NTR: Kathanayakudu

NTR KATHANAYAKUDU

This comprehensive biopic chronicles the life and times of Telugu superstar NTR aka Rama Rao who ruled the Telugu cinema as a lead actor for a whopping four decades

The biopic initially focuses on image building by introducing NTR's (Nandamuri Balakrishna) self respecting, righteous and ambitious approach to his personal as well as professional lives. How he quits a stable Govt job and relocated to Madras to pursue his dream, starts with inconsequential character roles and on the sheer power of hard work and audience love he skyrockets to superstardom. The movie deals with the personal and career events in NTR's life from 1947-1985 including his bold and daring angst against the infamous emergency period in India.

Director Krish Jagarlamudy does a fine job considering the Herculean task he was assigned to depict the larger than life gigantic persona of NTR.

Nandamuri Balakrishna reprising his father NTR is a delight to watch, he has inherently portrayed the mannerisms, dialogue delivery, personality traits of his late father in perfect sync. Sumanth playing Akkineni Nageshwara Rao does a brilliant job. Prakash Raj, Sachin Khedekar, Murali Sharma are disappointing. Notable cameos include Jisshu Sengupta as LV Prasad and Ravi Kissen as Ravikant Nagaich, both are brilliant.

Vidya Balan breathes grace and warmth in her portrayal of NTR's wife Basavatarakam. Nithya Menon is impressive in a brief role as the doomed star Savithri. Eye candy appealing cameos include Hansika Motwani as Jayaprada and Rakulpreet as Sridevi.

NTR's bold persona and his commitment to his work is showcased well for instance he played triple roles of Krishna,Karna and Duryodhan in a mythological, how he ensures to complete his movie shooting even after hearing about his teenage son's death, his daring face off with the prime minister(Supriya Matkari),all these events only add to his intriguing persona on and off screen.

Except for a running time of nearly 3 hours there seems to be no other hindrance noticeable in this brilliantly conceived biopic of a superstar who hasn't faded from the memories of his followers over the years.

A glorified depiction of a fake story...! Lot of effort has been made to portray NTR as a flawless human. It would have been refreshing to see the real story and flaws of the legendary actor. It is such a pity to see NTRs family faking all the affection towards him when I'm real life they had ditched him!!

Waiting for the second part to see if they have the guts to show the betrayal by his family more importantly CBNs backstabbing to grab the CM chair. It might be too much to ask, given the unspoken fact that this movie is made by the Nara-Nandamuri family to attract voters for the upcoming 2019 elections.

Balayya first half of the movie did not fit the role of Sr. Ntr at all infact I should say horrible. He was too fat and old for young ntr character. But he suited well as ntr after he turned 60. Climax of the movie is the best performance he ever gave. No negatives of ntr were shown but if you cannot relate to his old movies or donno the old stalwarts of Telugu film industry, you might not enjoy as much as I did. For those who relish his old movies, this movie is a feast. The screenplay was slow for this current generation. The film at every opportunity praises ntr which looks artificial.

Go with low expectations and you will enjoy the movie.Inspite of all its flaws, the movie is a good watch and is the best movie to watch during the festival season.

A movie story line has a conflict that is resolved in the climax. Don't expect anything of that sort from this movie. It's more of AutoMockumentry and made by Balakrishna (Son of NTR).

Honestly I was biased against Balakrishna movies and somewhere built into me that his movies are crap and he is loud actor etc and ignored going to the movie hall. Today watched in Amazon prime out of sheer boredom, and believe me, it turned out to such a mesmerising movie. Credit to Balayya for his great potrayal and Krish for slick direction. Eagerly waiting for part-2 which would be challenging. Balayya must make effort to show real story.... 7 star for the movie and 8th one for Balayya...