‘Guntur kaaram’ movie review: Director Trivikram Srinivas and Mahesh Babu’s Telugu film is a stale rehash of old stories

Mahesh Babu and Sreeleela in director Trivikram Srinivas’ Telugu film ‘Guntur Kaaram’
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Minutes after he wreaks havoc in a palatial household, Venkata Ramana Reddy (Mahesh Babu) walks away, sits on a garden bench, and has a moment of reckoning. He says the trash that his mother Vasundhara (Ramya Krishna) wanted cleared in minutes was not the expensive crockery or chandelier that he broke but him, the unwanted son. In an earlier scene he states that he will wait until he knows if the mother-son love is one-sided or if she too yearns for him. His question has been answered. The scene hits a raw nerve and is one of the few moments that stand out in an otherwise stale narrative by writer-director Trivikram Srinivas’ Guntur Kaaram, his third outing with Mahesh Babu years after Athadu and Khaleja.

Guntur Kaaram wants to be an emotional family entertainer and a mass/masala film rolled into one. Several Telugu films — including Trivikram’s Atharintiki Daaredi and Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo — have embarked on this path earlier and pulled it off. This film feels like a pale blend of both, garnished with Guntur’s fiery red chillies, hoping the leading man’s fanbase will lap it up.

To be fair, Mahesh Babu, who put forth an unrestrained act in his last outing Sarkaru Vaari Paata, keeps up the momentum here as well. Whether it is an action sequence or matching steps with Sreeleela or longing for his mother, he makes an earnest effort. However, the narrative gets boring and tedious as it unravels.

Trivikram gets on board some of the finest actors he has collaborated with earlier for this film but gives none of them interesting characters to portray. Jagapathi Babu, Sunil, Rao Ramesh, Rahul Ravindran and others pop up in characters that leave no impression. The few that matter to the core drama are lost in a melee. Take for instance Satyam (Jayaram) who has resigned to destiny after parting from his wife Vasundhara, stares desolately out of the window and finds solace in yesteryear songs that he plays on the gramophone. He doesn’t get the scope to register his pathos. While the chunk of the drama is about the mother and the son, where does it leave him, the father?

Even Ramya Krishna has little to do for the most part except brood silently and maintain an inscrutable demeanour. The scenes between her and Mahesh somewhat redeem the narrative towards the end and Easwari Rao gets a befitting closure to her guilt and grief as an aunt. In their brief parts, Murali Sharma and Vennela Kishore make their presence felt.

The two leading women are the ones saddled with the most forgettable parts. Sreeleela is yet again cast in the decorative role and apart from putting on her dancing shoes (Thaman’s score livens up things occasionally) and making Mahesh confess on screen that he has never danced so vigorously in his career, she has little else to do. Oh wait, she makes reels for Instagram. Meenakshi Chaudhary is wasted in a character that serves food, soda, water or whatever the men require for their evening drink. A passing scene shows her with a few books. Perhaps she is preparing for higher studies when she isn’t tending to the men in the household. Who knows?

But what’s the story of Guntur Kaaram? A family and business feud in the opening segment lays bare the fault lines in a household. A spark from the raging fire in the family’s warehouse impacts the left eye of young Ramana. Political ambitions are also intertwined with the murky happenings and Venkataswamy (Prakash Raj) takes his daughter Vasundhara under his wing. Decades later, this venom-spewing 80-year-old wants to ensure that nothing comes in the way of his other grandson, from the same caste, ascending the political ladder, not the fiery Ramana. The drama unfolds when he beckons Ramana and asks him to sign papers stating he would have nothing to do with his mother, her wealth or political aspirations.

Telugu cinema and the clash between characters played by Mahesh Babu and Prakash Raj have a masala-laden history, since the days of Okkadu. Their face off in Guntur Kaaram has to be the least entertaining with the latter’s one note character being predictable. The narrative is also peppered with age inappropriate lines that take a dig at the 80-year-old. Prakash Raj’s character is vile, one might argue, but the rebukes begin even before the grandson knows the complete picture.

The perpetually brown-tinged visuals and the action segments sans any innovation add to the tedium of the film.

As with several Mahesh films earlier, this film too has dialogues referring to his fair skin tone. It’s time writers looked past this aspect; there are better ways to appreciate a star’s persona and appearance.

Guntur Kaaram fares better when compared to Trivikram’s Agnyaathavaasi. But that is not reason enough to celebrate.