Story :
Ammiraju (Mukesh Rishi) kidnaps Sravanthi (Pragathi), sister of a deadly goon Bhavani (Abhimanyu Singh). Ammiraju’s brother Vijay (Shreyan) returns from US and comes to know about the kidnap. He realizes that his brother has kidnapped Sravanthi for a strong reason. Vijay and Sravanthi becomes friends after a while and later they fall in love. Bhavani doesn’t agree to accept his foe’s brother as his brother-in-law.
Performances:
Shreyan is tall and handsome. He is okay in the romantic scenes but needs to work on his expressions. There is a deliberate attempt from the director to keep Shreyan away from action and dances. This film doesn’t give clear idea about the strengths and weaknesses of the young lad.
Pragathi has good looks and is a decent performer. Abhimanyu Singh is routine as the bad guy. Kota Srinivasa Rao’s experience adds value to the film. Satya is alright with his comedy. Saptagriri and Ali did cameo appearances. Mukesh Rishi is fine.
Technicalities:
Director Vasu Mantena should have worked on a good script. There is absolutely nothing that is worthy enough to be made into a feature film. Director tried to input action, comedy, love and sentiment into this film, but has failed miserably in getting the emotions right. A very poor job from the director and he should blame himself for this lame product.
There are five songs in the film and none of them are impressive. Background score doesn’t lift the film. Cinematography is alright and editor should be commended for putting things in a sequence despite the mediocrity and amateurish handling of scenes. Dialogues are pretty bad.
Thumbs Up:
Nothing
Thumbs Down:
Everything
Analysis:
Wonder why did Jayasudha chose this film as the debut vehicle for her son. This film neither has promising technicians nor a strong script to bank upon. Shreyan’s debut is simply wasted on a pointless film that bores you to the core. Only bright point about the film is the cute looking lead pair.
Basthi seems amateurish right from the word go and sadly it keeps going down as the story moves forward. The love story is handled poorly and one cannot expect the audience to root for them. None of the emotions worked and even the killings of some important characters doesn’t effect in anyway. There is scope for this film to be made into a romantic thriller, but the director stayed away from outdoors.
It is tiresome to sit through this film despite keeping the running time under two hours. Climax is pathetic with the dialog writer throwing in the worst possible cheesy lines towards the end. Basthi is a poorly made film that doesn’t deserve to be watched. It is unfortunate of Jayasudha’s son to choose such a bad film for making debut.
Verdict: This Basthi is not worth visiting at all.
