Sammohanam Movie Review
Mohana Krishna Indraganti’s latest offering Sammohanam is a tale of romance between a commoner and a celebrity. The setup is familiar, but Mohana Krishna narrates it in his own style with a dash of humor.
Story:
Vijay (Sudheer) is an upcoming artist who is waiting for a break. He meets an upcoming superstar in films, Sameera (Aditi Rao), who comes to his house for shooting a film. She hires him as her Telugu coach and they quickly get closer. He opens up about his feelings for her, but she rejects. How this unusual love does gets a happy ending forms rest of the story.
Performances:
Sudheer Babu is evolving as an actor and his performance as Vijay is one of his best till date. He showcases every emotion of the character by keeping it subtle all the time. His performance in the rejection scene is clap worthy. Aditi Rao is a natural actress who can emote well. She is too good as a superstar going through personal struggle. Naresh as Sudhir’s father and wannabe actor is the highlight of the film. He has the best moments in the film. He singlehandedly handed the comedy department. Rahul Ramakrishna also is pretty good as Sudhir’s friend. Pavitra Lokesh is good as hero’s mother and Hari Teja also does well as heroine’s assistant.
Technicalities:
Indraganti Mohana Krishna is known for making minimum guarantee films. He keeps on switching genres with each film, but presents any story with a stamp of authority and class. Sammohanam has an unusual premise, but the director keeps it simple with his narrative. He makes sure to have good humor and nice drama to keep the audience invested in it.
Music by Vivek Sagar is one of the finest aspects of Sammohanam. A pleasant soundtrack and lilting background score is a great bonus for the film. Cinematography is decent and editing is fine. Production values are good too. Indraganti’s dialogues are one of the assets to the film.
Thumbs Up:
Performances of Sudheer and Aditi
Naresh’s character and performance
Comedy
Pre climax
Thumbs Down:
Slow pace
Predictable story
Analysis:
Romance between a film star and a commoner is not a novel theme. There are a handful of films that have explored this theme successfully. Mohana Krishna Indraganti picks a plot that is very simple, but makes it an engaging one with his storytelling techniques. The male protagonist doesn’t have a nice opinion on films and actors. However, circumstances arise that he falls for a film star. This part is handled really well by the director. He gives the romance a believable beginning as nothing seems artificial despite the difference of stature between the lead characters.
Indraganti makes brilliant use of the film shooting backdrop to create humor. Naresh as wannabe actor is in fine form and he gets the lion share of the comedy part. The introduction of lead pair and their growing acquaintance have been handled well. He takes it forward with simple scenes like going to supermarket and chatting on the terrace. Interval scene is somewhat predictable as the director clearly shows that Sameera is going through some unexplained trouble. All in all, it is a very good first half that sets good expectations on the latter half.
However, second half opens on a dull note with drama taking the forefront and lack of humor. Despite the slow pace, the film never gets boring as it maintains steady pace with some interesting scenes. Sameera’s problem is shown in a hurry, but the conclusion to it is good as director switches back to comedy. Climax part is dealt well to give it a fairly tale ending. Sammohanam is a film that will appeal to class audience and genre lovers. It is a well made film on a whole, but could have been way better had the director taken care of the middle part.
Sammohanam has fine performances, good music, enjoyable comedy and engaging drama. Chemistry between the lead pair also worked out well to make it worth watching. It is not a film for B and C centers audience. It has enough to put up a solid show in overseas and in A centers though. It is yet another decent entertainer from the bankable director Indraganti.
Verdict: Pleasant romance!
