Friday, November 27, 2009

Arya - 2 Movie Review | Rating


My rating: 3.5/5
Punchline: story of a psychotic orphan
Genre: Youth/Romance
Type: Straight
Banner: Aditya Arts

Cast: Allu Arjun, Kajal Agarwal, Navadeep, Shraddha Das, Ajay, Brahmanandam, Mukesh Rishi, Sayaji Shinde, Srinivas Reddy, Tarzan, Radha Kumari etc

Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematography: RD Rajasekhar
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Written by: Vema Reddy
Direction
: Sukumar
Producer
: Aditya Babu & BVSN Prasad
Release date
: 27 November 2009


Story

Arya is an orphan and Ajay is his friend in an orphanage. A rich couple visit that orphanage and wanted to adapt one of these two guys. Arya and Ajay use a toss to decide their fortunes. Arya wins, but lets Ajay go as he thinks that friendship is all about giving. Ajay grows up as a rich man and Arya grows up as a poor guy. Ajay starts a software company and Arya joins him as an employee. Geeta is the new employee of the company. Both Ajay and Arya fall in love with her. The rest of the story is all about how these two guys try to make Geeta fall for them.


Artists Performance

Allu Arjun: Allu Arjun is perfect as Arya. His character in the movie has the qualities of a psychotic and he portrayed the character flawlessly. He shined in emotional scenes in the second half of the movie. Allu Arjun is probably the best dancer of current era in Tollywood. That is the reason why he made hugely difficult dances appear fluid and effortless in the first four songs of the movie.

Others: Kajal Agarwal is good as a girl who is not committed to any guy at heart. She rendered the image of a typical confused girl about love. Navadeep is nice as a guy with selfish and practical thinking. He is extremely good with histrionics when he delivers dialogues to Allu Arjun at hospital in the climax scene. Shraddha Das is gorgeous in a brief role. Ajay is excellent as Subba Reddy, mainly due to entertaining characterization. Brahmanandam is partly entertaining. Mukesh Rushi is adequate. An actor with better command on Rayalaseema dialect would have done justice to Sayaji Shinde’s role.


Technical departments

Story - screenplay - direction: Story of the movie is about the conflict of love (Geeta) and friendship (Ajay) of a confused guy (Arya) with psychotic tendencies caused due to loneliness in life. Making a movie based on such a characterization is a highly risky proposition and director Sukumar partly succeeds in it. Sukumar is basically an intelligent guy with a flair for parallel thinking. His intelligence and creativity is shown in conceiving certain scenes of the movie like

1. Using a bubble gum to decide who is going to be hero’s best friend (just like throwing stone into empty cup in Arya)
2. Hero wearing glasses to see the heroine clearly in his dreaming because heroine appears blurred. (montage shot of 2nd song)
3. Love letter episode
4. The drinking scene between Arya and Subba Reddy
5. With one dialogue (Aayanaku champentha kopam vunte, naaku chachipoyentha prema vundi), the love angle of entire movie is justified.

Sukumar is also extremely good at penning screenplay for some part of the movie. The best example is the way he distributes three characters in a stand-off of second half (like puli, meka, gaddi story we listen when we were kids).

However, there is a major glitch in Arya 2 compared to Arya movie. In Arya movie, hero is shown as a guy with mischief and he sincerely fights for a girl because he loves her. When he wants to chase a girl with sincerity, audience would love it and follow the hero character with empathy. Hence there is emotional involvement for hero’s character from audiences. In Arya 2, hero would be sincerely chasing the girl to take her and give it to his friend. Hence, there in less involvement from audiences point of view. So, there will not be sympathy for hero when he loses girl and there will not be feeling of triumph (from audiences involvement angle) when hero finally gets the girl. Another major obstacle in the movie is the factor of confusion. The character of hero vacillates between the feelings of selfishness and sacrifice throughout the movie. The director cleared the confusion only towards the climax.


Other departments: Songs of Arya 2 are excellent to listen and I was a bit hesitant about director doing justice to the songs on the screen. Sukumar comes up with a fabulous job of canning all the songs with energy and verve. Background music is also good. Cinematography by Rajasekhar is of top class. Credit for lush visuals should also be given to Prime Focus (DI) and Pixelloid (VFX). Dialogues are well written. Editing by Marthand K Venkatesh is good. Production standards by Aditya Arts banner (Aditya Babu and Bhogavally Prasad) are of top-notch.


