Vaikuntapali Review

Familiar (though not bankable) faces, eye-candy actresses, a dash of suspense, a touch of reality, a pinch of emotion and loads of philosophy - Vaikuntapali has it all. The director was so busy clapping with glee that he was to shoot a film with so many diverse elements, that he failed to notice that the bunch of papers that his script writer had handed in carried no semblance of a story.

The movie kick-starts on a highly promising note. 3 friends - namely Chandu (Krishnudu), Kranti (Ajay) and Michael (Ranadheer) - are at the crossroads of their lives. Their parting conversation reveals 3 individuals with totally differing outlooks on life, and promises to dole out a few pearls of wisdom with the development of the characters over the next 2 hours.

However, it then proceeds to leave the audience hanging there, while you wait for the film to fulfil its promise. Just like the after-election scenarios involving the day's politicians.

The only aspect of the film that keeps you in the cinema hall during the first half is the mystery associated with Kranti. And the second half unwraps the mystery in what must be one of the precious few pseudo-plus points of the movie.

The list of plus point of this film fails to fill a post-it note. Ajay steals the show, hands down, striking the right balance while acting and rendering apt expressions. The sketch of Michael is an authentic illustration of the shade of mankind that most would rather ignore - acknowledging that such adroit but satanic beings thrive would make it difficult for one to cling on to faith.

The gaps in this movie dwarf the water buoy figure of Krishnudu. If it were not for the dialogue "joke cheyyaku ra" that followed every failed attempt at comedy, you would not even notice their bid to elicit laughs. The background music employed at certain stages in the film was like playing James Bond's soundtrack for Tom & Jerry.

Rajeev Kanakala and Sathya Krishna enliven their journalist roles, and it is indeed a pity that their skills are wasted in a movie that has no takers.

The first song is not worth mentioning, and the cinematography of the second is anything but sensual. As for the chemistry between Tashu Kaushik and Ajay, ummm, the archaeology team commissioned to find it is yet to respond.

With Vinayakudu, Krishnudu set respectable standards for himself. And with this film everything crashes echoingly.

A footnote at the end of the movie states that the movie intends to convey to its audience the message that selfishness and greed are inner evils that reside in every human, and that they need to be quashed for a person to lead a peaceful life. The writer opted to narrate a black and white story, and he does not seem to have realised that he was in grey throughout.

Basically, flirting with chicken pox is preferable to sitting through this one.