Pawan Kalyan Teenmaar Movie Review

Movie: Teen Maar
My Rating: 3.25/5
Banner: Parameshwara Arts
Music: Mani Sharma
Story: Imtiaz Ali
Cinematography: Jayanan Vincent
Editor: M R Varma
Art Director: Narayana Reddy
Action: Tinu Varma
Choreography: Raju Sundaram, Kalyan
Dialogues & Screenplay: Trivikram Srinivas
Producer: Ganesh Babu
Direction: Jayanth C Paranji
Cast: Pawan Kalyan, Trisha, Kriti Kharbanda, Paresh Rawal, Danah, Mukesh Rishi, Pragati, M S Narayana, Sonu Sood, Sudha, Kasi Viswanath etc
Release Date: 14th April 2011

Review

Story

Set on the backdrop of South Africa, Michael Velayudham (Pawan) is a happy go lucky man who doesn’t believe in love and lifelong commitments. He meets Meera Shastri (Trisha) and both of them hit off and get intimate without any strings attached.

The story takes a turn when Meera decides to go to India to pursue her career of art restoration and they decide to break up. It is here that Michael meets Senapathi (Paresh Rawal) who notices Michael’s affair and recalls the love story of his friend Arjun Palwai (Pawan again) which happens thirty years ago in Varanasi. The girl in his life is Vasumathi (Kriti).

While Michael defies Senapathi’s views on life and love with logic and practical thinking, he begins to feel the emptiness from inside. Meanwhile, Meera’s marriage is fixed with someone else.

What happens after that? Does Michael realize true love? All this forms the rest of the story.

Artists Performance:

Pawan Kalyan has given an energetic performance and he scores the brownie points with his timing of dialogues. He looks stylish in the modern role but should have been careful in choice of costumes in flashback episode.

Trisha looks good after putting on some extra pounds of flesh. She is cute as usual and fills the glamour and emotional quotient wherever required.

Kriti Kharbanda looks like a doll but then she should have been more versatile with her expressions. The innocence is there in her eyes but it is not done with conviction. Overall, she did a decent job.

Paresh Rawal was brief, Sonu Sood looks elegant, Donna looks sizzling hot, Ali brought few smiles, Koyalagundla Harish and Arundhati Aravind made their presence felt. Tanikella, MS Narayana, Kasi Viswanath, Mukesh Rishi, Pragathi filled the screen at necessary scenes.

Highlights:

* Pawan Kalyan’s performance
* Pawan- Trisha liplock sequences
* Songs, background score
* Trisha’s glamour
* Locations
* Cinematography and emotional sequences
* Second half, especially the last 30 minutes

Drawbacks:

* Ali, Pawan, Trisha’s drunk sequence at hotel was dragged
* Flashback episode missed natural appeal
* Mismatch of costumes for Pawan in flashback episode
* Comedy

Final Analysis:

After a long time, Pawan Kalyan was seen in full spirits and seemed to enjoy his role and characterization.

The film comes across with an ideology clash between the current generation and the generation that has gone by when it comes to essence of relationships. While the intention is noble, this may not be a recipe for the mass or commercial audience (B, C centers).

As such, this is a movie which appeals the class and urban (A center) audience. Also, with good technical and production values coupled with few nice songs, the film has a feel good factor and turns out to be a smooth breezy entertainer. Pawan Kalyan fans might get reminded of his ‘Khushi’ days. The film will connect well with those who haven’t watched the original in Hindi (Love Aaj Kal).

Overall, this comes across as a cool treat in the summer heat packed with the right dose of comedy, sentiment, romance and above all, dialogues. At the box office, this has strong chances of scoring success.

Pawan Kalyan has broken the rule this time and performed something out of the box (esp with lip locks). In actual sense, this film has to be done by any younger hero. Trisha looked hottest in best way possible with ample thigh shows and deeper necks. She came out with full dose glamour.

The first half suffers little ups and downs while last 30 minutes stood as highlight with gripping.

Source: telugu-film-reviews.blogspot.com

Shakti Movie Review

Movie: Shakti
My Rating: 2/5
Banner: Vyjayanthi Movies
Music: Mani Sharma
Cinematography: Sameer Reddy
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Art: Anand Sai
Producer: Ashwini Dutt
Story,Screenplay & Direction: Meher Ramesh
Cast: Jr.NTR, Ileana, Manjari Phadnis, Krishna, Vijay Nirmala, Jackie Shroff, Sonu Sood, Prabhu, Nasser, Ali, M S Narayana, Srinivasa Reddy, Krishna Bhagawan, Pooja Bedi, Brahmanam etc
Release Date: 1st April 2011

Review

Story

Mahadevarayalu (Prabhu) is the central home minister who has a task at hand. He hails from royalty and they are entrusted with the job of getting the Rudrashoolam from Jackie (Jackie Shroff) since a pooja should happen on a particular eclipse day.

However, Fakhtoom (Pooja), an evil queen from Egypt has also got her eyes on the same weapon as she wants to conquer the world and avenge the death of her husband (Sonu Sood).

On the other hand, Mahadevarayalu has got his daughter Iswarya (Ileana). She wants to live a free life without any security so she escapes to have a holiday with her friends (Ali and others).

She is targeted by the group of Fakhtoom but in comes Shakti (NTR) as Iswarya’s guide. He protects her from time to time. Jwalamukhi, a divine diamond also involves in protecting them. However, Shakti has got a flashback and a connection with the Rudrashoolam. What is that connection? Who gets to win in the end forms the rest of the story.

Artists Performance:

NTR Junior does his bit as required. Though he is lacking those high energy levels and powerful dialogue delivery, he carries off his role in a matured way. However, the etching of his warrior character was poor.

Ileana looks sexy and appeals in the songs. Though her costumes were not upto the mark, she contributes in the glamour department.

Sonu Sood was okay, though his role was very limited he manages to make his presence felt.

Pooja Bedi was artificial, Nasser looks powerful, Jackie Shroff ended up as a joker with his weak characterization, the actor who did the role of Raaka was brawny, Prabhu was okay, Ali was average, Brahmanandam came and went, Krishna Bhagawan brought few smiles, S P Balu was standard, Manjari was ok. The others didn’t have much to offer.

Highlights:

* Visual grandeur
* Art department
* Music and lyrics
* Background score
* Ileana’s glamour
* Production values

Disappointments:

* Weak content
* Poor screenplay
* Logical lapse in the backdrop
* Song picturization
* Editing hiccups
* Directorial flaws

Final Analysis:

A good film with high budgets requires a strong team of technicians and effective execution of the plot. Here, the concept of the Sakti Peethams was appealing but then it takes material to execute the plot in the right way and bring conviction.

The responsibility of the director is to bring depth and feel into such storylines. For instance, the flashback episode dates back only 27 years back which means 1984. How can one expect people to come from Egypt with horses, have sword-fights etc during that year.

Another place where the Sakti Peethams are portrayed through library shots, what was the director thinking of? Saving some money? Well, that looked poor. There are many scenes where dramatism and high voltage of emotions is required but that was missing completely.

Except for one or two scenes, there is not a single scene which strikes a chord. Cinematic liberties are accepted but the director must concentrate on getting the audience to connect with his story first. After that, even if he shows something illogical, the audience won’t mind it. But right from the first scene, things have been stale and lacked any emotion.

At the box office, the openings might be good due to the star power and the hype about the budget but apart from that, the film is sure to fizzle out due to weak content.

Life Before Wedding(LBW) Movie Review

Movie: LBW (Life Before Wedding)
My Rating: 3.25/5
Banner: A Working Dream production
Music: Anil R
Cinematography: Andrew Redd & Suresh Babu
Editing: Dharmendra Kakarala
Producer: Deborah Stone & Naveen Sattaru
Story,Screenplay & Direction: Praveen Sattaru
Cast: Asif Taj, Rohan Gudlavalleti, Chinmayi Ghatrazu, Abhejit Pundla, Sidhu Jonnalagadda & Nishanti Evani etc
Release Date: 18th Feb 2011

Review

Story

Hyderabad story: Jai (Abhejit) and Rishi (Siddhu) are friends for a long time. Jai is a proper guy and Rishi is a temperamental guy whose is prone to bad habits. Jai and Rishi are introduced to Anu (Nishanti Evani). Anu is a prim and systematic girl. This story is all about whom Anu chooses.

