Peda Babu

Punchline: High on Sentiment
Genre: Sentiment
Can kids watch this film? Yes (no vulgarity and no violence)
Banner: Sri Keerthi Creations
Cast: Jagapathi Babu, Kalyani, Sarath Babu, K Viswanath, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Bharat, Ponnambalam, Sunil, Lakshmipathi, Jenny, Rallapalli, Vijaya Chander, Vizag Prasad, Devadas Kanakala and Suhasini.
Photography: S Ka Bhupathi
Music Director: Chakri
Dialogues: Ramesh - Gopi
Lyrics: Jaladi, Bhaskarabhatla
Action: Ram and Lakshman
Presents: Ch Padmavathi
Producer: M L Kumar Chowdary
Story, Screenplay, Direction: Paruchuri Murali
Release date: 30th April 2004

Story

Peda Babu (Jagapati Babu) is the village head. He stays alone and away from his mother (Suhasini) who is staying in the same village along with Peda Babu's father and siblings. The entire village respects Pedababu as village head. But why is Pedababu staying away from his mother. He has not spoken a word to her for the past 25 years. What is the reason? That exact flashback has the major interest part of the story.

Artists Performance

Jagapati Babu: Jagapati Babu did the role of Shiva devotee in this film. He looked appropriate for the role. He has fewer dialogues in the film. Macho men do not fantasize. Hence all the songs in the films are picturized as the dream elements from heroine's point view where Jagapati Babu has to just walk around and heroine does the rest.

Kalyani: Kalyani played the role of the girl who is after the hero. She played serious kind of roles in the past. But in this film, she did the role of naughty girl who teases Jagapati Babu relentlessly.

Others: Suhasini is incredible as mother of Jagapati Babu. She is very unglamorous in the mother's role. You can see the yearning for her son in her longing eyes all the times. Sunil is the only entertainment provider in this film with his cell phone comedy. Kota is underutilized. Ponnambalam is handicapped after the first fight. Vizag Prasad is fair. Vijayachandar did a guest role of astrologer in this film.

Technical Departments:

Story: The story has got flavor of typical Tamil flicks. It is also rumored that this film is inspired by a Tamil flick starring Prabhu which came around 15-20 years back (copyrights expired). However the following two points look little uncomfortable.

1. Suhasini getting married to her servant after the death of her 1st husband, though she has a 5 year old son.
2. Suhasini coming back to life from her deathbed when Jagapati Babu calls her 'Amma' for the first time in 25 years.

Screenplay - direction: Paruchuri Murali did a decent job as the director though he lacks clarity of narration in quite a few scenes. He is an expert in getting the sentimental scenes right. The screenplay of the film is pretty average. The narration is quite old-fashioned. He would have a good future if he can overcome the weakness of lack of clarity in narration.

Music: Music by Chakri would create a feeling of déjà vu. All the songs in this film would make you feel that you have listened to them before. The same feeling goes with background music as well. He conveniently picked up 'nayakudu' (evaru chepparu song) tune as background music for the scenes between Suhasini and Jagapati Babu. He also used Chiranjeevi background score for Indra character as the background beat for Jagapati Babu in action sequences.

Other departments: Dialogues by Ramesh - Gopi are neat. Cinematographer S K Bhupati exploited the village scenery beautifully. Action by Ram Lakshman is impressive.

Analysis: The first half of the film is not up to the mark. The second half has got some substance. The movie goes in to firm grip as the tear-jerking climax approaches. 'Pedababu' has got high quotient of sentiment. It's aimed at ladies and B-C center crowds. It is also a clean film sans any vulgarity or obscenity. If the sentiment catches up with the ladies, this film would have a good run at box office and fetch decent profits as it is made with limited budget.