Andhra Pradesh   

Nagarjuna steals the show as Ramadasu

Nag's magnetic performance

Sri Ramadasu (Telugu)

Cast: Nagarjuna, Sneha, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Suman, Veda, Sujata, Nazar

Director: K. Raghavendra Rao

After playing the role of his lifetime in `Annamayya,' Nagarjuna comes up with another winner in `Sri Ramadasu.' Nag once again proves he is equally at ease portraying epic characters apart from playing mass, sentiment and glamour roles.

Good maturity

He shows good maturity in his performance. Konda Krishnamraju who has produced the film deserves kudos for venturing into such a dream project. Director Raghavendra Rao, who is known for making commercial hits, merits a pat on his back for presenting one more epic on the celluloid.

Gopanna (Nagarjuna) is son of a landlord (Ranganath) at Nelakondapalli. He has a passion to carve stone idols. He loves Kamala (Sneha), daughter of another landlord Pingali Agnihotravadhanlu (Tanikella Bharani). Though Avadhanlu is reluctant to get his daughter married to Gopanna, he learns that any person who marries Kamala will be behind bars after marriage. But Gopanna dares to marry her as both of them love each other.

After marriage, Gopanna's uncles — Akkanna and Madanna (Raghunadha Reddy and Subbarayasarma) — take him to emperor Tanisha's (Nazar) court where Gopanna proves his calibre and gets a job as a tehsildar of Husnabad. At this juncture, one Pokala Dammakka (Sujata) gets a dream where she finds Lord Rama saying he was lying on Bhadradri.

Matte Saheb (Jayaprakash Reddy), brother-in-law of Tanisha, is irked over the posting of Gopanna in his place and decides to eliminate him with help of his henchmen (Raghubabu and others). Gopanna is hurt in the attack and is saved by Dammakka. He learns from her about Lord Rama who does not has a temple on his name. Gopanna decides to build a temple with donations worth Rs. 6 lakhs from people.

Inviting king's wrath

Though he informs Tanisha about the collection of donations and the payment of cess, the message does not reach him. As a result, Tanisha orders punishment for embezzling Government's money. What kind of problems does Ramadasu face? How Lord Rama comes to his rescue? How does Tanisha realise his mistake and how Ramadasu gets salvation form part of the remaining story. Nagarjuna excels in his role and gives a meticulous performance in the character of Ramadasu. Sneha suits perfectly as Kamala. After a long gap, Nag's father Akkineni Nageswara Rao appears on the big screen in the role of Kabeer.

Music to the ears

Suman, Veda, Nazar, Sujata and others do justice to their respective roles. Keeravani gives a musical chartbuster and both songs as well as background score and re-recording is excellent and takes the audience into a musical journey. Graphic works are superb. The highlight of the film is the performance of Nagarjuna in the prison episode.

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