MOVIE : Asthram

Banner Supreme Recording Company Pvt Ltd
Cast Vishnu, Jackie Shroff, Anushka, Rahul Dev, Sarath Babu, Sumalatha, Sirisha, Rallapalli, Benerjee, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, Raghubabu and others.
Music SA Rajkumar
Art Ashok
Editing Gowtham Raju
Production Raju Harwani
Screenplay & Dialogues Paruchuri Brothers
Direction Suresh Krishna
Release Date June 30th, 2006

Synopsis

Vishnu (Siddarth) becomes an IPS officer and gets posted as ACP. The main intention of Siddarth in becoming a cop is to avenge the murder of his brother by smugglers. It so happens that the same gang is responsible for his father (Sarath Babu) becoming physically unfit and dumb. The arms dealers are a famed musician KV alias Kadhar Valli (Jackie Shroff) and an astrologer (Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao).

Siddarth forms a team of dynamic police officers to put an end to the arms smuggling. Without knowing that it is KV and astrologer who are behind this weapons business, he keeps a close relationship with them. Adding to the confusion, the state DGP directly supports the duo. How Siddarth busts the racket and how the baddies are exposed and done to death forms the climax.

Performance

Vishnu: He played with élan and displayed much style and ease as a young police officer. There is great agility in the songs sequences. But not much can be expected from him when it comes to stunts, which department ruled the roost in his previous films – Vishnu and Suryam.

Anushka: She is a perfect match to Vishnu. Her role is limited to romance and has nothing to do with the main story.

Rahul Dev: Rahul Dev, of course, appears in a positive role for the first time in his career in Telugu film industry. He played a teammate in hero’s operation against arms smugglers.

Jackie Shroff: Jackie Shroff played the main villain. However, his characterization is not established properly either as a villain or as a musician. The much used and outdated subject of Hindu-Muslim tussle is attached to him.

Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao and Raghu Babu supported the comedy department and the main story as well.

Technical Stuff

As expected, the movie is a free remake of Bollywood blockbuster Sarfrosh. Director Suresh Krishna depended much on the narration part and has completely thrown the flashbacks to the wind. Due to this, there is much confusion in the storyline. Screenplay by Paruchuri Brothers is kept unexpectedly fast and this has hampered justification to the establishment of various characters. The brothers have not shown seriousness in the dialogues department too. Comedy too is sidelined.

Songs are adequate and music by SA Rajkumar holds no specialty to the audiences. The background score for such an action flick should have been better. Not much importance is given to the stunts department and lot of dependence is on gunfire.