Okka Magaadu Review

For God's sake, say something!

The average fullhyd.com reviewer is a specialist in waiting for movies to end - we have intensive training programs that enable our people to wait upto 3.7 times longer than normal movie-goers. Indeed, there are times when an ordinary movie-goer prefers to just sit outside the theater waiting for the film to end so that he can go home, but the indomitable fullhyd.com reviewer steels himself and watches on and on and on.

It feels like even the indomitable fullhyd.com reviewer has met his limits today.

It's incredible just how lousy Okka Magaadu is. Y V S Chowdary may just have produced one of those films that have no place even in the recycle bin of Tollywood. It is so unstructured and illogical that when the theater starts showing a trailer of Jodha Akbar in between, for a long while you think it's the same movie with a new theme now. And the film goes on for so long, it feels like Jodha and Akbar must have actually been alive when it began.

Satyanarayana (Balakrishna) is a hugely loved and worshipped figure in his village. Don't ask why or how - in fact, every time you feel like asking why or how in this movie, if you chant your favorite mantra once, you'll probably have done it enough times to see God by the end of the film (though He may complain of unfair tactics).

Anyway, there is also "Okka Magaadu" (Balakrishna, much older, playing Rajaram), a secretive character ripped off unbelievably shamelessly from Bharatiyudu, who kills corrupt people. He carries a dangerous looking sword to do this, but actually it's not necessary - anyone will die at the prolonged laugh that he gives every time he thinks he's said a smart thing.

Satyanarayana forms one thread of the film that grapples with the main issue that the film tries to address - how to show soft-porn on screen legally. It does this by cleverly showcasing it as song-and-dance, with Anushka and Nisha Kothari serving basically as life-support-systems for their figures.

Okka Magaadu forms another thread that is technically the actual story of the movie. Rajaram is a freedom fighter who is driven to frustration by the corruption in society, and decides to do something about it - he starts by putting on makeup that can strike terror into the heart of even the most ardent Balakrishna fan. He's trained in Chinese martial arts, and so cannot be killed by bullets, electric current, drowning or fire, and whatever else you can add to that list. If this were a story from Indian mythology, that would look like a boon from Brahma - and Vishnu's clever way out to kill him then would probably be to show him this movie.

Among other things in the movie are a flashback that starts when the next show should normally be beginning, plot rip-offs from Subhash Chandra Bose, Hanumanthu and Aparichitudu (plus a stunt rip-off from the latter too), and some really sad comedy in the first half. Indeed, the only positive thing about the film is that it ends.

Like we said, the movie is unbelievably bad, and needs special training to watch it and professional counselling afterwards. And it would be dignifying it too much to spell out all the things that are wrong with it. Forget lofty things like script, flow and logic, even the clothes designed for Balakrishna in the songs are to be seen to be believed.

Balakrishna has undoubted strengths with certain types of portrayals and dialogues, which, years later, still enable him to generate the kind of hype that this film did despite a prolonged unfortunate patch. Even his star power and talent, however, aren't enough to save this one. Anushka and Nisha Kothari are sickening as the nymphomaniacs they portray. You can't actually blame any performances, though - this is a directorial debacle, a complete lack of basic thinking.

Balakrishna will in all probability have better days again, and YVS is still the person who gave a superhit in Devadasu. They probably don't need favors from you, but you do. Do yourself one.