Kathanayakudu Movie Review

Kadhanayakudu is based on Malayalam hit film Katha Parayambol. Even though the film released with good hype with associated entities – Rajani Kanth, P.Vasu, Aswini Dutt, Jagapati Babu; the film ends up as one of the several films that dealt with friendship. That is all can be said about the film. Friendship is a fresh subject anytime. What went wrong is the kind of screenplay and non-related sequences. Narration is what disappoints in this film.

Balu (Jagapati Babu) runs a hair salon. He is married to Sridevi (Meena) and has 2 kids. With his outdated equipment and salon, Balu has a tough time making the ends meet. To that extent, even his assistant Kanta Rao (Sunil) opens a modern salon next to his and that makes his life all the more difficult. That is when the story takes a turn with superstar Ashok Kumar (Rajani Kanth) entering the town for shooting of a film. The entire village knows that Ashok Kumar is childhood friend of Balu. The villagers start pestering Balu to see Ashok Kumar once. Balu, shy by nature, is hesitant to go to Ashok Kumar fearing rejection. This brings lot of troubles in his life to the extent that even his kids insult him. So did Balu finally go and see Ashok Kumar? Did Ashok Kumar realize who Balu is? See it on the screen.

Rajani Kanth is as usual in his role. There is nothing new that one can write about a proven actor and star. However, it is worth mentioned that Rajani Kanth is excellent in the final 20 minutes of the film. Jagapati babu is impressive in his role. Meena, who came in a noted film after a gap, is very impressive and will score big. Nayana Tara is limited to songs. In fact, she has only two dialogs in the entire film. One dialog she utters through out is ‘Hello Sir Good Morning’ and the second dialog is a dialog on film sets.

Prabhu, Nilagal Ravi, Vijay Chander got limited scope to do. Sunil’s character overdoes the comedy part. Dharmavarapu, Ali, Brahmanandam, Duvvasi Kohan etc are in the cast but comedy is not impressive. Mamata Mohandas appears in a miniscule role.

In the cast, there are only four characters well established or the story revolves around. The rest are all dummy characters.

Srinivasan gave the story. Even though the story is old, there is always a freshness attached with the friendship element. the issue comes with the screenplay and narration. They disappoint. No novelty in scenes or sequences, comedy that falls flat, predictable narration pull down the film. In fact, some scenes are confusing. Songs pop up randomly. Even taking wise, there is no freshness. Even though P.Vasu and Rajani Kanth go with a great track record, P.Vasu could not deliver the same in this film.

If there is anything to talk about in the film, it is the last 20 minutes of the film that is very touching. Even though it is predictable ending, it is narrated with balanced composition.

Music by G.V.Prakash is content. There is a shade of Enigma in the background score. Editing could have been crisp. Cinematography by Aravind Krishnan is very good. Dialogs by Marudhuri Raja are good but very good in some sequences.

Overall, the film might disappoint those who expect a Rajani style film.