<> Dookudu (2011) Movie Review

Our Rating: 4.25/5
Punchine: Comedy is the king
Genre: Comedy/Action
Type: Straight
Banner: 14 Reels Entertainment

Cast : Mahesh Babu, Samantha, Prakash Raj, Suman, Dr Brahmanandam, Kota Srinivas Rao, Sonu Sood, Shayaji Shinde, Nazar, M S Narayana, Dharmavarapu Subrahmaniam, Tanikella Bharani, Giribabu, Subba Raju, Brahmaji, Ajay, Chandra Mohan, Master Bharath, Sonia, Supreeth, Shafi, Aditya Menon, Ijaaz Khan, Vinod Jevanth, Bharath, Siva Reddy, Sudha, Pragathi, Satya Krishnan, Surekha Vani, Rajitha, Vinaya Prasad, Saranya, Baby Shreya Varma, Senthil, Giridhar, Prabhakar, Sravan, Parvati Melton, etc.

Art: A. S. Prakash

Editor: M R Varma

Costumes: Mamata Anand, Roopa Vytla

Choreography: Raju Sundaram, Dinesh, Shobi

Stunts: Vijay

Lyrics: Ramajogayya Sastry, Viswa, Bhaskarbhatla

Singers: Shankar Mahadevan, Rahul Nambiar, Karthik, Rita, Ramya N. S., Navin Madhav, Ranjith, Divya, Ramajogayya Sastry, Koti, Megha, Ranina Reddy, Vardhini Thaman

Camera: K V Guhan and Prasad Murella

Story: Gopi Mohan

Dialogues: Kona Venkat

Music: S. Sai Thaman

Producers: Anil Sunkara, Achanta Gopichand, Achanta Ram

Screenplay - Direction: Sreenu Vytla

Story

Shankar Narayan (Prakash Raj) is a political leader and a man of masses. He wants his son Ajay (Mahesh Babu) to become a political leader. Shankar Narayan is hurt in an accident and goes into coma. Meanwhile Ajay grows up and goes onto become an aggressive cop. And suddenly Shankar Narayan comes out of coma. The rest of the story is all about how Ajay manages to keep the changes under wrap for his father, and takes revenge on the villains at the same time with some unconventional ploys.

Only true superstars can elevate a routine script into a blockbuster. With Dookudu, Mahesh has once again proved why he is the ultimate Superstar of Tollywood. This long, mundane, typical Sreenu Vytla - Gopi Mohan - Kona Venkat style of movie has already been seen in its earlier avatars in Dhee, Ready and King. What differentiates Dookudu from those other films is the electric presence of an incomparable mass Superstar who is so natural and at ease with every single emotion he displays on screen - be it comedy, pathos, intensity, romance, stunts, you name it, he does it with consummate ease as if he is living the character. Without Mahesh, Dookudu would have been another average grosser. If this movie prints money at the box offices, the entire credit for elevating the proceeding goes to the single man entertainment icon Mahesh.

Gopi Mohan and Sreenu Vytla spun a yarn about a beloved leader Prakash Raj and his relationship with his son Mahesh, for whom his dad is everything. How Mahesh tackles the injustices done to Prakash Raj and cleverly gets Prakash Raj to unknowingly take revenge on his adversaries is the crux of the story. The script meanders between this core plot and smaller subplots that are linked tangentially to the main plot through an influx of hordes of villains, comedians, family members and hero's colleagues leaving a lot of talented actors with not enough scope to perform as their characters are vaguely etched. The bulk of the characterisation cake goes to Mahesh, Prakash Raj, Sonu Sood. Prakash Raj is in his usual elements as the hero's father and Sonu Sood is quickly establishing himself as a performer who is growing from movie to movie, experimenting with different styles. As a middle aged greying villain Sonu equips himself well, but he has a long way to go before he can be considered a replacement for Prakash Raj or Raghuvaran. Samantha and Sonia (Happy Days) have almost equal lengths and they both equip themselves well. Comedy scenes between Sonia and Mahesh are refreshing, while the romance and teasing scenes between Mahesh and Samantha make the Superstar's lady fans swoon vicariously. Some of the best episodes of the film are the early romance scenes between the lead pair but after a point the writers seem to have run out of ideas and lose grip on that angle. More of these scenes in the later part of the film would have elevated the film a lot more.

Mention should be made of Kona Venkat's dialogues and punchlines. While it is a shame that almost all these were leaked out prior to the release of the film, the impact of Mahesh uttering those typical mass masala lines on the big screen is an experience one cannot forget quickly. The ease with which Mahesh naturally delivers these lines in standard and Telangana dialects as if he's used to speaking regularly in Telangana accent is a wonderous exploration of the breadth of talent this Superstar possesses. Flawless. Enthralling indeed. Paruchuri brothers could not have written better lines making Kona Venkat a talent to watch out for.

S.S.Thaman is a revelation. While his score for the tracks were popular even prior to the release of the film, the background score was a revelation of his upcoming talent. The very fact that one cannot really complain about the background score is enough to earn Thaman more films and keep him busy. Photography by Prasad Murella and K.V. Guhan are top notch, especially in the song Dethadi. The locales, photography, dances are beyond compare and are easily worth the price of admission. Vijay and Peter Heins' stunts are excellently conceived. After Pokiri, this is probably the film where there is no single stunt that is unwarranted and out of place in the narration. Editing could have been more crisp. The beginning 15 - 20 minutes of the film were haphazardly edited and cause some confusion in the narration, and portions of the second half could also have been better edited. This is a regular problem in Sreenu Vytla's films and he needs to work on improving this. Among the rest of the technicians kudos go to Shobi for Guruvaram song choreography and Dinesh for Puvai and Dethadi choreography.

This film is an example of what can happen if a Mahesh film is properly scripted with emotional, family, humor and romantic elements with no scope for way out themes and sticking to standard mass masala Tollywood themes. Dookudu re-establishes Mahesh as a mass and class superstar and provides a platform and box office range potential that others will find very difficult to reach if Mahesh continues choosing scripts that are well balanced and entertaining.