Director Dasari Narayana Rao made a sensation of sorts announcing his 150th directorial movie, Parama Veera Chakra with Balakrishna. This is the first time that Balakrishna has teamed up with the veteran director. Interestingly both of them have some success to talk about last year. Balakrishna’s Simha was the biggest hit from Telugu movies in 2010, and Dasari won the Nandi Award for his performance in Mestri. How will they begin the New Year? Let’s see

What’s it about: Chakradhar (Balakrishna) is a famous movie actor, though his mother (Jayasudha) doesn’t approve of his celebrity status. Instead she yearns to see her son as a Major in the Army, true to the promise she has given to Bobbili Puli (NTR – Yes the real NTR!). As Chakradhar dons various roles, an army Colonel Jeetendra (Murali Mohan) tells him that he has a story in which he wants Chakradhar to act. The Colonel narrates him a story of an army major – Major Jay Simha (Balakrishna). However, there is a catch. Major Jay Simha is not a fictional character, but a real time army man who looks ditto like Chakradhar, and valiantly arrested a dreaded terrorist – Abdul Ghani. Tragedy is Jay Simha is now in a vegetable state (on ventilation), thanks to a conspiracy plotted by politicians, few army men and terrorists themselves. Colonel Jeetendra asks Chakradhar to act like Major to ensure that the nation’s security plans are not compromised. How Chakradhar attacks the terrorists and how he brings back the honor of the Major forms the rest of the story.

What is Good: Right at the beginning of the movie there is a five minute scene taken from the climax of NTR’s Bobbuli Puli. The screenplay of Parama Veera Chakra cleverly merges with Bobbili Puli’s story and this is enough to get audience, especially Balakrishna fans, hooked right away.

That said this movie completely belongs to one person - Balakrishna. From the moment he enters the screen, Balayya single handedly and sometimes courageously carries the movie on his shoulders. He is exceptional in the role of Ravana Brahma, and gives powerful performance in various roles in the movie. Neha Dhupia, as the firebrand Razia Sultana from Pakistan, performs well within her limitations. What’s appreciable is that she did her own voice dubbing.

Comedy of Brahmanandam and Ali as ‘Cheddi the Robot’ (spoof of Rajinikanth’s Robo) brings some laughs.

What is bad: The screenplay of the movie is disappointing. Inspite of a clever start it falls into its trap as writer-director Dasari employs clichéd tactics. The entire first half goes by as a collection of few scenes, and the story hardly moves forward. Unnecessary songs halt the progress of the movie in the second half, even as the flashback story of Major Jay Simha goes on and on. Dasari’s women always had strong roles, but it seems the roles of the three women in this movie have been written in a hurry. Ameesha Patel looks old, and it seems she hardly is the actor she once was. Sheela’s character is confusing and Neha Dhupia was there for some skin show and a fight! The roles of Krishna Bhagawan, Raghu Babu, L.B. Sriram, Venu are too minor and unnecessary. Senior actors like Jayasudha, Vijay Kumar, Murali Mohan and Vijay Chandar, even though they have good roles, look out of place in loud roles.

Infact, while it is expected that almost all Balakrishna’s movies are loud and extravagant, the movie is way too over the top!

Technical Departments: : As already mentioned, Dasari’s screenplay is old fashioned though some of his dialogues make an impact right away. He also wrote songs which are filled with words that were more common in early 80s, and even Mani Sharma’s music can’t help them. Almost all songs fail to interest audiences. As usual Mani Sharma tries his best with rerecording but sloppy editing makes the movie too long. Sets erected in some scenes seem like ‘movie sets’ in just one glimpse. That says a lot about Cinematography team and Art department too!

Director Dasari Narayana Rao always had powerful dialogues to support his script, and this time he had a unique concept too. However, he fails to make the necessary impact as he plays to the gallery using too many contrived situations!

Final Point: Parama Veera Chakra is a movie for true blue Balakrishna fans, others can watch it their own risk!

Click here for Parama Veera Chakra Review 2