Kauravudu Review

Kauravudu has a moral. It's that a woman is God's beautiful creation. She's a mother, a sister, a wife and a companion, all wrapped in one. But down the ages women have been oppressed for the most inane reasons, and have been called various derogatory names for no fault of their's. There is a minority out there that maybe bad, but that is no reason to hate the entire womankind. And that's the storyline of the movie.

This movie is set in our picturesque, rural Andhra. Surya (Nagbabu) is a zamindar who, for strong reasons revealed later in the movie, is a die-hard misogynist. He even shuts down the temple of a Goddess in the village. His routine involves going around the village during the day righting the wrong, and hitting the bottle hard in the nights. He has a constant companion in M S Narayan who is a bundle of laughs.

The village teacher retires, and Sashi (Ramya Krishna) comes to the village to take over his post. She is a headstrong woman who will not stand for any of Surya's tyranny. This leads to them hating each other. Sashi then hears of how Surya's brother committed suicide due to a woman's betrayal, and how his wife's infidelity, and eventual death, have made him a Kauravuddu (the villain). This brings about a change of heart in her. She takes it upon herself to reform him. And when she saves his son's life, he warms up to her and eventually changes for the better.

At this point, the movie loses it charm and becomes monotonous. Surya falls in love with Sashi, but, as is the case in most of our movies, she is in love with someone else. Surya is heart broken, and the local villian makes matters worse by accusing him of trying to break the relationship. Sashi believes the accusations and leaves the village. Predictably, everything falls into place when she realizes that she too has fallen in love with Surya and we have a happy ending. Excessive melodrama, as in most Telugu films.

The first half of the movie is highly entertaining owing to M S Narayan's comic antics. Nagababu portrays the role of the angry-with-the-world man with finesse, but is hopelessly lost in the role of a lover. He has two left feet and can't dance for nuts. He does have a strong screen presence, though, and should stick to action roles. Ramya Krishna is good and handles her part with ease. She looked gorgeous right through the movie.

The direction is aces in the first half, but with too many loose ends to tie up, and the lack of a genuine script, Jyoti Kumar loses it in the second half. Kudos to M S Narayan for an absolutely hilarious performance. The camera work and music was pretty good. All said and done the movie is worth a watch.