MANORAMA REVIEW

Manorama' Review: Good Thought-Bad Execution

Film: Manorama
Rating: 1.5/5
Banner: ZEE Motion Pictures
Cast: Charmee, Nishan, Sridhar Rao, Dhanush, Lahari, Pinky, Srivastav, Ali, MS, Narsing Yadav etc
Music: Koti
Cinematography: Jagan
Art: Ashok
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Story-Dialogues: Padmasri
Director: V Eswar Reddy
Producer: Zee group
Released On: 27th March 2009

It was with a lot of expectations that the film ‘Manorama’ was talked about since it had Charmee in the lead role along with direction by Eswar Reddy known for his meaningful flicks. This was slated to be a thriller and how thrilling it has been, let us see.

Story
Gilli (charmee) comes to Hyderabad to have a good time but gets involved into saving the life of a lover boy who wants to commit suicide. There, she meets this handsome guy whom she calls killer (Nishan) and what she does not know is that he is a bomber who comes to explode the popular Manorama café in Koti.

Both of them meet each other through a sequence of events and in no time, they realize that they are in love with each other.

What happens to Killer’s mission? Does their love story succeed? All this forms the rest of the story.

Performance
Charmee looked natural without glamour but then her act has become repetitive. Nishan has got the looks but he now has to work on his body language and his expressions if he is looking at a career in movies. Dhanush is fine, Sridhar Rao is ok, MS was brief, Ali was not used to his full potential, Lahari was cute and luscious. The others came and went.

The storyline seems a bit unusual and off track given the plot and what happens in the film. The script was without strength, the screenplay was not up to the standard.

Dialogues were normal barring few lines which give some insight into life and humanity. The background score was an overdose during few emotional scenes but one song was worth taking home. Editing was crisp scene wise but the arrangement of the sequences was at random. Costumes did not have much to do as the entire movie runs in one pair or two for all the characters. Art department did their bit to come out with a real picture of the busy Koti area.

Analysis
The film takes off as a terror plot but that is exposed in the first five minutes of the film. However, as it passes, the direction drifts completely towards romance that blossom in less than twelve hours. And some ridiculous coincidence of destiny that brings the hero and heroine together. At one point, the man who plants the bomb moves about without a tinge of fear and that too in and around the location where it is left to explode.

The idea of bringing about humanity is a good thought but it needs depth to create an impact on the audience and to deliver a message to them.

To add to the woes, the ending is quite tragic and this was not what they were looking for in a Charmee film and that too on an Ugadi day. Since there was no storyline with depth, it looked like an effort to justify the standard two and a half hour frame. Thankfully, the technical aspects were somewhat okay but the content was poor. Even logic fails to prevail at times by showing Charmee figuring out through her lip reading ability about someone committing suicide and taking note of the number through her binoculars. Not stopping at that, she also gives a call to the girl to find out what the problem is and the rest of the story revolves around that subject and her eventual romance.

The mass audience would be in for disappointment since there is nothing that Charmee has to offer in terms of glamour and instead she has few valid philosophies on life if they are ready to take it. The class audience will find it equally tough since the pace and sensibilities tested patience.