Movies: February 2011

Friday, February 18, 2011

PRABAS WIT RAJMOULI

Rajamouli’s next film after Eega is going to have Prabhas doing main role. This film will be produced on Arka Mediaworks that produced class films like Maryada Ramanna and Vedam in the past. K Raghavendra Rao presents it. Art director is Ravinder. MM Keeravani composes music. The unit has arranged a press meet today -

It’s a fantasy film with huge budget/vfx - SS Rajamouli

Rajamouli said, “I started my career with Gharana Bullodu in K Raghavendra Rao’s direction in his home banner. I did commercial ads for K Raghavendra Rao later. This is like a home banner to me. I am working with prabhas after Chatrapati. I wanted to take sufficient break after Magadheera by doing Maryada Ramanna and Eega. Everybody must be thinking that this project is of Viswamitra story. This is a different movie that belongs to fantasy genre. My earlier movies had a bit of fantasy, but this movie is a full-fledged fantasy. It could be historical or folk. I am not revealing details as it is too early. This film will go to sets in the month of September. It might take one year to complete the project. It will be a bilingual film in Telugu and Tamil. The budget of this movie will be higher than that of Magadheera. There are going to be humongous visual effects. Art director Ravinder has patented his work for Maryada Ramanna. It’s a new thing for our Telugu film industry.

Prabhas said, “My father and K Ragahvendra Rao were good friends. K Raghavendra Rao directed Bobbili Brahmanna in our banner. I feel lucky to work in Raghavendra Rao’s banner. Rajamouli narrated me this subject around 2 years back. I might not get such a movie in the future. I am going to put all my efforts for this movie.”

KSD appalaraju MOVIE REVIEW

Rating: 2/5
Banner: Shreya Productions
Cast: Sunil, Swathi, Sakshi, Brahmanandam, Raghu Babu, Ajay and others
Music: Koti
Editing: Praveen Pudi
Cinematography: Sudhakar Yekkanti
Story, screenplay, direction: Ramgopal Varma
Producer: Kiran Kumar Koneru
Release date: 18/02/2011

Ramgopal Varma is back. This time, he has chosen the Tollywood circuit as the backdrop and tried to portray his views in the satirical way. Let us see how convincing they were.

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.

Performances: 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

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.

Bottom-line: Good story but weak narration

(Venkat can be reached at venkat@greatandhra.com)

Friday, February 11, 2011

GAGANAM REVIEW

Film: Gaganam
Rating: 3.25/5Banner: Matinee Entertainment
Cast: Nagarjuna, Prakashraj, Brahmanandam, Poonam Kaur, Sana Khan, Thalaivasal Vijay, Prudhvi, Bharath Reddy, Ravikanth etc
Dialogues: Umarji Anuradha
Camera: K V Guhan
Story, screenplay, direction: Radha Mohan
Producer: Dil Raju

Lately, Nagarjuna has been trying to experiment with his image and ‘Gaganam’ falls into that bracket. This is released in Tamil as well with the title ‘Payanam’ and it brings back director Radha Mohan of ‘Akasamantha’ fame. Let us see how this bilingual is..

Story: A flight which takes off from Chennai is hijacked by terrorists and they want to take it to Rawalpindi.

However, an engine failure forces them to land the aircraft in Tirupathi. The defense ministry gets alerted and in comes home secretary Vishwanath (Prakashraj) to know the demands of the hijackers.

He goes with a team to Tirupathi and keeping in mind, the need for a military operation at any instant, Major Ravindra (Nagarjuna) arrives to Tirupathi airport with his team of commandos. The demand is for the release of dreaded terrorist Yousuf Khan or else the hundred passengers in aircraft will be killed.

Just when the government gives up and decides to release Yousuf Khan, an interesting twist takes place. What happens from there forms the rest of the story.

Performances:Nagarjuna has given a balanced performance and doesn’t cross the line anywhere. He fits the bill with his well maintained physique.

Prakashraj makes his presence felt though it is a brief and important role. He showed the right kind of emotions during critical scenes.

Bharath Reddy fits the role perfectly as Nag’s assistant.

Poonam Kaur was okay, the track between the doctor and Sana Khan was annoying. Thalaivasal Vijay was impressive as usual. Prithvi was not upto the mark but his character was etched well. Brahmi failed to impress this time. The rest of them did their bit as required.

The dialogues written by Umerjee Anuradha (Ye Maya Chesaave fame) are sounding as if dubbed directly from Tamil. The nativity is missing in that. 90% of the film runs inside the flight and a conference hall in airport. Yet, no monotony was experienced with the effective cinematography of KV Guhan. Especially the tension was effectively built up with steady cameras and lighting schemes.

Praveen Mani's background score stands as a plus point in the film. A few lags were observed in editing here and there. There could have been a 10 minute cut to make the film compact. Although it's an experiment the production values are on par with regular commercial cinema.

