Manamanthaa (2016): Chandra Shekar Yeleti is one of the rare talents of Tollywood who has amazing talent in movie making and all his pictures are critically acclaimed but he did not have much financial success.His movies are always a treat for movie lovers but not for commercial minded audience.He is one of the few directors in Tollywood who can make movies of different genres.Let it be thriller like Anukokunda Oka Roju and Okkadunnadu,romance like Prayanam,crime like Aithe,adventure like Sahasam,Yeleti always gives his best output.Now its his turn for emotional drama Manamantha which deals with four different people lives and their problems.Malayalam super star Mohanalal acted in Tollywood after a long time with this movie.How is it???
Plot: Manamantha is about four people Sai Ram (Mohanlal),Gayatri (Gouthami),Abhiram (Vikranth),Mahitha(Raina Rao).
Sairam is an assistant manager in a supermarket and is perpetually in debt. He even borrows a few thousands from a store assistant.He always has a competition issue with Harshavardhan for manager post.Sai Ram is in deep need of Manager post as it may settle all his debt.To achieve it he takes a wrong step which lands him in serious problems which may spoil his life and family.
Gayatri (Gautami) is a housewife struggling to make ends meet. She seeks happiness in little things, like grocery shopping with her neighbor (Urvashi). She meets an unexpected guest from her past who may change her life which may clears all her problems of middle class issue.
Abhiram (Viswant) is a bright student who soldiers on with his old and bulky laptop.His life seems perfectly alright with his grades and goals until he meets Airi(Anisha Ambrose).He loves her and become good friend with her but it affects his study.
Mahita (Raina Rao) is an endearing school girl who takes a liking to a four-year-old boy Veer who lives in a slum and will do what she can to see that he goes to a school.But shockingly one day Veer goes missing.Mahita tries to find Veer by facing lot of problems where she understands the humanity of present people.
Plus Points:
1)Performances: Manamanthaa has brilliant performances of all the four roles. Mohanlal is pitch perfect as Sairam, reflecting the frustrations of a guy caught in a deep problems and feeling guilty. The actor needs to be commended for his effort to speak in Telugu. His Telugu is laced with a Malayalam accent but lends authenticity to his part. Gautami proves yet again why she used to be the best in the business and is sublime as the housewife.She gave mesmerizing performance and needed to be applauded.Debutante Raina Rao as the schoolgirl is a surprise and walks away with all the applause. She played her role with such perfection that we love her cute innocence and her helping nature.Viswanth did good in his role which has nothing special.
2)Second half: Manamantha has one of the best emotional scenes of recent times in its second half.Every scene in second half is well made and is so emotional that tears will stay in your eyes until the movie is completed.All the characters enter their serious phases of their lives and movie gets a fast pace which is both emotional and thrilling.Climax is awesome and unexpected.
3)Direction: Yeleti once again proved that why he has special fame in Tollywood cinema.He cleverly turned a family drama into an entertaining and unique thriller.The way he took a simple story line and made it thrilling is just amazing. He also excelled in extracting the best performance from his actors.
Minus Points:
1)Story of Abhiram (Viswanth): Of all four characters,story of Abhiram is weakest one.Its a routine love story where a topper guy neglects his life for the love of a girl.Though it has connection to the story,it could have been made better with better scenes.Emotion is missing in those scenes.
So Manamanthaa is one of the best emotional drama of recent rimes.Surprisingly Manamanthaa almost brought tears in my eyes with such brilliant emotion.Must watch one....
My rating 7.5/10
