Narada is a legendary sage who appears in a number of Hindu texts, including both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. In the movies, though, he acts as the local divine trickster; if you have a serious problem, you should get Narada to solve it, since it's probably his fault anyway. Yamudiki Mogudu (2012)? Definitely Narada's fault.
Due to a celestial mixup, Naresh (Allari Naresh) is born a month early and without a destiny, which means that he is immortal and has power equal to the gods. Indra and the other gods ask Yama (Sayaji Shinde) to deal with the situation, but Yama doesn't want to, so instead Narada is chosen to deal with the unexpected immortal and also humble the god of death. (Which is just as well, because it is Narada's fault.)
Years pass. Naresh grows into a charming loafer and terrible student. Worse, he's also an aspiring actor! Naresh is cast as Ram in a play about Sita's Swayamvaram ceremony, and just as he's about to go onstage, Narada makes his move. He convinces the husband of the actress playing Sita to drag her home, then talks Naresh into calling out for a replacement; thanks to Naresh's subconscious godly powers, the replacement Sita is Yamaja (Richi Panai), the daughter of Yama. And since apparently they don't have religious drama in Yamalok, Yamaja believes that they actually are now married, and starts following Naresh around and calling him "husband."
Naresh tries to get Yamaja to go away, but eventually brings her home disguised as the family's new maid. And after a brief period of adjustment, she wins the family over, and suddenly everything is going really well. Most importantly, Naresh's brother gets a promotion at the bank where he works and manages to get the infamous gangster Royyala Naidu (Tanikella Bharani) sent to prison, an action that I'm sure will have no negative consequences.
Meanwhile, Yama is worried about his missing daughter, so he allows his son Yamaganda (Master Bharath) to go to earth to search for her, as long as Chitragupta (Krishna Bhagavaan) agrees to accompany the boy. Yamaganda isn't the brightest spark in the pyre, so before he can find his sister, there's a lot of slapstick and confusion and a great deal of ice cream.
Yamana won't leave her husband, so Yama is forced to do things the old fashioned way, by traveling to Earth himself and forcibly abducting her. Thinking quickly, Naresh grabs the tail of Yama's divine buffalo, and rides it up to the heavens, where, with a little help from Narada, he can match wits with the Lord of Death to win back his love. Unfortunately, Yama does not play fair, and while Naresh is immortal, his family is not. And there's the matter of the gangster with a grudge.
Despite the supernatural setting and the meddling trickster sage, Yamudiki Mogudu is basically an old fashioned romantic comedy in the DDLJ mode, with the hero living among his future in-laws and slowly winning them over. That means that Yama is playing a different stock part than usual; he's the stern father-in-law, the relationship End Boss who must be convinced before the hero and heroine can be happy. This Yama is still a bit of a stentorian buffoon, but he has to be more competent and cunning in order to be a suitable antagonist. And he has to be hostile and scary and still believably change his mind at the end. Movie Yama is a more flexible character than you might expect. And we're not done yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment