Andhra Pradesh   

The lion roars again!

Film:‘Simha'

Cast:Nayanatara, Namitha, Sneha Ullal and Balakrishna

Direction: Boyapati Sreenu

When the director declared a week before the release of this film that he had made Nandamuri Balakrishna act and look very different, people raised their eyebrows in disbelief.

However, when the lion roared on the big screen, people sat up and took notice.

A mature and subdued performance was what one saw, of course, minus the violence that was definitely excessive.

What is important is the fact that the film got very good openings and Balayya Babu must surely have been clapping his hands in glee, for the last hit he had was ‘Lakshmi Narasimha', way back in the year 2004. It was as if it was an entirely new Balakrishna. His performance is power-packed in his roles as the father and son. Of course, they are never shown together.

Credit must be given to Director Boyapati Sreenu for three hits in a row - ‘Bhadra' with Ravi Teja, ‘Thulasi' with Venkatesh and now ‘Simha' with Balakrishna. Interestingly, this film will certainly go down in history books as our Balayya Babu's most subdued and mature performance. The excessive violence makes one wonder if all that blood that cinematographer Arthur Wilson shows in the second half, was necessary at all.

As for the story, it is simply a son taking revenge for his father's killing by doing to death the villain at the same location, about 30 years later. The first half has Sneha Ullal as junior Balakrishna's love interest, with the second half showing Nayanatara as the senior's wife.

But then the average Telugu film fan wants to see loads of glamour and ‘dishum-dishum' too. Probably that is how they escape the harsh realities of life out of tinseltown. If the glamour of a well-endowed Namitha was showcased for the front-benchers, Ram and Laxman have excelled too, in composing the fights.

SURESH KRISHNAMOORTHY

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