Banner: NBK Films, Vaarahi Chalana Chitram and Vibri Media

Producers: Balakrishna, Sai Korrapati, Vishnu Induri

Director: Krish

Music: M M Keeravani

Cast: Balakrishna, Vidya Balan, Kalyan Ram, Rana, Bharat Reddy, Rohit Bharadwaj, Surya Srinivas, Garapati Srinivas, Vennela Kishore, Poonam Bajwa, Manjima Mohan, Himanshi Chowdhary, Heroshini Komali, Sachin Khedekar and others

Special appearance: Sumanth, Prakash Raj, Brahmanandam, Rakul Preet Singh, Satyanarayana, Nitya Menen, Pranitha Subhash, Shriya, Hansika Motwani, Shalini Pandey, Krish and others


Story

Harikrishna (Kalyan Ram) assures his mother Basavatarakam (Vidhya Balan) at Adayar Cancer Hospital in 1984 hiding the fact that she was diagnosed with cancer. She asks why he left his dad NTR (Balakrishna) for which he tells that he himself asked her to be by her side.

Basavatarakam whose eye sight reduces with each passing second wishes to see NTR's album and goes nostalgic about their journey. she recollects how NTR entered into her life, how he with his frank and straight forward and honest attitude resigned as the registrar at the then Madras Collectorate and how he entered film industry, faced difficulties and became a super star. 

To find out his film journey, enjoy NTR-Kathanayakudu on silver screen.

Performances

Natasimha Balakrishna slipped into the role effortlessly. He carried the film on his shoulders with his performances bringing in different variations in expressions and emotions. However he looked aged as young NTR. The makers should have cast someone else, especially Jr NTR for the role for better impact. Balakrishna danced to NTR hit songs with full energy and attracted with his mannerisms and antics.

Vidya Balan got a limited role but performed well showing her expressions and emotions elevating the scenes with her screen presence. 

Kalyan Ram looked good as Harikrishna and others too did well their roles. Sumanth played well in the role of his grandfather ANR. Though as young ANR did not resemble ANR, he performed well as old ANR.

Hansika looked good as Jaya Prada but others like Shriya, Nitya Menon did not look perfect in looks of Prabha and Savitri. Praneetha looked good as Krishna Kumari. Krish as KV.Reddy elevated the scenes with his intensitry. Naresh as BA.Subba Rao, Murali Sharma as Aluri Chakrapani, Prakash Raj as Nagi Reddy, Avasarala Srinivaas and DV.Narasa Raju performed well. 

Other stars performed well in their special appearances.

Technical

Keeravani elevated the scenes with his powerful background music.Couple of songs are good and most of them are situational. Other songs are the remakes of NTR's yesteryear hits. 

Editing of Arram Ramakrishna left many drags in the film which slowed the pace. He could have made it even crispy. Cinematography of Ggnanasekhar elevated the scenes taking the film to another level taking movie lovers back to the olden days. 

Krish could have added few more twists and turns and concentrated on the emotional connect of the film rather than concentrate on including remixes of NTR's yesteryear hits. Production values are good.

Plus Points

NTR, Vidya Balan and other star cast

Cinematography

BGM

Couple of dialogues

Minus Points

Slow pace

Lack of emotional connect

Balakrishna's aged looks

Editing

Special appearances

Lack of real twists and turns

Documentary feeling

Analysis

Krish who got the golden opportunity to direct the biopic on legendary personality of Telugu people, NTR was also bestowed on the responsibility of elevating him in style on silver screen.

Krish drew inspiration from Mahanati and started off in the same vein narrating NTR's journey from the eyes of his better half Basavatarakam. The narration sails off smoothly with NTR resigning his influential government job and heading to Madras to test his luck in films.

Entire first half showcases his trials and tribulations and eventual rise to stardom in Tollywood. Second half showcases how NTR gets emotionally touched with the peoples issues after few incidents and developments finally decides to enter politics thus paving way to second part of the biopic Mahanayakudu.

The narration goes in a predictable manner singing praises of NTR covering all his negatives and minuses. This reached a stage where after sometime people get bored hearing to NTR praises all the time. This was unlike Mahanati where the makers highlighted even Savitri's minuses.

Second half too goes in the similar manner but interest is generated with NTR entering politics. Powerful dialogues penned by Sai Madhav Burra and Balakrishna'e energetic performance and Krish's powerful taking, kept interest in the second part. Krish's story, screenplay and direction is good. One gets a feeling that his hands are tied most of the time as he did not deviate from any manner.

The film is a treat to Nandamuri fans and it has to be seen how multiplex movie lovers receives it as it lacks the emotional quotient. It has nothing for B, C centers.

Final Talk

NTR Kathanayakudu a treat to Nandamuri fans


Rating: 2.75/5.0

Young tiger Jr NTR's upcoming film Baadshah is going places and the team of the film has reportedly started canning a song in Spain as a part of their abroad schedule.

Director Sreenu Vaitla will be shooting one song in Spain and later the unit will be moving Switzerland to can another song on NTR and the saucy seductress Kajal Agarwal.