Analysis: First half is is not gripping due to lack of conflict point. Around 45 minutes of the movie in first half where Arya tries to make Geeta fall for him appears redundant. Second half is better than the first half. The last 15 minutes is clear as the director reveals the real character of Arya, thus relieving us of confusion. The plus points of the movie are creative scenes, Allu Arjun, songs (dances) and technical values. On the flipside, psychotic orientation and confusion in hero’s characterization doesn’t get audiences involved in the movie intently. The runtime of the movie is also high. On a whole, Arya 2 is a different film that can appeal to A centers and class crowds.


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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Kurradu Movie Review


Movie: Kurradu
My Rating: 2/5
Banner: Anandhi Arts
Music: Achchu
Cinematography: Sarvesh Murari
Story: Vetri Maran
Producer: Gemini Kiran
Direction: Gunnam Sandeep
Cast: Varun Sandesh, Neha Sharma, Tanikella, Ravi Shankar, Venu, Ali, Surekha Vani, Pragathi etc
Release Date: 12th Nov 2009

Review

Story


Varun (Varun Sandesh) is a young boy who loves owning a sports bike. But his below middle class family background turns a barricade to fulfill his dream. His poor father (Tanikella Bharani) worries about his day-dreaming and irresponsible son. But after a dramatic incident his father gives him Rs 70000 to purchase bike out of his all life time savings. Varun buys a bike and enjoys. He finds a girl Hema (Neha Sharma) and both fall in love. But that bike results in turbulence in Varun’s life. What is that? That has to be seen on big screen.

Artists Performance:

Varun Sandesh : He lean and lanky and he didn’t suit for the energy levels required for the role. He needs to upgrade his dialogue delivery pattern especially while portraying the roles of this kind.

Neha Sharma looked good with naughty smile and big eyes. But she hasn’t upgraded in the matter of performance. Many of her expressions sounded artificial and sometimes lagging in dialogue.

Tanikella Bharani is ok as middle class father while Pragathi is perfect in mother role. Ravi Shankar, the popular dubbing artiste played the lead villain role in fitting manner. Others are ok.

Technically, the movie has no big thing to discuss about. The story sounds not so great as already ‘Ride’ has come on screen with similar theme.

Final Analysis:

It’s a different version of ‘Ride’. It is also inspired from the Tamil movie ‘Polladavan’. But Pollavadan has already inspired Ride. While Ride has two heroes where one is arrogant and other is the one with poor background, here the hero in Kurradu possessess both in him. The bike forms common element both in Ride and Kurradu.

On a whole, the movie has no tempo that keeps audience fix on to seats with interest. First half is ok while second half seems to have run with no punch and required emotion.

The movie may not appeal in the way it’s expected.

Aa Aaa Ee Eee Movie Review


Movie: Aa Aaa Ee Eee
My Rating: 2/5
Banner: Kalpana Arts
Music: M M Srilekha
Editor: Gautham Raju
Producer: Boddam Ashok Yadav
Direction: Srinivas Reddy
Cast: Srikanth, Sada, Meera Jasmine, Krishna Bhagawan, Tanikella, Kavitha, Brahmanandam, Ali, Sunil, Kovai Sarala, M S Narayana, Telangana Sakuntala etc
Release Date: 6th Nov 2009

Review

Story


Chandram (Srikanth) is an honest man and a devoted husband to Kalyani (Meera). His life takes a turn when he discovers that Kalyani has a rare disease and he has to get money. A sequence of events compels him to act as husband to Ramya (Sada) who is thought dead. However, Ramya comes back alive and now Chandram is caught between both women. What happens from there forms the rest of the story.

Artists Performance:

Srikanth : Srikanth has come up with his performance as usual and he has done these several times before so nothing new from his end. However, his presence on posters after ‘Mahatma’ would add as a crowd puller to the theatre.

Meera Jasmine : She looks cute as usual and will appeal to the lady audience. However, she must try not to come up with western outfits in song sequences and that too figure hugging ones. It just doesn’t go with her.

Sada : She is sexy and makes up for the glamour quotient in a large way. Despite wearing regular outfits, she still has that oomph in her. Performance wise, she did justice to her role.