Dallas story: Rajesh (Rohan) and Radhika (Chinmayi) are inseparable friends staying in Dallas. Radhika is in love with Rajesh and he thinks that it’s just a gesture of deep friendship. Varun (Asif Tej) - an Amricanized youngster enters their lives. The rest of the story is about who ends up with Radhika.

Artists Performance:

95% of the actors in this movie are new ones. Since it is a character-based movie, all the actors will get mileage/recognition based on the kind of character one does. Siddhu steals limelight in the first half. He is an excellent talent who can suit our typical Telugu cinemas. He has flexible body language and likable dialogue delivery. Abhijet is cute and he is the dark horse of the movie who gets highlighted as the movie progresses. Asif Tej is a cool dude and he brought believability to the character with his amazing accent and coolness (it reminded me of the boy-friend character in Erin Brockovich). Rohan underplays most of the time and his timing in peunltimate scenes is really good. Nishanti and Chinmayi are not of typical Telugu film heroines type, but suited the characters. Chinmayi wins you over with her performance though the make-up is not proper in certain scenes. Nishanti is natural.

Technical Departments:

LBW is the fusion of two unrelated triangular stories among six different personalities (four boys and two girls). Director Praveen Sattaru comes to Telugu film industry with no practical experience. He used that practical inexperience into his advantage by inducing fresh characterizations and unadulterated story telling. Praveen has shown deftness in direction though there are certain prolonged/dull scenes that originated out of not-so-effective screenplay. Characterizations are superb. It’s a confident and honest debut by Praveen and it deserves appreciation. If he can set his script right with a bit commercial orientation, he will become a commercially successful director.

The cinematography of the movie is very good. This film is shot using Red One camera and within limited resources. Music by Anil is peppy and most of the songs come in the second half. All songs of the movie are either situational or montages. Dialogues are authentic (a lot of them are in English). Editing by Dharmenda is neat. This film is made in a budget of 2.2 crores and it turned out to be a at least a 4-crore-budgeted movie in terms of output and production quality.

Final Analysis:

LBW is a new-age multiplex film that is aimed at classes. No compromises have been done to dumb down the movie incorporate commercial elements. The entire first half establishes the characters and sets the plot up. The second half gets high on entertainment. The pre-climax and climax portions of the movie are prolonged (but highly realistic). After Sekhar Kammula, Krish and Deva Katta, I have seen such a potential in Praveen Sattaru among the NRI-profiled directors. LBW is honest and pure cinema aimed at multiplexes. You may watch it!

Source: Idlebrain

KSD Appalaraju Movie Review

Movie: KSD Appalaraju
My Rating: 2/5
Banner: Shreya Productions
Music: Koti
Cinematography: Sudhakar Yekkanti
Editing: Praveen Pudi
Producer: Kiran Koneru
Story,Screenplay & Direction: Ramgopal Varma
Cast: Sunil, Colours Swathi, Adarsh, Ajay, Raghu Babu, Harshavardhan, Kovai Sarala, Chalapathi Rao, Narsing Yadav, Krishna Bhagawan, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Tanikella Bharani, Brahmanandam, Ali, Sakshi Gulati, Tanu Roy, Suman Shetty, Raja Ravindra, Venu Madhav, Jayaprakash Reddy, Krishnudu, Kallu Chidambaram, Thameem, Ravi Teja etc
Release Date: 18th Feb 2011

Review

Story

Appalaraju (Sunil) hails from Amalapuram and he is a passionate film buff. His dream is to direct a film and for that he already writes a script for a tragedy film with the title ‘Nayaki’. With full confidence, he comes to Hyderabad and manages to set foot in the industry.

It is here he comes across people like Rocky (Raghu Babu), creative head Pushpanand (Harshavardhan) as a team. Eventually, he manages to convince glamour queen Kanishka (Sakshi), the muse of Babu Garu (Adarsh), as the leading lady for his project. Then comes KT (Ajay), a star who hates Babu Garu and has got an eye on Kanishka. While all this is one side, a twist of events occur and Appalaraju is forced to join hands with mafia don Srisailam Anna (Brahmi) who becomes the producer of this film.

What are the challenges and experiences for Appalaraju? Is he the same man who comes from Amalapuram after the completion of his film? Will he be successful in making his ‘Nayaki’? All this forms the rest of the story.

Artists Performance:

Sunil has given his best for the role and it was looking clear that he was imitating the body language of Ramgopal Varma in many scenes. His characterization was not consistent and had lots of ups and downs. But he rocks with his graceful dances every where and punch dialogues here and there.

Swathi does her bit as required and it was a different experience to see the glamour avatar of this slender girl in songs. She can do with adding few extra pounds which will make her more desirable.

Sakshi Gulati has sex appeal written all over her, except the face. She was sensuous, gave the apt expressions and though her role was limited, she made the best use of it and shows potential.

Brahmanandam managed to get few smiles with his one-liners. Though few scenes of his were not made with conviction, he did an okay job.

Tanikella was apt, Raghu Babu was good, Harshavardhan imitated RGV completely right from facial expression to walk, Ajay was effective, Adarsh was powerful. Venu Madhav was irritating, Krishna Bhagawan was cool as usual, Kota was okay, Ali was not used rightly. MS Narayana, Suman Shetty, the lad with pony tail filled the gaps.

This beautiful story was wrongly handled by the director missing the spice and kick in entire drama. He ended up this film as a b-grade film without any Midas-touch by him.

Highlights:

* Ramu was successful in creating characters that both the film folks and the media folks will be able to connect with real time personalities but not for general audience.
* The song which has dupes of Balakrishna, Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh, Nagarjuna doing few antics gets huge applause in theaters
* The song on film directors hitting directly with their names mesmerizes the audiences.
* The song ‘Ringu Road kaada..’ shot on Ajay and Sakshi stands as an example for technical brilliance and appealing look.
* Sunil’s dances
* Lyrics on a whole and especially ‘cinema mayam’

Drawbacks:

* The emotional anguish of the protagonist was not etched well, it is hard for the audience to connect to him.
* Weak comedy
* No flavor in drama
* The scene after interval when Brahmi reveals his lyrical talent and sits with Ali. It got dragged to nearly ten minutes with no power in content.
* The scene between Ravi Teja and Sunil. The reactions of Sunil were not right given the background he comes from in the movie. Also, it is not sure what the intention was behind having that scene. Instead of empathizing with Ravi Teja in the scene, Sunil discards him. That affected his characterization.
* The scene between Sunil, Raghu Babu and Harshavardhan at ice cream vendor and auto-wala tests the patience of audience.
* Lengthy narration

Final Analysis:

People focused on this film just because of Ram Gopal Varma than anything else. Everything else falls after his brand name. He is known for his in depth emotions, effective screenplay, crisp, short and straight dialogues and on a whole a master style of handling. People carry some expectations coming to theatres. Adding to RGV’s image, it’s the satire on film industry and characters resembling its real time people pulled the attention of public.

On a whole, it’s the creative instinct of the director played here than the interest in carving a convincing and connecting film.

The objective of making a film is not just about fulfilling the director’s creative satisfaction. It is also about the satisfaction or to say the least, some entertainment for the audience. Well, that was missing its mark here completely. The subject chosen is something for those already in the film industry or to those individuals who are planning to join the industry. As such, the common public will not relish it.

An attempt was made to come up with an overall comedy treat but the slapstick style adopted didn’t have the crisp humor, it was dull and stale. Many a time, director assumed that many scenes would bring laughs in theatres but he proved wrong.

The film takes off very well and sets the right tempo but starts fizzling out after fifteen minutes. From then on, it is a dull journey till the end. By no means is it a film of RGV’s mettle and his masterstrokes were completely missing.

Comparatively, Puri Jagannadh’s ‘Neninthe’ was better considering the genre.

At the box office, the openings may be huge owing to the hype and controversy created but that will not sustain for long.

Source: Greatandhra

Rakta Charitra 2 Movie Review

Movie: Rakta Charitra 2
My Rating: 3/5
Banner: Studio Cinergy Pictures
Music: Dharam Sandeep
Cinematography: Amol Rathod
Dialogue: Nageswara Rao
Editing: Bhanodaya/Nipun Ashok Gupta
Producer: Madhu Mantena, Sheetal Vinod Talwar, Chinna Vasudeva Reddy, Rajkumar
Direction: Ram Gopal Varma
Cast: Surya, Vivek Oberoi, Priyamani, Radhika Apte, Shatrughan Sinha, Sudeep, Subhalekha Sudhakar etc
Release Date: 03rd Dec 2010

Rakta Charitra 2 movie got many reasons to be regarded as one of the most awaited films of the season. Ratha Charithram movie is directed by Ram Gopal Varma and is made in Telugu, Hindi, and Tamil simultaneously. Rakta Charitra 1 has created lot of interest on the second part and no wonder people who watched part 1 are waiting for the second part with bated breathe. Tamil version Ratha Charithram is released as a single film though.

