After the success of
Arundhati, which was proved a blockbuster, Anushka was flooded with offers to same kind of roles. However, she remained choosy. Her personal make-up man Chandru proposed to turn a producer and she promoted him and used her good offices and recommended him to Nagarjuna, who stood behind him as presenter of the film and
Panchakshari was made under the direction of Samudra.
Story:
Venkata Narayana’s (Chandramohan) wife (Rajita) gives birth to a baby girl on the premises of a temple in Janagaon. The temple priest (Subbaraya Sarma) tells them that she has divine blessings and they named her as Panchakshari (Anushka). She grows up and on every Ashada Purnima, the Goddess joins her and Panchakshari resorts to sooth-saying on that day, during Bonalu. Only on that day, she behaves differently but for all the other days she is a normal girl.
A youth Sriram (Samrat) falls in love with her and seeks the help of the priest to get her married. The villagers perform her marriage. There is a cruel villain (Pradeep Rawat) in the village, who comes to know that there is a treasure under the temple and wanted to grab it. In order to grab the treasure, the temple had to be closed. So, he mixes sulphur in turmeric power and set afire Panchakshari at the temple during Bonalu. He also kills some devotees who visit the temple and campaigns that the death of Panchakshari is a bad omen and the temple had to be closed and get it closed permanently.
Watching Panchakshari, her daughter falls sick and Sriram takes her to city for treatment. In the city Sriram accidentally meets Honey (Anushka). He videographs her routine befriends with her. Honey is a fashion designer and has big dreams to hold a fashion show in Paris. As her father (Nazar) and aunt (Telangana Sakuntala) brings pressure on her to marry, she shows one photograph and lies that he (Raviprakash) is staying in the US for higher studies and it will take two years to return to India. What happens next is a intresting part of the story.
PERFORMANCE:Anushka has given an impressive performance in both the roles, as a girl from urban backdrop and a traditional village girl. Especially, her big eyes had become an asset for her and she was very impressive in the Goddess’ attire. She showed good ease in both the roles. Samrat is okay, though made a debut appearance. Pradeep Rawat is at his usual self and did justice to his role. Subbaraya Sarma has got a meaty character and played a full-length role in this film. Chandramohan, Nazar, Raviprakash and others have done justice to their roles. Telangana Sakutala is okay in the role of an Anushka's aunt. The one who played the role of Aghora failed to impress either with his dialogue modulation or his performance.
TECHNICAL:Cinematography by Vasu is good and the mix of graphics is perfect. However, timing of some of the graphics were unnecessarily stretched beyond limits, causing impatience among the audiences. Editing should have been a little crisper especially regarding the placing of graphics. Music by Chinna is okay, while dialogues by Thota Prasad are good in parts. When it comes to screenplay and direction, Samudra, though had a good experience in his department, appears to have trebled unnecessarily. The screenplay was quite loose and is full of jerks. The jumping of scenes caused irritation at times and it is not known how the director and the editor allowed them. Samudra had lost grip on the story at frequent intervals and the Butterfinger direction was a little embarrassing for the elite audiences. Moreover, he made a vain attempt to link relationship between Panchakshari and Honey, as it failed to gel well. Had he shown the meeting of Nazar and Chandramohan at least in a couple of scenes, it could have established strongly. But for the slight jerks in the movement of the story, the film would be liked by the audiences in B and C centres, though the city audiences may not like it that much.
REMARKS:The film had the similarities of Ammoru and Arundhati but nowhere near comparison. Samudra has worked hard and tried to impress the audiences with his limited knowledge and the film is some how appears to be okay. The introductory song of Anushka in an exposing way and an urban girl singing a mass song was of bad taste and especially such a dance in front of a temple during jatara is also little embarrassing. However, the film would definitely bring smiles on the face of the producer as the audiences in B and C centres would make it a hit.
Cast: Anushka, Samrat, Chandramohan, Nazar, Raviprakash, Brahmanandam, Subbaraya Sarma, Pradeep Rawat, Ali, Raghubabu, MS Narayana, Jeeva, Benarjee, Uttej, Nalla Venu, Chandramouli, Kotesh, Rajitha, Sudha, Telangana Sakuntala, Jayavani and others.
Credits: Lyrics – Chandrabose, Ramajogaiah Sastry and Suddala Ashok Teja, Story – Madhu Vipparthi, Dialogues – Thota Prasad, Music – Chinna, Cinematography – Vasu, Editing – Marthand K Venkatesh, Presents – Akkineni Nagarjuna, Producer – Bommadevara Ramachandra Rao, Screenplay and direction – V. Samudra.
Banner: Sai Ratna Creations
Released on: June 11, 2010
Mohan Babu has lent vocals for Anushka ‘Panchakshari’. Mohan Babu’s voice is heard in the introductory part of ‘Panchakshari’, and he joins the growing list of celebrities to lend vocals. This is surely a trend that’s taking on in Tollywood – don’t know what the reason is since it does not bring any credulity whatsoever.
