They say that success could be one hell of a pressure to cope with. Mahesh Babu came up with one of the biggest hits of his career with 'Pokiri' this summer. It was natural and highly unavoidable that he was under tremendous pressure to come up with a bigger hit with 'Sainikudu'.

From the very beginning, director Gunashekar was shooting and re-shooting some of the scenes, in an attempt to come up with a near-perfect film. Finally, when 'Sainikudu' hit the screens, the audience realized that the director had concentrated on everything but had completely forgotten about the story and screenplay!!!

For some strange reason, you are always reminded of Manirathnam's 'Yuva' when you watch this one.

Let's get to the story now-

Mahesh Babu is Siddharth, a student of Osmania University, Hyderabad. When floods hit Warangal district, he gets along with his friends and rescues many from the ravages of the waters. The government announces flood relief measures, but a local corrupt politician, Pappu Yadav, played by Irfan Khan, siphons the funds away and the affected villagers get nothing (the only difference between this film and all other films with corrupt politicians is- the person in question is a young man this time. Usually, the “corrupt politician� is an old man).

Angered, Siddharth decides to teach the politician a lesson and kidnaps his bride on the eve of his wedding. His kidnap ransom is very simple- return the funds to the villagers and construct new houses for them. Varalakshmi, played by Trisha, is the politician's kidnapped bride.

Soon, inspired by his noble motivation, Varalakshmi falls in love with Siddharth.

As usual, by the time the film ends, the politician has learnt his lesson, the political system gets reformed and the hero gets the heroine.

The film raises lot of questions, such as

• How much longer are we going to see Trisha in village belle roles?

• What exactly is so technically advanced about this film that they had to bring technicians from abroad to work in it?

• Where's the story?

• What happened to the thing called logic?

Gunashekar had come up with some brilliant films before. This one looks way out of his style.

The only saving grace of the film is Mahesh Babu. He is not the only talented actor who was wasted in the film. Irfan Khan, the internationally acclaimed actor, had nothing at all to do.

Music was pleasant to listen to, but there was a bad case of déjà vu there too. You had a feeling that you had already heard all these tunes before.

Watch it for Mahesh Babu. Keep your eyes closed when he is not on the screen.

Director- Gunashekar

Cast- Mahesh Babu, Trisha, Irfan Khan, Prakashraj and others

Music- Harris Jayaraj

Producer- Ashwini Dutt

Plus-

Mahesh Babu

Minus

Almost everything else