Lakshmi

It’s a perfect new year gift for Shivrajkumar fans. The action-packed movie focuses on how a young CBI officer takes on a terrorist leader settled in Hong Kong ready to destabilize India.
Director Raghava Loki seems to know the pulse of Shivrajkumar fans. In his latest venture, Loki has chosen the subject of a terrorist who operates from a foreign country and plans to create problems in India. With a good script that aptly suits Shivanna, he has woven the story by brilliantly combining action (Thriller Manju and Ravivarma) with drama, suspense and sentiment. There are quite a few interesting turns and twists to the story, especially in the climax.
But the movie is too long and certain sequences are too slow testing your patience. Perhaps a 30-minute trim would have been a welcome relief for the audience.
The story revolves around Lakshminarayana alias Lakshmi (Shivrajkumar), a CBI officer. He is married to Priya (Priya Mani) who later goes missing. The suspense begins when Lakshmi, with his wife’s photograph in his wallet, goes in search of Priya. Lakshmi comes to know that she is in Hong Kong working as a secretary to a terrorist Khan (Ashish Vidyarthi). He decides to kill her for her links with terrorists. In another twist, we have the terrorist upset with Lakshmi for killing his aides __ Specialist and Mukesh. Khan plans to eliminate Lakshmi. There is another twist when we come to know that Priya’s original name is Rashmi and she has a daughter too. The turning point in the climax reveals the reason for Priya working as a secretary for Khan.
Shivrajkumar steals the show. Priya Mani is impressive. Ashish Vidyarthi has done a wonderful job as a terrorist. KS Chandrasehar’s cinematography is brilliant. Music by Gurukiran has some catchy tunes. But it is MS Ramesh’s dialogues that give life to each and every sequence.