Movie Review: Rangasthalam (Telugu movie)

Though team has made an attempt to make Rangasthalam an inspiring movie, it does not have enough story.

The story is focused a person who is trying to get relief to villagers from a political leader who has been cheating public for about three decades. Here is a quick story.

The story then shifts to a village, Rangasthalam. Chitti Babu is shown to be a partially deaf, light-hearted and jolly villager. He earns a living by watering irrigational lands of the farmers of Rangasthalam, using a motor which belongs to another villager and his best friend, Rangamma (Anasuya Bharadwaj), who he fondly calls Rangamma Atta (Aunt). Chitti Babu is in love with Ramalakshmi (Samantha Akkineni), who is the daughter of the village drunkard. Rangasthalam is shown to be run by the President (Jagapathi Babu), an influential and cruel landlord who runs the ‘Society’, which lends loans to farmers, but however, notes down higher amounts in the records and extracts high amounts from the poor farmers.

Chitti Babu’s elder brother, Kumar Babu (Aadhi Pinisetty) works in Dubai and is very fond of Chitti Babu. He arrives in Rangasthalam but is disappointed at the happenings in the village. Realizing there must be a change in power, Kumar Babu signs a nomination for the position of President of Rangasthalam, being the first to do so in over 30 years, with the help of MLA Dakshina Murthy, whose party Kumar Babu joins. Kumar Babu and Chitti Babu warn the President of the change in power in Rangasthalam. However, Rangamma tells Chitti Babu about her husband’s (Rajeev Kanakala) death, who was businessman based in Dubai. He was murdered brutally when he stood up against the President. Rangamma warns Chitti Babu saying that many others also faced the same consequences when they stood up against the President. Chitti Babu, feeling scared, decides to safeguard Kumar Babu fearing for the latter’s life. He even resorts to withdrawing the nomination, but realizes his brother’s ambitions for developing Rangasthalam.

Chitti Babu eventually stumbles on a suspicious group of men and realizes Kumar Babu is going to be killed. Kumar Babu, who had gone to meet his girlfriend, Padma (Pujita Ponnada) in the neighbouring town, is attacked by the President’s henchmen. Chitti Babu manages to save the heavily injured Kumar Babu, but when they stop at a local shop for turmeric to cover the injuries, another man comes and slits Kumar Babu’s throat, and he dies. But before he dies, Kumar Babu tries to communicate something to Chitti Babu which he could not understand. The President, fearing for his life, escapes from Rangasthalam, after which the attack on Dakshina Murthy takes place. Meanwhile, Rangamma is unanimously elected as the president of Rangasthalam.

The story now comes back to the present. Chitti Babu serves a comatose Dakshina Murthy for 2 whole years, without even going back to his village. Dakshina Murthy eventually wakes up from the coma, and two months later is elected as a minister. Chitti Babu visits him along with Ramalakshmi, where he reveals that he is aware that Dakshina Murthy is the murderer of Kumar Babu. Kumar Babu, in his last moments, had said “Srimannarayana” to Chitti Babu, who realizes it is the name of Dakshina Murthy’s assistant. Dakshina Murthy’s motive to murder Kumar Babu is revealed to be the latter’s relationship with Padma, who happens to be Dakshina Murthy’s daughter. Chitti Babu reveals he had already found Phanindra Bhoopathi hiding in Northern Rangasthalam and had beaten him to death, after which he wished to kill Dakshina Murthy when the latter was healthy and fit. Chitti Babu slits the throat of Dakshina Murthy, and walks away from his room and comes downstairs and goes to Rama Lakshmi and leave from there while Dakshina Murthy’s daughter Padma arrives with her newly married husband to meet her father.

While it’s true that such instances may still be happening in some rural areas, it could have been nice, if movie has made an attempt to showcase how the village got developed later with better leadership. It is not good to showcase how Chitti babu slits the throat of Dakshina Murthy. This kind of messaging inject wrong and criminal ideas to the youth. Instead, they could have demonstrated how law could have come to rescue.

Overall, regrettably, I don’t see value add in this movie but for thoughts sensing how youth can think of transformation.

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