Om Namo Venkatesaya (2017) User Reviews

Om Namo Venkatesya is another rare film for devotees and award winning performance of Nagarjuna and terrific direction by Raghavendra Rao does not disappoint.

[shobanchittuprolu · 7/10 · 11 February 2017]

Om Namo Venkatesaya (2017): India is a diverse country with number of Gods which in turn created number of religions and groups.Mythology and devotional stories of India are famous all over the world.There are very few directors who can bring those larger than life stories onto screen. K.Raghavendra rao is one of the rare ones who is expert in making devotional movies without missing any commercial elements.His Annamayya and Sri Ramadasu are considered classics and fans of both Nagarjuna and Raghavendra Rao always expect a devotional movie from them.But their last combo Shiridi Sai failed to impress critics and fans alike.Now they are back with bio-pic of Hathiram Baba,a devotee of Lord Venkateshwara, who is said to have created rules and regulations on Tirumala Hills.

Plot:

Right from his childhood days, Ram(Nagarjuna) takes upon a journey to make contact with the eternal powers of the god. He joins the ashram of Padmananda Swamy(Sai Kumar) in Tirumala and gets enlightened about Lord Venkateswara and his spiritual powers. To seek more divinity, he reaches the main temple in Tirumala and starts praying for the lord.There he meets another devotee Krishnamma (Anushka) who helps him for changing Tirumala into a much devotional place.God answers his prayers as lord Venkateswara himself appears before him and acknowledges his sincerity. During the same time, there are many other criminal factors that Ram needs to face in the temple town. What are those problems? What kind of relation does Ram share with lord Venkateswara? How did he become Hathi Ram Baba?

Plus Points:

1)Performances: This is one of Nag's best performances to date and the way he plays the emotional devotee of Lord Venkateswara will mesmerize you completely. Be it his longing to meet the lord to his facial expressions, Nag takes you on an emotional journey. But the major surprise is Saurabh Jain as the Lord Venkateshwara Swamy has worked perfectly. He is superb in the role.Saurabh Jain as the Lord Venkateshwara Swamy has worked perfectly. He is superb in the role. The way the young actor brings divinity to his character is superb and his chemistry with Nag throughout the film is just amazing.Anushka gets a good role and does decently well in her character.

2)Scenes between Hathiram and Lord Venkateshwara: The scenes between Hathi Ram and Lord Venkateshwara are spellbinding.Their chemistry is really superb and the Game of Dice (Pachikalu) are well shown.Especially the light-hearted devotion mixed with good humor added a good feel to the scenes.

3)Background score: Keeravani had given good background score which elevated the movie in most of the scenes.

4)Direction: This can be only achieved by one and only K.Raghavendra Rao.No words......

Minus Points:

1)Lot of unnecessary scenes: Especially the flashback episode of Jagapathi Babu and Anushka is boring and has nothing to do with the movie.The comedy track of Brahmanandham and loud Villain role by Rao Ramesh is irritating.

2)Average songs: Except Akhilanda Koti,all the other songs are just average.If the music could have been good,movie would be more emotionally touching.

3)Lack of emotion in climax: Annamayya and Ramadasu have emotional climax episodes which played key role bit here it is missing.

So,Om Namo Venkatesya is another rare film for devotees and award winning performance of Nagarjuna and terrific direction by Raghavendra Rao does not disappoint.

My rating 6.75/10

a little oldschool but a cinematic treat

[poulomihari · 8/10 · 17 February 2017]

Well how do I start? I am a north Indian with absolutely no idea about Telegu language. Though I have seen a lot of Telegu movies but they were all dubbed in Hindi. I was pretty aware of Nagarjun and Anushka Shetty. But never in my life had I gone specially to a theatre to watch a Telegu movie.

But the reason I still went to see it in PVR was for Saurabh Raj Jain, the shy and humble television actor who roped in to stardom due to his role of Lord Krishna in Mahabharat. I am huge fan of him and I duely wsh him all the prosperity of the world. As I saw him in the teaser of the film, my heart was prepared to spell money on the film.

But a devotional a film is not much my type, nor is musical. This movie is both, and that too in Sanskritic Telegu! Thankfully, the music was soulful. It didn't bore me with jarring 20th century mixes or honey sing raps (which are TORTURE). Top that, I didn't know the language, hence the lyrics didn't bire me either. The subtitles were simple and overall I was drawn to a very different ecstatic divine world where everything is joyful.

The character of Hathiram Babaji is a bliss. It is simply enigmatic and it touches your heart. No one could have pulled off the character as good as Nagarjuna. He shined brilliantly, like a true devotee. His looks, his grace, and his devotion to the Lord Balaji was in simple words: Spellbinding.

Krishnamma played by Anushka Sharma was a rather small character whose only job was to "support". She cant be called the lead here. But the time frame she stays there, she makes the most of it.

Now coming to the main guy around whom the movie revolves, Lord Venkateshwara, was the highlight. Saurabh has a serene look on his face. A kind of innocence and piousness which all together looks divine. With the make-up and everything he looks so enigmatic that if I had to imagine God, I would rather imagine his face! He didn't know the language and his voice was dubbed. Yet his expressions were exactly how they should be.

I loved the sequence when the sthala purana of Venkateshwara was recreated. Saurabh gleamed (as always) as Lord Balaji. And I must say he did an equally brilliant job as our star Nagarjuna.

The cinematography was the real protagonist of the film. It is a cinematic treat, with the canvas painted with green mountains and waterfalls, dark clouds, thousands of oil lamps, colourful silks, gold, and raw divinity. The VFX was also commendable. The director seriously portrayed every bit of his imagination.

The only turnoff was the masala content: Two romantic songs which were plainly dream sequences. They were not required at all. And the loud comedy, which is too old for this new generation.

I agree that a devotinal film is not targeted to the young audience. But yet, the younger generation is not so bad. We love discussing logical interpretation of scriptures. Hence this movie could have been better only if, instead of perky songs they would have accpunted for some really good thought provoking conversations between Hathiram and Balaji.

Overall its a great movie. Its a fresh breeze of lotus (coz lotus is the most divine flower) admist the ugly mound of commercial cinema garbage. Watch it, if you want some Godly feeling to soothe your inner wounds.