Superstar Mahesh Babu’s emotional drama directed by Vamsi Paidipally has hit the theaters and is performing well at the Boxoffice. Let’s see if Maharshi reached audience expectations.
Maharshi Movie Review
STORY: Rishi (Mahesh Babu) is an extremely talented youngster who has big dreams about his career. In the final semester of M.Tech, Rishi gets selected for an MNC, moves to work in USA. In a short span, he becomes the CEO of a company named ‘Origin’.
At this point, Rishi comes to know about the situation of his college mate and close friend Ravi (Allari Naresh) who secretly sacrificed his career for Rishi in the past. Rishi wants to help Ravi, joins his fight against an Oil corporation giant in a rural Godavari region. Rest of the film is about how Rishi fights against the problems faced by the villagers.
PERFORMANCES: Superstar Mahesh Babu gives a very good performance in three different shades throughout the film. However, the role of the student is where the Superstar excels the most and makes us want more. Allari Naresh gets a surprising role and does an excellent job. He excels in emotional scenes and will surely get more interesting roles in the future.
Pooja Hedge is okay and is used only for a couple of scenes and songs. Jagapathi Babu has a routine role and does not have enough scope to perform. The rest of the cast including Vennela Kishore, Prakash Raj, Jayasudha, Rao Ramesh, Tanikella Bharani, Sai Kumar, Rajeev Kanakala fit their roles perfectly. Special mention to one farmer who only has a couple of scenes but gives a very emotional performance.
TECHNICAL DEPARTMENTS: Vamsi Paidipally has come up with a story that has a very high potential. However, the screenplay only works to an extent. The writing reminds of 3 Idiots, Srimanthudu, and Bharat Ane Nenu in some places. Editing by Praveen K.L. is not good and 20 minutes can easily be chopped off.
Dialogues are good but at times become preachy. Music by Devi Sri Prasad was one of the biggest letdowns of the movie. BGM was okay in parts but not up to the mark. Production values by three producers Dil Raju, PVP, and Ashwini Dutt are lavish and we can see the amount of money spent in every frame.
PLUS POINTS:
- Story
- Mahesh Babu student role performance
- Scenes with farmers
- Emotional Scenes
MINUS POINTS:
- Uneven Screenplay
- Bad Editing/Long Runtime
- Music
- Shades of previous movies
VERDICT: Maharshi is a story that had really high potential, however, the director does just an okay job in narrating it. We get a feeling that we have seen some scenes in previous movies and the long runtime makes some parts tedious to sit through. On the flipside, the emotional scenes and the scenes involving the farmers save the film.
Mahesh carries the film on his shoulders and his comedy timing in the first half work well. Keep your expectations in check and you will walk out feeling satisfied. With Maharshi being one of the bigger movies in recent times and no other notable releases coming out in May, Maharshi has a good chance to perform well at the box office this season.
