Pandurangadu - movie review

Director Raghavendra Rao, who is known for bringing out excellent commercial films, changed his way and started bringing out devotional and periodical films. His films like 'Manjunatha', 'Annamayya' and 'Sri Ramadasu' were proved runaway hits.

The audiences had kept lot of expectations on 'Pandurangadu' coming from the same director in the same technical combination. However, this time, Raghavendra Rao chose Balakrishna as hero for the film, which was prepared with an inspiration from the earlier classic 'Panduranga Mahatmyam'. However, the film could not stand on par with the earlier classic and remained just an okay film.

Pundareeka (Balakrishna) comes from a family full of Lord Krishna devotees. But he grows up as a wayward and irresponsible youth, who whiles away his time by enjoying the girls. Being handsome, all the girls are naturally after him. Lakshmi (Sneha) is an orphan and was brought up by a priest (Balayya). Being from an orthodox family, Lakshmi also preaches Lord Krishna. Pundareeka gets fascinated to a prostitute called Amritha (Tabu) and keeps spending nights with her always. Once, Lord Krishna appears in a dream to Lakshmi and tells her that Pundareeka would be her husband. Lakshmi impresses the entire family of Pundareeka, but fails to win his heart.

After a few days, with the intervention of Lord Krishna, she could manage to marry Pundareeka. But, he disappoints Lakshmi and goes to Amritha even after tying the nuptial knot. Again, it was Lord Krishna who comes to Lakshmi's rescue and unites Pundareeka with Lakshmi. When they were leading a joyous life, Amritha's mother (Y Vijaya) hatches a plan and swindles his entire property. Due to the impact of medication by Amritha's mother, Pundareeka throws out the entire family out of house, while he too gets vacated by the former. Did Pundareeka realise his mistake? Did he meet his parents again? What happened to the marital life of Pundareeka? Did Lord Krishna gives salvation to Pundareeka? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

Balakrishna was at his best as far as performance. However, he could not appear young and the close up shots picturised on him showed that he was quite older. More so, he played dual roles in the film, not only as the devotee Pundareeka, but also as Lord Krishna. The second role was not etched properly by the director.

Tabu was romantic in all the scenes and she appeared half-naked in almost all the scenes without saree or half-saree. But the audiences had to understand that she needed to remain like that because her character in the film was a prostitute.

Sneha continued her family girl image again in this movie.

The director did not leave her too and projected her in a romantic way in one of the songs. Viswanath, Balayya, Prasadbabu, Sivaparvati and Sana did justice to their respective roles.

Comedy track picturised on Sunil, Brahmanandam failed to click in any manner.

Mohanbabu made a special appearance in the film and appears only in two scenes. He proved that he was the best and right choice for the character.

Behind the screen, writer JK Bharavi did complete injustice to the subject. He spoiled the entire spirit of the film which is devotional in nature. Instead of filling devotion, most part of the film was devoted to romance and romantic scenes. The dialogues in the film was also not properly written. They were neither colloquial (vaaduka bhasha) nor literary (grandhika bhasha). Use of words like 'anta sannivesam ledu' in dialogues, 'willu' (a Telugised English word for 'will') in songs spoiled the spirit of the film.

Camera work by Jayaram is just okay, while editing by Srikara Prasad is fine.

Music by MM Keeravani is worth listening.

Screenplay by seasoned director like Raghavendra failed to maintain the tempo. The director rendered the entire episode with Lord Krishna and his eight wives in a dramatised version and the audiences would get a feel of watching a stage play and not as a regular film.

As a whole the film was very poorly narrated with a changed version of the entire story. In the original, the hero renders the all-time favourite song 'Hey Krishna Mukunda Murari' like a lullaby to his father, in this film it was used in another situation. The prolonged climax, after the death of heroine also tested the patience of audiences. LB Sriram as Narada was horrendous and he failed to please any section of audiences. But for a 20-minute film (30 minutes after the interval and 30 minutes before the climax), the entire film was boring. Especially, the glow in the face of the hero (of the late NT Rama Rao in Panduranga Mahatmyam) was completely missing in this hero (of Pandurangadu)

Cast: Balakrishna, Sneha, Tabu, K Viswanath, Mohanbabu (special appearance), Balayya, Prasad Babu, Sameer, Sunil, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Ali, Anant, LB Sriram, Jr Relangi, Brahmanandam, Jenny, Siva Parvati, Sana, Archana (Veda), Suhasini, Meghana Naidu, Y Vijaya, Apoorva, Sireesha, Bhargavi, Neethu, Baby Kavya and others

Credits: Story and dialogues – JK Bharavi, Camera – Jayaram, Editing – Srikara Prasad, Music – MM Keevarani, Producer – K Krishnamohana Rao, Screenplay and direction – K Raghavendra Rao.

