So, this movie is definitely worth your money. More importantly, it will tug at your heartstrings, bring you to the edge of your seat and wring your emotional towel with ease. More than half the audience were teary-eyed, unabashedly so, in many scenes. This is an emotional investment you won’t regret. Now on to the review.
The Other Telugu Cinema
Of late, Telugu movies are starkly split into two types. One is a hero driven, high adrenalin, explosive/expletive ridden, bloodfest, where the all villains are featherlight and fly at the smallest punch, preceded by a punch dialogue.
The other is a hero driven, melodramatic, feel-good movie, where the villain is often life or circumstances or a really good character actor (typically Rao Ramesh), who is chastised by a pithy punch dialogue.
Manamantha falls into the second category. This is Mohanlal’s first Telugu movie, not counting a cameo 22 years ago in a Nageswara Rao/Balakrishna starrer.
He is introduced as ‘The Complete Actor’, a title he falls slightly short of in the movie.
Mohanlal Aces Delivery, Messes Up Diction
Set in the genre of Babel or Crash, the movie follows four seemingly parallel story lines that ultimately coalesce, rather beautifully. Gauthami and Urvashi (arc 1), Viswant Duddumpudi and Anisha Ambrose (arc 2) and ten-year-old debutant Raina Rao (arc 3) are given seemingly equal screen time.
Mohanlal, as a manager in a department store, is loveable. There are more patches than tube in his motorcycle tyre, just like his life and finances. He hits all the right notes in delivering Telugu dialogue, for which he has dubbed for himself. The only thing that distracts is his heavy Malayali accent. Is he a Malayali settled in Hyderabad? Or is he being passed off as an actual Hyderabadi? Suspension of disbelief not happening.
It’s almost as distracting as Anisha Ambrose’s dialogue, where it’s clear she is either saying ‘1-2-3-4-5’ or ‘jana gana mana’, while the dubbing artist does the magic.
Gauthami and Urvashi
Gauthami and Urvashi are probably the most talented veterans of South Indian cinema. They provide comic relief for most of the movie with their quest for freebies and the biggest discounts. Gauthami’s is the most relatable character in the movie. You will root for her and want for only nice things to happen to her. You will wish she were your aunt or mum or BFF.
Raina Rao as a Class VII student steals the show, though. She’s the kind of kid who will adopt stray puppies or street kids. She will believe the roadside astrologer, when he tells her where to find someone who is lost. She is as fresh and unsullied as the gulmohur flowers she is showered with in her intro scene. She is un-corruptible and her spirit and hope is undaunted by pessimism. And yet, she does all of her good on the sly.
Go Watch It
At almost 2.5 hours, Manamantha doesn’t feel overlong, nor does it suffer from post-interval crisis because of its four story format. I don’t know what the moral of the story is, since life (in the movie) craps on everyone’s desires regardless of how noble or mundane they may be. The climax really didn’t do it for me, but it’s a feel good movie that’s definitely for ‘All of Us’.
Mananmantha’s Malayalam version Vismayam has Mohanlal speaking in his native tongue and the rest of the characters dubbed. I recommend the Telugu version with subtitles.
Chandra Sekhar Yeleti is the director, and it has forgettable music by Mahesh Shankar.
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