you wonder if this from the Sooraj Barjatya archives. The syrupy return to the ‘Hum Aapke Hai Kaun’ sets gets a tad too tedious for the audience that is out there waiting for something to happen. Here the entire world is but a family.

It is headed by Satti Babu (Sathyaraj). The entire squad includes wife Mahalakshmi (Revathi), his brother-in-laws played by Rao Ramesh, Naresh, Sayaji Shinde and Krishna Bhagavan. In attendance are their spouses, children and Satti Babu’s good friend Tanikella Bharani.

While all the members of the family lie under one roof Mr Disgruntled (Rao Ramesh) and his spouse (Jayasudha) and their daughter Ms Aspiring (Pranitha) live separately. Satti Babu’s son is the mainstay of the family and the script Mr Heir Apparent (Mahesh Babu).

Into all this and the large family enters Kasi (Kajal Aggarwal) from Australia Satti Babu’s friend’s (Sudhakar) daughter. Her passionate smooch with Do Gooder disturbs the happiness. Mr Disgruntled who hitherto was hoping that his daughter would be daughter-in-law in the haveli sees his ambitions evaporate. His revolt results in the change of guard and it’s time for a break.

Heir Apparent is, however, busy having romantic interludes. First with Ms Aussie Gone Kasi and now Ms From Nowhere (Samantha). Like poles attract is the magnetism of persons and so Heir Apparent and Ms From Nowhere are quickly singing songs on sets where they forgot to shoot with Ms Aussie Gone.

Also the twosome a la Alex Haley and characters in a Paulo Coelho work, go on a road trip from Nagpur to Haridwar and literally gather their old relatives who include Saranya Ponvannan, Vennela Kishore and Mukesh Rishi. Why they need to fit in and what is the total population of the last group pic is so irrelevant that the audience has anyway lost interest.

You know from the very beginning that the only purpose of the outing is to give a larger than life canvas for Mahesh Babu. The film sticks to the purpose and does not care a damn about any their aspect. This includes story- screenplay, script, or any other ingredient of cinema.

It is an all and only about Mahesh Babu and whether you like the film or not depends upon your take on the star. After ‘Srimanthudu’ this is a huge letdown for the fans. The hero this time round is singing songs more often than in a reality dance show and it gets tiring after a point.

The purpose of creating a new image for Mahesh Babu keeping in view the future is not a bad idea. However, the filmmaker Sreekanth Addala completely looses tack of the fact that no star is bigger than a film. Here he goes terribly wrong, completely wrong and resultantly gives you a film that is a prey to the star and not the cause of the star.

Song after dance, dialogue after scene, we have nothing else but a representation on how good charactered our protagonist is, how nibble-footed and charming, how committed and focused he is. This is Maheshotsavam.

Film Name : Brahmotsavam
Cast : Mahesh Babu, Kajal Aggarwal, Samantha, Jayasudha, Rao Ramesh and Sathyaraj
Direction : Sreekanth Addala
Genre : Drama (family)
Likes : Mahesh Babu
Dislikes : Too long and purposeless

By L Ravichander