1. idlebrain.com
Jeevi rating: 2.5/5
Punchline: cliched film
Genre: Action
Type: Straight
Banner: Sri Balaji Cine Media
Cast: Gopichand, Trisha, Satyaraj, Kota, Chandra Mohan, Ali, Srinivas Reddy, Supreet Reddy, Fish Venkat, Venu Madhav, Telangana Sakuntala, LB Sreeram etc
Music: SS Thaman
Cinematography: Vetri
Dialogues: Anil Ravipudi
Stunts: Vijay, Ram - Lakshman
Editing: Gowtam Raju
Story – screenplay – direction: Siva
Producer: J Bhagavan & J Pulla Rao
Release date: 15 September 2009
Review
Story 
Chandu (Gopichand) is brought up by his uncle (Chandra Mohan) in Australia. Mahalakshmi (Trisha) stays in Australia along with her uncle. Chandu is fond of martial arts and he never gets a chance to exhibit them in real situations. Mahalakshmi is another martial arts freak. After a few misunderstandings they fall in love. Mahalakshmi is forced to come back to her home town in Rayalaseema. Chandu comes in search of her. Meanwhile Sivaiah (Satyaraj) and his opponent Pasupathi (Kota Srinivasa Rao) belong to two neighboring villages. They have longtime enemity. The crux of the movie is how Chandu and Mahalakshmi are related to Siavaiah and Pasupathi.
Artists Performance
Gopichand is pretty good as Chandu. He has lighter vein characterization in the first half and heavy-duty emotions in the second half. Gopichand seem to be content doing movies that cater to the sensibilities of B and C center audiences. It's hightime for him to change his profile and do films that cater to family crowds and universal audiences. It's an ordinary role for Trisha with no sensibilities in her characterization. Ali provides comic relief as 'Saif Ali Khan'. Srinivasa Reddy is good as the friend of hero. Satyaraj is adequate in a pivotal role with controlled performance. Kota is seen the role of main villain. Chandra Mohan, Venu Madhav and Telangana Sakuntala are given routine characters.
Technical departments
Story - screenplay - directon: Story of Sankham is an amalgamation of various movies like Jayam Manadera, Okkadu, Wanted (English), Sarkar (Hindi), Pedarayudu, Aadi, Chatrapati etc. The entire script is devised to cater to class audiences in the first half and mass lovers in the second half. However, the cliched orientation in the second half mars the quality of the movie. Director Siva who came up with a decent movie Souryam as his debut, tried to stick to formula again. But this time, he couldn't infuse soul into the movie. He just kept the entire script in formula mode and delivered it. The second half has got too much of mass emotions and some of the scenes have heavy Tamil flavor. There is a bit of vulgarity and double meaning dialogues as well.
Other departments: Music by Thaman is adequate. The tunes appeal to the masses. Dialogues are just ok. We expect better cinematography for a film that is directed by a cinematographer turned director. Action sequences are good. Lots of sumos and other utility vehicles are blasted into the air.
Analysis: First half of the movie is uninteresting as most of the scenes have nothing to do with the main story line. Second half has heavy duty emotions with a bit of Tamil flavor. The plus points of the movie are Gopichand and fight sequences. The nagative points are cliched narration and lack of sensibility. One doesn't understand why this movie is titled as Sankham. Gopichand seem to be content with the selection of this type of projects, he should change the genres to have wider appeal in the future. Though this movie has very little to offer to the class audiences, it might hit the chord with the masses of B and C Centers
2. telugucinema.com
Film: Shankam
Cast: Gopichand, Trisha, Satya Raj, Kota Srinivas Rao, Chandramohan, Ali, Venumadhav, Krishna Baghavan, Srinivas Reddy, Supreet and others
Dialogues: Anil Ravipudi
Music: Taman S
Cinematography: Vetri
Editing: Gowtham Raju
Art: A M Vivek
Fights: Vijay and Ram-Lakshman
Produced by: J Baghavan and J Pullarao
Story, screenplay and directed by: Shiva
Release Date: Sep 11, 2009
CBFC Rating: U/A
What’s it about!
