Sri Hari’s latest film ‘Dasanna’ is an outdated film both conceptually and also technically. Directed by DSP, the film has been produced by Natti Kumar. The film also stars Meena, Raghuvaran and Suman in important roles. ‘Dasanna’ narrates the story of a Zamindar and his trusted henchman, Das who would even give his life for his master.

What is it about : Raghuvaran stars as the Zamindar of a village, who’s evil at heart and has a voracious sexual appetite. Das (Sri Hari) is one of his henchmen and Das grows up to be a strong and most trusted henchman in his house. Das is good at heart and believes that his master is God and can do no wrong. Elsewhere, Meena who hails from different village is in her prime and her brother Suman begins searching for a suitable groom. In an interesting twist to the tale, Meena’s brother proposes a marriage between Meena and Sri Hari without Sri Hari’s knowledge; from that moment onwards Meena dreams about Sri Hari. One day, during a village carnival, Raghuvaran happens to see Meena and immediately decides to bed her. Will Sri Hari come to Meena’s rescue? How does Raghuvaran handle this whole issue? This forms the rest of the story.

What is Good: The story of the film especially the dilemma of the heroine whether to marry the man of her dreams or a rich but old man is well written. Besides this, the motive behind the deeds which the characters enact is well conceived. The lead actors in the film especially Raghuvaran, Sri Hari and Meena deliver credible performances in the second half of the film.

What is Bad: The dialogues in the film, especially those featuring Posani Krishna Murali, are unintentionally funny and some even make us cringe. ‘Dasanna’ is also a film where the actors and actresses aren’t handled as per the script which results in too much of hamming. The first half of the film just falls apart quite literally and the scenes between Meena and her family are baffling to even imagine. The film’s technically from a bygone era and almost everything in the film gives the impression that it’s a TV serial made with the budget of a feature film.

Bottom Line: The film had been lying in cans for a long time and it’s only now that it has been released. The concept of the film although good at heart is too outdated and it gives that déjà vu feeling of having seen it before. It could have been a more relevant film had it released a decade earlier. For now, ‘Dasanna’ will only be remembered for several legendary dialogues in the film and one of them being, ‘Aadavalla ki okka saari medalo thaali padithe, juttu ki chundru patti natte’!