Okkadu (2003)

I never liked films by Gunashekhar. Because I am very much biased with his stupid direction in his earlier films. This film flavored with stunts and little bit of romantce. Of course music by Manisharma is good. But still this music director tries to mimic the tunes of some good ones like our new coming music directors.

There was a rumour that the producer M.S.Raju feared about the film release. But surprisingly it was a huge hit for Mahesh babu and every one in the tinsel world recognized that gunashekhar is also a talented director. The huge set-up of charminar and the last fight scene are a bit of non-sense in the film. In his earlier film "Choodalani vundi" also there was a huge set-up to get a feel of Kolkata colony. I donno why these fellows spend money for these merry things.

Prakash raj did very good role in this film. But how one can think he was a good opposite character for Mahesh babu too. The last half-an-hour of the film is a headache.

Fmovies: Great film. Wonderful screenplay, great direction and script, and heavenly music. And BGM at some scenes are lit ...

One of the Blockbusters of tollywood.. Mani sharma's magical melodies made the movie so special

Okkadu fmovies. The most enjoyable Telugu film I have seen till date. This film does not try to force any message down our throat, or does not even try to be profound. It chooses a one-line straightforward story line and sticks with it till the end. That is the film's biggest strength : it is uncomplicated. It stays true to all the classical conventions of melodrama. There is a hero who is courageous, a heroine who is in trouble and needs to be saved, and a villain who is downright evil and obsessed about the heroine. These archetypes never waver during the course of the film. The hero has no deeper agenda to push other than helping a fellow person in distress and never falters in his self-imposed mission, the heroine is always weepy and surrounded by trouble until the hero's heroics instill a sense of confidence enough for her to grow some balls (metaphorically speaking, of course) and openly challenge the villain to prove his machismo to her by defeating the hero, and the villain never undergoes the slightest change of heart over anything. This single-minded focus on keeping things simple and yet highly engaging is where Gunasekhar and team achieve a victory.

Moving beyond the basic story, there's a lot to admire in the screenplay and direction. Gunasekhar loves overhead camera shots and uses them skillfully - whether it be in the opening scene where the hero is surrounded in a circle by the members of a rival street gang who are later upstaged by the hero's friends who surround them in an even bigger circle, or the same shot repeated in a different setting yet similar context when the villain surrounds the hero with his gang of henchmen, only to be upstaged again by the hero's gang.

Gunasekhar also banishes the achilles' heel of far too many south Indian films - the mandatory presence of a comic relief subplot. Instead, he utilises the time to build the portrait of the hero's caring family, with every member getting the due attention. The hero has a tendency to get into trouble with rival gangs, but he is also a dutiful son who helps his mother in kitchen. His father is a police officer who is obviously worried about his son and even angry at him at times, but their relationship never gets overly antagonistic as it could have been had the writer tried to resort on tried-and-tested character building tricks. In fact, it is interesting to look at the families of the three main archetypal characters - the hero's family is near-perfect, the heroine's family may be ravaged due to the villain's overtures but still hasn't collapsed, and the villain's family is quite unique : his mother, played with a great sense of joy and forcefulness by Telangana Sakuntala, is an extremely formidable and domineering woman who looks like she might exceed even her son in villainy. She loves to smoke cigars - cigars, mind you, not those puny cigarettes - , chomp on green chillies and always has a faithful dog right beside her.

This is the best Mahesh Babu performance I have seen till date. He is a one-note actor and he suits this mostly one-note character very well. He does not make a good anti-hero like he played in Pokiri. He should stick to characters like these. Bhoomika Chawla is rather annoying with her constantly weepy expression in the first two acts but as I have written above, does change her mannerisms for the better in the last third. Prakash Raj is good as usual. He has played similar characters so many times that it might give a deja vu feeling, but this film was where his reign as th

Obul Reddy (Prakash Raj) is a factions in Kurnool. He falls in love with Swapna (Bhumika). Obul Reddy kills Swapna's brother (Achyut) when he passed a remark about the age difference between Obul Reddy and Swapna. Obul Reddy also kills another brother of Swapna. Horrified by the impending danger, father of Swapna gives her certificates and money and asks Swapna to go to her uncle's place in USA. Obul Reddy catches her when she starts traveling.

Ajay (Mahesh Babu) is a Kabaddi player and is the son of an Assistant Commissioner of Police (Mukesh Rishi). At this juncture, Ajay - who is in Kurnool to play Kabaddi games - rescues Swapna from the hands of Obul Reddy and takes her to Hyderabad. Ajay takes Swapna to his house and hides her in his room. Ajay, with the help of friends, arranges passport, visa and flight tickets for Swapna.

Mean while, the Home Minister (Rajan P Dev) who happens to be the brother of Obul Reddy asks ACP to search for Swapna and the guy who has taken away. When ACP realizes that it's his own son who did the crime, Ajay and Swapna runs away from his home and hides in Charminar.

The rest of the story depends on how Obul Reddy traps the couple again and how Ajay emerges victorious.

Artists:

Mahesh Babu: Mahesh Babu has shown a different dimension to his acting skills with this film. That is the i.n.t.e.n.s.i.t.y in his eyes. Without making hero uttering a single word, the directors have shown this kind of intensity by writing powerful situations in the past like the Chiranjeevi's introduction scene in Khaidi and Nagarjuna's chain scene in Shiva. Mahesh Babu worked really hard for this film and it showed up in the output. He carried the film on his shoulders.

Bhumika Chawla: Bhumika is the perfect fit for the role of Swapna. The dubbed done by Savita Reddy is also apt. Though she looked sensual in songs, there is a danger of masses complaining about the glamor aspect (no exposing) of heroine.

Prakash Raj: Prakash Raj changed his mustache in this film, which resembles that of Hindi villain Gulshan Grover. He provided good amount of entertainment with his serious as well as comedy acting. The way he says 'I love you' to Bhumika is hilarious. He is the only actor who can justify that kind of role.

Telangana Sakuntala: She acted as 'Ramulamma' - the cigar smoking lady don and mother of Prakash Raj. She provided entertainment with her typical dialogue deliver and peculiar walking style.

Mukesh Rishi: Mukesh Rushi played a soft role of a sincere police officer and it's a refreshing change for audience to see Mukesh Rishi doing a character which is other than a dread some villain.

Others: Chandra Mohan played the role of helpless father who lost two sons. Rajan P Dev played the role of Home Minister in two consecutive films (Naaga and Okkadu). Geeta acted as mother of Mahesh Babu in this film. She is also pretty good. Niharika - the cute little girl who acted as niece to Venky in 'Preminchukundam Raa' - acted as sister of Mahesh Babu in this film. She is an asset to the film.

Technical Departments:

Story: The basic storyline of a film is how a man acts as a guard to a woman and saves her from danger. The entire first half is devoted to establish the story and the second half has a single mission of hero sending heroine to USA. It's a pretty interesting plot. The original caption of 'Her Army' would have been retained with Okkadu title.

Screenplay - Di

Every scene is lit🔥.. Manisharma is the unsung hero of the movie.. that bgm in every scene is goosebumps