Cameraman Ganga tho Rambabu review

When asked his opinion on Monty Panesar, the legendary leg spinner, Shane Warne said “Monty hasn’t played 33 Tests, he has played the same Test 33 times.” Hilarious, it surely was, but it also tells us that the lack of variety can never go unnoticed.

Puri Jagannadh is also treading the same path as Monty Panesar now. His movies have become monotonous. No two ways about it. Protagonist leading a normal life, rises in staure, opposes authority and finally, gets his way. This has been the standard flow in the majority of his movies. A more recent addition is the way they talk to/about women.

In spite of all these blemishes, there are moments of brilliance in the movie, depending on your perspective that is. The scene where Pawan Kalyan confronts Prakash Raj on his knowledge about Telugu Thalli and the scene where he explains to Tamannah that every man is a poet in his own right are pointers to a brilliant dialogue writer hidden in the reckless director that we have come to know in the recent past.

For all the similarities in the narration and the similarity in the characteristics of the protagonist, Puri does get the actor performing the role to do it in a manner not associated with him previously. Case in point would be Mahesh Babu, Prabhas, Gopichand, and now, Pawan Kalyan. He gets them out of their comfort zones when they act under his direction. Perhaps the reason why people still watch his movies.

Pawan Kalyan is surely trying to come out of the mould. He is normally associated with the jumpy characters. In this movie, he does everything. From being intense to being comic. From being self-assured to being shy. He understood the nuances of the character very well, reflected in the close-up shots and no drawl in the dialogue delivery. He is the backbone of the movie and carries it well. That he had a lot to do in the development of the project is seen in the appearance of ‘Che Guevera’ in the movie. During the title-roll, his name appears next to a photograph of Che and then there is a painted portrait of Che in the house that Pawan lives in. There are hard-hitting dialogues in the movie and he has delivered them with aplomb. In his scenes with Tammanah, one does recognise the uncanny resemblance to Chiranjeevi. The tilting of the face to the sides, the affirmative responses and  the facial expressions were all pointers to his brother’s acting in his prime.

Tamannah appeared in a tomboyish role and did very well. The dialogue delivery was jarring and robbed her of whatever brownie points she earned through the performance. On a slightly different note, she wasn’t needed in the movie as the director could’ve even done with a male performer in the same role. It was heartening to see that there was a lot lesser skin show from her in this movie. Her reference point in terms of body language seemed to be Varun Sandesh. The costumes she wore, the dialogues for her and the body language were all similar to that of the abovementioned hero.

Others did, what was expected out of them. The brief scene between Prakash Raj and Kota Srinivasa Rao stands out amongst all the scenes. As is the trend these days, there is a twist in the movie and also an acknowledgement to Lawrence’s Kanchana in a fight in the movie.

To actually try to give a message in a movie meant for entertainment is pretty much like trying to perfect Physics Lab experiments in a SUPW class. The scene where Pawan Kalyan advices Tamannah not to short-change her femininity is followed by a song where all Tamannah does is to provide an ample glimpse into the mid-riff area.

Watching this movie repeatedly might be an ardous task but having a dekho for the sake of Pawan Kalyan won’t be harmful, and yes, the title is uttered by Pawan Kalyan: once in the movie