Tanikella was standard, Sunil gave good laughs, Brahmanandam was okay, Ali was hilarious, Kovai Sarala was loud, Raghu Babu was a bit annoying, Krishna Bhagawan was witty and funny as well, M S was good, the others did as required.

Final Analysis:

The film has got every possible comedian in the Tollywood circuit but then the director has not been able to create a laugh riot out of it. The main drawback was the stale storyline which would have fitted the 80s time.

Also, the title conveys a comedy film but there is a strong dose of sentiment and melodrama which downs the enthusiasm. There is not much depth to the characters due to the weak script and there are not many moments when the audience can connect to the film.

There are few sparks of comedy here and there but overall, the film is not that appealing due to the tasteless flavor of the storyline. Except for Sada’s glamour, Sunil and Ali’s comedy, there is not much one can enjoy in this flick.

Village Lo Vinayakudu Movie Review


Movie: Village Lo Vinayakudu
My Rating: 3.5/5
Banner: Moon Water Pictures
Music: Manikant Khadri
Cinematography: Rams
Story: Mahi
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Producer: Mahi
Screenplay & Direction: Saikiran Adivi
Cast: Krishunudu, Sharanya Mohan, Yandamuri Veerendra Nath, Rao Ramesh etc
Release Date: 05th Nov 2009

Review

Story


Set on the backdrop of a village, the story is about Karthik (Krishnudu) a teacher in Hyderabad and it is love at first sight for him when he sees Kavya (Saranya) a doctor. She lives with her father Colonel Laxmipathi (Rao Ramesh), an ex-serviceman at their village and one day Karthik lands at their door confessing his love and asking for Kavya’s hand. Her father strictly retaliates and from then on, Karthik begins his efforts to win the hearts of Kavya’s father and her family. Meanwhile Col Laxmipathi’s friend (Yandamoori Veerendranath) makes attempts to separate Karthik from Kavya. Is he successful or not forms the rest.

Artists Performance:

Krishnudu: Yet again, he has come up with a good performance and not many challenges for him in this one. He has done his best in carrying the film on his shoulders throughout and did a fairly good job. His body language and few dialogues bring smiles and make him look much cuter and perfect.

Saranya Mohan: She is looking sweet and her performance is also good. She has got wonderful photogenic features and for the role she suited best. She certainly loots many hearts with her cute expressions and naughty smiles.

Rao Ramesh: He has done justice to the role and has come up with some highlight dialogues and catchy scenes. This is a different character he has done unlike his earlier movies and he makes his presence felt. He is trying to imitate Prakash Raj knowingly or unknowingly in some scenes and that should be avoided.

Yendamuri Veerendranath: He has given few stiff expressions in front of the camera. But his character is interesting although little.

Bharat Reddy: Though he had a brief presence, he gave his best shot and there are few places where he made his presence felt very well.

Final Analysis:

This is the sincere attempt by the director, and he scores good encomiums from all sectors of audiences. He has knitted the movie with all dexterities that a hero should possess. It is an eye opener for many directors those are showing heroes as smugglers, professional killers, thieves and robbers. The film condemns ‘ridiculing mythology’ which should be underlined. That’s a good lesson.

It is the effort that really appeals as it is made with honesty and sincerity. The film is a clean flick and it has enough ingredients to appeal to the family audience but then it doesn’t have that sort of momentum and pace.

There are no idle moments due to its good presentation. Background score was ok, songs were worth, picturization was top notch. While the first half is quite mild, it is not until the second half that the real tempo begins. Overall, the film is good in parts but could have been better. So it can be appreciated for its efforts than anything else.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Ek Niranjan Movie Rating - Review


Movie:Ek Niranjan
My Rating: 3/5
Banner: Adithya Ram Movies
Music: Mani Sharma
Cinematography: Shyam K Naidu
Editing: M R Varma
Producer: Adithya Ram
Story, Screenplay & Direction: Mallemala unit
Cast: Prabhas, Kangana Ranaut, Sonu Sood, Tanikella, Makrand Deshpande, Mukul Dev, Posani, Ali, Brahmanandam, Brahmaji, Abhinayasri, Sunil, Venu Madhav etc
Release Date: 29th Oct 2009

Review

Story


Chotu (Prabhas) is an orphan who makes an earning by catching hold of criminals and taking commission from the police. He is also in search of his parents and keeps pampering Chidambaram (makrand) his guardian to reveal the truth since he kidnaps Chotu when he is a baby. Things change when Sameera (kangana), a music teacher enters into his life and along with her also come Johnny Bhai (sonu), Kailash (mukul) and others. What is the link between all? Does Chotu get to meet his family in the end? All this forms the rest of the story.