Banner: RK Associates

Released on: May 30, 2008

Kantri - Movie Review

Though producer Aswinidutt maintained a low profile during the shooting of 'Kantri' and tried to maintain some privacy, the audiences in general and the NTR fans in particular kept good expectations on the film, in view of the recent blockbuster like 'Yamadonga' from the hero. Meher Ramesh, though made his debut in Telugu as director, with this film, had good working experience by associating himself with Puri Jagannath. Moreover, he gave two hit films in Kannada, the remakes of Telugu films 'Andhrawala' and 'Okkadu'. But it was proved that doing a film with a hero with certain image was not that easy and the director belied the hopes of the audiences as well as NTR, who wanted repeat the success history.

Kranti (NT Rama Rao) is an orphan and brought up in an orphanage called Premalayam. He is ready to do anything for his friends and for the orphanage. Once he helps the gang of Pothu Raju popular as PR (Prakash Raj), a mafia don in India, who runs the show by from Bangkok. The activities in India are being looked after by Seshu (Asish Vidyardhi). Later, Kranti joins the Seshu gang and used to do the job even if before it was assigned to him and wins the confidence of PR in Bangkok. PR invites Kranti to Bangkok to settle scores with some of his rivals there and he does the job neatly. At this juncture, Kranti loses his heart to Varalakshmi (Hansika). Once, Kranti demands Rs 10 lakh to Seshu, and the latter refuses. Then Kranti parts with PR gang. Learning this, PR comes to India to set the things right and warns Kranti to surrender but the latter refuses. Then PR holds the children of the orphanage in hostage, which forces Kranti to meet PR. During the encounter, PR comes to know that Kranti is his son. PR, who doesn't have sentiment till that date, gets bitten by sentiment bug and wants Kranti to stay with him. After a few turn of events, Seshu's daughter Priya (Tanisha) comes to India and falls in love with Kranti. Though Seshu and PR ready for an alliance, Kranti refuses it. This leads to differences of opinion and PR and Seshu gets separated. Seshu, who eyed the property which amounts to around Rs 1,000 crore, joins hands with PR's rivals. Is Kranti really the son of PR? What is the relationship between PR and Kranti? Will Kranti was able to escape from the crooked plans of Seshu? What is the background of Kranti? Did Kranti was able to teach a lesson to PR? Why he wanted to take revenge? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

Of course NTR gave an impressive performance all through the film and took the entire responsibility to make the film worth watching at least to certain stage. Prakash Raj too is good in his role and did justice to his character. Asish Vidyardhi is okay in his role. Hansika, though filled the glamour quotient to the possible extent, the excess and unnecessary make-up spoiled her beauty. She could not show any of the feelings in her face nor she could do justice to her role and she needs to improve her body language extensively. Mukhesh Rushi though appeared in the beginning and at the climax is okay in his role. There is nothing much to talk about any other characters. Subba Raju once again got a good chance to show his acting talents. Though the comedy by Raghubabu is okay, the comedy track penned for Sunil is atrocious and failed to appease the audiences.

Regarding the technical side, music by Manisharma is good to listen, but their choreography is in very poor taste. But for a couple of songs, there is nothing to talk about choreography. Action scenes by Stun Siva are stylish. However, after losing weight, NTR's powerful punch in action scenes looked a little cinematic. Camera work by Sameer Reddy is average, while Marthand K Venkatesh should have further sharpened his scissors to trim the fat in the film. The major minus point in the film is the poor narration by the director. Meher Ramesh failed to establish the characters in a proper manner. None of the villain character had any seriousness and all of them evoked laughter. It is very sad that the director, despite heavy star cast and notable faces as villains, failed to utilise any of them.