As it is a Ram Gopal Varma film based on two powerful real life characters, Rakta Charitra has all reasons to gain the attention of filmgoers. Did the film meet the expectations? Is it worth the wait? Know the details in Rakta Charitra Movie Review…

Review

Story

Surya (Suriya) plans a bomb attack to kill Pratap Ravi (Vivek Oberoi), but the latter escapes it with minor injuries. Pratap gets to know that Surya is son of Mahendar Reddy, who got killed by him. Pratap orders his men to kill who all helped Surya to plan an attack against him. Police takes Surya’s wife Bhavani (Priyamani) into custody and to ensure her safety, Surya surrenders to police. He reworks on another plan to kill Pratap by sitting in the jail.

Who is Surya? Why is he dying to kill Pratap Ravi? Flashback unfolds… Surya is son of wicked politician Mahendar Reddy who has brutally killed Pratap’s father and brother and in turn was killed by Pratap Ravi. Even after his father’s death, Surya doesn’t try to take revenge on Pratap. He plans for a peaceful life along with his family. But by then Pratap Ravi has turned a political power and orders his men to eliminate all his enemies. In that process, Surya’s family gets killed by the TV bomb placed by Pratap’s men. With his family dying for no reason, Surya avenges their death.
How and when Surya does executes his plans and kills Pratap Ravi is the conclusion of this story.

Artists Performance:

Surya is terrific. His eyes do all the talking in this film and RGV simply highlighted those eyes with his typical lighting schemes. Watch out for Surya’s eyes when he sits in the shadows and speak. He looks like a tiger on the prowl. His performance in the scene when his family gets killed in a bomb attack is outstanding. Vivek Oberoi, who looked convincing in the first part, is below the mark in this part. May be it is due to the sliding graph of his characterization in this version. The director deliberately made his character look weak here. Vivek is simply outdone by Surya in the only confrontation scene in between them.

Priyamani is perfect as Bhavani. Radhika Apte scores brownie points towards the climax. Shatrughan Sinha doesn’t have much to do here. Sudeep is as brilliant as always, and his presence is felt. Subhalekha Sudhakar is apt and so is Tanikella Bharani.

Final Analysis:

Ram Gopal Varma played cat and mouse game in the first part of this film. He has deliberately held back the ‘crux’ of this story to the second part and simply focused on giving details about Paritala Ravi’s origin and his growth as a politician. BUT, Rakta Charitra film is not just about that. It has not created so much buzz because of the content shown in part 1. Rakta Charitra is mainly highlighted and hyped because of the feud between Paritala Ravi and Maddelacheruvu Suri. Audiences have been waiting for this film to get to know in detail about what has happened between them.

Ram Gopal Varma, being a shrewd businessman, besides being a spectacular filmmaker, has cleverly made two films with single story. He made the first part of the film without even introducing Suri’s role. Hence, people who watched the first part were forced to wait for the second part to release.

But, unfortunately, Rakta Charitra 2 isn’t worth the wait. Ram Gopal Varma’s ploy to market his film and to make audience buy two tickets to watch a single film works on the economical front. However, the master filmmaker disappointed with his take on real ‘Rakta Charitra’. This ‘Reel’ Charitra is just made to cash on the interest that surrounded the real incidents.

Ram Gopal Varma simplified many things to his will and twisted the tale to his convenience. Did he do this out of pressure on him or did he grab only that much from the actual happenings? Only RGV knows better.

Rakta Charitra 2 is also a dragged film like the part 1. Ram Gopal Varma simply dragged the film to the maximum to make it count as a feature film. There are hardly four to five scenes in this film. Only that were repeatedly told or dragged for minutes together kicking the patience out of audience bodies and brains. Ram Gopal Varma should have made this one as single film and that would have made this look even better. Due to his deliberate ploy to release it in two parts and cash on the ‘substance’, Ram Gopal Varma has separated this one into two parts. Neither the story nor the treatment demanded this extended version. May be Ratha Charithram as a single film, would seem much better and packed than this blown up Rakta Charitra.

Despite the dragged screenplay and boring scenes, Rakta Charitra 2 has its moments. The attack on Surya when in court and the outburst of Surya after the death of his family is simply superb. Even the fight in the jail is praiseworthy. With these scenes, Ram Gopal Varma shows why he is at the top. His vision can bring any emotion on to the screen brilliantly, and the above mentioned sequences support this statement.

Climax of this film is the real spoiler as everyone is well aware of what has really happened. Had Ram Gopal Varma dealt this part with finesse, the final impact might have been several notches above than what it is now. Ram Gopal Varma might have removed most of his voice over part from volume 2 after receiving flak for his work in Rakta Charitra 1. That is a saving grace indeed.

Technicalities:

Back ground score is good but not as engrossing as in the first part. Dialogues are okay. ‘Bharya Bharya ki change untundi’ dialogue mouthed by Sudeep got audience in splits. Cinematography is one of the biggest plusses. Editing is Okay. On technical front, Rakta Charitra is good. No complaints whatsoever.

Plus Points:
- Surya’s performance
- Background score

Minus points:
- Too much twisting of the real tale
- Dragging screenplay and content less scenes.
- Poor climax.

Orange Movie Review

Movie: Orange
My Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: Anjana Productions
Music: Harris Jayaraj
Cinematography: Rajasekhar, Kiran
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Producer: Naga Babu
Story,Screenplay & Direction: Baskar
Cast: Ramcharan Tej, Genelia, Shahzahn Padamsee, Prakashraj, Prabhu, Brahmi, Srinivas Avasarala, Madhurima, Manjula, Sanjay, Sameer, Pavitra Lokesh, Vennela Kishore, Sanchita, Naga Babu etc
Release Date: 26th Nov 2010

Review

Story

Set on the backdrop of Australia, Ram (Ramcharan) is an youngster who loves graffiti but he doesn’t believe in love for lifetime. He wants to say truth all the while with respect to love life and live with open mind, open thought and open action with his partner.

This leads to a clash of ideology with Jaanu (Genelia) who studies in the same college and what starts out as a romantic tale between them both turns out to be a relationship of confusion and complications.

Ram explains this entire story as his flash back while a police cop (Prakash Raj) asks him as a part of informal interrogation (!)

Jaanu believes in everlasting love but given the thought process of Ram, will they be together? Can they really love each other? All this forms the rest of the story.

Artists Performance:

Ramcharan did his best to fit the lover boy tag and he was neat in his dance and dialogue delivery. Two things he must avoid- a clean shave and full body shots while in a group. There was no emotional depth in his character so his body language was average.

Genelia was depressing and disappointing. Her costumes were bizarre, the make up was patchy and her face looked blotted. She has lost the innocence and charm. Perhaps it is age but the blame also goes to the styling and her image etching. Performance wise, she was regular and didn’t have any special acts.

Shahzahn comes like a breath of fresh air and though she was brief, she looks cute and attractive. She has the potential to take lead roles.

Prakashraj was regular, Brahmi’s comedy was not upto the mark, Prabhu and Pavitra Lokesh were alright, Vennela Kishore was wasted, Madhurima was quick but sweet, Naga Babu made his presence felt. The others didn’t have much to offer except filling the screens and rolling out few lines.

Highlights:
Songs (although no much variety among each other)
Dances by Ram Charan
Production Values

Disappointments:
Theme
Dialogue
Lack of comedy
Lack of emotion quotient
Characterizations

Final Analysis:

The fundamental blunder in the film is that when speaking about love it should be run on emotions and feeling but not on calculation. To make things worse, Baskar tries to explain the calculation with his own narrative style which was rather confusing. He had something noble and different in mind but he could not conceive it in the right manner on the screen. There is no emotion, no romance, no chemistry between the lead pair, no sentiment and above all, no comedy. At one stage, it becomes like a boring mathematics class where the audience have become students and are trying to understand what Professor Bhaskar is trying to explain on the love algorithm.

