Did the guest appearance of Allari Naresh help Mahesh Babu or Vamsi Paidipalli in dishing out Maharshi? It might have. Right from the announcement to its release people kept talking about how they are great friends and how the hero lives his plum job abroad for his friend and returns home etc etc. There were great expectations and sympathy for Allari Naresh and audiences were sure that this would be a great break and he would be right back on track. That never happened. He waited for many months and probably a year for a good script. That Nandi worked is another story but we are talking of something substantial happening for Allari Naresh, a very good actor trapped in comedy roles so far. Maharshi didn’t help him. A second hero is always a second hero. Ditto happened with Atharva who did Gaddalakonda Ganesh. The hero becomes a director’s muse and the director just uses the next important lead only for commercial reasons. For that matter even an actor like Dulquer Salman faded away in the publicity blitzkrieg of Mahanati despite his strong character. Now there is a talk of Sumant Yarlagadda from the Akkineni family doing an important role in Trivikram and Mahesh Babu film. It is too early to even confirm his presence in the story but if it is true, he is sure to be marginalised.
Such actors are idle and they don’t mind coming into a big cinema to be in the minds of the public. In Ala Vaikuntapuram, there were many familiar faces in the story ..all of them got tiny roles and it appeared for example, after standing in a queue in an employment exchange office. It works for the director because remuneration is less and they have a recognisable face. Despite no mass following, there is a recall value. As soon as you see them on the screen, there will be an average number of people who think that the director will give some important role in the story but by now most of the people have studied, analysed the director’s style of casting etc. We are even hearing that it will be another huge house set but this time for the heroine. Trivikram is indeed getting predictable.
Opinion: Just a recall value
