Simha Movie Review

Movie: Simha   
My Rating: 3.25/5
Banner: United Movies
Music: Chakri
Cinematography: Arthur Wilson
Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Producer: Paruchuri Kireeti
Story,Screenplay,Dialogues & Direction: Boyapati Sreenu
Cast: Nandamuri Balakrishna, Nayantara, Sneha Ullal, Namitha, K R Vijaya, Saikumar (Malayalam), Hemanth, Rehman, Kota, Brahmi, Ali, Venu Madhav, Dharmavarapu, L B Sriram, Krishna Bhagawan etc
Release Date: 30th April 2010

Review

Story

Sriman Narayana (NBK) is a lecturer at a college and he is known for his strict way, he doesn’t stand injustice and bashes the bulbs out of anyone. In this process, he meets Janaki (Sneha) and she falls for him in due course. But Janaki has got a flashback which has to do with Sriman Narayana as well. What is that flashback? Who is Sriman Narayana? All this forms the rest of the story.

Artists Performance:

Balakrishna has come back to his original form with his punch dialogues, typical body language and mass appeal. However, age is showing on him and voice has stuttered a bit, overall he carried his bit well with his blissful smile.

Sneha Ullal is sweet but her blank expressions still continue. She must learn to open her mouth and speak while saying the dialogues. Looks wise she rocks.

Nayantara looks elegant and is all decked up like a bride at all times. Her role was brief but she did justice to it.

Namitha covers half of the screen and seems to be building up pounds with each passing film. It is about time she does something about her flab.

K R Vijaya has come back after a hiatus of sorts but she still has that composure and grace, she was the apt choice for her role.

Sai Kumar (Malayalam) was okay, Aditya Menon was apt, he has strong screen presence, Brahmi was wasted, Ali was not used, Krishna Bhagawan was barely there, Venu brought few forced smiles, Rehman was standard, LB was regular, Kota was nice, Jeevi, Kinnera, Shravan, Anand Bharathi, Sana and others did their bit to add value.

Technical Departments:

Story of the movie is not new, but follows a time-tested formula. Boyapati Seenu who mastered mass treatment to his movies like Bhadra and Tulasi made sure that there are ample commercial elements that satisfy the thrust of masses and fans. He projected Bala Krishna in the right way and extracted powerful mass performance. Screenplay of the movie is predictable. Direction is good in parts. Though masses might like it, the violence in the movie is very excessive. He should have softened blood-shed and tamed the commercial elements to make this movie a universally appealing one.

Music by Chakri is okay. Bangaru Konda is nice and it is picturized well. Cinematography is nice. Dialogues by Boyapati Seenu deserve a special mention. He wrote powerful dialogues to Bala Krishna and made sure that Bala Krishna delivers them to the maximum effect. Editing is alright. Producer has spent a lot of money on the movie and it is shown on screen.

Final Analysis:

Songs scored good marks on a whole.

‘Simha Simha…’ was shot on Namita and Balakrishna and it’s visually just ok.
‘Orabba..’ is the number shot in a pub with Balayya, Namitha and Sneha Ullal. When Sneha Ullal was seen in a frame with Namitha, she looked like a scooty beside lorry.
‘Bangaru Konda..’ has captivated with rich costumes on Nayantara and Balayya.
‘Kanulara..’ is on Nayan, Balayya and family members in temple background which is good to watch
‘Janaki Janaki..’ is with Balayya and Sneha Ullal and that’s good to watch.
The song ‘Achcha hai acha hai…’ is missing totally.

First half is average with no exciting moments and the second half is packed with high dose action-, although predictable. On a whole, it’s a treat for fans, headache for family audiences and a disappointment for those who wish to watch something new and fresh.

After a long gap, it’s a relief for Balakrishna’s fans. The movie scores good this time. But there is no freshness in story line or narration part. It’s the same old cutting heads with axe and there is some change in the design of weapon. The climax sequence is lifted from Magadheera with the fight scene in the same old place where the protagonist’s father fights and dies.

The dialogues of Balayya brought good response in theatres:

Nenu maatladetappudu nee chevule pani cheyyali. Adi tappa vere edainaa pani cheste neeku next birth day undadhu.