Sources say that NTR's dance moves for Thaman's peppy tunes will be one of the highlights of the film. Kajal Aggarwal is playing the female lead in the movie and the film is expected to release in April 5th.

The summer season has arrived and the heat is more in Tollywood as three big ticket movies are lining up for release. Before that, the audio releases have taken place and many have already begun to analyze on which among the three has been the best. We are talking about ‘Rachcha’ ‘Dammu’ and ‘Eega’.

The opinion is that the audio release of ‘Rachcha’ didn’t happen upto expectations. The absence of Pawan Kalyan, the early ending made the evening dry and fans were disappointed. On the other hand, ‘Dammu’ audio was grand but routine like any other audio function. As usual, there was some self-dabba, some film dialogues and the regular hungama.

As for ‘Eega’ the audio release was very innovative. There were self-satires on everyone and even artists also performed onstage. The masses got very strongly connected and it created impact. This became the most mass appealing and thought provoking show. The credit for this goes to Rajamouli and team.

Larger than life image and macho dialogues have been vogue. No matter how far they could be from reality. If something is liked by people or a section of people, that becomes a trend which continues till a spoof is made out of it. Off late, directors penning dialogues, punch lines and one-liners to show the valor of heroes have become a fashion.

From ‘Pokiri,’ it was Mahesh Babu’s ‘Yevadu Kodithe Dimma Tirigi Mind Block Avuthundo Aade Pandu Gadu’ which then followed to ‘Businessman’ which has ‘Confusion Lo Ekkuva Kottesthanu’ or ‘Mumbai Ko Pishaap Karrwaane Aayaa Hoon.’ Then we have, popular ‘Okkkokkanni Kaadu Sher Khan…Vanda Mandini Oke Saari’ or Balakrishna’s brand ‘Nee Oorochcha…Nee Nattintikochcha’ and the like.

Now ‘Dammu’ has gone one step ahead in fact ten steps as Jr. NTR says, ‘Nenu Kodithe…Padi…Padi Tharaala Varaku Nee Vamsamlo Magaadu Puttadaanki Bhaya Padathaadu.’ It may sound ridiculous but people get excited at that moment and Fans lap them up. In a sense this is not entirely a new trend. Even in olden days heroes were given more valor than what the character can carry but if it exceeds the acceptable levels then thrill will be limited only to Fans irrespective of who the artiste is.

Junior NTR has been very charitable as we all know. He generously contributed to the flood relief fund and other charitable needs.

At the audio launch of his upcoming film 'Dhammu', Junior NTR gave cheques worth Rs 2 lakh each to two families.Two of his fans lost their lives at one of his film functions. Moved by the loss of life of his fans, NTR decided to give Rs 2 lakh to each of their families. He gave them the cheques on the stage at the audio launch.

NTR had financed the medical education of a poor student a few years ago. It is said that he funds education of several poor students and it is not publicized in media.

As far as the politics are concerned, all the TV channels are purely against Chiranjeevi. However, one channel in the state particularly, hates Chiranjeevi and his camp heroes in politics as well as in movies. But why? Following are the reasons, according to mega fans.

* The channels favourite political party didn't come into the power in 2009 elections, because of Chiranjeevi.

* Earlier, the channel tried to project Jr.NTR as the number one hero of tollywood. However, NTR's movies started getting failures later.

* After 'Magadheera', that channel tried to compare every movie, despite its poor collections. Subsequently, those movies failed to cross 'Magadheera' records.

* Based on the above two points, mega fans started campaigning that the channel is an iron leg for the movies or heroes are concerned who were backed up by the channel.

Dammu audio function is held today at Shilpa Kala Vedika. Vel Records owned by Mr and Mrs Keeravani released the audio. The special attraction of this event is Lakshmi Pranathi, the best half of Jr NTR.

She surpassed Trisha and Karthika in dignity and elegance. Without any gaudy make up, Pranathi graced the event wearing a black and white chudidaar. She turned the eyes of even many ladies towards her.

Fans and film buffs feel that lady luck seems to be showering a lot on NTR as he looked complete on dais with her second half beside him. Let us wish Dammu rocks!

Superstar Mahesh Babu has set a new record in opening collections with Businessman. This film has set a benchmark for Telugu films in terms of openings and now Mahesh’s competitors are gearing up to have a go at it. One or more summer releases are sure to surpass Businessman record, opine trade analysts.

Racha, Dammu and Gabbar Singh are going to release in more than thousand theaters across the globe and all these movies are carrying high expectations. All these films are going to take a bumper opening at the box office. If supported by decent content, then these films will surely set new records in openings. Pawan, NTR and Charan have superb mass following and their crowd pulling stamina cannot be questioned.

Trade also expect one or more from the summer releases to make it to all time top five list of Tollywood. Charan already holds the number one slot. Pawan and NTR are yet to make it to the list. Looks like time has come for the biggest mass stars to prove their mettle. Let’s hope all these three films hit bull’s eye and shake the box office like never before.