Manamantha

A film with very high technical values and exceptional story telling by the maker. More importantly a suspense thriller with middle class characters that will touch you and shake you

"Manamantha" is a human drama with simple emotions and subtle sensibilities. It follows the journey of four people at different phases in their life. Four different and distinct stories, different paths are interlinked in the end with a neat twist. Though the twist is not hard to expect, it has actually enhanced the emotional buildup in the ending of the movie.

Director Chandrasekhar Yeleti who is known for making thrillers like "Aithey", and "Anukokunda Oka Roju" has shown that he is also at ease directing movies with emotional content.

Stories about different people and all of them are getting linked in the end with one incident or situations is seen in films like "Chandamama Kathalu", but Yeleti treads different path here.

The four people and four different stories are linked with a completely new twist, which is what the movie's core emotion is all about. Like in "Drushyam", the final episodes of the story leaves a lump in our throat.

Like most people in regular life, Mohanlal is shown here taking "hand loans" from colleagues, becoming selfish when an opportunity comes to become a manager from asst manager. This greediness lands him in a big trouble and when he comes to know the situation has gone out of hands, the way Mohanlal repents, and goes through emotional upheaval are presented beautifully.

Apart from Mohanlal's thread, the other beautiful thread is of Raina Rao who played the role of a good-hearted kid who lands in trouble helping a poor kid. Raina and the poor kid both have played so naturally. Yeleti has shown his maturity and mark here in these sequences.

While Gauthami's thread is interesting it has been stretched beyond a point and the talk about Saree's etc are unwarranted. But one scene involving Gauthami is funny when she goes to Koti to save Rs 400 and ends up spending more than that from her purse. The typical middle-class situation is portrayed funnily.

The thread of Abhi (played Vishwanth) and his romance with Anisha Amrose gives you feel of déjà vu.

While the movie is laced with emotional scenes, all these are stored in the second half. The first half of the movie is not that convincing though it sets up the mood. On the downside, the film is excruciatingly slow.

Despite these minor flaws, "Manamantha" is one of the best made emotional dramas in the recent times in Tollywood. Director Chandrasekhar Yeleti has proved again that he is a director with a different approach.

All in all, watch the film for its emotional content, good and earnest scenes and superb performances from the lead actors.

my rating- 3/5 (above average one time watch with a good message and few thrills and a suspense climax)

Postives - 1.)Mohanlal (comeback after 10 months)- he was brilliant and he has portrayed his character in a good manner that you wont forget about his performance (well done). and in Telugu version i was really impressed because he himself dubbed in Telugu for his role and its a proud moment for Kerala.

2.) gauthami (i am seeing her after long time on screen and it was a nice comeback) - her role depicting a normal mother doing household chores was excellent (may remind you of Sridevi in English Vinglish).

3.) vishwant as abhiram was totally good. he portrayed that tech geek boy in a nice manner. and his romantic scenes was good and the script was able to support him with plenty of good dialogues which was comfortable for him and for his limited emotions.

4.)raina as mahitha was the main highlight. she has done her role excellenty and casting her was a right choice indeed!! and yes she was able to provide all emotions in this movie which some actors failed to provide. she may be a child artist but her acting was outstanding!!

5.) a good message film.

negatives- 1.) script and direction- well if the national award winning director could have taken care a bit then this movie could have also got a national award. script disappointed me at certain areas and we can feel clichés in towards climax where its supposed to amaze us. climax was supposed to be a legend one according to director but for us it was mixed bag of clichés. there are many movies like this and it reminded me of a Malayalam movie(paisa paisa movie). that movie was excellent in providing thrill as well as emotions at the same time. i don't know if director was trying to copy that but he should have remaked it other than adding scenes from paisa paisa. i am not saying script failed to provide thrill but suspense in climax and thrill in interval wasn't that good. from directors part he could have made it in raw film realness format other than following normal colorful format . and plus he could have added few thriller scenes extra. from the script part i think the script could have been more thrilling if the writers could have added variety and inspiring dialogues in to it. makers could have added few variety scenes to make it a extraordinary one and this film has a great potential to be a best one.

2.)cinematography - it wasn't that great and just average.

3.)music- average.my rating for music- 2.8/5

is it a must watch?

well my opinion is to this is not. watch it for Timepass. yea you can watch with your family and it has a good message to future generations but the script writers and makers failed to execute it properly. so again i am telling you just watch it for time pass and also watch without much expectations.

overall- its a family movie with good message to everyone but you may forget it after few days because of the lack of execution of the film which makes it a one time watch.

The story of this movie is really great . It is about a typical middle-class family . In the walk of life , the family has to face a lot of troubles . But they understood the meaning of happiness . Actually sometimes greed came in the minds of the family members . But understanding real happiness , they threw away all shorts of greeds and became a happy family .

Nothing to say about legendery actor Mohanlal's acting. The other casts also really did excellent work especially I have to say about the girl who played the role of the daughter of thye family. Direction was also superb.

Best Telugu Movie ever made.It is a classic movie.Real life is portrayed so beautifully.It is a must watch.Mohanlal Sir acting is a treat to watch.He has proved why he is being called as complete actor.In fact he was not acting he was living as character Sair Ram.Gautami,little girl also did well.Do good,be good and think good.. this is all movie about.. a must watch in this kind of time period. a book gives you immense knowledge.. where a good movie immense and real time knowledge.. families please take your family along with you.. you will never be disappointed with story or director's view.. an awes journey of 2hrs 20mins. You will come out with a pleasant feeling and this movie will definitely have an impact on everyone's life!!