Manamantha

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.

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

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.

Manamanthaa (2016): Chandra Shekar Yeleti is one of the rare talents of Tollywood who has amazing talent in movie making and all his pictures are critically acclaimed but he did not have much financial success.His movies are always a treat for movie lovers but not for commercial minded audience.He is one of the few directors in Tollywood who can make movies of different genres.Let it be thriller like Anukokunda Oka Roju and Okkadunnadu,romance like Prayanam,crime like Aithe,adventure like Sahasam,Yeleti always gives his best output.Now its his turn for emotional drama Manamantha which deals with four different people lives and their problems.Malayalam super star Mohanalal acted in Tollywood after a long time with this movie.How is it???

Plot: Manamantha is about four people Sai Ram (Mohanlal),Gayatri (Gouthami),Abhiram (Vikranth),Mahitha(Raina Rao).

Sairam is an assistant manager in a supermarket and is perpetually in debt. He even borrows a few thousands from a store assistant.He always has a competition issue with Harshavardhan for manager post.Sai Ram is in deep need of Manager post as it may settle all his debt.To achieve it he takes a wrong step which lands him in serious problems which may spoil his life and family.

Gayatri (Gautami) is a housewife struggling to make ends meet. She seeks happiness in little things, like grocery shopping with her neighbor (Urvashi). She meets an unexpected guest from her past who may change her life which may clears all her problems of middle class issue.

Abhiram (Viswant) is a bright student who soldiers on with his old and bulky laptop.His life seems perfectly alright with his grades and goals until he meets Airi(Anisha Ambrose).He loves her and become good friend with her but it affects his study.

Mahita (Raina Rao) is an endearing school girl who takes a liking to a four-year-old boy Veer who lives in a slum and will do what she can to see that he goes to a school.But shockingly one day Veer goes missing.Mahita tries to find Veer by facing lot of problems where she understands the humanity of present people.

Plus Points:

1)Performances: Manamanthaa has brilliant performances of all the four roles. Mohanlal is pitch perfect as Sairam, reflecting the frustrations of a guy caught in a deep problems and feeling guilty. The actor needs to be commended for his effort to speak in Telugu. His Telugu is laced with a Malayalam accent but lends authenticity to his part. Gautami proves yet again why she used to be the best in the business and is sublime as the housewife.She gave mesmerizing performance and needed to be applauded.Debutante Raina Rao as the schoolgirl is a surprise and walks away with all the applause. She played her role with such perfection that we love her cute innocence and her helping nature.Viswanth did good in his role which has nothing special.

2)Second half: Manamantha has one of the best emotional scenes of recent times in its second half.Every scene in second half is well made and is so emotional that tears will stay in your eyes until the movie is completed.All the characters enter their serious phases of their lives and movie gets a fast pace which is both emotional and thrilling.Climax is awesome and unexpected.

3)Direction: Yeleti once again proved that why he has special fame in Tollywood cinema.He cleverly turned a family drama into an entertaining and unique thriller.The way he took a simple story line and made it thrilling is just amazing. He also excelled in extracting the best performance from his actors.

Minus Points:

1)Story of Abhiram (Viswanth): Of all four characters,story of Abhiram is weakest one.Its a routine love story where a topper guy neglects his life for the love of a girl.Though it has connection to the story,it could have been made better with better scenes.Emotion is missing in those scenes.

So Manamanthaa is one of the best emotional drama of recent rimes.Surprisingly Manamanthaa almost brought tears in my eyes with such brilliant emotion.Must watch one....

My rating 7.5/10

This movie is really awesome. The kind of work and detailing which is gone in to the screenplay of this movie is tremendous and amazing. The biggest asset of this movie is that it feels so realistic that you actually forget that it is a movie rather we come to a state where we feel it is a part in everyone's life. Every character has its own significance. The mood of the movie makes you feel soothing and relaxing and also makes us forget the effort being put in making of the film which I believe is the success of the movie. The story revolves around four people. I don't know if the director could get a better cast for this movie because all the characters are apt. Mohanlal and gauthimi has done outstanding performance. Even the small kids has done a great job. This film is a proof that good films are also being made in telugu apart from regular nonsense,mass,masala and comedy movies. Do watch this movie. Support good films.