Charitra srushtinchalanna, tiraga raayalanna maa vamsame cheyyaali

Although they aren’t great dialogues to underline, the fans those awaited an action packed movie from many years are taking them as holy sentences.

In a fight scene Balayya’s punch of the fist lands on the face of a patient who lies in coma for 28 years. The patient gets up instantly. Doctors get stunned and exclaim, “Wow! What a wonder. Science andani power itani punch lo undi”. Thank god! The director limited the exaggeration with one scene. Otherwise, it would have become another omnibus of exaggerations.

“Language Is Not a Barrier For Me”: Tamannah

After two long years of gap, Tamannah is doing a straight film in Telugu opposite Allu Arjun in ‘Badrinath’. Her dubbed film, Awaara is also ready to hit the screens in Telugu. The actress says that Tollywood and Kollywood are equally important for her.

“Telugu and Tamil are equally important industries for me. I plan to do as much work here as I do in Tamil. It is the script, the combination of whom I am starring with, the director, my role that decides where I work. I am conscious of scripts that comes my way and not the language of the films I am doing. The working style and passion for cinema is the same every where,” says the actress.

Denying the rumors about the affair with Karthi she says “Karthi is an amazing actor and he is a fantastic person to work with. But I am not seeing him. These are baseless rumours. People draw these theories because we are doing a few movies together. There’s nothing between us.”

Actress Sindhu Menon Married To Her Love Prabhu!

Actress Sindu Menon of ‘Badrachalam’ and ‘Chandamama’ fame had tied the knot to London based bussines man Prabhu on 25th, April at Bangalore. The actress is said to be in love with him from past 4 years. Only few relatives attended the wedding event while the reception that was held at the Bowring Club, MG Road, Bangalore was graced by few film celebrities. Even the media was not invited for the wedding.

Being a Keralite, Sindu Menon acted in Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam films. The actress is currently doing a flick in Telugu, titled ‘Subhadra’.

Buzz About Ram Charan!

Ram Charan Teja who has been quite busy from long time in ‘Orange’ schedules at Australia is now at Hyderabad for a week. Ram Charan will be staying for a week in Hyderabad to re-shoot few scenes of the Tamil version of ‘Magadheera’ which is slated for its release in the month of June. The comedy track on Magadheera will be re-shooted. The actor is also here for the launch of his new flick in this week’s time.

‘Orange’ is being directed by Bommarillu Bhaskar which has Genelia and Shazahn Padamsee as the female leads. The movie is being produced by Anjana productions with K.Naga Babu as producer.

Venkatesh’s ‘Chandramukhi-2’ Launched!

Venkatesh latest film, Chandramukhi 2 which is the remake of Kannada block-buster hit, Apta Rakshaka, has been launched today formally at Ramanaidu studios. The movie is being directed by P.Vasu and is being produced by Bellamkonda Suresh.

Director Puri Jagannath has tapped the sound board for the muhurat shot which was picturised on Venkatesh. Director V V Vinayak also graced at the event. ‘Nagamalli’ is the title being considered by the film-makers.

The film has five heroines, Anushka, Kamalinee Mukharjee, Richa Gangapodhyay and Poonam Kaur while the other heroine is yet to be confirmed. The shooting of the film will begin from end of May.

“All is Well Between Me and NTR”: Dil Raju

Rumors are milling in the industry that there is some clash between Dil Raju and Jr,NTR and that was the reason Dil Raju not attending his engagement function. Now, the latest buzz is that NTR is not showing much interest in ‘Dil’ Raju’s ‘Brindavanam’ and is focusing on only ‘Shakti’.

Dil Raju denying these rumors and is saying that there is no cold war running between him and NTR.

“Prakash is playing a crucial role in ‘Brindavanam’ and he’s also the producer for Nagarjuna’s ‘Payanam’ in Tamil. And as such he’s not available for obvious reasons. Hence, we have postponed the schedule”, says Dil Raju.

Namo Venkatesa Celebrating 100 Days!

