Rangamarthanda Movie Review

Cast: Prakash Raj, Brahmanandam, Ramya Krishna, Anasuya, Adarsh, Shivathmika, Rahul Sipligunj and others
Director: Krishna Vamsi
Music: Ilayaraja
Producers: Kalipu Madhu & S Venkat Reddy
Banner: Rajashyamala Entertainments and Housefull Movies
Release Date: March 22, 2023

Nearly after 5 years, creative director Krishna Vamsi is back with ‘Rangamarthanda’, a very important film for him that is a remake of the much acclaimed and successful Marathi movie, ‘Natasamrat’. Let’s find out how effectively he handled this remake.

Story:

A Veteran Thespian, Raghava Rao (Prakash Raj) retires from his theatre acting and wishes to spend some time with his family. He and his friend Chakri (Brahmanandam) both used to be much-revered stage actors who find themselves struggling to fit amidst the dramatic life outside the theatre, rest of the movie depicts the life journey of Raghava Rao and his wife ‘Raajugaaru’ (Ramya Krishna) going through the hurdles because of their son and daughter.

Actors performances :

Prakash Raj was in fine form in the skin of a retired stage actor, especially in the second half, his performance was a great achievement, to say the least. Ramya Krishna as ‘Raajugaaru’ was too adorable and admirable, all her scenes came out really well, and thanks to her panache at subtle acting, we feel for this lady with all our hearts. The most surprising of all is Brahmanandam’s performance as ‘Chakri’, the legendary comedian who gives a legendary performance despite with limited screen presence, he evokes a sea of emotions leaving a lump in our throats. We can see a never before brahmanandam in Rangamarthanda who will make people cry.

Writing and Direction :

We know how unique Krishna Vamsi used to be in bringing human emotions quite powerfully onto the screen. He used to make his artists perform so beautifully that even the melodramatic scenes would fascinate us. ‘Rangamaarthanda’ almost did bring back that vintage Krishna Vamsi as a director on extracting superb performances from leads. However, the writing part by Akella Shivaprasad in terms of dialogues is very good but in adapting the Marathi movie to Telugu cinematic sensibilities has gone for a toss a bit. The first half kinda bores the audience, many dramatic things happen but except for one or two none of those hit us with strong emotions, the drama looks forced with cliched scenes and on-the-nose messages. One good change they made in the first half compared to original is the witty dialogues by brahmi at every possible scene which made the boring  first half a bit better. it’s only during the second half that the movie redeems itself, the writing gets better, the emotions start to elevate, the ever-loving dynamics between Prakash Raj and Ramya Krishna characters warm our hearts, and the scenes between his and Brahmanandam characters bound to tug at your heartstrings.

Other Technicalities :

The cinematography by Raj K Nalli could have been better. The visuals seem to lack proper focus on the actors, except for theatre shots, his work felt amateurish. The music by Ilaiyaraaja is decent, a couple of songs say ‘Dhamadi Chemanthi’ and ‘Poovai Virise Pranam’ were good to watch on screen, and the background score was quite forgettable. Editing by Pavan was bad in the first half and feels decent in the second half.

Thumbs Up:

Performances From Lead Cast

Emotional Moments In Second Half

Final word: Overall, ‘Rangamaarthaandaa’ is a decent remake anchored by some amazing performances.