Kabaddi Kabaddi

Jeevi rating: 3.5/5
Punchline: Comedy all the way
Genre: Love/Comedy
Banner: Maharshi Cinema
Cast: Jagapati Babu, Kalyani, Surya, Jeeva, Krishna Bhagawan, Lakshman Rao, Brahmanandam. Potti Prasad, Tanikella Bharani, Rajitha, Suman Setty, Preeti Nigam, Chinna, MS Narayana, Raghu Babu
Music: Chakri
Art: Satyanarayana
Songs: Bhaskarabhatla Ravi Kumar, Kaluva Krishna Sai, Sri Sai Harsha
Art: Satyanarayana
Photography: Bhupati
Dialogues: Satish
Story - Screenplay - Director: Venki
Producer: Valluripally Ramesh Babu
Release date: 16th February 2003

Story

Rambabu (Jagapati Babu) is a 30+ unmarried youth, who spends most of his time with a gang of friends from different age groups. Kaveri (Kalyani) is the sister of village head (Surya) in Sakhinetipally, a neighboring village of Venkannapalem, where Rambabu lives. Rambabu loves Kaveri at the first sight. And both of them are in love. Brother of Kaveri objects to their love as Rambabu is a wayward youth. Rambabu challenges to defeat the Kabaddi team of Sakhinetipally and asks marriage with Kaveri as the prize. Kaveri's brother agrees to it. The rest of the story is about how the team of Rambabu wins the finale.

Artists performance:

Jagapati Babu: The best thing about Jagapati Babu in this film is that there is no build-up or unnecessary scenes for his character to show heroism. He is given just enough exposure to establish himslef. He did pretty well. The Rambabu character is of 35 years old and Jagapati Babu's age is not an issue in this love story.

Kaveri: She epitomizes the adjective of 'padahaaranala telugu pilla' with her shyness, mannerisms and dressing sense. 99% of her wardrobe in this film includes sarees and half-sarees with plain colors. She is a delight to watch on the big screen.

Krishna Bhagavan: The second hero of Sravanthi Movies 'Maharshi' had come a long way to establish himself as a familiar face now. With 'Avunu Valliddaru Istapaddaaru' (AVI), he has surprised many with his impeccable comedy timing and typical Godavari slang. His character in this film is just as an extension of his mannerisms from AVI. He is the best entertainer in this film.

Jeeva: The actor Jeeva - who is known for deadly portrayal of evil characters - has donned a comedy-oriented role in this film and he entertained crowds with his neat performance.

Lakshman Rao (AVI fame): His character in this film is a natural extension of his character in AVI. He is pretty entertaining.

Others: Tanikella Bharani donned the role of Jagapati Babu's father. Surya played the brother of Kalyani. Preeti Nigam played sister-in-law of Kalyani. Chinna acted as a mad fellow. Raghu Babu also did a good role. MS Narayana and Brahmanandam provided comedy in their typical style.

Technical Departments:

Story - Screenplay - direction: The story of the film is very simple and has a streak of it inspired from Lagaan film. The Venki's style of taking is pretty similar to that of Vamsy. The comedy timing of the director is very good. He is good at injecting nativity. However, he should have worked more on the screenplay aspect. He took 30 minutes to introduce the gang of hero to audiences. The heroine is shown only after 30 minutes. His directorial abilities are worth a commendation. But he failed at drawing logical conclusions to the odd characters in this film on which he has spend 30 minutes to establish in the first half.

Dialogues: Dialogues by Satish are well written. The dialogues written for Krishna Bhagavan are extremely hilarious. However, there are few vulgar dialogues about the extramarital relationship between Jeeva and Rajitha.

Music: Music by Chakri is good. Background music also gels well with the mood of the film. Among the songs, the title song got good response as it's the only situational song and it is placed at the right moment. The picturization of 'Jaabili' song is pretty good and the director has shown his creativity (bhavukata) in picturization.

Other departments: Photography by Bhupati is very good. He captured the greenery of Godavari districts pretty well. Paidy Reddy's editing is crisp.

Production: Valluripally Ramesh Babu has made this film on a shoestring budget with the apt cast and efficient technicians. He should be making good money provided that he promotes the film well.

Analysis:
This film is a love story with kabaddi backdrop. But the entire film is having an undercurrent comedy. The director cleverly used the comedy characters created by Vamsy for AVI and established those characters to a greater deja vu in this film. You would not get bored, though the film has sluggish moments. However, the climax of the film is not up to the mark. They followed the regular pattern of making Jagapati Babu a hero in Kabaddi competition than making the odd characters (the remaining six people in team) contribute towards the success of the match. The highlights of this film are the comedy and heroine. You can watch it once without any hesitation.

Box Office prediction: The morning-show talk of this film is encouraging. As per the initial predictions this film is expected to have a run for 50 - 70 days depending on the center.