Banner: Sri Lakshmisai Creators
Cast: Suman, Ramyakrishna, Vinod Kumar, Devaraj, Prema, Charulatha, Archana, Ranganath, Charuhassan.
Dialogues, Lyrics - Vennelakanti
Photography - Krishna Kumar
Music Director - Rajesh Ramanath
Editing - Raja
Graphics - Prakash Studios
Producers - DS Prakash Rao, V Subrahmanyam
Director - Surya
Theatrical Release Date: 15th March 2002

Saikum This is a fantasy film with unusual and mystic twists of magic and mesmerism, of god v/s evil, played up with the help of graphics. It is the story of an unattractive young woman, Neelambari, daughter of a chieftain (Ranganath) in Nallamala forests. She acquires unimaginable powers that enable her to change into a beautiful woman with longevity Malli, (Ramyakrishana) to attract Veera (Suman) whom she loves.

The narration stars with a production team of a T.V. channel leaving for Nallamala forests to record a rare phenomenon that occurs on Chaitra Pournami day when some dazzling mass of light descends on the earth. Once the T.V. crew, headed by Vinod (Vinod Kumar), is in the forest, the members start facing mysterious hurdles.

An elderly person (Charu Hasan) asks them to meet one Akhila (Ramyakrishna), a resident of these forests for a long time, who can explain the mystery. When they meet her, Akhila refuses to be videographed. When they do it stealthily, they discover the frames are empty. The mysterious force - an old woman looking like a sorceress as discovered by videographer Sundar - commences her killing spree. She kills two members of the team.

Bharat, (Devaraj), and IPS officer, arrives along with his wife Durga (Prema), to investigate the case. He gets hold of Sundar's dairy, which gives him clues and a flashback narrating the events leading to Akhila's mysterious powers.

A triangular love story with a young man, Veera (Suman), loved by two women - unattractive Neelambari (a short role) and beautiful Malli (Ramyakrishana), is presented in the flashback. Neelambari gets hold of some palm leaves, in a cave, on which powerful mantras are written, reading which she gets these powers and longevity. With these powers, she adopts Malli's form and renames herself Akhila (also played by Ramyakrishna). How she is finally destroyed forms the rest of the film.

The narration drags, taking good time to present the obvious. The film belongs to Ramyakrishna who plays different characters that come into picture at different stages. In the end, she portrays the role of Goddess Durga too. Viond Kumar, Suman, Devaraja and Prema get passive roles. Ranganath plays the headman of the tribe and leaves his mark.

courtesy: The Hindu

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