Ontari

Ee Taram Films had an image among the audiences for bringing out successful films like ‘Neti Bharatam, Repati Pourulu’ and such kind of films. Till recently, the banner continued to bring out message-oriented films because the banner was founded by T Krishna, who had revolutionary thoughts. Even after his demise, his partner Pokuri Babu Rao continued to bring out films with good messages. As he too should change his mindset to suit the present trend, he started deviating from the path slightly to project Gopichand as hero. His film on the banner ‘Ranam’ was a big hit and earned good name and fame besides revenue to the banner. After some gap, again Gopichand is playing in Ee Taram Films banner as hero for ‘Ontari’ under the direction of BV Ramana.

Vamsi (Gopichand) is the third son of Muddu Krishna (Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao), who runs a cloth shop. Theirs is a happy family and he loves his family very much. Raghava (Rajiv Kanakala) is Vamsi’s best friend and is an MLA. Vamsi wants see him as a minister. Kanaka Mahalakshmi @ Bujji (Bhavana) is an orphan but has a kind heart. Vamsi loves Bujji at first sight. Vamsi introduces himself as a CBI officer and keeps meeting Bujji. Later, he reveals about his love. But Bujji did not accept the proposal. Once Panda (Ajay), brother of Lal Mahankali (Asish Vidyarthi), who was a local goon, teases Bujji and gets a sound warning from Vamsi. Mahankali kidnaps Bujji in vengeance and Panda rapes her, just before their engagement. Raghava helps Mahankali in regard, as he was lured with ministership by Mahankali. Raghava behaves like a true opportunistic politician and backstabs Vamsi. Bujji dies after the rape and Vamsi goes into coma. Though Vamsi recovers, he suffers a typical disease called visual hallucination, a part of schizophrenia and believes that Bujji was still with him. . rest of the film dealt with how he takes his revenge.

Gopichand had put up an excellent performance in the film. He showed good ease in action scenes as well as in song sequences. He appeared handsome at different shots. He built his body well and looked romantic in some scenes with the heroine. The most surprising point this time is that he stopped shouting at the villains. However, his usual style of giving warning continued. This time, the action scenes were choreographed in a stylistic way. Bhavana is extraordinary. She had excellent glamour and at the same time had good ability to perform. Even if the film is her debut project, she is here to stay and is very promising.

The performance of other artistes like Asish Vidyarthi, Ajay, Sayaji Shinde and Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao were routine, while Rajiv Kanakala played the role with negative touch with good ease. Sunil and Ali did justice to their roles in giving comedy.

Music by Manisharma is good. While all the songs had a commercial touch and are quite audible, three songs are worth listening and watching on the screen as they were choreographed excellently. Camera work by Sarvesh Murari is good in action scenes and the picturisation of scene Rajiv Kanakala murder scene before the interval bang was superb. The director gained good experience and brought out the film with a firm commitment and chose a novel kind of direction by spreading the flashback episodes instead of telling at one go. However, the narration of the film appeared slow in some scenes. There was a feeling that the director could do further better while watching certain scenes. The scattering of flashback episodes confused the audiences, who felt that the screenplay was poor. Now a days Gowthamraju using needless effects. It is a surprise that the heroine renders a sloka on Lakshmi, by standing in front of the idol of Saraswati and that too in Sakhambari Alankaram, claiming that it was Sravana Sukravaram. Such lapses should have been avoided.

Producer Pokuri Babu Rao for the first time deviated from the path of bringing out a message-oriented film to a commercial film. Another speciality of the film is that for the first time, a film made on Ee Taram Pictures banner was shot in foreign locations. Two songs were shot abroad in locations like Seychelles islands in New Zealand. The director totally ignored the comedy part while concentrating on the revenge drama. The film earned an above average talk on the first day first show as it has several mass elements. The ‘A’ center audiences may not get attracted to the film much, in the absence of adequate comedy. It might run well in B-C centers.