'Mangala' Review: Not Up To Expectations

Film: MangalaRating: 2.5/5
Banner: Mantra Entertainments
Cast: Charmy, Subhash, Pradeep Rawath, Shyamala, Uttej and others
Music: Vishwa
Cinematography: Dasaradhi Sivendra
Story, screenplay, direction: Tulasiram
Producer: Ch.V. Sharma
Release date: 02/03/2011

The impact of ‘Mantra’ was quite strong at the box office so director Osho Tulasiram has come up with a similar concept. Yet again, he has roped in his favorite Charmy who is currently going through a lean patch of her career. Let us see how it worked for both.

Story
Mangala (Charmy) is a famous heroine and she has many fans. One among them (Vijay Sai) is not just obsessed about Mangala but he is sensitive as well. He decides to gift a car to Mangala and asks his father (Pradeep Rawath) who does black magic, for money. The doting father takes money from a rich man and uses his evil powers to kill a child and gives the amount to his son.

However, when the fans comes to city and meets Mangala, a misunderstanding makes her think that he tried to misbehave and the fans gets beaten by Mangala’s driver/confidante (Subhash). Hurt by this, the fan attempts suicide. He is unwilling to take the medicine in the hospital till he sees Mangala. Despite several requests from his father, Mangala is unable to come due to her shooting and takes it easy. The fan dies and the enraged father unleashes the horrifying ‘Sakuchi’ – a spell that will lead to death. What happens from there forms the rest of the story.

Performances
Charmee is the life and soul for the film. A remarkable performance from her end which is mixed with the right body language, irresistible sex appeal and haunting expressions. Overall, a good show.

Pradeep Rawath looks scary and though his role is brief, he has done enough to create an impact in the audience.

Subhash has come up with an adequate performance and he supports Charmy with his act.

The duo of Uttej and Saptagiri and their woes with the Tamil director bring some funny moments but sometimes it gets overboard.

Highlights

• Charmy’s performance
• First half
• Screenplay
• Background score
• Shock points

Disappointments

• Second half, especially the climax
• Directorial flaws
• No conviction in the solution of problem
• Songs
• Silly comedy

Analysis
After the success of ‘Mantra’, the Tollywood circuit realized that there are audience which welcome such genres. Osho Tulasiram wanted to cash in on that and added an extra dose of shivers.

However, he got lost midway. What started as an excellent plot goes haywire as he is unable to decide whether to term it as a horror flick or a thriller flick. He was successful in scaring the wits out of audience at many places but all this happened during the first half which raised the expectations in the second half. And all that build-up turned out to be hollow in the second half. The climax scenes got dragged which makes the audience squirm and feel bitter about the whole thing.

Overall, there is improvement in the technical values, the plot was wonderful but the execution was poor. At the box office, this might land in the safe zone due to its moderate budget but scoring a hit doesn’t have a great chance.

Bottomline: Good line gone bad with confusion

Courtesy: Greatandra