Yamadonga (only for fans)

(movie review)
Yamadonga! When heard seems to be a reminiscent of Yamagola. Yes of course, a part of Yamagola’s storyline is included along with other movies like Yamudiki Mogudu and Maya Bazaar. Director, Raja mouli took a major risk to combine all these movies into one and his work was also very ordinary. The movie Yamadonga has got some routine scenes which we have seen during NTR times, making the movie normal again. I believe majority of the audiences won’t connect with the movie because few of the lines in telugu are hard to comprehend and most of us would struggle. On the other hand, this movie is a big feast for Jr. NTR fans. They can expect everything they ever thought of, right from his very complicated dance moves to his dialogue delivery, his slim body and to his change in hairstyle. There was great applause in the theatres for his quick dialogues in old telugu ( grandhikam) on the opening day.

Brief Story:
A normal guy (raju) does small thefts to get his life going and happens to swear yamadharma-raju once when he is in bad mood. Having heard this from Suvarlokha, Yama is ridiculed in front of his Sabah and wants to take revenge on this Raju, who has full 100 years life expectancy. Yama asks chitragupta to some-how manipulate Raju’s fate and kill. Raju learns that he has been brought there even though he had a longer life. From there on Raju troubles yama in suvarlokha and finally returns to his normal life. The rest of the story is all about how Raju escapes from Yama.

Performances:
Jr. NTR as a brat did a good job. He almost looked like his grand father when he was like young yama. His dance moves are outstanding. Audience can see a new NTR in this movie.
Mohan Babu as Yama is also good. Nothing has stopped him from using his signature dialogues even as yama.
Priyamani is just normal. Her role is a bit deglamorised. There is nothing special about her role. Audiences get a feeling of watching a character they have been seeing for years in telugu cinema.
Mamtha Mohan Das is Ok. Her role involves both good and dark shades. She is more suited for her dark side. She is supposed to have a Nellore dialect but audience don’t get a feeling of that.
Rambha, Veda, Navneeth Kaur and Preeti Jangiani are good as glam dolls.
Ali’s comedy is excellent in the first half. Brahmanandam is adequate to his role.
Audience can no where believe that this movie was directed by Raja mouli. His direction is pretty ordinary. He just sumed up few old telugu movies to make this movie out.
The best part of the movie is the art direction. He did an exceptional job. The sets are very lavish and I think art director has a passion towards detail. The Yamalokha set is a gigantic one and is a bit new compared to the old ones.
Graphics are very good compared to what we have seen in other telugu movies till date. Music by M.M.Keeravani is good. Background music is also decent.

Analysis:
This is a movie for Jr. NTR fans for sure. They thoroughly enjoy watching this. The good parts involve Jr.NTR’s acting, his dance moves, a song showing Jr. NTR with his grand father - NTR, Ali’s comedy in the first half, and art direction. The bad parts involve the story itself. It is nothing new to telugu audience. Direction is also a major drawback. I seriously felt this movie could have been directed by any potential direction in the telugu industry. There isn’t much hard work involved in the direction.

As a final word, Yamadonga is strongly recommended to all the die hard fans of Jr.NTR.
Rating: 2.5/5


Manohar Vanamadi
(v_manu1@yahoo.com)

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