'Onamalu' Review: Idealistic Idea

Film: Onamalu

Rating: N/A
Banner: Sunshine Cinema
Cast: Rajendra Prasad, Kalyani, Raghubabu and others
Music: Koti
Lyrics: Sirivennela Seetarama Sastry
Cinematographer: Hari Anumolu
Dialogues: Kadhir Babu
Story, screenplay, direction, production:Kranthi Madhav
Release date: 27/07/2012

At a time when commercial values are ruling cinema, those who come up with films on values are rare. How many are there who believe in making films on their beliefs than business motives? Many have forgotten long ago that cinema is a medium through which a strong message can be conveyed to the society and treat it like business. This is a film which is an attempt by a few who believe in bringing benefit to others and not for any moneymaking reasons.

Story
Narayana Rao (Rajendra Prasad) is a school teacher in a government school at a remote village. He goes to America to live with his son. He returns to the same village after few years and realizes that the place has changed a lot. Even the people have become quite selfish. Narayana Rao is upset with the discovery that more than the village it is everybody’s selfish desire that has become important with growing technology and development. Amidst all this, what did this teacher do? What solution did he show? All this forms the rest of the story.

Performances
Rajendra Prasad is a king not only in comedy but also in drama and only now the directors are using his potential rightly. He is born for this role and revealed the tremendous performer in him.

Kalyani gave good support and did her bit in the right manner.

The rest of the cast such as Raghu Babu, Giri Babu, Chalapathi Rao, Praveen, Sivaparvathy carried out their roles in the required manner and added good value to the film.

Highlights

• Rajendra Prasad’s performance
• Dialogues
• Lyrics

Drawbacks

• Weak sequences
• Narrative

Analysis
The film’s key life is the dialogues and that’s how a director’s thoughts can be conveyed in the effective manner. Some of the dialogues were impact creating and thought provoking. Same goes with the lyrics which were very powerful and added a lot of value to the otherwise ordinary music.

Cinematography was weak. Maybe this is due to budget limitations. Editing was not that crisp. As a producer and director, Kranthi Madhav must be appreciated for his ideals and intentions. However, he has certain limitations as a filmmaker.

The film has scope for becoming the best film but it is only the effort which would get appreciated as the director failed to convey the message effectively. More than words, such films give impact with scenes.

The director relied more on dialogues and tried to bring in many issues which caused confusion. So, this would look like a good attempt than a film which can create impact on the hearts of the viewers.

Most of the times it was Rajendra Prasad and the dialogue writer who upheld the movie as directorial flaws were visible.

The biggest setback for the film is that there is an overdose of preaching. Few scenes in first half are irrelevant. For instance, the romance and song between Rajendra Prasad and Kalyani are not required. Similarly, the scene in second half where Rajendra Prasad teaches a lesson to a guy selling bottles was not required. In an attempt to convey message the drama became too high and that became the film’s weakness. However, in this fast paced life there are many mistakes made knowingly or unknowingly those are pointed rightly in this movie. It is very rare that we get such movies that provoke your thoughts or make you introspect on values. So the attempt and effort must be appreciated in this venture.

Bottomline: To a generation forgetting its values this ‘Onamalu’ is much needed

PS – Barring one or two sequences and one song, the entire movie progresses as an art flick. Hence rating is not applicable.