The other disappointment is the philosophy on love. While it is nice to have an ocean full of love, it is common sense that love alone is not life. They are two different entities and the essence of life is in striking a balance between both. Fortunately, what Baskar was trying to say ended up confusing many in the theatre but to those who may have understood a fraction of it, this is truly dangerous. On the other hand, there are quite a number of instances where Bhaskar tried to take the route of Gautam Menon but the difference is chalk and cheese.

The good side of the film is the songs and their picturization which was really impressive and visually appealing. Charan’s efforts in songs were commendable. The fight sequence which involves the spray cans was also creative and colorful. As for his much hyped sky diving stunt, that is not so appealing as expected.

Overall, the film is good on presentation but very poor in content and completely blotched on narration and concept. While the masses have nothing in it, the class audience will feel like they are in a classroom. And regarding the mega fans…well, it looks like 2010 is just not their year as their favorite heroes seem to be dealing with unconventional characters.

 Bottom Line: Orange - No Juice, Full Of Seeds

Kalyan Ram Kathi Movie Review

Movie: Kalyan Ram Kathi
My Rating: 3.25/5
Banner: NTR Arts
Music: Mani Sharma
Cinematography: Sarvesh Murari
Fights: Ram - Lakshman
Editing: Gowtam Raju
Producer: Nandamuri Kalyan Ram
Dialogues: M Ratnam
Story: Vakkantham Vamsi
Screenplay & Direction: Mallikharjun
Cast: Kalyan Ram Nandamuri, Sana Khan, Shyam, Saranya Mohan, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Ahuti Prasad, Ajay, Sameer, Chandra Mohan, Brahmanandam, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam, Venu Madhav, Ramaraju, Raghu Karumanchi, Telangana Sakuntala etc
Release Date: 12th Nov 2010

Review

Story

Rama Krishna (Kalyan Ram Nandamuri) is a football player who aspires to play for national team. He lives in a joint family and bonds over well with his sister Haritha (Saranya Mohan). He protects her all the time. One sudden day she disappears. He searches for her finds out that she is married to a factionist from Rayalaseema. And she is in trouble. The rest of the story is all about how he sacrifices his aim of playing for nation so that he can save from her from her trouble.

Artists Performance:

Kalyan Ram has got two get-ups in the movie. He is normal in the first half and has a special get-up in the second half. Lot of appreciation should go to cinematographer Sarvesh Murari in bringing out starking variations between these two get-ups. Kalyan Ram’s dialogue delivery has improved by miles in this movie. And he is at ease in casual scenes and has impact-making presence in action episodes. Kalyan Ram is an honest actor and you can see his zeal to work hard towards it in this movie.

Saranya Mohan suited the role very well and she is a nice actress. Sana Khan is beautiful in looks and she did adequately well. Shyam is nice as a guy with negative streaks. I loved the make-up of Kota, Telangana Sakuntala and Ajay in this movie. Kota is extremely good. Ajay looks menacing with a damaged eye. Raghu Karumanchi is an actor who is good at comedy and you can find him in most of the movies of Surender Reddy and NTR. He entertains with his typical Telangana dialect and funny face in this movie for a brief time. Ahuti Prasad, Chandra Mohan, Dharmavarapu and Telangana Sakuntala are adequate. Brahmanandam entertains in the second half with his cellphone comedy as ‘swathi muthyam’.

Technical Side:

It is a sister sentiment movie with ample action elements. The ‘football player - joint family - sacrificing goal for family’ set-up seem to have resemblance to Chiranjeevi’s Vijetha. However, the story provided by Vakkantam Vamsi has a novel point in sister-sentiment thread. Screenplay of the movie is nice in the second half. Direction of the movie is decent though we expect the emotion to be more impact-making in scenes leading upto action episodes. Brahmanandam’s comedy and ‘naa daivam’ photo episodes will give relief in second half which is laden with action and sentiment.

Cinematography by Sarvesh Murari is excellent (a part of the credit should also go to DI team). Dialogues by M Ratnam are big asset to the movie. Fights by Ram Lakshman are really good and chase episode of a SUV rotating in air is excellently conceived. However, climax scene of sword-piercing look unreal due to the excessive size of the sword. Most of the action sequences (chases and fight in the builder’s home) are good. Music by Mani Sharma is adequate. I liked Natu Kodi koora song (typical orchestration that is used in NBK’s hits like Narasimha Naidu and Samarasimha Reddy). The movie is made with proper care in terms of production values and post production quality.

Final Analysis:

First half of the movie is adequate. The movie gets interesting from the kidnap episode. Second half is racy with lots of action episodes. The climax fight is too massy. The plus points of the movie are brand-new Kalyan Ram and technical values (dialogues, camera and fights). This movie is mainly aimed at female crowds (sentiment factor) and masses (action episodes and dialogues). Kathi is an adequate movie and the success will depend on how ladies and masses patronize it.

Rakta Charitra Movie Review

Movie: Rakta Charitra - 1

My Rating: 3.25/5

Banner: Cinergy productions

Music: Dharam- Sandeep

Dialogues: Nageswara Rao

DOP: Amol Rathod

Editing: Bhanodaya, Nipun Ashok Gupta
Producers: Madhu Mantena, Sheetal Vinod Talwar, Chinna Vasudeva Reddy, Rajkumar
Story,Screenplay & Direction: Ram Gopal Varma
Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Abhimanyu Singh, Shatrughan Sinha, Kota, Radhika Apte, Zareena Wahab, Sushant Singh, Tanikella, Subhalekha Sudhakar, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Rajendra Gupta, Ashish Vidyarthi, Kitty etc.
Release Date: 22nd Oct 2010

Review

Story

Noted MLA Narasimha Reddy (Kitty) has got a trusted aide in the form of Veerabhadriah (Rajendra Gupta) in Anandapuram area.

However, Narasimha’s relative Nagamani Reddy (Kota) is unable to take this for reasons of caste and losing his presence. He plants a seed of friction and in no time, Narasimha Reddy gets Veerabhadriah killed. This enrages Veerabhadriah’s elder son Shankar Ravi (Sushant) and he gets into a killing spree and operates from forests.
Veerabhadriah’s younger son Pratap Ravi (Vivek) who is away from all this gets to know of this and before he realizes, Shankar Ravi also gets killed. He vows revenge on his father and brother’s killers and in this process, Narasimha Reddy, Nagamani Reddy and others are brutally killed. Nagamani Reddy’s son Bukka Reddy (Abhimanyu) who is insane to the core is unable to take this and he becomes Pratap’s main enemy.

Meanwhile, the rise of Pratap as opposite force to Bukka Reddy is noticed by Shivaji Rao (Shatrughan) who sets a new party and he decides to lift Pratap to put an end to Bukka Reddy. What happens after that forms the rest of the story.

Artists Performance:

Vivek Oberoi is an apt choice, his eyes deliver the sufficient emotion of revenge and his body language is intense. He has done full justice to his role.

Abhimanyu Singh is a complete show stealer. His menacing looks and his cold blooded performance will give some spine chilling moments.

Shatrughan Sinha was contained and it must be said that traces of real life N T Rama Rao are quite prominent in his gestures and dialogue delivery.

Kota was perfect, Radhika was naturally appealing, Zarina was neat, Tanikella was impressive and he made his presence felt, Rajendra Gupta was adequate, Sushant was brief, Ashish Vidyarthi was alright, Subhalekha Sudhakar was standard, Subrat Dutta was good, the others did their bit as required and added value.

Highlights:

Symbolism shots with respect to showing a cycle in Shivaji Rao (Shatrugan Sinha)’s place (recalling TDP and NTR), usage of left had, addressing as ‘brother' are impressive.

Showing a dog barking after the death of Naga Mani Reddy (Kota) depicts ‘kukka chaavu'..That’s impressive.

Ram Moorthy (Tanikella) saying to Pratap Ravi ‘to shave beard as a politician should look clean at face although dirty at heart'

Bukka Reddy’s introduction scene

Disappointments:

RGV’s voice over is overflowing. It’s not a radio drama to explain everything with a voice over. Whatever RGV is saying in voice, is being conveyed visually! It disturbed the mood to some extent.

Pratap Ravi stays in forest as per the dialogue. But he stays in a dusty hill area that hardly looks like a forest. It may sound trivial, but when such observations linger in mind, some audience gets distracted from the mood.

Why Dabbunnoda song? The context is not convincing.

Challenges:

The subject chosen is quite hard hitting so one needs to have some background information before actually connecting to the film.

Facing criticism with respect to Shivai Rao’s (a replica of NTR) characterization and converting it into publicity element.

