Swagatham Review

After Santosham, Sambaram and Sree, director Dasarath is back with Swagatham; yet another film that starts with sentimental S letter. It is only natural to anticipate another Subhalagnam or Mavichiguru when Jagapati Babu is paired up with two heroines. However, the film offers totally different from that concept and presents a Kal Ho Na Ho styled, emotionally packed film.

Story in short: Sailu (Anushka) and KK (Jagapati Babu) run their own businesses in USA. Both are into garment store business. Sailu lives with her mother and a kid. KK lives with his daughter. Sailu finds plenty to hate in KK and following the predictable heroine character, she falls for KK. Then, it is the time for twist in the story. KK's wife is not dead, as assumed by every one. She is very much alive. Who is she? Why is she living apart? This forms the plot of the story.

Performances
Jagapati Babu is at total ease with his character. But he looked a bit aged in the film. This comes as a surprise because he looked dashing and manly in Lakshyam. His performance in the second half of the film as a disciplined industrialist is impressive. Bhumika and Anushka are highlights of the film. If Bhumika impressed with her performance, Anushka putforth her glamor as never seen before. Bhumika looked beautiful and also scored big in the film with her performance, especially in the emotional scenes in the climax. Anushka looked beautiful too but her character did not give her much than to expose. She looked astounding in the song Manasaa guest directed by Krishnavamsi.

Mallikarjuna Rao, Dharmavarapu, Ali, Sunil were in the film. That is pretty much about it as they fail to generate the required laughter. Venu Madhav, Kondavalasa and others appear in the second half. But their contribution is limited too.

Hero Arjun did a special role in the film. But he must have done this role for friendship but otherwise the role gives no scope for anything.

Technical
Dasarath, who is known for churning out good entertainers with emotional content, went back to his forte after attempting a mass film Sree. However, Swagatham does not offer any novelty with the story. And there is no entertainment in the first half. And the sequences inserted with Ravi Babu to created 'supposedly' comedy seemed vulgar. These scenes are directly picked from Kal Ho Na Ho. Also, the movie progresses at snail's pace in the first half.

It is the second half of the film that Dasarath makes his mark felt. He proves his skill in handling emotional content in a great way. The sequences starting with Bhumika and Jagapati Babu in the second half came out effective and entertaining. In fact, the track on this pair provides better entertainment than the tracks inserted with the comedians. Towards the end, the film gets emotional and Dasarath handled that part very well.

Music by RP Patnaik is so so. Same thing goes with his re-recording. Manasaa song is the one that sounded better. Even the picturization is good for this song. (Krishnavamsi guest directed this song). It is better left unsaid about the dialogs. Gopi Mohan's dialogs lacked any kind of impact.

Analysis
Overall, Swagatham stands out as an ordinary film with mediocre first half and decent second half. However, chances are good that it might go well with lady audience, and Jagapati Babu has good following in that segment. If it clicks with that segment, the film can register as a hit.