Chandu (Gopichand) leads happy life in Australia and stays with his uncle (Chandramohan). He falls in love with local Telugu girl Mahalakshmi (Trisha) at first sight. She runs an Indian restaurant there. Initially, she avoids his advances and love proposals but relents in after a couple of song and dance numbers. When she about to accept his love, she is taken away to India by her aunt to marry off her son. Now, hero lands in Cuddapah where Mahalakshmi’s father (Kota) waging war with his neighboring village lord Shivaiah (Satya Raj). On the insistence of Mahalakshmi’s father, Chandu takes on Shivaiah’s men and then he learns that Shivaiah is estranged father. Rest of the movie is all about father-son sentiment drama with a revenge angle in the end.
Analysis
At the very beginning of the film, one can notice that Shankam is just another formulaic faction drama. 30 minutes into the movie, you become restless as the mediocre and run-of-the mill scenes begin to unfold one after the other. There is no conflict in the flick to make the viewers glued to the screen, nor has it any interesting drama to sit and enjoy. With no good story to hold on, the writer-director Shiva drags on by focusing on masala scenes between Trisha and Gopichand. Much of the romance between the lead pair is filled with double meaning dialogues and gestures. Although first half is okay with some comedy by Ali, post interval the movie drags on and on.
The biggest flaw is that there is no strong villain for a hero to fight with and also the conflict in the story is lackluster. Shiva who directed Showryam with Gopichand earlier has faltered with this wafer-thin storyline.
Performances
Gopichand has tried hard to make the movie watchable with comedy but his characterization in the movie is not interesting. He is just okay. Trisha has done glam role comparatively her earlier movies in Telugu and there is lot of lewd dialogues involving her. Satyaraj as noble rayalaseema landlord has brought dignity to the character. The scene-stealer, of course, is Ali with his perfect comic timing. Also Venumadhav provides some good laughs. Kota Srinivas Rao is repeating the same histrionics that he has been doing for a long time. Rest of the cast is okay.
Music by Taman is its biggest drawback. Not a single song is hummable. His Background score is also substandard. Cinematography by Vetri is neat. Unlike in Gopichand’s films, the film has not much action stunts. Some of the dialouges by newcomer Anil are good.
Bottom-line!
Shankam is very formulaic. Second half is unbearable. With wafer-thin storyline, director drags on the movie for more than two and half hours. First half is the only saving grace.
Rating: 2.75/5
3. greatandhra.com
'Sankham' Review: Low Sound
Film: Sankham
Rating: 2.75/5
Cast: Gopichand, Trisha, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Supreet, Satyaraj, Krishna Bhagawan, Ali, Chandramohan, Srinivas Reddy, LB Sriram, Subbaraya Sharma, Telangana Sakunthala etc
Music: Thaman
Cinematography: Vetri
Producers: J Bhagawan, J Pulla Rao
Director: ‘Souryam’ Siva
Release Date: 11th Sep 2009
The combination of Gopichand and Trisha has been in discussions from quite some time. The film arrived at last today. Let us see how the output is.
Story:
Chandu (Gopichand) lives in Sydney along with his age-old bachelor uncle (Chandramohan). Mahalakshmi (Trisha) lives with her uncle and aunt (Dharmavarapu and Rajitha) and works in a bakery which happens to her uncle’s business. Chandu develops crush on Mahalakshmi for a dramatic reason and slowly she too reciprocates for him. But Mahalaksmi is forcibly carried to Cuddapah by her another aunt (Telangana Shakunthala) and the real faction story runs behind her.
Chandu is the son of Sivayya (Satyaraj) and Mahalakshmi is the daughter of Pasupathi (Kota). A strong rivalry burns between Pasupathi and Sivayya. Chandu believes that his father was dead for many years. Why he believes so? Who makes him believe so? What’s the rivalry between Pasupathi and Sivayya? Why Chandu lives in Sydney? The answers for all these will be unleashed on silver screen.
Performances:
Gopichand: He was given a cosmopolitan look in bigger way than in any other film. It has been a widely spread assumption that Gopichand fits well only for mass rugged roles. Some exercise to prove that wrong is apparently seen in first few minutes of this film. But the make up is like paint on his face which didn’t gel well. Once again he proved that he is the man with macho look carrying on a perfect bearing and dialogue rendition.
Trisha: She is at her best. She gained little weight and perfectly in tune with the taste of majority Telugu audiences. She has delivered best of her performance too.
Satya Raj is good in his elderly role while Kota also grooved well although he did hundreds of such characters earlier. Ali’s comedy has no constructive sequence but his style and presence have brought countless laughs in theatres. Krishna Bhagawan appeared in a small side kick role and could bring little laughs. Telangana Sakunthala is routine. Srinivas Reddy tried to bring some laughs in first half.
