Gaali Sampath

Story: A partially mute man dreams of performing on stage in dramas but often keeps falling in trouble with the villagers due to his eccentric ways. By contrast, his son is a responsible man who dreams of climbing up the ladder and making something of his life. The film explores how the clash of personalities results in problems down the road for this father-son duo

Review: Telugu cinema is going through an interesting phase with several filmmakers experimenting with different content, paving the way for various out-of-the-box films to hit the screens. Annish Krishna's Gaali Sampath is one such attempt. However, despite the creativity, the film falls flat with its comedy and emotions and doesn't offer much depth to the viewers in terms of storytelling.
The story is set in a small village in Araku. Gaali Sampath (Rajendra Prasad) has speech impairment issues and cannot speak anything other than 'Fi Fi' and 'Fa Fa'. However, he has the strong desire to participate in dramas. His son Suri (Sree Vishnu) is a responsible truck driver who dreams of buying his own truck. While Suri is busy chasing his dreams, Gaali Sampath keeps falling in trouble with the villagers, leading to a clash between the father and son. One such clash has dire consequences and how the duo deal with it forms the crux of the story.
While some of the comedy, especially the scenes between Gaali Sampath and Satya, works, the other tracks involving Racha Ravi are ridden with cliches and sexist dialogues. The characters are not well-etched out and the emotional scenes fail to make any impact at all whatsoever. Anil Ravipudi's screenplay is neither entertaining nor emotionally gripping. The love track between Suri and Papa (Lovely Singh) is mediocre and a weak flashback episode and a disappointing climax further adds to the film's woes.
Rajendra Prasad takes up a gutsy role and delivers one of his finest performances in recent times. Sree Vishnu too delivers a mature performance and his equation with Rajendra Prasad is the highlight of this film.
Even though it's a new genre in Telugu cinema, director Annish Krishna struggled to present his story in an engaging manner and the film had more misses than hits. With such a strong cast, a better story was needed to elevate this film and live up to its potential. Sadly, you feel short-changed at the end of it all.