Cast: Vaibhav, Sharaddha Arya, Sayaji Shinde, Nataraj, Chalapati Rao, Delhi Rajeswari, Babloo, Chitram Srinu, Jayaprakash Reddy, Brahmanandam, Venumadhav, AVS, Nagababu, Suneel, Raghubabu, Uttej, Annapurna, Subhashini and Others Director:A.Kodanda Rami Reddy Producer:A.Bharati Music: Mani Sharma Presenter:A.Suneel Reddy Banner:K Films Art:J.K.Murthy Cinematography:Dinesh Dialogues:Paruchuri Brothers Editing:Marthand K.VenkateshRelease Date:7th December, 2007

For someone who has made several movies before, including 20 movies with Chiranjeevi, his son's debut venture comes as a disappointment. Kodanda Rami Reddy's 'Godava' starring his son Vaibhav and newcomer (Zee Cinestar runner-up) Shraddha Arya seems like a mishmash of recent hits, including Hindi trendsetter 'Dil Chahta Hai'. As for Vaibhav, he shows some spark, with a style of his own already, but shows obvious traces of Pawan Kalyan and Ravi Teja. Even Harivarun of 'Laila Majnu' tried to act like these stars, but that was a total dud. Vaibhav, on the other hand, is both confident and gives it his all in a weak script and an old screenplay.
Performances: Vaibhav is impressive mainly because it's his debut, and he performs very confidently for a debutant. It will take a movie or two more to see if he's someone to actually watch out for. Right now he has done justice to the role of Balu. Shraddha Arya is pretty and poised. Sayaji Shinde, Jayaprakash Reddy and Annapurna as Shradha's father and grandparents respectively have given a repeat performance. So has the whole gang of friends that the lead pair shares.
Song and Dance: Two songs are catchy, and the picturizations are watchable, especially the ones in the first half. Mumait's sister is good too, Zubein Khan shows that it's all in the family. But she obviously has only part of Mumait's oomph.
Last Word: 'Godava' is not a bad movie. It's a movie that has unfortunately borrowed from all good Telugu and Hindi movies and the mix and match result is inevitably boring. The first half is the saving grace, but the second half is beyond redemption. Godava is definitely not one of this year's better releases, but Vaibhav has given a decent debut considering he held his own in a script too shoddy for words. |  |
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