Highlights:Direction
Cinematography
Background Score
Thrill elements
Subtle humor

Drawbacks:Jerks in editing

Analysis:Nagarjuna made several experiments in his 25 year film career. He gave opportunities to new directors and made block busters like Shiva. He also acted in devotional films when many opined that devotional genre has gone obsolete on Tollywood screen. His Annamayya and Sree Rama Dasu have become super hits that way. It is really a stunning thing to know that a film where a big hero is playing the lead carries no songs and fights. But still this film engages the audiences efficiently for 2 hours.

Radha Mohan needs a definite mention here, He dealt with soft stories like Akasamantha earlier and now he came up with this thriller. But still he has shown his caliber. He is successful because he dealt with the subject efficiently without any diversions.

Despite a serious movie, the entertainment quotient is not missed. Intelligently he grooved in a film hero and his fan in the flight to bring in humor. Similarly at the end the way the director used a junior artiste for a military operation also sounds interesting.

No logical errors can be seen in this film. But a few scenes between Sana Khan and the doctor didn’t fit into the story. The moods and emotions of the passengers those were hijacked weren’t captured effectively.

Although first half goes little dull, he took enough care in second half by making it thrilling and captivating. Although it is predictable that it will be a happy ending, the director proved successful in bringing in tension with his screenplay.

The film may lose a few mass masala audience but it clicks really well with the A center audiences. It has to be seen how it fares at box office. If that wonder works out, then we can state that ‘Gaganam’ sets a new trend in Tollywood history.

Bottom-Line: Watch it

(Venkat can be reached at venkat@greatandhra.com)

VASTHADU NAA RAJU REVIEW

Rating: 3/5
Banner: 24 Frames Factory
Cast: Vishnu, Taapsee, Prakashraj, Brahmanandam, Tanikella, Siva Reddy, Ali and others
Music: Mani Sharma
Cinematography: S Gopal Reddy
Story, screenplay, direction: Hemant Madhukar
Producer: Manchu Vishnuvardhan
Release date: 11/02/2011

Manchu Vishnu has arrived with another attempt to entertain the Telugu audience. Whether he is successful in this one or not, let us see.

Story:
Venky (Vishnu) is a happy go lucky young man and his dream is to become a Kick Boxing champion. He doesn’t believe in love as he considers it time waste.

On the other hand, there is Narasimha (Prakashraj), a henchman for the Home Minister (Sayaji) and his dream is to become an MLA. To achieve his dream, he also commits to the Home Minister that he will give his sister Pooja’s (Taapsee) hand to the HM’s rogue son Ajay (Ajay).

However, a sequence of events takes place which mislead Narasimha to think that Pooja is in love with Venky. He attacks Venky’s family and in no time Venky also shows his reaction. What is that reaction? Are Venky and Pooja really in love? All this forms the rest of the story.

Performances:
Manchu Vishnu has given a sincere attempt. He should be appreciated for cutting down ample weight on his body and choosing a far better story this time after ‘Saleem’. However, he has to work on few areas. First, his voice modulation has to improve to deliver that heroic feel. Secondly, he must put on some mass on his body and build few muscles apart from that single tricep he shows in one scene. Being a kickboxer, he should have enough machismo and physique which was missing here.

Taapsee looks like a doll and while she scores with her innocent looks in regular scenes, she raises the heat with her oomph factor in songs. She has improved compared to her debut film in terms of performance. But she needs to focus on fitness as this is right time. She has tendency of putting on weight faster.

Prakashraj is good and did complete justice to his role. Watching him in one of the songs in a funny get up was nice.

Brahmanandam is good at few places, Tanikella is elegant, Tulasi was alright, Ajay is not used to his full potential, Jeeva is usual, Sayaji Shinde is brief. It is good to see Sathya Krishnan back on the screen. Surekha is humorous; Satyam Rajesh, Siva Reddy and Bobo Sasi are there to fill the screen. The others did their bit as required.

Highlights

Songs and music
Manchu Vishnu’s dialogue on ‘Andhra, Rayalaseema, Telangana Debba’ during the fight sequence.
Taapsee’s glamour quotient

Drawbacks

Vishnu’s dialogue on greatness of Telugu people. Many compared it to Mohan Babu delivering it and Vishu was unable to give that punch.
Vishnu’s lack of energy in emotional scenes
Physique of Vishnu that’s not convincing as a kick boxer.

Analysis:
Hemant Madhukar who made his first film in Bollywood seems to have read the commercial pulse of the audience correctly. He didn’t try to experiment too much and made it a clean entertainer. Though there were few hiccups here and there, he was able to put enough pace in the scenes and kept the audience busy.

There was a proper mix of romance, humor, sentiment which makes up for a perfect formula entertainer. He should have focused on the technical aspects and fine tuned few comedy sequences.

Especially for this kind of story line and presentation idea, the screenplay and dialogue should be filled with better humor. People may compare it with Dhee or Ready. But repeating the same wouldn’t give any impact. It should be above them to score the highest mark. And frankly to say, the humor and entertainment quotient in Dhee and Ready are above ‘VNR’.

