Ganesh Review

The medical profession has always been considered a moral and ethical service, but down the years its reputation has been tarnished due to the soaring medical fees and certain corrupt practitioners. This movie aims to bring to light the facts and means through which this noble profession can be restored to its original reputation. One doesn't need a post-mortem to know that this movie has failed to do this, but has made matters worse.

Ganesh (Venkatesh) is the hot-blooded honest journalist who cannot just standby and watch someone do wrong and ignore it. Unfortunately, honest people must go through a baptism of fire (the golden rule of Indian cinema), before they achieve their goals - to bring about a wave of change in society for the betterment of all mankind (another golden rule).

Sure enough, Venky loses his loving sister and father due to the greed of the doctors and the weak and corrupt infrastructure of the health system. The rest of the movie is Ganesh's quest to set things right. This he does with a lot of deeshum-deeshum and moralistic dialogues.

This movie spoons a lot of tragedy into your plate, and if it weren't for Venkatesh's star appeal, sitting through this would have been a feat. The dialogue, "any centre, single hand, Ganesh," brought the roof down at the theatres. The logic and purpose just beat you, but such is the appeal of Venkatesh. He won the South-Indian Filmfare Award for Best Actor (Telugu) for this film.

The rest of the stars are just wasted in the movie. Rambha, in her tight uniform and swaying hips, is a total misfit as a jailer. Madhoo just comes and goes for no apparent reason, till the director, unsure of her role, gets her killed in the movie. Kota Sreenivas Rao is competent, but seems totally bored with his portrayal of the evil health minister. The music is tolerable and the camerawork good. This is a movie for the die-hard Venkatesh fans.