Film: "Gokula Krishna"; Cast: Prajwal Devaraj, Ananya, Bhavya, Jai Jagadish, Srinath, Doddanna, Sadhu Kokila, Kuri Pratap and others; Director: B.M.

Jayakannan; Producer: P. Shekar Gowda; Camera; Vinod Bharathi; Composer: S.A. Rajkumar; Editor: Sai Suresh; Rating: * 1/2

Oct 22 (IANS): The story of "Gokula Krishna" lacks freshness and novelty. The story of a young guy who does not believe in marriage has been told umpteen times on the big screen!

So also the concept of a guy being loyal to a girl.

The film's director Jayakannan has just followed some formulaic elements like fights, action and sentiment and used them here and there. The end result is that "Gokula Krishna" does neither have the trappings of a typical commercial cinema nor does it fall into the category of family-oriented films.

The film is a mix of what was seen in movies like "Naanu Nanna Hendthiru' and "Krishna Leele". What makes it a tedious watch is the unnecessarily use of comedy and action sequences.

Elements like bonding between parents and child, importance of trust in any relationship could have been used to strengthen the quality of the film, but Jayakannan seems to have failed to take advantage of these good elements in the script.

In the film Gokul returns from abroad to join his parents, but is indifferent to his parents and prefers spending time with his friends.

Gokul's worried father sends him to a friend in Hyderabad. There he comes across a simple girl who has her own views on love, life and other things.

Though Gokul is not much impressed with the girl, later he realises that she is a perfect match.

How he impresses the girl forms the rest of the story.

Prajwal is good in action and song sequences, but in emotional sequences he needs to learn a little more.

Surprisingly Ananya, who proved her exceptional talent in Tamil film "Engeyum Eppothum", fails to impress here. Jayakannan should be blamed for not exploiting her talents.

Veterans Jai Jagadish, Bhavya, Srinath and Doddanna fill in their roles perfectly.

Comedy sequences featuring Sadhu Kokila and Kuri Pratap are not well crafted and don't gel with the film.

Music director S.A. Rajkumar has just rehashed his own popular tunes and the song shot at Taj Mahal is slightly better in visuals.

The film needed some sharp cuts.

Overall, "Gokula Krishna" is average fare.