Facing criticism and questions with respect to ‘pedda sir' (implying YSR) and again converting it into a publicity element

Mood is suddenly dropping down at the conclusion point of the movie. Waiting till Part-2 to get completeness in feeling is a challenge for audience and it’s challenge for maker to sustain interest for 1 month till Part-2 release.

Final Analysis:

“Goodness or badness can never be anyone’s property. They are situational.

If a man is hunger free, he showers only goodness. But if any sort of hunger (be it lust, power craving or greed or vengeance) hits him, he spells badness'.

Rakta Charitra is a fiction based on historical facts.

It’s rather powerful to say that it’s a true depiction of human emotions.

It’s a tour to extreme human beings.

Ramayan or Mahabharat or any chronicled history in dramatic form depicts the extremities of emotions in every character. For example if Karna is known for generosity, its shown with eccentricity of chopping off his own armored skin to offer for a beggar. If Bheeshma is known for sacrifice, its shown in extreme point of choosing life time celibacy to keep himself and his legacy far from kingship. Any drama holds grip only when the characterizations are strong. This fact was known for dramatists right from Veda Vyasa and Valmiki. Similar path is now chosen by Ram Gopal Varma is depicting a historical fact in dramatic form.

He has shown Bukka Reddy as a determined rapist (!) and dedicated murderer (!).The incidents canned around this characterization are extreme in imagination. Pratap Ravi is shown as a bad guy, but for a true reason (since he is chosen to be the hero of the plot).

Ram Gopal Varma is a master of movie making and an expert storyteller. This is seen here yet again. As such, the storyline can be understood in few words and there is nothing unpredictable about it but then it is the way Ramu takes off with each scene and how he gets the viewer into the film which counts.

His screenplay techniques and shot compositions are one of those dexterities he possesses. Perhaps a layman might find the visual appeal to be dim but then there are few flashes of his brilliance which are seen on and off. The focus was more on the emotion of the protagonist and the villain so that is a challenge to handle for more than two hours.

On the other hand, it is not a typical Varma characterization where most of the actors give hard expressions, talk less and convey more. Here the characters speak sufficient and sometimes little verbose!! But still there is a rhythm in their performance and it connects to the regular audience.

Robo Telugu Movie Review

Movie: Robo 

My Rating: 3.75/5
Banner: Sun Pictures
Music: A R Rahman
Cinematography: R Ratnavelu
Animatronics: Stan Winston Studio
Dialogues: Sri Rama Krishna
Lyricists: Vanamali, Suddala, Bhuvana Chandra

Story: Sujatha
Producers: Kalanidhi Maran, Hansraj Saxena
Screenplay & Direction: Shankar
Cast: Rajni Kanth, Aishwarya Bachchan, Danny Dengzompa, Cochin Haneefa, Santhanam, M S Bhaskar, Karunas etc
Release Date: 1st Oct 2010

Review

Story

Dr Vaseekaran (Rajni Kanth) makes a Robot and gives him his own shape. The Robot is omniscient and omnipotent. His motive is to prepare his Robot to join Indian Army. He wishes to make many more such Robots to help Army and reduce loss of lives during wars. But Dr Vaseekaran’s enemy, another scientist (Danny) disproves that his Robot cannot fit to be used for military purposes as it cannot think like a human. He states that it has no emotions and reasoning capacity.

Dr Vaseekaran pumps in human feelings and reasoning capabilities and makes him almost a human. But things turn upside down. Robot starts loving Sana (Aishwarya Rai), the fiancée of Dr Vaseekaran. Robot gets attracted to Sana and that makes Vaseekaran angry. He destroys it.

But the enemy scientist takes the destroyed Robot, repairs it and infuses destructive mechanism in it. He wants it to sell to some international gangsters. But the love for Sana in Robot aggravates as wild possessiveness and that pesters Sana.

Robot becomes very strong physically and becomes like a cruel demon. It even kills the scientist who gives him second birth. It creates massive destruction to society by creating many Robots like itself.

How Dr Vaseekaran deactivates the Robot and brings things to peace is the end of the film.

Artists Performance:

Rajni Kanth is tremendously good at age 60. His moves, his gait and expressions didn’t wane even a bit. He got connected to new age kids and they cannot forget him for rest of their lives. That way Rajni Kanth added another 60 years to his image.

Aishwarya Rai is the true asset for the movie. Her glamour made a lot of difference. As a true goddess of beauty she enchanted everyone.

Danny is apt in serious role. His performance is in contemporary international standards.

If there is anything to speak about the film, that’s technical brilliance.

Music is in gen-next style. Sound is marvelous. Canning of songs is opulent. But the lyrics in Kilimanjaro are lewd and weak. Rest of the songs are fine.

Director Shankar deserves great mention for making this biggest feat possible on Indian screen with a message.

Technical Departments:

Shankar is a master commercial director and he makes sure that there are ample commercial elements and conflict points that would appeal to masses. Though Robo is a science fiction movie, Shankar scored the biggest brownie point when he pitted Rajnikant against Rajnikanth. Though it is a story of a relationship between man and machine, Shankar has beautifully showcase the human-side of machine and mechanical side of human. The screenplay of the movie is smooth and direction is near perfect. Shankar lets his imagination wild during the last 30 minutes of the movie and it’s spellbinding. Shankar’s created Chitti character in such a way that it endearing to watch it’s innocence. And you sympathize with Chitti even after it becomes rogue because Shankar has given enough justification for that. Robo is probably one of the very few Indians cinemas where villain is admired and adulated more than hero. The humor episodes of Chitti are rib-tickling. With Robo, Shankar proves that he is the best Indian film director in terms of grandeur, usage of technology and story telling.

Final Analysis:

This saying of great soul of Indian soil lingers in the mind while watching this film. Knowingly or unknowingly Shankar made a movie basing on this saying.

It’s a movie for world children.

Yes, it truly influences the senses of new generation kids those developed relation only with video games but not human beings. Hardly there are joint families now where grand parents teach morals to kids. And the kids tend to listen only to machine. They tend to follow what machine says. And director Shankar aptly takes the way through machine, the Robot, to teach values.

Kids run away listening to words kama, krotha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya…but they assimilate that when shown in a dramatic way. That too, not in the style of Chandamama stories. They want something with scientific reasoning. Hence the path is chosen through ‘Robot’.

How peaceful the Robo was and how useful that was to society when it’s free from those 6 evils. And how it becomes detrimental to itself and society when injects them into it. That’s aptly narrated.

The true essence of the movie is narrated in the end. The dialogues delivered by Robot while dismantling himself are hitting the hearts. The dialogues touch every human being with introspection. And at last, a girl looks back and goes with a thoughtful grimace. That is a symbolism for entire world kids those will be in thought process from now.

First half is entertaining. The first 30 minutes of second half are not gripping in right standards. That part is boring. But the climax action episode is marvelous to be on Indian screen. The last few closing dialogues are impressive and with true essence.

Hinduism or Islam or Christianity or Shintiosm or Taosim…every religion says one who is free from anger is the true strong man and one who shuns self is the true atman!!! ‘Anger’, as Sukhabodhananda says, is one letter less to danger. That is the true cause for destruction. Let us wish that this movie sows a seed at least in a few minds of children to prevent self entering into calculation while taking decisions….like a school girl that turns back and goes at the end on the screen.

Komaram Puli Movie Review

Movie: Komaram Puli
My Rating: 2/5
Banner: Kanakarathna Movies
Music: A R Rahman
Cinematography: Binod Pradhan
Editing: Prabhakaran
Producer: Singanamala Ramesh Babu
Story,Dialogues,screenplay & Direction: S J Suryah
Cast: Pawan Kalyan, Nikisha Patel, Manoj Bajpai, Nasser, Saranya, Charanraj, Ali, Girish Karnad, Brahmaji, Shriya (special appearance), Cochin Haneefa, Gopinath etc
Release Date: 10th Sep 2010

This is the movie from Power star Pawan Kalyan after a long hiatus after ‘Jalsa’. And this is the movie that has come in the combination of SJ Suryah and Pawan that made big success a decade ago with ‘Khushi’. Pawan, who has been keeping his fans in the lurch for quite a while has finally arrived amidst tension and confusion in the form of ‘Komaram Puli’.

Review

Story

The pregnant wife (Saranya) of an honest cop who is killed by the villain Al-Saleem (Manoj Bajpai) vows to bring up her son as a tough police officer. The kid grows up to be Komarum Puli (Pawan Kalyan) and he is a role model to the entire police department.

