- Pawan Kalyan is back again! For those who missed his mannerisms and styles with macho appeal for quite sometime, here is a treat. Director Veera Shankar tried his best to elevate the best of Pawan Kalyan. Pawan Kalyan looked all charming and will definitley impress his fans. The film also runs the credits of Pawan Kalyan for screenplay. That's right for screenplay also. Not only that! But Powerstar Pawan Kalyan's name appears in two other categories too - "Action Sequence and Choreography, Songs concept and visualization".
- Coming to the storyline, Gudumba Shankar (Pawan Kalyan) is a rough and tough guy. Street bred, Gudumba Shankar will do anything for money. He helps Demudu (Kota), a police-officer, in handling the under world but inturn takes his share. This way he becomes a hurdle for all the bad things being done by Bejawada Narayana (Shiyaji Shindey). Demudu (Kota) is a police officer, who takes the help of Gudumba Shankar in this case. In one particular instance, they suspect that one of the henchman (Ponnambalam) is killed by Gudumba Shankar. Demudu advices Gudumba Shankar to go away for some time. So Gudumba Shankar starts off to Vizag. On the way he meets Gowri (Meera Jasmine). She is trying to run away from house to avoid a forceful marriage to Kumara Swami (Ashish Vidyarthi). Kumaraswami is a blind follower of astrology. He is adviced by Guruvugaru (Brahmanandam) that he would become a "king" if he married Gowri. Gudumba Shankar tries to save Gowri from goons and falls in love with her. By the time he is ready to propose, she is taken away by Kumaraswami. Gudumba Shankar decides to get her with his logic than his power magic. So he settles in Kumara Swami's house and deals with the situation that makes Kumaraswami feel that Gowri is more of bad luck to him than good. How does Gudumba manage to do that? This is the best part and should be seen on the silver screen.
- Gudumba Shankar is a comedy-oriented film. The film totally banks on comedy and to most of the extent comedy is done by Pawan Kalyan himself. He just strolls his way. His impressions of other actors are pretty good. Especially in the scenes when his "Bangaram" car is broken, Venu Madhav eating biryani, and Ashish Vidyarthi leaving the place.
The relevance of his name Gudumba is only explained once that his father used to make Gudumba. First half goes on with entertainment. There are three good songs and some comedy. Second half paces better than the first half. Some parts in the first half could have been cut shorter. Lorry chasing scene and the scenes at the hotel with Gowri seemed to be a bit dragged. The songs that come in the first are picturized pretty well. And also all the three songs come in situtational. First song Le le le almost feels like Kushi first song. Killi Killi song has Natanya Singh shaking leg with Pawan Kalyan. Chiguraku chatu song is good both in terms of lyrics and visual.
Second half of the film paces with hillarious scenes. Rajan P Dev (uncle of Kumaraswami) going mentally insane, Gudumba Shankar making Kumaraswami do weights with background song of Travelling soldier from Thammudu and many more scenes like these attract the audience well.
Emantaaro song is pictured very well. However, the highlight song of the film is Chittinadumuney chooshtunna. Though the size of Meera Jasmine in this film dont fit the expression "Chittinadumu", the song is pictured pretty amazing too.
The film, though lacks good story and is targeted to be a complete entertainer. Director Veerashankar concentrated more on Pawan Kalyan, lookslike. However, the fights in the film are not completely "Pawan Kalyan fights". But When he handles bunch of goons, it looks very realisitc. Good thing is there are no visual effects used in the fights, which became a regular norm in the recent films. The fight that is shot in the forest stands out the best in the film.
Performance wise every artist gave out their best. The highlight of the film is Pawan Kalyan though. After Jhonny this is his film and he did his best to keep his fans excited. He took the whole movie as one-man-show. Be it songs, fights, comedy - it's just the flow for him. Also he hums a Srikakulam tune in his own style. His funky style are evident in the song Chitti nadumuney choosthunna. His macho mannerisms and his slang are impressive.
Meera Jasmine looked total traditional Telugu girl. She has gained weight compared to her earlier films. She did her role very well. Ali and Brahmanandam did their roles well. Brahmanandam performed some good comedy. Ashish Vidhyarthi as comedy-villain and Shiyaji Shindey are apt in their roles.
Technically the best parts of the film are cinematography and music. Chota K. Naidu captured every frame as a beautiful scenary. Every scene bore a rich look. Music by Manisharma is pretty good. The songs are picturized differently. Donot expect some hi-fi steps! Mani Sharma did a decent job with the background too. Editing by Yousuf Khan is good and he impresses with his work in the second half with fast cuts. Satyanand's dialogues are apt.
Story, screenplay and direction are to be scrutinized. Story by Satyanand is OK. The film, and thus few scenes, has the look of some previous films like Premante Idheraa, DDLJ. Screenplay is treated differently. Some of the scenes could be trimmed in length and a few could be removed too! Pawan Kalyan handled the screenplay. Director Veera Shankar focused more on elevating Pawan Kalyan than anything else. That forms the drawback and also the saving grace of the film. If not for Pawan Kalyan, the full fledged comedy and well pictured songs, talk would have suffered!.
Gudumba Shankar, overall, turns out to be an entertainer. As promised by Pawan Kalyan, to his fans, this is a total mass entertainer. He tried to be different in his own way and the way he is liked by his fans.