Music is very mundane, dialogues are routine with no sparks to underline, Cinematography is good and sound effects are average. On a whole the screenplay is straight and flat. Director could have worked more on the departments of dialogues, music and developing voltage in narration. Especially the scene where Satya Raj discovers his son in battered condition is very weak and couldn’t bring in any emotion in audiences.
Highlights:
Trisha
Production Values
Ali
Disappointments:
Vulgarity in comedy
Music
Flat narration
Analysis:
The movie lacked required voltage and hence it’s average. Director concentrated well on the aspects of framing and bringing richness on to celluloid but didn’t bother much about narration.
Bricks and cement can make a mansion. But not when they are just made a heap. Engineering is required to make use of them in right way to build a mansion. Similarly a few comedy scenes, a few action elements and a little sentiment mounded like a heap will not be sufficient to bring out a commercial entertainer. They need to be rightly placed with right intensity and right flow. That is missing here.
The major pulling factor for this movie is Trisha. Gopichand fans expect energy and hence return back half hearted.
Verdict: Watch it when you really have time to kill
4. Cinegoer.com
Cast: Gopichand, Trisha, Chandramohan, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Venumadhav, Ali, Srinivasa Reddy, Dharmavarapu, Krishna Bhagawan, LB Sriram, Benarjee, Supreet, Seetha, Shakuntala, Rajitha and others.
Action: Vijay, Ram-Laxman, Selva & Ganesh.
Art: AM Vivek.
Banner: Sri Balaji Cine Media.
Cinematography: Vetri.
Dialogues: Anil Ravipudi.
Editing: Goutham Raju.
Music: Thaman S.
Producer(s): J. Bhagawan & J. Pullarao.
Story, Screenplay & Director: Siva.
Release Date: September 11, 2009 
Gopichand is quite happy with the way his career is shaping up but at the same time to consolidate his position he is learning the tricks of the trade. He realizes that it is not imperative to have a fresh story, with a great screenplay or superior technical team to make a time-pass movie that will in a few weeks recover the money spent on the film. So he chooses entertainment as the main theme interspersed with an adequate dose of violence. The film begins with mad humour. Srinivas Reddy plays a cronie to Gopichand and ungainly looking Chandramohan completes the trio. They live in Sydney and Chandu (Gopichand) plays Chandramohan's nephew.
Chandramohan is constantly hunting for a right alliance for the hero and he falls for the fiery (Mahalakshmi) Trisha who is working in her uncle's restaurant near the Sydney Harbour. The romance is quite silly with Gopichand behaving as if he has never seen a woman in his life and Trisha acting as if she is oblivious to Gopichand making passes at her and Srinivas Reddy's lewd remarks. So when they finally fall in love, it is late, Telanagana Shakuntala, who happens to be Trisha's aunt resolves to take her to Kadapa and drags her to the airport.
By the time you shut your eyes and open, he is at Trisha's home asking Kota, her father if he can marry her. Kota grasps that the lad is not ordinary and seeing his guts sends him to his enemy who in turn, turns out to be Gopichand's father. Tables turn, and the rivalry is revealed with a flashback. The violence is really bad, the censor board has chopped nearly 15 minutes of the blood shed but still you are treated to all that you've seen before.
Ali plays Saif Ali Khan who is in love with Trisha's friend and marries her, he is befriended by Gopichand and that makes the weird romance go ahead. Thankfully it's Trisha who is doing the screaming and it works as she has an innocent face. Gopichand looks awkward being part of the silly romance. There is nothing new in the story, it's a concoction of various films you've seen before the difference being that the comedy supercedes thoroughly in the entire first part of the story. Venumadhav comes after interval and he plays the over affectionate guy who goes gooey eyed with the word love. 
Trisha is okay, not overdressed but overdoes her act, sad she is being confined to such roles that any actress could have done. It's time for her to move on to some substantial stuff. Satyaraj surprisingly looks young and plays his part convincingly. Gopichand does a reasonably good job in the later half of the film. Kota, Telangana Shakuntala, Chandramohan, Banerjee all appear in clichéd characters.
There is nothing much to talk about the film. It is comedy revisited that might keep the audience going for sometime, a time-pass film. Songs, dances not remarkable and they haven't tapped Sydney well, just a couple of outdoor locations and then they are confined to the interiors of a home. Director seems to have been inspired by a few Telugu films, settled for a shortcut instead of working hard on the script.
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