Film: Mahesh KhalejaCast: Mahesh Babu, Anushka, Prakash Raj, Brahmanandam, Sunil, Rao Ramesh, Shafi, Nasser, Ali, M.S.Narayana, Tanikella Bharani, and others
Music: Manisharma
Lyrics: Sirivennela and Rama Jogaiah Shastry
Cinematography: Yash Bhatt
Additional Cinematography: Sunil Patel
Editing: Srikara Prasad
Action: Peter Hien, Ram -Lakshman
Art: Anand Sai
Co-Producer: Venkateshara Rao
Produced by: Singanamala Ramesh Babu, C Kalyan
Story, screenplay, dialogues and directed by: Trivikram
Release date: October 6, 2010
Theater Watched : Hollywood, Guntur.
Rating: 2.25 / 5
Mahesh Khaleja Telugu Movie Review:
After a long gap Mahesh Babu new is not up to the mark of a normal audiances. Trivikram Srinivas was totally Failed to give an blockbuster hit to Mahesh Babu fans.
Story:
The story revolves around a remote village in Andhra Pradesh plauged by a strange disease killing a lot of people. The soothsayer of the village predicts that God would come to their village for rescue. Meanwhile, Raju (Mahesh Babu) a cab driver in Hyderabad goes to Rajasthan to handover an insurance cheque to a man's family who dies in his car. In a strange situation, Raju meets a man from the village and gets to know about their problem. Soon Raju realises he is none other than the God-sent, the soothsayer predicted, and the rest of the story is all about how Raju takes up the responsibility to rescue the village from the clutches of evil.
Artist Performance:
No actor in Tollywood can match with Mahesh Babu in looks, style and as well as performance. He is even more handsome in the movie. Through out the movie, he looks like a poster boy and definitely women go weak in the knees seeing him on screen. He is such damn handsome. Performance wise he is okay but his dialogue delivery is bad in this movie especially his accent is awkward to listen.
Anushka is beautiful as ever. Hers is cardboard character but she makes up it with her glamour. Sunil is there but he hardly entertains you. Prakash Raj as villain is okay. Rao Ramesh’s character is similar to his role in Magadheera. Shafi has major role. Archana plays cameo. None of other actors make an impact to talk about.
Matala Mantrikudu Trivikram’s dialogues lacks punch. He seems to have missed the track of his original idea of the story with the movie getting delayed for years. Newcomer Y ash Bhatt along with Sunil Patel have provided some slick visuals and probably this is the best camera work in the recent times. Two songs by Manisharma are hummable. Rest are okay. Action by Ram-Lakshman and Peter Hiens bring déjà vu feeling. Anand Sai has erected some brilliant sets in songs that brought gloss to the movie. Producers have put in lots of money for visual splendor.
Technical and Other Departments:
Dialogues by Trivikram are huge asset to the movie. Music by Mani Sharma is good in three songs (Sadasiva, Taxi and Piliche). Though Yash Bhatt is the official cinematographer, parts of the movie were also shot by KV Guhan (Athadu) and Sunil Patel (Hum Tum). Cinematography is very good and there is a visual theme for the movie. Fights by Peter Heins and Ram Lakshman are excellent (especially the interval fight and pre-climax fight (checkout this trailer)).Editing is adequate. Production values are good.
Analysis:
Mahesh Babu returns to screen after three years with Khaleja. Is it worth the wait? To put things straight, the film is a huge disappointment. No doubts about it. Forget about expectations and the long gap that the hero has taken, the problem lies in the handling of movie by the director Trivikram. He falters in narrating his flimsy story with dexterity. As a director he gave Atadu, one of the best films in Mahesh’s career and Jalsa, a super Pawan Kalyan’s career, in the past but this time his ideas seem to have lost in execution. First half of the movie is so boring with forced comedy - none of the comic scenes evoke laughter. Towards the climax, it picks up the momentum but by then one would exhaust with lethargic two hours of run time. Only in the climax, the movie spells the magic. The film has Mahesh’s star power to cast a spell, but the proceedings are so dull that his performance and his charisma fail to lift the movie at any moment. No doubt the movie has gloss and superb camerawork, but it takes plenty of time to unravel the crux of the story.
Trivikram’s screenplay is confusing in the first place - it clearly looks like he wanted to run the movie with same age-old ‘prasa’ jokes as he has no story to tell before the interval but his jokes and punch dialogues are trite in this movie. Normally one finds some good writing in Trivikram’s movies but here he fails both as writer and the director. Moreover, he drags the movie on and on and on. And songs come at inappropriate time. Most of them are dream songs and interrupt the proceedings.
If a protaganist attains God's status, it can be said the height of heroism (in the writing point of view) but he should become and behave like a real hero. Here in the film, Mahesh Babu is reluctant savior, and suddenly as if he is given a cue, he takes up the challenge. That itself dilutes the aspect of heroism. So the writer's exercise of making the hero as demigod end up as futile attempt. That is biggest flaw in writing point.
Final View:
Mahesh Khaleja is stylish and slick but fails on writing and narration. It is boring and drags on. It is a huge disappointment from Mahesh Babu and Trivikram. Director Trivikram has dragged on the movie till the climax without any good scenes and storyline. Though the movie picks up towards the climax, it fails to engross the audiences on the whole.
If you are a Die hard Fan of Mahesh Babu just go watch the film.
