Kondaveeti Simhasanam Review

"It's just the same old sights and the same old sound.
I'd like to take my horse and travel off this merry go round."

Jon Bon Jovi produced these lyrics when he witnessed the string of tasteless, clichéd happenings in his town. Pity we aren't as optimistic as him to withstand such boredom and make songs out of it. Instead we just lose consciousness in the theater.

Kondaveeti Simham is a been-there-done-that film that you don't have to be there to do the watching. Pedda Rayudu - actually the entire pedigree of Rayudus crushed into the likes of Sneham Kosam - is what one can make out of the blatant rubbish termed as the 'story' here.

Satthi (Mohan Babu) is a devoted slave of Rama Chandra Naidu (Dasari Narayan Rao), who dictates Kondaveeti. Because of the obligation to connect the title to the film, the word 'Kondaveeti' is belted out so many times that it must have replaced alphabet 'e' as the most used term in any language.

Anyway, just as we can't keep skunks from smelling, we can't keep Rayudus and Naidus from having fatal vengeance-hungry relatives. The movie hence has Naidu's mom plotting to separate the Rama and Hanuman of that village. Dasari with all his bulk plays the Rama, though.

Many unrelated reels and scenes later, Ram Chandra himself declares Satthi as the leader of the village. Meanwhile, Satthi has already shown his loyalty in more than a thousand ways. Now another vamp (Jaya Chitra) comes to town to avenge the death of her family by Rama Chandra Naidu in a flashback.

Again, there is a series of unconnected sightings, and soon another thorn is added to the hedgehog in the form of Udaya Bhanu. Please madam, we already rue the association of Telugu channels with us because of your gracious presence in them. Leave at least cinema alone!

Anyway, because of the misunderstandings and tensions created between Naidu and his loyal servant by the many evil forces, everybody dies. Including the hero, heroine, Naidu himself, and our grey convoluted cells. This film is thus a great tragedy even story-wise.

Soundarya plays the love of Satthi and delivers one real dialogue before she dies. However her contribution is endless to the well being of the many men and women who are troubled by their paunches - if you can't hide it, flaunt it.

The vamp Jaya Chitra has the expression of a chicken watching itself in the mirror while being cooked. Laya and her boyfriend also do their part in irritating us. The music is depraved vulgarity trying to sound just offensive.

Dasari is a man caught in a time warp. Pedarayudu had someone else called Rajinikanth, otherwise even the folks in the interiors don't care for this kind of stuff anymore. The least you can do when someone is putting in tons of green into you is check out what worked in the last 3 years. Knock, knock?