Tuesday Feb 19 2008, Hyderabad

Ontari –another masala magic from Gopichand

Directed by - -

Produced by - -

Music by - Mani Sharma

Casts - Gopichand, Bhavana, Sunil,Ashish Vidyarthi, Ajay, Supreet,Ali, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao,Naresh and others.

Banner - Eetaram Films

Vamsi Krishna(Gopichand) belongs to a rich and friendly joint family in Vizag.Parents, brothers and their wives dot over him.He falls in love with an orphan girl Bujji alias Mahalakshmi(Bhavana).He plays a small trick that makes her to believe that he is a CBI officer  and he makes her fall in love with him.Enters villain, Panda(Ajay), brother of a dreaded Hyderabad-based rowdy Lal Mahankali(Asish Vidyarthi).

He teases Bujji.Vamsi promptly bashes him up.The humiliated villain kidnap Bujji when she is about to marry Vamsi.The poor girl is raped and done to death.The revenge drama forms the rest of the story.

Gopichand has earned action hero image with successive hits.Ontari too deals the subject of the revenge drama that has provided scope for him to excel in that area.Gopichand has shown two shades of his character perfectly.Bhavana, has cute face and good acting skills.The voice of Savita Reddy helped her further.

The lead pair's chemistry is really good.Ajay, who played the rapist, did his job to perfection.Asish Vidyarthi, the villain, is ruthless in his acting.Entry and exit of Rajeev Kanakala are interesting.Despite having Sunil and Ali, the comedy is missing.

The mannerism of Ali as Sivaji(Rajinikanth) comes as a relief for few seconds.The story is just a regular masala mix of love, sentiment and action.The screenplay is badly marred by flashbacks and running story hitting the screen alternately.The director deserves appreciation for maintaining the suspense over the death of the heroine till the last minutes of the climax.The stunts are good.

Songs are average to good.There is nothing special about the music of  Mani Sharma.Cinematography is good.Ontari is a clear melodrama ending on a tragic note.There is no trace of any Telugu cinema with a tragic ending making it to the box office in the recent past.