On a whole, the dialogues were good at few places, second half got dragged a bit, this could be trimmed. The production values were good and few scenes had rich presentation. Overall, this is a film that will appeal for B, C center audience provided they watch with no big expectations.

Bottomline: Ok for time pass

(Venkat can be reached at venkat@greatandhra.com)

Sunday, February 6, 2011

VV.VINAYAK DIRECTS CHIRU'S 150 MOVIE

Director VV Vinaya is finalized to direct Chiru's 150th film. Vinayak who delivered a good film like Tagore for Megastar announced during a function of Tagore that he had another story that suits Megastar's image- that is college lecturer.

Now the talk is - is Vinayak is making Chiru's 150th film with his old story announced during Tagore function? We have to wait and see.

MAHESH DOOKUDU LEAKED STORY ???

Prince Mahesh babu starring 'Dookudu' film is progressing at Brisk pace and is expected to hit screens somewhere in April or May months. Srinu Vytla is directing the film while Samantha is paring up with Mahesh.

Now the film story has been leaked out and it goes like below:

Mahesh babu will play a police officer role in this film. A Mafia leader escapes from Mahesh Babu Police team with the help of political power. He is none other than Prakash Raj. If mahesh won’t find out Prakash Raj he and his team will lose their jobs. Mahesh Babu superior officer Najar gives 10 Days time to Mahesh and his team to catch Prakash Raj. Prakash Raj escapes from India and flies to Turkey. In search of Prakash Raj, Mahesh and his team goes to Turkey. In Turkey Mahesh Babu falls in Samantha’s love. Samantha is daughter of Mahesh Babu’s superior officer Najar.

Another twist is Najar is the police officer who helps to Prakash Raj to escape from India. With the help of Samantha, Mahesh Babu knows everything.

How Mahesh will catch Prakash Raj and how he proves Najar as a criminal is rest of the story.

RAM CHARAN AS GANG LEADER

Ramjee- son of producer Maganti Ravindra Choudary is all set to make Tollywood debut as producer with the film titled Mirchi with Aswin son of MS Raju.

Ramjee was speaking to the media at the Mirchi press meet said- 'I want to re-make Gang leader with Ramcharan; His father Ravindranath Choudary made Gang Leader with Megastar.. For now, except for Title nothing is confirmed. Film will go on to sets only after a suitable script and Ramcharan's dates finalized.

DIRECTOR VISHNU ABT PAWAN'S NEW FILM "THE SHADOW"

Vishnuvardhan

The big smile is back on director Vishnu- vardhan's face. For the last two years, he has been moving mountains to start two of his pet projects a Telugu film with Pawan Kalyan and Ajith's Billa 2.

Now, all of a sudden, both the films are going to kickstart back-to-back. Vishnu, who is known for his stylish entertainers, is one of the few filmmakers in Kollywood who has an opening.

In an interview to CT, Vishnuvardhan says, "For the last 18 months, I had both these scripts ready. But everything had to fall in place and it looks like I will start both the films now. I'll start Pawan Kalyan's The Shadow in the first week of March. It is a gangster film about a protagonist on a journey and his fight within himself as he discovers that you can't fight your own dynasty. Jackie Shroff, Tanikella Bharani and Brahmanandam will be part of the cast. And then, there'll be Sarah Jane and Jiah Khan. Music is being composed by my buddy Yuvan Shankar Raja and P S Vinod will be the cameraman.

Meanwhile, the director is gung-ho about Billa 2. Says an excited Vishnu, "The film, which will start rolling at the end of April, is something that I'm eagerly looking forward to. Ajith sir is my all-time favourite star and we had a ball making Billa. Billa 2 is a prequel that will start in a small coastal town in south Tamil Nadu and travel to Goa and from there to some of the most exotic places in the world. The film is about how a guy from a small town in TN goes on to become the most stylish and powerful underworld don.

Vishnu is quite clear about Ajith's look in the film. "He has to look younger than he was in Billa. At the moment, he has a George Clooney-style sexy look with a salt-and-pepper stubble for Venkat Prabhu's Mankatha. For Billa 2, he will undergo a complete transformation. My team consisting of designer Anu Vardhan and cinematographer Nirav Shah are taking a lot of trouble trying to work out the new look. Yuvan's songs and background score will be an all-new experience.

About others in the cast and the heroine, Vishnu says, "Prabhu sir will definitely be a part of Billa 2. We have embarked on a hunt for the heroine. Just like how the leading lady is important in a James Bond film, my heroine has to be super sexy, smart and savvy. We are looking for somebody like Nayan — before Billa, she had a demure image but post the release of the film, she turned out to be a phenomenon. If we don't find anybody in the south, we will go to Mumbai.

So, how does he plan to work on two films in different languages simultaneously? "I had locked both my scripts some time back. When I write a script, it will be a shot-by-shot description including details about location and other technical data. So, at the time of the shoot, it becomes easy and cost effective. I've always completed my shoots in less than 90 days. Both my films will release in 2011," signs off Vishnu.