Anusha's Blog

Spoiler Alert: Don’t read this review unless you have already watched the movie, or you want to spoil your opportunity to watch movie with your own thoughts.


Story:
Note: I had a hard time tell the story of this movie as it is complex. Excuse me, if I confuse you.

The story starts in a village with the discussion of who the next village president will be. Some goons revolt against the next president and want their own leader to be president. The current president, to prevent violence, steps aside from the elections so that there will be no elections or any fighting. However, his son, Keshava(Ravi Prakash) participates in the election in place of his father and his followers support him. Lokesh(Sai Kumar) is a
main person among his followers; he is like a right hand to Keshava. Lokesh himself has an important henchman, Bhasha. The goons react to the Keshava running for president by stabbing him. Lokesh and Bhasha try to save Keshava, but he fails to survive. In anger Lokesh goes and kills the goons’ leader. Lokesh tries to comfort Keshava’s father saying that his is there for him like a son. Keshava’s father requests Lokesh to become his adopted son and marry Keshava’s wife, Savitri (Pavitra Lokesh) and take care of Keshava’s daughter Valli(Surekha Vani) and son Mitra(Shrawanand). Lokesh agrees to Keshava’s father’s request. While this decision angers Valli, Mitra is happy have Lokesh as his father. Soon, Lokesh and Savitri have a son Chinna(Sundeep Kishan). Valli starts to hate Chinna as well, while Mitra takes care of him. Lokesh decide to leave the village and go to the city.

The story moves ahead to all the three kids grown up to be adults. Lokesh grows immensely in politics. Mitra follows Lokesh’s footstep in politics. Valli becomes a doctor and is married with two kids, and still hates Lokesh, Savitri, and Chinna. She only communicates with Mitra. Chinna finishes college and is job less with a drug problem. He hates everyone in his family. He hates his father Lokesh for not letting him into politics as he is impatient and spontaneous. He hates his step-brother Mitra for taking his position next to his father. He hates Valli for not caring for him and hating him. He feels like everyone in his family hates him; therefore he hates them all back.

In the mean while, Lokesh starts getting more corrupt in politics and makes Mitra stay away so that he doesn’t oppose. After a series of events, Chinna rapes and murders Bhasha’s daughter. Bhasha leaves Lokesh and sets out to murder Chinna. Lokesh hires a cop to kill Bhasha to save Chinna. The post mortem of Bhasha’s daughter is done by Valli. Chinna begs her to save him, but she refuses out of pity for the girl. Chinna’s hatred bursts and he ends up killing Valli and her husband. Lokesh tries to protect Chinna more. On the other hand, Mitra sets out to kill Chinna: however, he fails to kills him as Chinna is his brother. Instead Bhasha gets hold of Chinna and murders him. Upon learning that Chinna is dead, Lokesh is devastated. He orders the cop to kill off Mitra and Bhasha. Bhasha saves Mitra and kills the cop. He then explains to Mitra that Lokesh murdered Keshava to marry Savitri and grow politically. Mitra proceeds to meet Lokesh and tells him that there is one right thing that should be done now,which is killing Lokesh. However, Mitra proceeds to tell him and he cannot kill Lokesh, as he thought of him as his father. Mitra leaves Lokesh to go off in his own path. Lokesh, after listening to Mitra, commits sucide.

Comparisions:
I want to draw some comparisons between the great epic of Mahabharath and Prasthanam. I will concentrate more on Prasthanam, and will refer to characters in Prasthanam with the Mahabharath characters they correspond to. For example, the character Lokesh, played by Sai Kumar,, is similar to Dritharastra. I will mention this and start referring to Lokesh as Dritharastra. This way you can have a better understanding for my comparisons.

1. Keshava character, played by Ravi Prakash, is similar to Pandu. He is brave and dies early in the story. Modern twist to Pandu is that his last wish is for Dritharastra(2) to marry Kunti(3).

2. Lokesh character, played by Sai Kumar, is similar to Dritharastra. He wants the best for his own son (5). The modern twist to the story is that Dritharastra is responsible for Pandu’s(1) death. After Pandu’s death, he marries Kunti and has his own son with her. Our modern Dritharastra is a little smarter. He makes sure to be on the good side of Pandava (4). Moreover, he gains Pandava’s love so much that Pandava can’t hurt him even after finding out the evil side of Dritharastra.

3. Savitri character, played by Pavitra Lokesh, is not much similar to Kunti; however, I would like to refer to her as Kunti because she is the one widowed. Modern twist to Kunti is that she is forced to marry twice. Her first marriage is with Pandu(1) and they have two kids – Pandava(4) and Dussala(6). Her second marriage is with Dritharastra(2) and they have a kid – Duryodhana(5).

4. Mitra character, played by Shrawanand, is similar to Pandavas, expect here we have all five as one. He is intelligent, patient, honest, strong and more. He loves his family and can’t harm them regardless of their sins. Modern twist to his anger is that his father (Pandu) is murdered by his step-father(Dritharastra), who he adores, and his sister(Dussala) and brother-in-law are murdered by his step-brother, who is takes care of. Like the pandavas, he is not too comfortable fighting his own family; however, he has to fight for the truth.

5. Chinna character, played by Sundeep Kishan, is simlar to Kauravas, expect here we only have one so he is Duryodhana. While Duryodhana in Mahabharat has some good qualities, like his loyalty to Karna, Chinna has none. Duryodhana in Prasthanam wants to be the heir of his father’s political career. However, he is shot down by his father for his lack of thinking and patience. His downfall starts when he rapes and murders Draupadi(7). More over, out of hatred he murders Dussala(6) and tries to kill Pandava(4). Instead, he ends up getting murdered by Karna(8).

6. Valli character, played by Surekha Vani, is similar to Dussala; I know Dussala is Dritharastra’s daughter but please bear with me. The similarities I saw are that Dussala likes Pandavas over Kauravas. Valli likes Mitra over Chinna and she is the only girl in the entire family of Kauravas and Pandavas.

7. Two characters in Prasthanam that reminded me of Draupadi are Nadhiya and Valli. Nadhiya character, played by Reshmi, is similar to Draupadi because she is the reason things start falling apart for Duryodhana(5) and Dritharastra(2). Modern twist is that she is raped and murdered by some she trusted and “loved”, which is Duryodhana. On the other hand, Valli character is also similar to Draupadi, as her death angers Pandava more than the death of Nadhiya.

8. Bhasha character is similar to Karna. Modern twist is that he is loyal to Dritharastra, instead of Duryodhana. He doesn’t rebel against Dritharastra’s wrong actions. However, when he learns that his daughter Nadhiya(7) is murdered by Duryodhana(5), he rebels and seeks to kill Duryodhana. He also becomes loyal to Pandava(4) and reveals to him the true face of Dritharastra(2).

My Opinion:
Story of the movie impressed me immensely. Hats off to Deva Katta for this wonderful piece of art. Sai Kumar did a remarkable job, like always. Shrawanand has another amazing movie in his career after Gamyam. He played his character well. Sundeep Kishan is really good as the bad guy. I felt pity and hatred for his character in the movie, which is a unique combination of emotions for one character.

I enjoyed how they underplayed the political aspect of the movie and showed more of the family matters. Comedy is perfect amount and nothing too irritating. The decision to remove some songs from the movie is a great, as the songs will destroy the feel of the movie. Only first and last songs are good songs in the movie. The college and diwali songs are okay. Remaining songs are pointless and irritating.

Overall: Movie is excellent. It is a MUST WATCH.