#HappyBirthdayKeerthySuresh #HBDKeerthySuresh - The arrival of a Mahanati!

Ever since #Mahanati was announced, there were speculations on who would be cast as the legendary yesteryear Superstar #Savithri, and when Nag Ashwin and team finally announced that #KeerthySuresh will essay the role, it came across as a shocker for many, and internet was filled with trolls and memes, focusing on her hamming in flicks like Thodari, especially thriving on screenshots taken in awkward moments during performances. Mahanati was released on May 9, and right from the premieres, the movie started garnering positive responses and went on to the level of a section claiming it a classic and raving about the performance of Keerthy Suresh. The movie also survived competition from the biggie Naa Peru Surya (which vanished soon though!).

To be accurate, Keerthy Suresh, as quoted by many, had not acted, but lived the role, presenting a generation that mostly doesn't know the legendary actress and her life (there was a one-sided inclination, and inaccuracies as said by many, but that doesn't matter), a glimpse of what she was in the industry. That she also took the effort to dub for the role to perfection, added strength to her performance.

Mahanati had it all, for Keerthy Suresh to explore and rediscover the performer in her, as the movie begins with teenage phase of Savithri, where Keerthy had to be what she had been in her earlier outings, with craziness and energy and transcends into the next phase, a one-take performer, a confident one who can challenge the likes of  KV Reddy and SV Ranga Rao, a female Superstar in a predominantly male-dominated industry, which Keerthy presented with elan.

And then comes the phase where she's strongly in love with Gemini, where Keerthy had to express the love, the sense of happiness and safety she finds in her man's company,  the emotional breakdown when she realizes his marital status, and the decision to stay strong in her love and enter wedlock, no matter what the world says, the guilt of being the other woman, the feeling of being seen by people as a marriage wrecker - this is a phase in Mahanati where Keerthy comes across as a myriad of emotions, ranging from the love flowing in her eyes to regret, guilt, and portrays them all convincingly.