Pandanti Samsaram Review

What does the title sound like to you? Don't you really love that slick, funky, snazzy feel to it, so like the glitzy presentation of MTV and AXN that you just can't wait to get home and glued onto?

Some people just don't know when they should go. At the time of Simhasanam, Krishna himself making a movie was something you looked forward to - it was a new dimension being shown by an actor with a significant fan following. Now it looks like a desperate measure by a desperate man who wants to stay in the limelight through the wrong means - playing hero. The output is a thoroughly uninspiring product.

Pandanti Samsaram shows absolute lack of understanding of the whole business of film-making, and is a reflection of how disastrous things can get when creatively challenged filmmakers get caught in a time warp. With a formula that has been tried and tested innumerable number of times in Tollywood, the movie has you suffering from déjà vu with every scene and every dialogue.

The film is about the enmity between the Rudramanaidu family and the Kulapati family. While the former family represents the forces of good and is headed by 'superstar' Krishna in two generations, the latter is headed by the bad characters in the Telugu film industry, Vinod and Kota Srinivasa Rao.

The point of contention between the two families is that Kulapati connived with the British to outrage the modesty of a Palanadu woman, to protect whom Rudramanaidu laid down his life. This infamous incident comes down the decades through a tale that is told every year at a temple dedicated to Rudramanaidu, whose statue is installed at the site. And this is indigestible to Chalapati (Kota Srinivasa Rao), the present descendent of Kulapati.

He conspires to get the statue removed so that this past will get obliterated. And this starts a war between Krishnamanaidu (Krishna) and Chalapati. The latter chooses to poison the ears of Krishnamanaidu's brother Narendra (Prudhvi), emerges victorious, and is on the brink of achieving his masterplan. But will Krishnamanaidu allow him?

The film is so contrived to the core, and there is so little intelligence involved in its making, there is hardly anything in it to talk about. Krishna looks terribly old and can't even walk properly, forget about putting in a credible performance. And when he sings those romantic songs with the young thing Charulata, it looks utterly laughable. Ravali looks so much like a bloated balloon that she makes you wonder what made Prudhvi fall in love with her - and the whole film and the differences among the brothers revolve around her. Don't waste a valuable two and a half hours of yours to watch this insane drama.