If some one needs advice on the film, he should keep in mind that he should go to the theatre without any expectations. Though the first half has some interesting scenes, the second half is completely boring and the twist in the climax also failed to impress the audiences. In the absence of a gripping story and powerful screenplay, the impressive performance by NTR and Prakash Raj proved futile. As a whole, the film might be treated as just an average flick and only time could prove how the audiences would receive the film.

Cast: NT Rama Rao, Hansika, Tanisha, Prakash Raj, Asish Vidyarthi, Mukhesh Rushi, Sayaji Shinde, Murali Sharma, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Brahmaji, Raghubabu, Subbaraju, Satyam Rajesh, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Benarjee, Krishna Bhagawan, MS Narayana, Jayaprakash Reddy, Ahuti Prasad, Brahmanandam, Sunil, GV, Narsing Yadav, Ali, Srinivasa Reddy, Hema, Master Bharat Kumar, and others.

Credits: Music – Manisharma, Cinematography – Sameer Reddy, Edting – Marthand K Venkatesh, Presents – C Dharmaraju, Producer – C Aswinidutt, Story, dialogues, screenplay and direction – Meher Ramesh

Banner: Vyjayanti Movies

Released on: May 9, 2008

Jimmy - Movie Review

One of the many debuts this year is of Mithun Chakraborthy’s son Mimoh who was apparently supposed to make his debut with another film ‘HE’. Though we haven’t heard of that film which was also to be the launch for Hansika Mowani , Jimmy now comes as Mimoh’s official launch pad.

Director Raj N Sippy , the man behind movies such as ‘Kudrat’ , ‘Satte Pe Satta’ and ‘Inkaar’ returns to direction after a hiatus . Mithun Chakraborthy makes his presence felt as one of the producers of the film.

Synopsis….

A young woman’s body is recovered by the police. All leads to Jimmy (Mimoh ).A mechanical engineer by day and a dancing sensation by night , Jimmy works as a DJ in the local discotheque to pay off the debts left behind by his late father. While everybody is shocked, Jimmy owns up to the murder and is sentenced to death.

In a twist of fate, Jimmy realizes in jail that he has been drawn into a vicious conspiracy. Is it too late to unveil the truth?

The only reason why one would go to watch this movie is the hype surrounding Mimoh. Neither the songs nor the promos of the film have made any contribution towards enticing the audiences.

The only thing that came out from the promos was the fact that indeed Mimoh is a good dancer.

On the directional front, Raj N Sippy has made a complete mess. He seems to forget that the year is 2008 and Indian audiences are much mature and thus expect some quality content when they go ahead and watch a film.

The writer of the script- Ranbir Pushp the man behind Shahrukh’s debut ‘Deewana’ fails to understand what he really wants to put across to the audience. There is nothing gripping about the script and instead of being a movie that gives you a chill that you expect from a thriller , you are bound to laugh at the flow of events be it Mimoh’s brain tumor or the suspense behind the film.

The movie is filled with clichés and the dialogues are simply humorous especially the ‘you are a rejected person!’ bit.

On the acting front Vivana who has been seen in the thumbs up ad with Akshay Kumar has no scope,Rahul Dev and Sayed Zulfi are wasted.

As for Mimoh though many have commented about his voice, well that’s not a problem at all as you can’t expect every hero to sound like Amitabh Bachchan. Mimoh does prove he has great dancing skills but as an actor has a long way to go.

On the whole Jimmy doesn’t favour Mimoh Chakraborthy and won’t find favour at the box office too.

Anamika - Movie Review

Director Anant Mahadevan returns this weekend with Anamika to complete the ‘A’ series trilogy after movies such as ‘Aksar’ and ‘Agar’. This time around not much has been said about the music of the film done by Anu Malik. Unlike Anant’s previous ventures the music played a key role in drawing the audiences to the cinema halls; but in this case does the movie survive without such mesmerizing music?

Here goes the synopsis…

When Jia Rao(Minisha Lamba), received a call for being an escort to Vikram Singh Sisodiya(Dino Morea) from the palatial Gajner of Bikaner, she hadn’t imagined that life would take a total turnabout. Her rendezevous with Vikram who had come to the city of Mumbai for a convention to turn his home into an international resort actually ended with Vikram proposing to her .She found herself hopelessly in love with him, despite the fact that Vikram was married and his first wife Anamika had died under mysterious circumstances.

