Maharadhi Telugu Movie
The movie Maharadhi opens with a serene scene in Nainital. And you begin to wonder perhaps this movie is going to be refreshingly different from the rest of Balakrishna's movies. But any such hope is speedily smothered to the ground by the sheer appearance of Balakrishna. He takes away any false hope of the movie being as cool as the locations it's shot in, the direction of Vasu not withstanding.
Director Vasu needs no introduction. He is the one that directed Chandramukhi. Vasu also directed Balakrishna's maiden movie Sahasame Jeevitham in 1984. There was a high level of expectation from the movie Maharadhi. But Vasu has created a movie only for the fans of Balakrishna. Other than them nobody else would like Maharadhi much. It's a bit too much to tolerate the ranting and raving of Balakrishna, unless you belong to his fan club.
There is nothing novel in the plot. The director tries to woo the masses with dialogs and songs eulogizing the labor class.
Balu (Balakrishna) is a singer working in the college owned by Chaudhuri (Naresh). He acts as if he is very dedicated to Chaudhuri but joins a competing college run by Jayaprada. There he works as a dance coach with another identity: Kishna. Chaudhuri's daughter (Meera Jasmine) returns home after finishing her education. Jayaprada wants to beat Chaudhui's college in competition. Jayaprada asks Krishna to get Meera Jasmine to learn dance in her college. Krishna, who is also Balu, plays a love game. He seduces Meera Jasmine as Krishna with his charm and as Balu he prompts Meera to love Krishna.
Things become so intense that finally Chaudhury comes to know about his daughter's love affair. He is incensed that his daughter has fallen in love with his rival's dance master. But Meera Jasmine is firm in her love. So the hapless father goes to meet his rival Jayaprada.
Then surprise and a small flashback # 1: Naresh and Jayapada were husband and wife once. To protect their daughter's interest they both confront dance master Krishna. Surprise # 2: Krishna who is also Balu has done all this purposely. The reason: flashback # 2 that forms the entire second half of the movie.
Balakrishna as usual dramatizes every scene that he acts in. Sneha and Meera Jasmine have done their jobs well. But the lady who steals the show is Jayaprada who returns to the Telugu screen after almost a decade. She has mellowed with age and looks as gorgeous as ever.
Music is average and with Balakrishna around nobody else gets a chance to do any comedy. Maharadhi has nothing new to offer other than a fresh looking Jayaprada and flashes of brilliance in direction by P Vasu.