Victory Venkatesh, Trisha, Brahmanandam’s comedy entertainer ‘Namo Venkatesa’ under Sreenu Vaitla’s direction had celebrated 100 days of its run successfully. The unit had a get-together function at Jayabheri Club in Hyderabad. Victory, Venkatesh, Trisha, Brahmanandam, director Sreenu Vaitla, music director Devisri Prasad, cameraman Prasad Murella and others graced the function.

Dr D Rama Naidu who is the chief guest of the function, presented the100 days shields to the unit members such as Venkatesh, Trisha, Brahmanandam, Sreenu Vaitla, Devisri Prasad and producer Gopichand Achanta while, Venkatesh and Sreenu Vytla handed the shields to all the technicians.

The producers of the film thanked hero Venkatesh and D.Suresh Babu for making their banner’s (14 Reels Entertainment) first venture a grand success.

Darling Telugu Movie Review

Movie: Darling   
My Rating: 3/5
Banner: Sri Venkateshwara Cine Chitra
Music: GV Prakash
Fights: Peter Heins
Editing: K Venkateswara Rao
Producer: BVSN Prasad
Direction: Karunakar
Cast: Prabhas, Kajal, Shradhdha Das, Mukesh Rishi, Prabhu, Chandra Mhan, Ahuti Prasad, MS Narayana, Sivannarayana, Tulasi, Kota, Srinivas Reddy etc
Release Date: 23rd Apr 2010

Review

Story

The movie starts with enthusiastic 1980 backdrop in black and white. The college mates disperse after farewell and they keep themselves in contact even after decades.

Prabha (Prabhas) is the son of one of those old friends (Prabhu) and Nandini (Kajal) is the daughter of another (Ahuti Prasad). They live in various places.

A lady (Shradhdha Das) loves Prabha and proposes him. But he negates. The father of that lady is a goon (Mukesh Rishi) who surrounds Prabha and his friends’ gang for negating his daughter. To escape from that goon Prabha narrates his flash back stating that he has love interest by name Nandini and he met her in Switzerland. The goon leaves him knowing that.

After a while, the old friends wish to have old friends’ reunion with families. They all meet in a village and how Prabha and Nandini meet again (?) and end up with love-union forms rest of the story. Many twists, turns and secrets will be unleashed in narration for the entertainment of audience.

Artists Performance:

Prabhas is at his best. His gait, his glow, his performance and confidence carried the movie happily.

Kajal enticed audiences with her magnetism. Shradhdha Das, although had small role, she made her presence felt.

Mukesh Rishi is ok as goon but he has lighter vein characterization.

Chandramohan, Ahuti Prasad, Prabhu, Tulasi, MS Narayana are all ok.

Sivannarayana performs comedy up to the perfection with his single dialogue ‘tinnaaaraa..!!??”. Kota has no dialogue at all in the film.

Music is bad. Background score is poor. If those were good, the movie would have scored well among audience. It is single line story but narrated in three layers. It’s all screenplay technique that which may be liked by many.

Final Analysis:

Watching this movie is not like eating an apple or banana but like chewing an orange. You need to spit the seeds and enjoy the rest. It surely entertains but lacks in consistency. It’s good in bits and pieces but cannot be declared ‘wholesome wonder’. The major asset for this movie is Prabhas who handled the audience with his great looks and confident performance. Female audiences definitely feel ectopic tintinnabulations in their heart. Action part, generally finds it difficult to get encomiums. But Peter Heins stood as top entertainer in this movie with his wonderful composition of fights.

The best parts of the movie are:
Prabhas
Peter Hein’s fight compositions
‘Kadupu Manta’ scene between Prabhas and Srinivas Reddy
Inka Edo song picturization
Watching Hyderabad with Switzerland snowfall

The director has rightly used the technical elements to make the movie a pleasant feel to watch. The entire movie has got elevated in picture quality due to DI and other effects. Technically on a whole, with editing, cinematography and CG stands great. But the main factor of the movie, the music, is unpleasant. RR is also very weak and failed to bring in right elevation for narration.

First half is entertaining but declares to be a fiction by interval (watch it to get clarity). Second half is on beaten track with predictable screenplay. Climax is crisp and closed on lighter note without any extraaaas.

The film has got the muscle to run in theatres for some time with summer factor and bits and pieces of entertainment.