Her arrival in Gajner wasn’t uneventful either. Mahajan the manager who seemed to know more than he should, Shekhar Rajput(Gulshan Grover) , Vikram’s brother in law a cop with an acidic tongue, Vikram’s doting sister, and Malini(Koena Mitra) the ever efficient governess were some of the characters who strangely influenced her stay in a place that hit her with its expanse, beauty and mystery.

And the biggest enigma was Anamika. Everyone seemed to be talking about her and how Jia could never step into the shoes of the charismatic socialite that Anamika was. Her efforts to live up to the foreboding image of Anamika ended up in creating a rift between Vikram and Jia .And the crunch comes when Jia is faced with the prospect of unraveling the secret of Anamika’s death…accident..suicide or murder?

Anant Mahadevan gets it entirely wrong this time. Firstly, ‘Anamika’ isn’t an untold story and is very much predictable. To add to all of that, there seems to be huge similarities between ‘ Anamika’ and Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rebecca’.

The flow of events in the movie are so dull and the pace just gets you annoyed. At the cost of being a so called suspense film, the events of the film are simply dragged on and on.

No doubt the film has been shot at splendid locales of Bikaner, Bangkok etc but all of it falls flat as these beautiful locales don’t come in as a saving grace for your storytelling.

On the acting front, Dino Morea isn’t at his best and delivers a weak performance. Minisha Lamba seems to be struggling with her Hindi and is a complete let down from her performance in ‘Shaurya’. Koena Mitra is a complete waste in the film. Her role offers no substance and she just hops in and out at any point in the film. Bunty Grewal is irrelevant. The only person who does his bit with ease and conviction is Gulshan Grover. He delivers the punch as the cop and carries the desired aura.

The music of the film by Anu Malik is such a let down. The only track worth listening to is ‘Shagufta Dil’. The tracks though shot in Bangkok etc are very poorly placed and composed which is the biggest drawback for an Anant Mahadevan film whose ‘Aksar’ and ‘Agar’ are still remembered for their music.

On the whole ,’Anamika’ is a poor one from director Anant Mahadevan and the movie is further going to be affected by the ongoing IPL cricket. Looks like the bollywood draught won’t end anytime soon.

Parugu - Movie review

Giving a message through films is not new. Earlier Bhaskar gave a message through 'Bommarillu' that the parents should understand the feelings of the parents. In his second film 'Parugu' he tries to explain it the other way round. Though the parents love their children very much, the latter were not honouring the love of their parents and are just leaving to their own fate in search of their loved ones, which ought not to be. The film, which came after the unfortunate incident that occurred in the family of Chiranjeevi, gives the audiences a feel that it was the real life story. However, the director claimed that the story was penned long ago before the occurrence of that incident.

Neelakanta (Prakashraj) is a rich man in village. Subbalakshmi (Poonam Bajwa) and Meenakshi (Sheela) are his daughters. Subbalakshmi elopes with her boyfriend Babu, on the day she was about to marry which her father okayed. Irked over the incident, Neelakanta decides to search for his daughter and orders his men to catch Babu's friends (Sunil, Srinivasa Reddy), who obviously helped him. But they plead innocence. There is another friend called Krishna (Allu Arjun) who stays in Hyderabad. It was he who really helped Babu in his love affair.

However, he too did not reveal it. While trying to escape from the village, Krishna accidentally meets Meenakshi and loses his heart. The entire male family members of Neelakanta go in search of Subbalakshmi in Hyderabad. They happen to meet them, only to get a refusal by Subbalakshmi to come with them. Before finding Subbalakshmi, Neelakanta had an encounter with Krishna, where he reveals how bad a father feel when his daughter elopes as he brought her up for more than 22 years and wished her welfare. This makes Krishna to take a decision not to take any drastic step in his love with Meenakshi. Did Krishna able to win the heart of Meenakshi? Did Neelakanta accept the love of Krishna? What is the value of the affection of parents towards their children? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

Allu Arjun sheds a lot of weight than his recent film 'Desamuduru' where he appeared in a six-pack body. He is very chivalrous and witty in the first half. He played his role with a lot of ease in the first half. As usual, dances are his forte and he proved once again that he is very flexible in dance sequences. His steps in 'Elagelagaa' song proved his flexibility of muscles. Likewise, the make-up in the song 'Parugulu Teeyake' song was quite different.

Sheela did her job in a neat way. Poonam Bajwa had not much scope to perform.

