SiraSri Review: SDZ-A Good Family Film With Mass Title

Film: Shankaradada Zindabad
Rating: 3.25/5
Cast: Chiranjeevi, Srikanth, Karishma Kotak, Sayaji Shinde, Rama Murthy, Kantha Rao, Bhanu Prakash, Melkote, Sharma, MS Narayana, Dharmavarapu, Jenny  etc  
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Director: Prabhu Deva
Producer: Gemini Film Circuit
Release Date: 27th Jul 2007

Story:

Shankar (Chiranjeevi) is a dada who lives on land settlements, kabjas and other illegal acts. He loves an FM Radio Jockey Jahnavi (Karishma Kotak) listening to her voice. In an interesting ‘Gandhi Contest’ on the same FM Radio Shankar wins the chance to meet his love Jahnavi. The story takes turn from there. Situations force Shankar to know more about Gandhiji to win his love. In the process, Shankar over reads about Gandhiji and follows his principles. How a dada living on Dadagiri propagates Gandhigiri? How Shankar wins his love? That has to be watched only on silver screen. The principles shown in the film are bitter but great medicinal elements coated with sugar.

General Credits and Director’s Effort:

The first credit goes to the story writer of the original version in Hindi, ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’. Next credit goes to the director of Hindi version.

Coming to Telugu version we can laud director Prabhudeva only for his choreography. He did a good ‘copying’ job beyond that. A few scenes were simply dubbed from Hindi (especially the ‘old man-pension’ scene is dubbed from original without taking the pain of re-shooting).

Music stands on the top among recent chart busters. Songs and dances are the big relief for mass audiences. Chiranjeevi’s character is blended in a style coated with humor, sentiment and action.

Performances:

Chiranjeevi looked better than that of in ‘Stalin’. He appears to have reduced some weight. Choosing Karishma Kotak, a plump heroine beside him is a wise decision as that makes Chiranjeevi look slimmer. On a whole, Chiranjeevi is at his best in the film.

Karishma Kotak is glorious with respect to skin and personality (although little plump). But her features are not that appealing for Telugu audiences. To say about her performance, she simply copied what Vidya Balan did in ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’.

Srikanth is ok as ATM. Dilip Prabhavalkar repeated the same thing what he did in ‘LGMB’ as Mahatma Gandhi.

Sayaji Shinde is in tune with his character. Sada’s ‘not so prominent’ role notes only her presence in this big multi star film. It’s a rare treat for Telugu audiences to watch Chiranjeevi, Srikanth, Pawan Kalyan, Allu Arjun, Ravi Teja, Naga Babu and music director Devi Sri Prasad in a single film.

Analysis:

Chiranjeevi’s ‘Rudraveena’ was released about 15 years ago. ‘Shankardada Zindabad’ is the film with the spirit on par (I’m saying only about the spirit of principle injection). While Rudraveena was made as a plain class film leaving all mass elements, Shankardada Zindabad is coated with mass appeal. Rudraveena aims on ‘liquor free society’ while ‘SDZ’ aims at ‘violence free’ society. I take the reference of Rudraveena only to say this. Chiranjeevi acted in a good spirited film after a very long time. Yes, we can also recall ‘Tagore’ and ‘Stalin’ those showed about ‘Corruption free’ society and ‘Service oriented society’ respectively. But the results those come in society when followed the principles shown in ‘SDZ’ will be greater than any other thing.

It’s a film that can (should) be watched by family audiences along with children. But the title is with ‘mass sound’.

It’s a right film made with Chiranjeevi. But the masses may not like the film, if they fail to catch the spirit in it.

We all know how a general fan of a mass hero feels:
1. He cannot resist watching ‘no reciprocation’ from his favorite star when he is being battered by villains’ gang.
2. He cannot resist watching his favorite star as a ‘psychic patient’ on screen.
3. He cannot expect a pale interval twist.

But the film is canned on Chiranjeevi with the above elements. So, it’s a ‘taken for granted’ opinion that majority of Chiranjeevi fans don’t like this. But there is a great spirit in this film and this can be called ‘the only good flick’ in the recent filmography of Chiranjeevi.

A good message oriented film made through a big star would certainly reach the masses. Even if a small fraction of audiences change or try to change by following the Gandhi principles shown in this film, the purpose of the film can be served. And the film has the spirit to shake the hearts and cognitions of people.

First half of the film runs with humor while emotion and sentiment dominate the second half. Still, the ulterior humor layer is not missed through out the film. It has big message to take homes by everyone.

Bottom Line: A good film to be watched for knowing the spirit in it (especially for those who haven’t watched ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’).

(SiraSri can be reached at [email protected])

The views expressed in the article are the author’s and not of greatandhra.com.