Title – Maadeva, Producer – R Keshava (Devasandra), Direction – Naveen Reddy, Music – Pradyotthan, Cinematography – Balakrishna Tota, Cast – Vinod Prabhakar, Sonal Tharun, Achyuth Kumar, Shruthi, Srinagara Kitty, Cockroach Sudhi, Bala Rajwadi, Malashri and others.
This is a rock-solid turning-human-and-then-turning-monster tale. ‘Maadeva’ by new producer Radhakrishna Pictures R Keshava (Devasandra) is made with solid entertainment values and is the career-best performance of Vinod Prabhakar. The variety of shades and Vinod’s action skills deserve him an award.
Firstly, the script and screenplay are very well brought to the screen, and all the characters in the film gather attention and have solid weight. Naveen Reddy set his tale of ‘Maadeva’ in the 1980s backdrop and gave an absorbing work in the cinematography and music. The guessing he leaves to the audience in this 135-minute ‘Maadeva’ is his trump card.
The excellent stunts from stunt directors Real Satish, Different Danny, Vikram More, the sets erected for this film, and even the makeup that is very essential in period cinema are well maintained. The graphic presentation is admirable, and the film has all the elements of a commercial cinema.
When you watch Maadeva up to the interval, you feel your ticket price is back. It is so beautifully loaded with all the commercial values of a paisa vasool cinema. But the second half is an additional bonus for your ticket price as the shocks display on the silver screen that you would not have expected.
From an extremely bad childhood, Maadeva becomes very tough, and he gets the job of a hangman in a prison. The reason why he gets this position is because he has no concern for anything and lives like an animal.
Maadeva does not tolerate the injustice in the prison, and he is solid in muscles. His heart of rock changes with the entry of Parvathy. Parvathy has only one intention of sending good food to her mother in the prison. She wants her mother released for no fault of her own.
Maadeva slowly melts down. He becomes friendly and understands the situations, and his social outlook changes for the good of everyone. The scene is different in the second half as his closets are targeted. The two tormentors for him, in fact, make him become a monster in life.
What happens when Maadeva becomes a monster is an interesting, dashing portion of the film that you have to watch it on the screen.
Besides scoring very well in his performance, Vinod Prabhakar, looking throughout in rugged look, gets him good marks. His action portion, innocence at places, and minimum of dialogues for the protagonist is well thought out by the team of Radhakrishna Pictures. Vinod Prabhakar deserves a state award for his different shades of performance in Maadeva.
Sonal Tharun as heroine (after Robert with Vinod Prabhakar) has a solid role to perform. Her expressions and outlook to the role are commendable. It is Shruthi, the yesteryear tearjerker heroine shaping up as a strong character artist, who surprises everyone in two shades. The powerful role in the second half gets Shruthi a best supporting actor award for sure.
Achyuth Kumar, as mentor of Maadeva from his hard days, has given a stunning performance when he sees his son on the deathbed. Producer’s son Sumanth, as friend of Maadeva in the film, has given a neat performance and fits the comedy zone in the coming days. Cockroach Sudhi has a different role in this film which he has performed with ease.
There are three commendable tunes from Pradyotthan, music director of the film ‘Maadeva’. The best is Yedeli Thangali… and the title track is catchy, and background song Jeeva Hedaribanthu… sounds good.
Cinematographer Balakrishna Tota has done a tough task for this film and is convinced because it is not that easy to bring in 80’s backdrop.
Maadeva is a film worth watching by a family audience.
