Public Demand Thursday #3 - Khaleja (2010) Movie Review

Now, an SSMB fan and my friend from my college, Aditya Kumar has suggested me to review the film that every Telugu cinephile will definitely review. Khaleja, urf, Mahesh Khaleja. I decided this review will be a roundup of the film off and on the reel. If I had to talk about Mahesh Babu, he is indeed very handsome and his fitness maintenance at the age of 44 is impeccable. My favourite film of his is Dookudu where he just exploded on screen. Before Dookudu though there was Khaleja, which was amidst controversy and a lot of expectations. After the flop film Athidhi in 2007, he decided to take a break that extended to 3 years. Khaleja was the comeback film of SSMB and now after all this years, it is considered an underrated film. Why? How? What? Let us see:

The above interview of Mahesh Babu with Anupama Chopra gave me the actual reason of why this film gets a lot of following. Mahesh Babu in the film has a flow which until then nobody has expected from him. Every dialogue in the film spelled out by him is a sixer. He was just so fluid. The main plotline of the film is very good. The main question this film asks is who is God? He is the one in you. When you pray for something right, you will do right. Also, the comedy of the film is in the Trivikram Zone. My favourite scene of the film is the AbhayaHastham scene. It is very hilarious. The scenes with Siddha and involving the village are on the top level with some meaningful dialogue and a very intense feel. With all these perfect elements, it should have been a blockbuster? But, this is an underrated flop for the reasons down below:

1. The comedy of the film although good is completely contrasting to the film's main plot. The first half of the film is just comedy taking out 10% of the film. The introduction of the hero, the 4 meetings with the heroine, Rajasthan episode and Tom Bhaiyya, all are funny and entertaining but I feel these elements should have been quickly wrapped up and the director should have gone into the plot instantly. This effected the balance of the film and took a toll on the length of the film.
2. The music of the film. It is a good album from Mani Sharma. 2 songs of the film are important and 4 songs are just fillers. We know it and I guess the crew too knew it. I not saying it but the song picturisation of the film shows it. The best and the most important song, Sada Siva is picturised beautifully. It brings out the devotion to Lord Shiva from all of us. Piliche, the second important song showcasing the romance of the leads by comparing them to Lord Krishna and Radha is the best picturised song of the film. It looks beautiful to the eye. But, the other songs of the film take a 2000's music video approach with cut after cut after effect after effect which completely ruined the catchy tune of the song for me. It seems like the makers did not care.

If the above mistakes were rectified and the commercialisation were a little low. The film would have been a hit then and now. Some things I forgot to mention are the cinematography. the age of the film shows now but still I guess nobody explored Rajasthan in TFI and the one who explored did it really well. The character artists of the film are simply stunning. It has all top artists of the time ranging from Brahmanandam, Ali, Sunil, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Prakash Raj, Subba Raju etc.,

But, the standout is Shafi as Siddha. His monologue in the film (written beautifully) has stunned me even now. 

So, I look forward to more requests in the near future. Make sure you follow my blog and my insta @