Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi review: Ganesh and team deliver a fully loaded family drama

Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi, as the title suggests, is the tale of Krishna and Pranaya, played by Ganesh and Malavika Nair.

The film is a love story that runs on two parallel time frames, which showcase Krishna not knowing Pranaya’s identity in one and Pranaya not knowing Krishna’s background in the other. The string that connects the two threads forms the basis of this storyline.

What was interesting about the film’s promotional strategy is that the makers neither released a teaser nor a trailer, but just a few songs before the release.

Of course, with the songs, especially “Dwapara“, becoming chartbusters, it reassured people that this one had all the factors of a vintage Ganesh entertainer.

And this film, which sees director Srinivas Raju and Ganesh come together, does not disappoint either.

A multi-starrer for the family

A Ganesh film is known ideally for playing for the family audience, with a lot of known faces in the cast, some good comedy, romance and catchy tunes.

Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi has a big ensemble cast with a lot of big names from yesteryears, including Ashok, Shashikumar, Ramakrishna, Shruthi, and Bhavana.

Added to this, a good bunch of comic actors makes this film an even better watch. Sadhu Kokila’s comedy especially deserves a mention as he entertains in his vintage form after a long time.

There is also the “My Marriage is Fixed” song which has eight young heroines making a special appearance. So, every frame in the film has enough reason to cheer and look forward to.

This is something that one usually sees in the big Telugu blockbusters or probably the older ones that starred Puneeth Rajkumar. Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi gives that feel to the viewers.

Ganesh also gets to do all that his fans love him for, which is to be that hopeless romantic on screen and make the viewers swoon.

Malavika Nair is also impressive. Sharanya Shetty has an interesting role, which makes one remember the characters written in the 1990s and early 2000s like Neelambari in Padaiyappa (1999).

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Shortcomings too

While Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi is the proper wholesome entertainer with a good mix of romance, songs, action and comedy, it does seem a tad too long.

At nearly two-and-a-three-fourth hours long, it does have some small periods of lull, where some of the action sequences and songs, especially those in the second half, seem to hamper the flow and cause some bumps in the narrative.

While the film has been shot in some good locations in Southeast Asia, the sudden cuts to the song that have been pictured in these spaces seem abrupt between the narrative that is otherwise set in Bengaluru.

So, this sudden shift of locations does seem jagged, but the fact that the frames in the film are so magical makes up for this anyway.

Final take

Krishnam Pranaya Sakhi is worth a watch for an outing with the family or with someone special. And Ganesh and the team seem like they have a winner this time around.

(Views expressed here are personal.)

(Edited by Y Krishna Jyothi)

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