Saving the PM’s life, he gets to form ‘Puli Team’ which runs independently of any external force. A missing case incident of inspector Hussain (Suryah) gets him to Saleem and that eventually blooms to become a battle between the two.

On the other hand, there is the heroine (Nikesha) who is doing her best to woo Puli before and after marriage. What happens after that forms the rest of the story.

Artists Performance:

Pawan Kalyan was loud and annoying, he reminded of Sai Kumar in Kannada movies showing over energy at every dialogue of his. It kind of looked eccentric than his trademark style of performance…

Nikisha is the saving grace of the film, her beautiful eyes and fresh oomph gives ample visual feast and she has shown enough confidence in body language and expressions in terms of her acting.

Manoj Bajpayee did his best to fit the big villain role and as usual, his character was not etched well to give that heavy and powerful impact.

Saranya was at her standard as a mother, crying when needed, motivating when required and doing justice to her role.

Ali was stale, Shriya was not required at all, Charan Raj was apt, Nasser was natural, Girish Karnad came and went, Brahmaji was brief, the person doing the role of Nixon was rigid, the others came in to fill the gap and the film duration.


Highlights:
Heroine

Disappointments:
No continuity from scene to scene:

* In one frame Pawan appears with long moustache and in immediate scene with short one…
* In one scene the villain finds his car missing in Hyderabad City Center and in immediate scene he confronts Pawan Kalyan in Bangkok on a roof top helipad and asks to get back his car. …
* In one scene Pawan Kalyan wears khakhi uniform and in immediate scene he appears in olive green…

No comedy:

* There is no instance where the audiences can laugh whole heartedly.
* Pawan Kalyan’s so-called comedy with Nikesha Patel in second half when she seduces him is miserable.

Weak Choreography:

* Shriya’s item song got wasted with weak choreography
* No song is gripping or holding the attention of audiences visually

Final Analysis:

Right from the word goes, the film takes a sloppy opening and the introduction of Pawan Kalyan was ridiculous. Everything looked disjointed and the feel was missing completely. Here are a few blunders if we can call it

* poor graphics in Pawan Kalyan introduction sequences, they looked
* childish, hardly any punch in the introduction of Nikesha as well
* very wrong sequencing of songs and without proper choreography and unwanted close up shots taking away the appeal
* each frame lasted not more than 5 seconds and it was visually very disturbing
* weak content
* unwanted lectures from Pawan Kalyan for every situation
* cheap costume selection for Nikesha in many sequences
* The uniform of Puli Team which reminds us of private security force
* The dual uniform of Pawan which leaves us with a confusion
* Negligible and silly comedy
* Not one gripping sequence

The list continues for long but overall, the film lacks the strength or the maturity to really be called as a commercial entertainer.

Unfortunately, the strong presence of Pawan Kalyan was missing in this and he looked quite aloof in the film without any involvement.

The major flaw for the film is the direction and raw handling of the script with patchy screenplay. Editing was another disaster. Given the budget involved even if the costs for the delay are taken away, the film could have been much-much better. Not one song is appealing, background score was just average. At the box office, this will have a good opening but running successfully is ruled out.

Source: Greatandhra

Pappu Movie Review

Movie: Pappu  
My Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: Arya Entertainment
Music: Phani Kalyan
Cinematography: Kesani Rajendra
Editing: Chandrasekhar
Producers: Praveen Reddy, Yada Nagesh
Story, Screenplay & Direction: Sapan Pasumarthy
Cast: Krishnudu, Subbaraju, Dipikka, Uttej, Banerjee, Junaid, Siva Reddy, Sangeetha, Melkote, Surya etc
Release Date: 25th Jun 2010

Review

Story

Pappu (Krishnudu) is a young man whose life is written with bad luck. His helping nature and kind heart tends to do good to others but at his own expense. His life takes a turn when he sees Radha (Dipikka), his boss’s (Banerjee) daughter and begins to like her. However, Dipikka gets kidnapped by few goons and this puts her family in a dilemma. They call for the help of the ace detective Ram (Subbaraju) and due to a sentiment, even Pappu is sent in the search mission. What is that sentiment? How does a guy riddled with bad luck help Ram? What happens to Pappu’s love story? All this forms the rest of the story.

Artists Performance:

This is an entirely new Krishnudu that we see. He has grown in confidence and his body language is more demonstrative. He is able to emote the expressions very well and does full justice to his character. His efforts and commitment levels are praiseworthy.

Dipikka is a natural beauty and has shades of Sharmila Tagore in few angles. She has shown ease in front of the camera though it is her debut attempt and she can do well if she works on her expressions and lip movement. She needs to change her hairstylist though…

Subbaraju looks handsome as ever but for some reason, he has imbibed Mahesh Babu in his expressions, body language and dialogue delivery. It looks like the ‘Pokiri’ effect is still strong on him. He is a naturally talented and high caliber actor so if he just does his own bit, that will give him great results. But it is good to see an elevated character for him in the film.

Banerjee was good, Uttej was apt, Surya was brief, Junaid did his bit as required, Siva Reddy was not used to his potential, the others tried to contribute in their own way.

Final Analysis:

The film takes off on an interesting note but then it fails to get the audience into the flow. The key flaw in the entire movie is the weak direction. The presentation was somewhat okay but the narrative was poor.

Dialogues were strictly okay, script was average and the screenplay was not upto the mark. Since the storyline is known, a lot depended on how the characters are etched and what is the intensity they are showing to attract the audience into the film.

Though the lead cast gave spirited performances, it didn’t work that much due to the lack of depth in their characters. Editing was abrupt, background score was convincing but it could have been avoided at some scenes. Songs opened very well but lost grip in between, the ‘Anjaneya Stotram’ was impressive.

The film will have good openings at many centers due to the presence of Krishnudu and also due to the interesting combination of Subbaraju and Krishnudu. However, it would take some aggressive publicity and positive word of mouth for the film to sustain decent collections.

Villian Movie Review

Movie: Villian 
My Rating: 2/5
Banner: Madras Talkies, Reliance Big Pictures.
Music: AR Rahman
Cinematography: Santosh Sivan, V. Manikandan
Choreography: Ganesh Acharya, Brinda, Shobana, Astad Deboo
Audiography: Tapas
Editing: Sreekar Prasad
Producers: Mani Ratnam, Sharada
Screenplay & Direction : Kodi Rama Krishna
Cast: Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Prithviraj, Karthik, Priyamani etc
Release Date: 18th Jun 2010

Review

Story

Mani Rathnam’s romanticism becomes villain for this movie. The only soothing effect is that Mani Rathnam released the audience in right duration but didn’t rubbed the heads with his narration for 3 long hours. The movie publicized with huge hype and it’s even said that it got 3-4 times of investment much before its release. Big star cast right from Aishwarya Rai, Vikram, Prithviraj, Karteek and Prabhu increased expectations. And even the news about the presence of Ranjitha (Nityananda sex scandal fame) also made many heads turn towards this film.

But as the movie starts and goes, audience kept on distracting from the narrative. There is no lighter moment, no gripping sequence, no in-depth characterization and above all a wrongly made modern Ramayan. Lord Rama is depicted in police officer Prithviraj who even kills Vibheeshana’s replica.

Lord Rama in this film is more work oriented than showing love towards his wife. He never sheds tears after listening to the news that his wife got kidnapped. And on the other hand Raavan’s replica (Vikram) is shown as hero. He is good at heart and respects woman!! What a Raavan is he? Soorpanaka (Priyamani) gets raped by police officers those come along with main protagonist Prithvi Raj. So who is villain in Mani Rathnam’s perspective? Lord Ram or Raavan?? This blasphemy makes the audience take deep breathe and forget about the flick.

No audience can watch it for second time even though an announcement of dinner with Aishwarya Rai is made. It’s a boring journey. Entire movie runs in deep valleys, misty hills, verdant greenery and wet lands. Cinematography scores great. It’s worth spent on this faculty. Music is pretty bad.

Police Cop (Prithivi Raj) makes a futile attempt to arrest the criminal (Vikram). But in the process the police catches hold of his sister (Priyamani) and rapes her. She commits suicide with the insult. Then her brother kidnaps the Cop’s wife (Aishwarya Rai) to take revenge. The Cop goes in search of her and on the way he meets a suspended forest office employee (Karteek) who helps in quest for Cop’s wife. Finally they trace out the place and the Cop gets his wife back. But there is a surprise climax that cannot be revealed here.