Prakash Raj once again excelled in his role. Especially he showed good variations in emotional scenes and his expressions are worth watching.

Jayasudha made a guest appearance as a cameo and did justice to her role in a couple of scenes in which she appeared on the screen.

On the technical side, Manisharma gave very good tunes to all the songs. Camera by Vijay K Chakravarthy is okay. BVS Ravi penned good dialogues that evoked good comedy in the first half. Some of the dialogues which are one liners got an instant response from the audiences. Editing by Marthand K Venkatesh reflected his seniority. Production values of Sri Venkateswara Creations are adequate.

Though the director gave his best in the first half, he trembled in the second half as he doesn't know how to continue the story further. Most of the scenes are very boring and the audiences were seen moving impatiently in their seats in the absence of enough comedy relief. Too much of emotional scenes in the second half tested the patience of audiences.

The entire first half gave the audiences an impression that Bommarillu Bhaskar is all set to continue the magic which he did in 'Bommarillu'. However, the director's inability to run the second half leave a question mark in the face of audience.

This leaves the success of the film in a limbo. If you are a hardcore fan of Mega family, the film is okay. Otherwise, the second half would be boring, especially when the expectations on the film were high right from the day one of shooting in view of the successful combination of the hero, director and producer.

Cast: Allu Arjun, Sheela, Prakash Raj, Poonam Bajwa, Sunil, Srinivasa Reddy, Pruthvi, Chitram Sreenu, Dhanraj, Subbaraju, Jayaprakash Reddy, Raju, Jeeva, Jayasudha, Ali, Kalpana, Rajitha, Ragini, Delhi Rajeswari and others

Credits: Dialogues – BVS Ravi, Lyrics – Sirivennela Sitaramasastry, Chandrabose, Ananta Srireem, Photography – Vijay K Chakravarthy, Editing – Marthand K Venkatesh, Art – Anand Sai, Music – Manisharma, Co-producers – Sireesh and Lakshman, Presents – Smt. Anitha, Producer – Dil Raju, Story, dialogues, screenplay and direction – Bhaskar.

Banner: Sri Venkateswara Creations

Released on: May 1, 2008

Bujjigadu movie review

There are a number of rumours doing the rounds in Tollywood about the story of the film. Some rumours even say the writer Madhubabu (detective Shadow fame) has provided the story for the film. But Madhubabu denied that he has provided the story for the film.

Prabhas has been struggling hard to lay his hands on the elusive big hit for a long time now. He pairs up with the sexy and in form Trisha in the film. Incidentally, this is his third film with Trisha. Their previous films were 'Varsham' and 'Pournami'.

Prabhas plays the role of a hardcore fan of superstar Rajnikanth in the film. There are many scenes that show Prabhas expressing his love and admiration for his idol. Prabhas also speaks with a Tami accent and there are also several Tamil words in the film. It is only natural as the hero is shown as being brought up in the city.

Mohan Babu is one of the finest actors in Tollywood. It is with this in mind that director Puri Jagannath requested him to take up the role in the film. When Puri went to narrate the story to Mohan Babu, asked Puri to sum up his role in one just word. Puri told him that he was a 'rascal' in the film. This was sufficient for Mohan Babu and he readily agreed to star in the film. He is playing the role of Trisha's sister.

The name of Trisha's character in the movie is 'Chitti'. The interaction between Mohan Babu and hero Prabhas and his dialogues are the highlight of the film. Mohan Babu's excessive possessiveness of his sister, Trisha, and the related scenes have also come off very well.

Prabhas is playing an out and out mass hero in the film. His body language, dialogues and action are aimed at establishing him firmly as a popular mass hero. The film has already earned a very positive talk and it is likely to become a big hit.

Superstar Rajnikanth unveiled the audio of Bujjigau at the Andhra Club in Chennai recently. Puri has given several hits in recent times. His last two films, 'Desamuduru' with Allu Arjun and 'Chirutha' with Ram Charan were big hits. He hopes to score yet another big hit with Bujjigadu.

Sanjana, Sunil, Ali, MS Narayana, Jayaprakash Reddy, Sudha, Hema, Ajay, Subbaraju and others are among the star cast.

By all indications, Bujjigadu is a hilarious family entertainer with action, romance, fights and dance in equal measure. Get set to watch Bujjigadu on May 23.