After almost a wait of three years Mahesh Babu returns to the silver screen, and it is almost the similar time that the director Trivikram Srinivas took to make another film. With such great combination enticing the audiences, there are some heavy expectations from ‘Mahesh Khaaleja’. With names like Anushka, Mani Sharma, Sunil, Brahmanandam, Ali the hype around the movie doesn’t get any bit lower. Let’s see if the film makes the impression.

What’s it about: Alluri Sita Rama Raju (Mahesh Babu) is a taxi driver with a call taxi company in Hyderabad. Every time he meets Subhashini (Anushka), things go completely wrong for him, and his car has to pay the price. This keeps irritating Raju’s boss, and his anger finds no leaps when Raju’s cab is completely destroyed because of a murder. Raju is sent to collect money for the car repairs all the way to Rajasthan. Raju meets Subhashini there again, who seems to carry all the bad luck because this time Raju is stabbed, and faces certain death.

Parallel to this story runs the story of Siddha (Shafi) and his village priest (Rao Ramesh). They live in a village names Pali, where one by one people are dying. Rao Ramesh predicts that a hero will come to save their village of 534 people, and that Siddha has to find the God who saves his village.

When Raju is at the death’s door, Siddha finds all the indications pointing that he is the God he was searching. How Siddha saves his God, is Raju really a God and what strange connection do all these people have forms the rest of the story.

What is Good: Mahesh Babu is terrific. He makes it up to his fans big time. The actor in him finally comes out as balances loudness and subtlety like a pro. He’s got amazing comedy timing and his seriousness has already been seen in his previous films. For a moment in the film he shows his tummy, and it will not be long before his girl fans will ask him to do a Salman Khan act!

Inspite of Anushka’s ravishing looks, and great cinematography it is Mahesh Babu who carries the film on his shoulders. He does comedy, he does the action, and he is key to all the drama that is their in the film.

There is a scene between Prakash Raj and Rao Ramesh that looks like clash of the titans. Shafi makes the best of the chance he is given, and the likes of Ali, Sunil, Brahmanandam, Subbaraju give a decent performance.

What is bad: There is nothing really bad about the film, that doesn’t mean that the film is a great one. Too much of emphasis is given to comedy, when the storyline is quite novel. The protagonist is called God, and the entire second half tries hard to justify that theory though not quite convincingly. When hero is elevated to the level of God, the villain needs to be the devil. There in lies ‘Mahesh Khaaleja’s biggest problem, because the villain’s presence is too short in this almost three hour long film!

Technical Departments: : Cinematography is good and it is matched evenly with editing. Background score by Mani Sharma works well with the narrative. The expenditure on the songs is quite visible, though only ‘Piliche…’ makes an impression. Whoever designed Mahesh’s and Anushka’s wardrobes did a commendable job. They both look million bucks each, if not more!

Trivikram Srinivas’ seems to redefine witticism with his dialogues. He does a fair job as a screenplay writer. However as a director he focuses more on presenting Mahesh Babu than as a story teller.

Final Point: The fun of having a great star, a talented director and equally good cast and crew can be seen and felt through out the film. However, the treatment of the film could have been better. Watch it for Mahesh, Mahesh and Mahesh.

Tail Piece: Please don’t compare it to ‘Robo’. Shankar-Rajnikanth managed to bring Hollywood experience with pure Indian masala. ‘Mahesh Khaaleja’ on the other hand is true blue Tollywood entertainer.