Movie Review - Manam (Telugu) - An emotional upheaval

A veteran actor lamenting about his legacy for not going down too well with the present generation; the characters switching their real names in their reel avatar; a date, time and place establishing a karmic connection with the stories happening in different timelines, which are spread across a century; and above all, reliving the nostalgic moments that are part of everyone’s life. You remember the sweet ones and try to forget the harsh ones, but everything offers a slice-of-life treat… Welcome to the magical world of Manam.

The film injects a fresh dose of life to the umpteen tales on ‘past life regression’. If that can be called a genre in the tinsel land, it’s one. Manam opens in 1983 with the troubled marriage of Radha Mohan (Naga Chaitanya) and Krishna Veni (Samantha). They shoot a video of their 6 year old son’s birthday and what follows is a weird turn of events. In the present, we have Nageswara Rao / Bittu (Nagarjuna), a businessman who’s recipient of President’s award. Bittu through a strange coincidence meets Nagarjuna (Naga Chaitanya) and Priya (Samantha) and they hold an important place in his life. In another such lucky accident, he chances upon Anjali (Shriya) and Chaitanya (Nageswara Rao). Both of them take the story to a pre-independent era. How these characters in different timelines are related to each other forms the crux of the film.

Manam is one of those few films that stay true to its promising trailer and serves as a perfect homage to legendary ANR. Though his role is short, it’s sweet and endearing for its memorable lines and fun-filled on screen moments with Nag and Chaitu. Nagarjuna stands as a focal point for the film and it’s altogether surprising to see Naga Chaitanya overflowing with hilarity. Some part of the second half belongs to the village belle and suave doctor Shriya Saran. The scenes involving Nag-Samantha and Nag-Chaitu are an outcome of classy writing and execution. Arguably, Nagarjuna gives his career best performance in the role of Nageswara Rao.

Director Vikram Kumar takes a pat on his back for the way he took a success formula which’s old as mountains and sprinkled it with condiments of chance, destiny, humor, emotion, romance, reincarnation etc. The believable and likable character sketches call for applause. The writing is borderline humorous and never goes overboard to gush slapstick.

Harsha Vardhan sets the emotive groove with his razor sharp dialogue -

Chepithene prema vundani kaadu kaani... Prema vunnappudu cheppaali.

Inko kshanam praanam nilabadithe cheppaali anukunna chivari maata... 
Ippudu ninnu choodagaane cheppaali anukunna modati maata! 

At many places, the director exudes a Balachander-meets-Maniratnam class in his scene composition. In this odyssey, he is aided by master craftsmen P S Vinod and Anup Rubens in cinematography and music department respectively. 

The movie also has its share of shortcomings – few actors of the likes of Brahmanandam, Posani and Ali don’t get a meaty chunk of screen space and end up biting the dust in poorly written roles. If Lavanya Tripathi's cameo seems to be far-fetched, another cringe-worthy scenario is the conflict resolution between Chaitu and Samantha's character in the latter half. Things would have been great if beautifully erected sets and halogen balloons become the causative factors to square something off. The climax also falls flat as a surreal yet silly, adorable yet artificial one. It seems the sole purpose of it is to introduce Akhil Akkineni. A nice show reel though!

 

With a volley of highs and lows, Manam transcends as an emotional upheaval laced with magical moments and memories. As an avid viewer of Telugu cinema, you may predict some stuff at the beginning, at interval and at many other places, but the magic lies in how the threads are woven into a gossamer tapestry.

Next time when you man up to say the three magical words, take a leaf from the word play of Manam. Then there won't be Nuvvu or Nenu. It will only be Manam.  

My Rating: Expectation – 9/10; Reality – 7/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper. 
An edited version of this piece can be found here.