Gopi Gopika Godavari

Story

A different romantic tale, the story is about Gopi (Venu) a singer with the orchestra band and he is a man with a heart of gold. He is always helpful to others and in one such instance, he helps a girl who is a very close friend of Gopika (Kamalini). Gopika is a doctor and she runs a mobile clinic at Polavaram, she has a boat which travels to various villages on the riverside of Godavari and treats the villagers. A tragedy happens and Gopi and Gopika get to speak to each other over the mobile phone. Soon, their conversations increase and also their attachment. Though they don’t see each other, they tend to fall in love and Gopika’s mother Varalakshmi (Jayalalitha) decides to meet Gopi to see if he is reliable enough. Gopi decides to come and meet Gopika but on the way, an unexpected event happens leaving Gopi with memory loss. What happens from there forms the rest of the story.

Performances

Venu has given an energetic performance but he could have worked on his expressions during emotional scenes. Kamalini looked seductive and perfect for the role and she could have put in some more energy to her role. Jayalalitha was neat, Jeeva was standard, Pradeep Shakti was apt, Krishna Bhagawan was excellent, the other artistes gave a lot of light hearted comedy with their acts.

Technical aspects

The dialogues were the highlight and they were filled with wit and intelligence. The script was alright but the screenplay was not upto the mark. Music scored very well in terms of songs but the background score was a disturbance at few scenes. Cinematography was a disappointment as it could not give the required visual splendor considering the locations. Editing could not maintain a smooth process and many scenes looked abrupt. Re-recording was not in sync. Art department was top notch, costumes were effective, the other departments need no mention here.

Director’s portrayal

The director has shown his prowess in the narrative but then he should have focused on the presentation part which was jarry. He has been able to get the script in order but then the screenplay was not upto his level of caliber. He should have also worked on the climax bit to get the real feel of emotions as that was the key for the entire movie. He could have worked on getting a better performance from the lead pair so that the chemistry was felt better by the audience. He has focused on the content part but at some points his narrative took a back seat but then he did not miss out on his trademark scenes.

Critic’s view

The film comes across as a refreshing piece of romance tale and it has shown how mobiles can make people fall in love without looking at each other. However, while the first half looked quite breezy and quick with good doses of comedy and dialogues with double entendres, the second half loses the pace and gets into a serious mode and also few doses of sentiment and melodrama. While the light hearted part was taken very well, the real feel was missing during the serious scenes and it could have been a lot better in terms of the emotional scenes. The film has been made with a typical Vamsi flavor and if only the presentation and technical values were in a better shape, it could have worked out more impressively.

Verdict

Passable entertainer, one time watch

Released On: 10/07/2009