VRL Film Productions’ Vijayanand (dubbed from the Kannada film of the same name) is a biopic of transport business king Vijay Sankeshwar.
The film starts in 1969. Vijay Sankeshwar (Nihal Rajput) takes a huge loan to buy a new printing machine for his father, B.G. Sankeshwar (Anant Nag), who runs a printing press. Soon, Vijay gets married to Lalitha (Siri Prahlad). The couple has a son. After that, Vijay starts a business of transport with a secondhand truck. Following initial hiccups, Vijay tastes success. He then takes a loan of Rs. 20 lakh from Ganeshmal Shah (V. Ravichandran) to buy four trucks. His business grows.
Vijay then shifts to Hubli with his wife and son. Even as Vijay continues to make rapid strides in his business, newspaper owner Rama Rao (Prakash Belawadi) never has a good word to write for him. Anyway, Vijay wins the love of people and soon stands for MLA elections. After becoming an MLA, he starts his own newspaper which becomes the numero uno paper. Time flies. Vijay shuts down his newspaper, then starts another newspaper. The new newspaper also becomes very popular.
Rishika Sharma has written a story which is based on the real-life story of Vijay Sankeshwar. However, the story highlights only the good points of Vijay and his brush with success without going into his failures or even the difficulties he had to face. Her screenplay, therefore, becomes a bit boring after a point of time. Since there’s no real antagonist in that sense of the term, the audience finds the drama a bit too simplistic. Sanjay Upadhyay’s dialogues are nice.
Nihal Rajput does a fair job as Vijay Sankeshwar. Siri Prahlad is alright as Lalitha Sankeshwar. Anant Nag lends able support as B.G. Sankeshwar. Vinaya Prasad is effective as Chandramma Sankeshwar. Bharat Bopanna looks handsome and is endearing in the role of Anand Sankeshwar. Prakash Belawadi leaves a fine mark as newspaper owner Rama Rao. Archana Kottige has her moments as Vani Sankeshwar. V. Ravichandran makes a mark as Ganeshmal Shah. Vidya Murthy (as Rama Rao’s wife), Jeevika (as Vijay Sankeshwar’s daughter), master Anurag Patil (as kid Vijay), master Chinmay (as teenaged Anand), Anish Kuruvilla (as NOI CEO), Rajesh Nataranga (as friend of NOI CEO), Ramesh Bhat (as Natesh Murthy), Aruna Balraj (as Saroja), Dayal Padmanathan (as Ganeshan), Shine Shetty (as Ramakanth Patil), Ganesh Reddy (as Mani), Umesh Banakar (as Mallanna Desai), RJ Vikki (as Kumar), Karthik Pattar (as Siddesh), Hampa Kumar (as Halappa), Nataraj S. Bhat (as Yellappa Patil), Chindodi Vijaykumar (as Vijay’s brother), Lakshmi Siddaiah (as Vijay’s sister-in-law), Sharanya Hullur (as Vijay’s sister), Prasad Vashista (as Vijay’s brother-in-law), Srinivas Prabhu (as Lalitha’s father), Chitkala Biradar (as Lalitha’s mother), Prashant Jade (as Chartered Accountant Ramesh), Ajay Raj (as Chartered Accountant Kamlesh), Shankar Bhatt (as the book store owner), Raghu Ramankoppa (as Suvarna), Yeshwanth Sirdeshpande (as the bank manager), and Chandrashekhar Madabhavi (as Pattan Shetty) lend the necessary support.
Rishika Sharma’s direction is fair. Gopi Sundar’s music is so-so. Kartika Nainan Dubey’s lyrics are alright. Imran Sardhariya’s choreography is average. Gopi Sundar’s background music is fairly effective. Keertan Poojary’s camerawork is of a good standard. Ravi Verma’s action and stunts provide thrill. Art direction (Rishika Sharma) is reasonably good. Hemanth Kumar D.’s editing needed to be sharper, especially after interval. Dubbing is good.
On the whole, Vijayanand will prove to be a below-average fare because of lack of merits, compounded by absence of face value for the Hindi film audience and also due to lack of awareness about the film.
Released on 9-12-’22 at Maratha Mandir (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru UFO Cine Media Network. Publicity: poor. Opening: dull. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere.