Director Raghavendra Rao, who has created many great commercial entertainers has also made devotional and period films like Manjunatha, Annamayya and Sri Ramadasu. These gave him the reputation of a great director of good historical movies, as well as a mass director.
Darsakendrudu K. Raghavendra Rao's latest offering is the remake of the N.T. Rama Rao classic, Panduranga Mahathyam. But the remake has given more focus to Pundareeka's life.
The opening scenes establish how Pundareeka (Balakrishna) hails from a family of Krishna devotees. Pundareeka is the only black sheep in the family, who does not worship Lord Krishna. He whiles away all his time in the company of women of loose morals.
Lakshmi (Sneha) is an orphan who is brought up by Balayya, a priest in a small village. Lakshmi is a great devotee of Krishna. One day, Krishna appears in her dream and tells her that she should marry a person named Pundareeka who stays in the neighbouring village.
Lakhsmi goes in search of Pundareeka and proposes to him. But he rejects her proposal, saying that he would be happy to spend some nights with her if she so desires but marriage is out of question. But Lakshmi keeps praying to Lord Krishna and hopes for divine intervention.
Pundareeka meanwhile come into contact with Amritha (Tabu), a prostitute. He falls for her charms and spends all his time in her company. Lord Krishna now intervenes and makes Pundareeka marry Lakshmi. But Pundareeka continues his wayward life even after marriage.
Finally, Pundareeka loses all his wealth and property to the machinations of Amritha and her mother. His family members and he leave their ancestral home and he roams around aimlessly. At this juncture, he comes into contact with a holy man (Dr. Mohan Babu) who reforms Pundareeka. The rest of the story is how Pundareeka attains moksha.
Balakrishna comes out with an impressive performance. He is very good in his role as Krishna and even reminds us of his late father N.T. Rama Rao in appearance and dialogue delivery. He is okay in his second role as Pundareeka, though his makeup could have been better.
Senha plays the devotional girl to perfection. She also looks and acts her part with effortless ease. Tabu, as Amritha the prostitute, sizzles and portrays her part to perfection. K. Vishwanath does his role with natural ease. Dr. Mohan Babu is very impressive in his short cameo of just a few minutes. The role of Narada, played by L.B. Sriram, is demeaned by cheap dialogues. Music by Keeravani is a big asset for the film.
The film has more hot romance than devotion, which detracts from its devotional aspect. The first half is just average. The film picks up only after Pundareeka meets the holy man (muni) and is reformed. The climax is also too long by today's standards.
The family audiences (for whom the film is intended) may not enjoy the film because of the excessive dose of romance; Tabu's revealing historical costumes and the double meaning dialogues will also drive away family audiences.
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