Mangala – Telugu Movie Review

The beginning seems to be very absorbing..the story scares you initially but the scares becomes virtually nonexistent as Mangala moves ahead. Osho Tulasiram tells all in the first half an hour and doesn’t know what to do with the rest of the film. Even if he had revealed the plot entirely, he doesn’t show the skill to keep the interest sustained throughout.

In Mangala we follow a strange looking Pradeep Rawat into his home where his grown-up son means everything to him. The son needs money to shower it over a movie star and the father does the most gruesome act of killing a kid through black magic and he doles out the money he gets in return to fulfill his son’s wish. In a striking metaphorical scene the director shows the sinful man feeding his son the ill-gotten wealth in a huge vessel and the son later taking it over as a gift to the film actress. The actress mistakes him for an erring fan and hurts him that leads him to poison himself. Pradeep Rawat is now on a mission to take revenge on the actress because he thinks she is responsible for his son’s death.

That’s the end of the story. The next half is about how the actress is possessed through black magic and what is done to free her from the agony, who helps her out through the trauma?

Charmi is unbelievably and appropriately dynamic, looks really good and acts well but all her effort goes in vain in a story that looks contrived and an unbearable drag. A mosquito gets into Charmi’s left nostril, exits after a while from the right after a tour inside her tummy and soon after she vomits blood. For a moment one begins to think the mosquito must have raped her and she might have thrown up as a follow up act. The rest of her antics, how the black magic comes in her favour when surrounded by goons at a tea stall in the midst of a field is simply dramatic and incredible. The scene looks lovingly and sincerely made for the floor audiences.

When Charmi is not flying in the air or falling on cactus she shakes her ass in songs for reasons that only her choreographer can understand. In one scene she drinks tea and tells her Man Friday..idhi kooda nee laage chedhu ga undhi, sounding like a baby. You then wonder if she is acting in the film Mangala or in the film Pellikoothuru Nalla Cheera. Some bad direction this.

The driver’s son’s role Subbu (or is he the driver?) is very strange, very seldom do we get to see domestic helps sharing bed with mistress of the house, he jumps onto her bed because an insect gets into his ear. Don’t mistake his intentions, he has only concern and nothing more than that for his madam, he even wears a heap of charms and amulets around his wrist to ward of the evil spirit. Some day he declares he will become a mass hero and you dread that could be his plan to improve his status to get close to her. Even while you stretch your imagination as such characters come in and go out, Charmi approaches Pradeep Rawat with an apology because only he can save her.

What happens after that, don’t ask. If you are Charmi’s fan do see the film for the amount of acting and screaming she does. There’s a horrible scene in the beginning, that of Pradeep Rawat beheading a kid with so much ease and in such a casual way that it just makes you numb. Uttej shines more through his expressions in this story as a hapless producer, does a natural act of being harassed by a Tamil director.

Mangala in short is a paragon of boredom, repulses you with it’s mediocre content and execution.

Cast & Crew:

Banner: Manthra Entertainments

Cast: Charmi, Pradeep Ravath, Subhash, Vijaya Sai, Pavala Shyamala, Uttej, Sarika Ramachandra Rao and others

Direction: Osho Tulasi Ram

Production: Osho Tulasi Ram

Music: Viswa

Source: Cinegoer