Gopichand's Sankham || Shankam (2009) Movie Review by Greatandhra

Film: Sankham

Rating: 2.75/5

Cast: Gopichand, Trisha, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Supreet, Satyaraj, Krishna Bhagawan, Ali, Chandramohan, Srinivas Reddy, LB Sriram, Subbaraya Sharma, Telangana Sakunthala etc

Music: Thaman

Cinematography: Vetri

Producers: J Bhagawan, J Pulla Rao

Director: ‘Souryam’ Siva

Release Date: 11th Sep 2009

The combination of Gopichand and Trisha has been in discussions from quite some time. The film arrived at last today. Let us see how the output is.

Story:
Chandu (Gopichand) lives in Sydney along with his age-old bachelor uncle (Chandramohan). Mahalakshmi (Trisha) lives with her uncle and aunt (Dharmavarapu and Rajitha) and works in a bakery which happens to her uncle’s business. Chandu develops crush on Mahalakshmi for a dramatic reason and slowly she too reciprocates for him. But Mahalaksmi is forcibly carried to Cuddapah by her another aunt (Telangana Shakunthala) and the real faction story runs behind her.

Chandu is the son of Sivayya (Satyaraj) and Mahalakshmi is the daughter of Pasupathi (Kota). A strong rivalry burns between Pasupathi and Sivayya. Chandu believes that his father was dead for many years. Why he believes so? Who makes him believe so? What’s the rivalry between Pasupathi and Sivayya? Why Chandu lives in Sydney? The answers for all these will be unleashed on silver screen.

Performances:

Gopichand: He was given a cosmopolitan look in bigger way than in any other film. It has been a widely spread assumption that Gopichand fits well only for mass rugged roles. Some exercise to prove that wrong is apparently seen in first few minutes of this film. But the make up is like paint on his face which didn’t gel well. Once again he proved that he is the man with macho look carrying on a perfect bearing and dialogue rendition.

Trisha: She is at her best. She gained little weight and perfectly in tune with the taste of majority Telugu audiences. She has delivered best of her performance too.

Satya Raj is good in his elderly role while Kota also grooved well although he did hundreds of such characters earlier. Ali’s comedy has no constructive sequence but his style and presence have brought countless laughs in theatres. Krishna Bhagawan appeared in a small side kick role and could bring little laughs. Telangana Sakunthala is routine. Srinivas Reddy tried to bring some laughs in first half.

Music is very mundane, dialogues are routine with no sparks to underline, Cinematography is good and sound effects are average. On a whole the screenplay is straight and flat. Director could have worked more on the departments of dialogues, music and developing voltage in narration. Especially the scene where Satya Raj discovers his son in battered condition is very weak and couldn’t bring in any emotion in audiences.

Highlights:
Trisha
Production Values
Ali

Disappointments:
Vulgarity in comedy
Music
Flat narration

Analysis:

The movie lacked required voltage and hence it’s average. Director concentrated well on the aspects of framing and bringing richness on to celluloid but didn’t bother much about narration.

Bricks and cement can make a mansion. But not when they are just made a heap. Engineering is required to make use of them in right way to build a mansion. Similarly a few comedy scenes, a few action elements and a little sentiment mounded like a heap will not be sufficient to bring out a commercial entertainer. They need to be rightly placed with right intensity and right flow. That is missing here.

The major pulling factor for this movie is Trisha. Gopichand fans expect energy and hence return back half hearted.

Verdict: Watch it when you really have time to kill