Have you seen the hoardings and wall posters of this movie just before its release? Okay now, if you are a hardcore Rajni fan, then you must have already known something about the story, if not then you must be under big impression, this is another standard Rajini movie which would be rocked with his style and dialogues. Even you know little bit about the story, you would have definitely expected those great animated fights and his powerful dialogues from this movie. Let me please tell you, there is a different facet to this movie all together, JagapathiBabu ( Balu- the barber).
If I have to follow the standard movie review style then I have to mention something about the story here. But there is nothing great to tell you about the story. Okay accepted it’s a different story. Heard it’s a great script in Malayalam (apparently a super good movie too). But is it really a working script for a commercially successful movie? I doubt. I think that’s the reason why I found more art movie shades here and there in the movie. The story simply tells you about two childhood friends, one is now in super star stature(Played by Rajini) and another one is an insignificant barber in some remote village(Played by Jagapathi). They got separated due to circumstances and after so many years SuperStar comes to the village where our barber lives, for a movie shooting. What happens next and how our barber meets up with the SuperStar is the story.
First half of the movie is enjoyable. We have Sunil, Dharmavarapu with his gang, Ali and few other comedians to take make the movie balanced from Jagapathi Babu family problems and sentiments. Jagapathi Babu has done a really fine job in the ill-fated barber’s role and Meena (barbers wife) is just adequate as a supporting wife of an unlucky barber. However the second half of the movie is too draggy and sentimental, I could hardly digest it. There is no much comedy, not many heart touching scenes rather than just the effort to fill the length of the movie. The climax is very touching, if you like sentiment you will appreciate it. But if you are fun loving types, I think it will be too heavy on you.
Coming to the real super star, when I heard about the movie I just expected Rajni’s guest appearance in the movie, however he has a full length character as SuperStar AshokKumar in the movie. As he played his real life character, there is no much scope to fill the movie with all those stunts and dialogues. No worries, director successfully pulled those as part of the movie shooting that’s happening in the village, fans need not to get disappointed, you will get you spoon of Rajni in this movie too and moreover you would see real life Rajini(additional benefit ha..). No doubt he comparatively has few scenes in the whole movie, but in those scenes Rajni looked awesome. Couple of songs where he shake his legs are enjoyable. Yeah there is Nayantara too in this movie to dance for a rain song and to share screen with Rajini in a song and 2 scenes. These 2 scenes are spoofs of 2 famous movies are really good.
Finally, If you just want to see Rajini, nobody can stop you from watching the film and if you are really a good fan of Rajni, you should watch this film, you might get to know his real life a little bit. Please don’t expect all the Rajini standard stunts and dialogues from this movie, and then probably you won’t get disappointed. For me, its a different movie more inclined toward an art movie with some heavy sentiment at the end. You can try this if you are ready to come out of the theatre with that heavy sigh.
Sastry’s Rating for Kathanayakudu : 2 and half out of five.
