Prasthanam (2010)

WOW... Prasthanam is a stunning film with great performances. Saikumar & Sharwanand gave life to the movie. I was watching this film, knowing that it is a political thriller. But i never knew the conflict was so interesting. Once the actual conflict point is revealed... i was glued to my seat. Sundeep Kishan who earlier did a role in Snehagitam, which frankly i didn't like ...came up with a whole new character. His performance for the Grey shaded role was perfect. But the entire show stealer was Saikumar, his character is never seen on a movie before. He is the biological father of Sundeep Kishan, and the stepfather for Sharwanand. The legacy of his political career is the actual conflict point. Saikumar was intense through out the movie, He has the most powerful voice in the entire Telugu film industry. The dialogs penned by Devkatta are awesome. They got blend into the script.On the other hand, Sharwanand came up from no where. He is known for his selection of roles and stories. But Prasthanam shows his avidity in selecting good plots and roles. He was another asset in the film. His performance in the first half of the film was quite natural, but in the later half and towards the climax was a bomb. He was so good in the climax episode.Vennala Kishore, who had a great praise for his earlier role in Vennala film directed by Devkatta. Didn't catch up with the entertainment part. But once the plot of the movie is started, we tend to forget ourselves. Devkatta, who earlier gave us Vennela came up with an awesome political thriller. He is definitely gonna make a mark for himself in the industry.PRASTHANAM stands against all the earlier movies of Telugu film Industry. I'm speechless when the film ended. Stunning plot and great performances. Prasthanam is the real gem from Telugu film industry. Adjectives are beyond the quality of this film. a 10/10 for this EPIC !!!

Despite all it's faults- the shitty and unnecessary songs, a very bad romantic angle which is incongruous with the story and some poor jokes - despite all of that, Prasthanam is without doubt, one of the greatest Telugu movies ever made. And even if we compare it on a global level, with other political thrillers in English, Hindi and other languages, this movie deserves a place in top 50.So what makes Prasthanam, so great a movie? 1) Story - The actual story begins in the second half, and the viewer who has been taken on a bicycle ride until then, is taken on a roller-coaster ride of twists and turns. But, unlike ordinary thrillers, behind these twists and turns, the three central themes of the movie - jealousy, corruption of character by greed for power, father's love - play out beautifully and come to their blossom fittingly in the climax - like a perfect Christopher Nolan movie.2) Dialogues - No words to describe those dialogs. They are so powerful. So profound. So deep. Especially the ones in the climax. Hearing each one of them delivered by the deep voice of Sai Kumar gives you goose bumps. These are the dialogs to die for. You can watch the movie however many times just for these.3) Acting - The three main characters are played to their utmost perfection by the actors Sai Kumar, Sarwanand and Sundeep Kishan. Especially the portrayal of the complex character by Sai Kumar is beyond the boundaries of imaginary perfection. I wonder, why he didn't get a national award for best actor.4) Character of Father - Never in Telugu movie history, was a character as complex, had so many shades and yet at the same time, so realistic as that of this central character. It has father's love, greed for power, guilt and loyalty - shades that are so against each other - but which are so beautifully blended and built in this character by the director, that this factor alone would make the movie a timeless classic.So, why didn't Prasthanam win any national award or why was it not the Indian entry for Oscars. I have no idea!!! I can only think that it's because of the faults I mentioned in the first paragraphs. But one expects that the judges who are supposed to be esteemed critics of movies and know their ins-and-outs, would happily overlook these small hurdles on the road to cinematic wonder provided by Prasthanam.

I have a major prasthanam hangover. This movie is just awesome. A must watch telugu movie (pretty rare these days).Story: A very intense and engaging story with a political background. The movie is very long but NEVER a dull moment. The writing is just poetic and out of the world for tollywood. The dialogues are novel and powerful. The major idea of the movie is that there are no heroes (good) and villains (bad) rather its always the struggle between the good and bad within one's self. Acting: All the major characters played their roles perfectly. Sai kumar was just mind blowing - prefect for the role. All of the scenes involving sharwanand and saikumar were brilliant. sharwanand exceeded expectations. Side characters were not that good being a low budget movie but thats just nitpicking.Score: The background score was elevating. The score made the already well written scenes much powerful. hats off to mahesh shankar for coming up with such a great score to complement brilliant direction. Music was good. Couple of songs were unnecessary - could be trimmed. But the rest of the songs were nice.The director (dev katta) maintained good grip over the movie and created a near perfect movie for the budget. Dev katta is a director to watch out. In vennela he made brilliant comedy in the first half, but failed to keep the audience engaged in his character study in the second half. But with prasthanam he hit the bulls eye in his penchant for character studies.I would say this is a must watch for anyone who likes good real cinema.

At last a Telugu movie which made me gasp and shout out loud, "whatamovie!" In the industry where 6 songs, three fights, some violence and an item number seem to be the yardstick, Deva Katta's "Prasthanam" beats all the rules. Director Deva Katta deleted four songs from the movie as it hampered its narration (ever heard it anywhere folks?) and it shows his dedication to bring out a movie like never before and he succeeds in it. In fact Deva Katta's hard work is written all over the screen, right from the title cards. The narration is top notch, the dialog's brilliant and the screenplay good. Sai Kumar is one of the most underrated actor of the Teulgu industry and he's going to get some fans from this movie. Sarwanand is brilliant and his dialog delivery is excellent but he needs to work on the emotional scenes though! This is mostly a dialog driven movie and a very serious one too. The movie ends at the right time and the last scene is simply brilliant. The humor department handled by Jayaprakash Reddy is awesome, on the whole it's one movie after a long time made out of sheer dedication and with love towards the language (the English usage is minimal and the Telugu used is top class). A perfect ten and a Telugu movie classic.