Prithvi Raj is ok and Vikram steals the show. Aishwarya Rai is marvelous in her chudis, lecherous in sleeveless and angelic on a whole. Karteek is ok as Hanuman. Prabhu is ok as Kumbhkarna. Ranjitha has a brief presence.

To sum up, it’s the movie for patient audience but not for regular audience those tend to become patients watching this. It’s all much ado about nothing.

Panchakshari Movie Review

Movie: Panchakshari 
My Rating: 2.25/5
Banner: Sri Sai Ratna Creations
Music: Chinna
Cinematography: Vasu
Story: Madhu Vipparthi
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Producer: Bommadevara Ramachandra Rao
Screenplay & Direction: Samudra
Cast: Anushka, Pradeep Rawat, Samrat, Brahmanandam, Ali, Nasser, Raghubabu, Ravi, Sudharani, M S, Jeeva, Chandramohan, Subbaraya Sharma, Telangana Sakuntala etc
Release Date: 11th Jun 2010

Review

Story

The hot star Anushka who has swept the audience off their feet with ‘Arundhati’ has now arrived with another strong role.

The movie starts with 1985 backdrop where a girl is born at temple on a stormy night for a couple (Chandramohan and Rajitha). The temple priest who witnesses this, names the girl as Panchakshari. He also says that the girl gets goddess in her once in a year and for rest of 364 days she will be like normal girl.

Panchakshari (Anushka) is regarded as godwoman in the village and the pious devotees regularly do poojas in the temple and they also carry on a grand bonalu festival once in every year and sees goddess coming inside Panchakshari. They ask her some questions and clear their doubts and woes.

There is a cruel villain (Pradeep Rawat) in Janagam wants to pilfer the treasure underneath the temple, as reported by a secret Archeologist. Panchakshari and the devoted people in village become hurdles for him. So he wants to eliminate Panchakshari. Did he get succeeded in that?

On the other hand Honey (Anushka) is a fashion designer in city and has big dreams. She has a loving family and they want her to get married.

Sequence of events lead Honey to the Village and she makes few shocking discoveries. Who is Honey? What does Honey do to get out the problems? All this forms the rest of the story.

Artists Performance:

Anushka has done her bit well and she has fitted herself aptly in the form of a city girl and also as a dedicated devotee. However, her character was not etched with intensity which led to hiccups.

Pradeep Rawat as usual flexed his muscles and used the dubbed baritone voice to look heavy. As such, his character could not deliver that evil shade though his screen presence was good.

Samrat was alright, the ‘Magadheera’ track of Brahmi failed to impress, Ali was alright, Nasser was natural, the artist doing Pradeep Rawat’s wife fitted the role well, Chandramohan was usual, Subbaraya Sharma was standard, Telangana Sakuntala, Raghu Babu, Sudha Rani were routine. Others were there to fill the screen.

Fianl Analysis:

The film runs on an age old track and we have seen that from the times of K R Vijaya so the content part was very weak.

The narrative was poor and the poor writing skills were seen. Few important scenes lacked conviction and what was meant to be an emotional scene ended up becoming a comedy scene for the audience. There are many inconsistencies in the script and not one track fails to take off for a continuous time to engage the audience. It is like bits and pieces put together. One can clearly see traces of ‘Ammoru’ ‘Arundhati’ etc but there is no comparison between them and this same old story.

Samudra has got a very silly way of having comedy and the same silliness is seen even in some crucial scenes. He sure has to update himself with the taste of the audience and the ability to involve them in the film.

Anushka’s introduction song must have been canned in the backdrop of some mall instead of temple. Wearing western outfits and shaking her ‘back’ in front of camera is disgusting and proves to be a wrong blend.

Anushka failed to show ‘roudram’ in her eyes in climax shot. She kept the tongue out like a patient before a doctor but not as Mahakali.

Screenplay is not intact and failed to pull audiences interest

Chandramohan revealing his connection with Nazar sounded like a comedy. People are laughing at this amateur scene in theater.

‘Magadheera’ comedy of Brahmanandam is not presented well.

Ali’s comedy started with great expectations but ended up weak.

Aghora’s character couldn’t pump in fear factor but boosted up sense of humor among audiences those were seen cracking jokes looking at that character

The villain factor is poor and the protagonist Panchakshari’s character is not presented with elevation. The initial scene says that Panchakshari is going to be powerful divine girl. But that’s not shown in required tempo afterwards.

Songs are good, cinematography is excellent and the art direction is also impressive. On a whole, this movie is ruled out for A centers and it’s a doubt if B, C center audience patronage this as their taste is also changing from decade to decade. This movie recalls the goddess movies of 80s and early 90s.

Vedam Movie Review

Movie: Vedam
My Rating: 3/5
Banner: Arca Media
Music: M M Keeravani
Cinematography: Gnanakumar
Editing: Shravan
Producers: Devineni Prasad, Yarlagadda Shobu
Story,Screenplay & Direction: Krish
Cast: Allu Arjun, Manchu Manoj, Anushka, Manoj Bajpai, Ramulu, Lekha Washington, Deeksha Seth, Seiya, Raghu Babu, Satyam Rajesh, Brahmanandam etc
Release Date: 04th June 2010

Review

Story

The talented and intellectual director Krish who gave us ‘Gamyam’ has arrived with yet another venture and this time on a larger scale.

Cable Raju (Allu Arjun) is in love with a rich girl (Deeksha) and he pretends to be a rich guy though he is from a slum and is a cable operator, Vivek (Manoj) wants to become a rockstar while his mother wants him to get into army, Saroja (Anushka) is a prostitute who decides to escape to Hyderabad for better business, Raheem (Manoj Bajpai) is a victim of misunderstanding as a terrorist, Nagaiah (Ramulu) is a victim of poverty and decides to donate his daughter in law’s kidney for the grandson’s education. What fate has in store for each form the rest of the story.

Allu Arjun has come up with a decent act and his role was a mix of comedy and seriousness. The character was etched very well and it is a message oriented one.

Manchu Manoj does hit bit with ease and though he plays a subdued character, he makes his presence felt. One fails to understand why his title credit has been given as ‘Guest appearance’ while he has done a full length role.

Anushka looks seductive and sensuous. However, it doesn’t live up to the hype that has been created. It is a different role for her and she did justice to it.

Manoj Bajpai is a powerhouse of talent but it must be said that his skills were hardly utilized.

Ramulu was at ease in front of the camera and he made it look real.

Deeksha was luscious and appealing, Lekha was brief, Saranya was standard, Raghu Babu was regular, Satyam Rajesh gave few smiles. The actor doing the cop’s role was effective while the actor who did the role of ‘Karpuram’ made his presence felt.

Guest appearances of Brahmanandam, Posani and Krish are meaningful.

Good things about ‘Vedam’:

There is a message for ambitious youth if they wish to take..

* 'Never aim at something very far and do mischief to attain that. Listen to your conscience if you are doing wrong that time' (Allu Arjun- Nagayya episode)
* ‘Never assume that there are many people to help those are in needy, and you are not one among them. You too may need help and you may find a true helper from the man who you troubled’ (Sardarjee-Manoj episode)
* ‘Never brand anyone with religion’ (Manoj Bajpai-inspector episode)
* ‘Look at sex workers with different perspective. After all, prostitution is the oldest profession which is still continuing in every part of the world’ (Anushka-Karpooram episode)
* ‘Look at the poorest of the poor in the society those are getting their basic needs by selling their body parts’ (Nagayya episode)

Final Analysis:

The film arrives with a lot of expectations given the names associated with it. But, this is not a formula movie that entertains everyone. This movie is for sensible audiences who can melt their hearts for sensitive aspects of society.

It is basically a narration of various characters with different backdrops and challenges in life. While the depiction of that aspect is good, it is always essential to develop content on that. The makers have come up with a good attempt to portray the elements of good and evil.

Dialogues were impressive at few places, background score was impact creating and songs are also good both for eyes and ears. The real show stealer was the cinematography. Script was okay.

The storyline is routine but the difference is there are multiple characters and how they are brought together is the variety. While the first half and second half are engaging and different tracks are handled well, the climax loses momentum and gets a bit dragging. Someone with a caliber of Krish could have portrayed a different backdrop for it. On a whole, Krish proved to be a director with material in him.

The key is for the audience to connect to any one of the characters and that didn’t happen here. Overall, the film can be credited for the attempt to give a realistic outlook on life and the choices individuals make at a particular moment. Still, it could have been much impact creating if content was deep.

