The movie ‘Manichitrathazhu’ made headlines when it was first shot in Malayalam in the year 1993. Later in 2005 it again made headlines as ‘Chandramukhi’ and from then on it appears it has no end as remakes in all languages continued. Not stopping with this, a sequel has come up in Kannada as ‘Apta Rakshaka’. And now this sequel also is making rounds opting the actors to select their milestone movies to be this.
It was late Dr Vishnuvardhan’s 200th film in Kannada and also happens to be Victory Venkatesh’s movie celebrating his 25th year in the industry. Well! Incidentally P Vasu directed ‘Apta Mitra’ in 2004 and its sequel ‘Apta Rakshaka’ in 2010 both with Vishnuvardhan. Now, his attempt again with Venkatesh on the same subject without any gap must be a child’s play for him. It’s sure an opportunity for him to correct anything that he felt wrong in his earlier two editions.
While Vasu is doing it for the 3rd time, there is another personality who cherishes buying the remake rights of successful films. Sri Sai Ganesh Productions’ owner Bellamkonda Suresh who earlier bought the right of ‘Samy’ (Lakshmi Narasimha) and ‘Autograph’ (Naa Autograph) and Shivaji’s Telugu rights has now ventured into remake of ‘Apta Rakshaka’ in Telugu as 'Nagavalli'.
Director Vasu, who used 5 different heroines in ‘Apta Rakshaka’ including Vimala Raman, Sandhya, Lakshmi Gopalsamy and Bhavana (Kannada heroine), did not consider any one of them for this film and directly opted for Anushka, Richa Gangopadhyay, Kamalinee Mukherjee, Sraddha Das and Poonam Kaur making it any easy option select female leads from Telugu industry.
For Anushka this is the second attempt with Venkatesh, the first being ‘Chintakalaya Ravi’ which got good reviews. This past experience as well as her present successful projects, have earned her the top slot in the movie among the different heroines figuring. Soundarya shined in the hands of Vasu in its first edition ‘Apta Mitra’ in Kannada followed by Vimala Raman in the second edition ‘Apta Rakshaka’. Now it is Anushka who has shined very well in her film ‘Arundathi’ is not doubt a right selection for this film. Incidentally no one can forget the laurels ‘Chandramukhi’ brought to Jyothika in Tamil as well as Telugu. This is a good opportunity for Anushka to permanently etch in the records of Tollywood of her capability to do period films as well as modern ones.
Now as the plot goes it is about the disturbances a family faces after receiving an ancient painting of ‘Nagavalli’ as a prize in one of the dance competitions. The psychological impact on the members of the family and the coincidence of the events that take place after the arrival of the painting to the house creates flutter. The family thus decides to get in contact with a magician who in turn leads them to a psychiatrist (Venkatesh). The psychiatrist gets into a research and goes back about 125 years to analyze the events that took place during the regime of King Nagabhairava Rajasekhara (Venkatesh) in the process he learns that the king and Nagavalli (Anushka) develop a kind of enmity that continues even now. What happens is the rest of the story.
No one will object if we say that the music will pivotal role in the entire film and if the audience make it a hit 50% of the credit has to go the music director Guru Kiran who carries his legacy from doing the same film in Kannada. His album with western mix and traditional touch is already well received. There is no item song in this film which otherwise has enough of dance scenes that can mesmerize the lovers of traditional dance.
Music and costumes are the major ingredients for this film apart from the hero in many films, graphics. The costumes are handled by Rama Rajamouli who recently received a Nandi award for her contribution to ‘Magadheera’. One can imagine what could be the outcome in ‘Nagavalli’.
Shyam K Naidu’s cinematography doesn’t need any introduction in Telugu industry. He is part of the hits like ‘Shivamani 9848022338’, ‘Pokiri’, ‘Desamuduru’, ‘Chirutha’, ‘Bujjigadu’, etc. Shot mostly in Korukondu in Vizianagaram and Bangalore, this movie has no budget restrictions and the producer has been generous in displaying his happiness saying “the money is seen in each and every frame”. Sarath Babu, Avinash, Sujatha and Prabha are also part of the cast.
Venkatesh, who plays twin roles as Dr Vijay and Nagabhairava Rajasekhara is doing such a role as a king for the first time and he seems to be happy doing it as a memorable film of his 25 years of film career. His comic coat to his acting will certainly remain in the minds of audience and to strengthen the department there is always Brahmanandam. He is working with director Vasu for the first time but he already did a remake of Vasu’s Tamil film ‘Chinna Thambi’ as ‘Chanti’ in Telugu. With ‘Namo Venkatesa’ and now with ‘Nagavalli’, he seems to have selected two good films for the year 2010.
Though 'Nagavalli' has similarities of ‘Chandramukhi’, the very impact of making the film, their costumes, the suspense, the songs, the tunes like ‘Ra Raa’ practiced by Jyothika and ‘Laka Laka Laka’ by Rajnikanth which have been replaced by ‘Aura Aura Aura’ for Venkatesh, are all expected to give the desired results as seen in Kannada which was released in the beginning of the year. Wait and watch on December 16th, 2010.
