Bodyguard

Movie Review: The bodyguard is back. We don’t mean Salman Khan, though. Rather, it’s mana Venkatesh this time around. After releases in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi, “Bodyguard” finally released in Telugu with Venkatesh and Trisha in the lead roles and Malineni Gopichand donning the director’s hat.We don’t really have to say much about the plot as the story remains the same as in other versions. Venkatadri (Venkatesh) has utmost respect for and gratitude towards Varadarajula Naidu (Prakash Raj) as the latter had saved him from an accident years ago. Varadarajula Naidu, who is a village political leader, has many foes in the opposition. Venkat thus, comes in as his bodyguard. But on learning that the foes plan to take revenge on his daughter Keerthi (Trisha), Naidu makes Venkat her personal bodyguard. Now, Keerthi is a student and stays with her friend Swathi (Saloni). As his duty demands, Venkat follows Keerthi everywhere and this irks her. She is quick to think of a plan and starts calling Venkat from an unknown number and goes by a different name. Venkat soon falls in love with this unknown caller and wants to marry her. As the story unfolds, there are twists and turns before Venkat finally finds out who the unknown caller is. As a remake of the Malayalam film, “Bodyguard” did well both in Tamil and Hindi. Though the plot has been kept the same, director Malineni added a few comic and action scenes to suit the sensibilities and taste of the Telugu audience. With Venkatesh, remakes have always worked and “Bodyguard” too does the same as he manages to entertain the audience in this flick. One particular scene where he enters the girls’ college in a woman’s get-up is simply hilarious. However, in the romantic scenes, he didn’t really manage to click well. Saloni looked fresh and surprised everyone with her performance. Prakash Raj, Kota and Subbaraju played their parts well. Ali and Venumadhav tried their best to provide some laughter. Thaman’s music is just okay and Kona Venkat’s dialogues are effective. Director Gopichand Malineni has played safe by faithfully copying the scenes from the original Malayalam movie. If you haven’t seen any of the “Bodyguard” in other languages, then the climax will be a good one for you. You still can watch it once for Venky and Trisha!