Chattam Review: Jagapathi Babu Kills

Film: Chattam
Rating: 2/5
Banner: Visakha Talkies
Cast: Jagapathi Babu, Vimala Raman, Murali Sharma and others
Music: P M M Srilekha
Cinematography: Jaswant
Editing: Gautham Raju
Story, screenplay, direction: P A Arun Prasad
Producers: Natti Kumar, T Rama Satyanarayana
Release date: 25/03/2011

Noted actor Jagapathi Babu is back and this time he is donning the role of a cop. He is flanked by his regular favorite Vimala Raman so let us see how the movie is.

Story:

Gowri Shankar (Jagapathi Babu) is a police inspector and he believes in doing settlements, taking commissions for his work and is corrupted. He is assisted by his constable Ranga Rao (Jeeva).

A case of acid attack on college students and the kidnapping of a girl and her killing brings some tension but things get complicated as the criminals in both cases are also killed. In comes CB-CID officer (Murali Sharma) to investigate the deaths and he is assisted by Gowri.

His investigations lead him to discover that Gowri is the killer. Why does Gowri kill them?

Why he decides to kill even the dreaded terrorist Hasab (Amit Dhawan)? All this forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Jagapathi Babu does his bit as required and it is a cakewalk for him. As such, there is nothing impact creating from him and he goes about doing his job mechanically.

Vimala Raman is there to add the glamour for the songs and indulge in some skin show. Though she doesn’t have that sort of body or curves to flaunt her sexy appeal is quite natural.

Murali Sharma is a natural performer. He is a strong talent who deserves more chances. He does his bit effectively and has a strong screen presence.

Asha Saini looks sizzling and seductive, she has that oomph which can raise the heat. Jeeva was usual. Amit Dhawan was eccentric. Ravu Ramesh was consistent. The others didn’t have much to do.

Highlights:

    * Last ten minutes
    * Murali Sharma performance

Drawbacks:

    * Weak direction
    * Predictable storyline
    * Low technical values
    * No grip in any scene
    * No comedy
    * Dull romance

Analysis:

To start with, director PA Arun Prasad must be appreciated for involving the terrorist Ajmal Kasab in his film and the fact that our hero goes and kills him. Apart from that, the rest of the film has taken the lead from the acid attack cases on Praneetha (whose killers were encountered by police as wished in this film) and the boiler killing of the little girl Vyshnavi in Vijayawada.

Just like a director has his strokes in a film, PA Arun Kumar shows his strokes by creating some raunchy scenes and inferior comedy. Overall, the film’s attempt to convey a strong message is appreciable but the logic and the way the message was conveyed was not practical.

It is true that looking at the present day functioning of law and order, citizens tend to incline towards tribal law that states ‘an eye for an eye’ and a ‘life for a life’. But the consequences of that are to be studied. That is a very big debatable issue indeed.

At the box office, there is nothing that the film has to hold the audience so the chance of below average result is high.