Saturday Jan 24 2009, Bangalore

Nanda

Genre - Action

Directed by - Anantharaju

Produced by - Maheen

Music by - V Manohar

Casts - Mythreeya, Rangayana Raghu, Maheen, Kishore, Srinath, Bhavya, Sharath Lohitashwa, Satyajith, Umesh, Mithun Tejaswi etc.

Starring - Shivarajkumar, Sandhya

The much awaited Shivaraj Kumar starrer, directed by Ananth Raju, has turned out to be yet another disaster for the superstar.

It is high time Shivaraj Kumar tried something new to save his career. He obviously has pinned high hopes on 'Nanda', his first film of the year, as his last four outings at the B.O. were duds. But the film, directed by Ananth Raju, fails to make the grade, in terms of both entertainment and aesthetic values.

The film is based on the life story of Maheem, who himself has produced the movie and essays an important role in the film. The screenplay by the director himself is a mess and the film makes for a torturous experience.

'Nanda' is the story of Nanda (Shivaraj Kumar) who runs a canteen in a college. A student in the college, Kavya (Sandhya), the niece of the city commissioner, falls in love with him. Nanda wants to marry his love, but finds himself in jail on a false case. More trouble awaits him outside as he is used as a pawn by two rival gangs to settle scores. Things move on in such a way that Nanda ends up becoming a don in the city.

It seems the director, who has scored a hit with ‘Mast Maja Maadi’, just went for an action flick, as a few of the gangster films starring Shivaraj were hits. But, the much needed pace for an action movie is lacking in the film. Instead, it has several long, violent fights and scenes dripping blood. In addition to all these horrors come the comedy scenes, done in very poor taste.

The real hero, as far as ‘Nanda’ is concerned, is the fight master, who has choreographed some brilliant stunt scenes. Ramesh Babu's camerawork is good.

Shivaraj Kumar has done well as the action hero. Sandhya has nothing much to do in the female lead role. He same is the case with artistes like Avinash, Rangayana Raghu, Kishore, Sharath Lohitashwa and Vanitha Vasu have nothing different to do.