On a whole, the movie brings tears in a couple of scenes and Allu Arjun excelled in them. Manchu Manoj was stated to be in guest appearance, but he has a full length role. The message is ulterior but it is a sincere movie with idealistic idea portraying darker side of 5 lives.

Andari Bandhuvaya Movie Review

Movie: Andari Bandhuvaya

My Rating: 3.5/5
Banner: Utopia Entertainers
Music: Anup Rubens
Cinematography: Gummadi Jayakrishna
Written By: Balabhadrapatruni Ramani
Producer: RK, Chandra Siddartha
Direction: Chandra Siddartha
Cast: Sharwanand, Padmapriya, Naresh, RK, M S Narayana, Krishna Bhagawan, Vijay Sai, Pragathi, Jeeva etc
Release Date: 14th May 2010

Review

Story

Nandu (Sharwanand) hails from a village and he comes to the city. He has a helpful nature and doesn’t hesitate to go out of his way to help others. His colleague Paddu (Padmapriya) is stingy to the core and believes in money saving. A situation leads Nandu to take a portion for rent in the home of Paddu and on another instance, he rushes to see his father (Naresh) in the village. Paddu accompanies him and it is here she experiences the human values and touch. New issues crop up and how Nandu and Paddu face them forms the rest of the story.

Artists Performance:

Sharwanand has been evolving as an actor with each passing movie. After his commendable performance in ‘Prasthanam’ this is yet another valuable performance in his career. He is getting better and better. He performed with great élan in many scenes and portrayed emotions wonderfully.

Padmapriya is a vision of beauty and though her low economic character makes her poor, the natural beauty still glows at all possible sequences. She has proved her mettle in the acting department as well. She appeared like senior Suhasini in some scenes.

Naresh has come up with one of his best performances in the recent past. He fits the bill well and there are few touching moments he gives.

Krishna Bhagawan was outright hilarious. His timing and his style of dialogue delivery gives splits of laughter. He is proving to be one of the most reliable comedians for the Telugu audience and is simply ‘unbeatable’.

The others were quite impressive. Especially RK, the TV artiste who plays the role of Padmapriya’s sister wearing sari, the NRI groom, they have given an impressive performance. Pragathi was natural and others were okay.

Final Analysis:

It’s a joy to watch a good movie 48 hours before the world watches it, in a premiere show. It’s a movie made by the director of ‘Aa Naluguru’. I starting watching the movie with closed mind-set at the outset. For my eyes those have watched grandeur of artificial settings on screen in many films, initially, it sounded dull and low. I looked at the hero in this film as ‘perfectionist material’ who may bring boredom through out the movie. But slowly, something captivated me and I was drowned in the bliss of humanity. I could see a Utopian Village, Utopian hero and Utopian thought…! It went on as a pleasant journey on the waters of humanity.

Any audience watches a movie connecting himself to the hero on screen. He enjoys the bliss of watching something that hero does, which he cannot do in real life. That has been the success of any cinema since 77 years in India. That has been the connection between the screen hero and common audience. If that were the case, in stead of getting connected to the violent and vulgar elements in a hero, it sounds certainly better to connect with the humanity, sacrifice and service motive in him that can be practiced in daily life.

‘Andari Bandhuvaya’ is one such movie which happens very seldom on Telugu screen. Such films should reach every eye and then surely it reaches its heart. Indeed, it’s a movie that culminates the essence of humanity with eyes and heart. One needs to look at the world with the eyes of this protagonist and need to speak with the heart of the same.

It’s a practical Vedanta, the movie showcases. ‘Live for others to enjoy the true nectar of life’ is the epitome of this film. Many dialogues and scenes in this film cut the heart deep and groove-in a pure form of thought. Writer Balabhadrapaatruni Ramani deserves right mention here.

“Pakshulaki konchem dhanyam, pasuvulaki konchem ghraasam, manishiki konchem saayam- ade jeevitam”- What a quotable dialogue?!

“Bathakadame kaadu, chaavadam kooda costly ye”- What a reality if we look at the present expensive last days on Corporate Hospital beds?!

“Nee Daggara koorchuni kaasepu edavochchaa?!”- What a human angle?! The scene between Padmapriya and Sharwanand is indeed moving.

The film is a feel good treat and it gives a strong message of how a positive outlook in life is required in today’s commercial and materialistic world. It might be too unrealistic to expect the viewers to transform once they see the film but even if one implements or demonstrates atleast 5% of the kindness then the world will be a much better place to live in. This is a clean family entertainer with its own element of humor, sentiment, drama and attachment. The dialogues are the major highlight of the movie while the script is very strong and intense. Screenplay was effective and it was supported well with the background score. Though two songs were non situational, they were well taken and quite melodious. Lyrics by Chaitanya Prasad are sensible and filled with good poetry. Editing was smooth. Costumes were suitable to the backdrop and the art department was realistic. The film has enough substance to make it big in film festival or bag few awards. All it takes is some gentle effort by the makers to promote it in the right manner. This is suitable for all genre of audience and everyone will have a point or two to take back home and use it in their life. Credit must be given to Chandra Siddartha for coming up with a thoughtful venture.

Rama Rama Krishna Krishna Moive Review

Movie: Rama Rama Krishna Krishna   
My Rating: 2.75/5
Banner: Sri Venkateswara Creations
Music: M M Keeravani
Cinematography: Sekhar V Joseph
Editing: Gautham Raju
Dialogues: M Ratnam
Art: AS Prakash
Producer: Dil Raju
Story,Screenplay & Direction: Srivass
Cast: Arjun, Ram, Priya Anand, Bindu Madhavi, Nasser, Banerjee, Sayaji Shinde, Brahmanandam, Srinivas Reddy, Pragathi, Bharath, Gracy Singh etc
Release Date: 12th May 2010

Review

Story

Rama Krishna (Ram) is the son of a Gandhipuram village president (Nassar). His father is a strict disciplinarian and wants Rama Krishna to be perfect. Rama Krishna is a funny youngster who pretends to be good in the presence of his father but does a lot of mischief on his back. Ashok (Arjun) is a mafia don in Mumbai and he goes into a sabbatical after the death of his his wife. Ashok along with his two sisters settles in Gandhipuram. Rama Krishna unfortunately gets in to the bad books of Ashok. Meanwhile,. Ashok’s past catches up. The rest of the story is all about how Rama Krishna uses his intelligence and muscle power to achieve the good will of both his father and Ashok.

Artists Performance:

Ram comes up with yet another energetic performance. His dialogue delivery in Godavari dialect is nice. NTR gave the voiceover to the introducing of hero character.

Arjun suited the role well and he dubbed his own voice. Priya Anand is alright as female lead.
Bindu Madhavi’s role is pretty much limited. Naseer is extremely good. Brahmanandam’s character doesn’t offer required level of comedy.

Pruthvi and Bharat are entertaining. Srinivas Reddy is one of the most promising comedians who can generate laughter with his dialogues like Ali and Krishna Bhagawan. He is good in this movie. Gracy Singh did a small role as Arjun’s wife. Sekhar’s (Chatrapati fame) performance is odd in the first half.

Technical Departments:

Story of the movie is little formulaic with inspirations from films like Basha (Arjun’s character) and Bangaru Bullodu (villains searching for hero in villages). Unlike earlier movies, the director preferred straight narration where the mafia don’s role is revealed in the first scene of the movie. Srivas penned a commercially viable screenplay by mixing sentiment and action. The aspect of interval where the thread of hero converges with the thread of Arjun is the best point of the movie. Direction of the movie is okay in parts.

Title song and Sankranthi song (2nd song) in this movie are nice. Tugo Jilla comes at the right time. All other songs are not effective. The song bits (mostly rap style) are interesting. Cinematography by Sekhar V Joseph is just okay. But the producer didn’t seem to have taken proper care in post-production of the movie. There is no DI (color grading). Most of the CG work is okay (chase sequences and blasting of vehicles), but it’s hazy in some of the vital parts (especially hero’s intro scene). Dialogues by M Ratnam are good in parts. Production values are good by Dil Raju.

Final Analysis:

First half of the movie is alright. Interval episode is good. Second half becomes predictable. Climax should have been better. The plus points of this movie are Ram, Arjun and commercial elements. This movie suffers from predictability and lack of freshness in second half. On a whole, RRKK is a commercial film that is intended to cater to families and masses. We have to wait and see if this movie clicks with the target audiences or not.