Artists Performance:

Prabhas: Yet another energetic performance from him but he needs to change his dialogue delivery which has become repetitive and sometime rolling. The idea of getting closer to the masses is a good thought but this doesn’t work always. He can recollect his diction for ‘Chatrapathi’ which had more punch and impact.

Kangana Though not very pretty, she has got an innocent sex appeal making her attractive. She looks just average and did justice to her character given her debut in Telugu.

Sonu Sood Interesting and entertaining performance, his sequences with Brahmaji are a highlight. He seems to be filling the gap of Raghuvaran in a large way with his body language and voice.

Brahmanandam, Ali, Abhinayasri The trio has come up with a comedy track but that has not been able to impress. Both Brahmi and Ali look stereotype. Abhinayasri looks shapely and looks seductive in few scenes.

Mukul Dev, Makrand Deshpande These Bollywood imports were not required as their characters didn’t have much to offer. Not really sure why they had to be roped in. Makrand is a highly talented actor but his caliber was not used properly.

Others like Posani, Venu Madhav, Sunil did their bit as required but not very appealing.

Tanikella Bharani and Sangeetha are ok.

Technically, the highlight in the movie is music. All departments functioned well and the production values are also impressive. The director seems to have not kept full energies in some areas of script. Hence the drop down in entertainment graph here are there.

Final Analysis:

The movie promises good entertainment in the take off but the graph suffers in the flow. The problem in the movie is with the lack of comedy carried by comedy artistes. The actual comedy was worked well with Prabhas and Sonu Sood. And it is obvious that the choice of heroine has reduced the scope of attracting family audience to theatres. It’s bluntly limited to mass audiences and as there is no potential for the movie to allure repeat-viewers, the purpose wouldn’t work completely.

First half of the movie is entertaining but the second half is disturbing to some extent. The graph has fallen down when the narration goes to Bangkok. Puri seems to be so obsessed with Bangkok in his films and hardly understands the need to roll cameras there every time. The climax gets mixed response- some feel that it’s subtle to end the movie that way but others may feel it’s incomplete.

On a whole, it’s a movie that hasn’t reached expectations although entertained to some extent.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Bumper Offer Movie Rating


Movie: Bumper Offer
My Rating:2.25/5
Banner: Vaishno Academy
Music: Raghu Kunche
Cinematography: Dinesh, Sobha
Story and Dialogue: Puri Jagannath
Editing: MR Varma
Producer: Puri Jagannadh
Direction: Jaya Ravindra
Cast: Sai Ram Shankar, Bindu Madhavi, Sayaji Shinde, Rakhsa, Chandra Mohan, Kovai Sarala, Ali, Venu Madhav etc
Release Date: 23rd Oct 2009

Review

Story


Sai (Sai Ram) is a motor mechanic. His father (Chandramohan) works as a clerk in a construction company owned by a rich real estate lord Surya Prakash (Sayaji Shinde). Surya Prakash’s daughter Aishwarya (Bindu Madhavi) is an arrogant girl. Consequences make Sai and Aishwarya love together. How Surya Prakash reacts to that forms the main story. He gives Sai an offer that he is ready to give his daughter to him if he can earn at least half of his property. But Sai says that if financial status is the barrier for marriage, he would bring down Surya Prakash to his standard. Things move accordingly in second half and finally how Sai gets success is the climax.

Artists Performance:

Sai Ram: He groomed to some extent but stills needs to be. His hair style and costumes are in tune with the character he played but his dialogue delivery is pitiful. He is not appealing for any set of audiences with that. He needs to get trained in diction part.

Bindu Madhavi: She looked spicy and perfectly gelled well in arrogant role. Director proved successful in giving a different look for her and broken the jinx of family look that she acquired with ‘Avakai Biryani’.

Raksha is ok as rich mother of heroine and Sayaji also grooved well in his part. Chandramohan and Kovai Sarala did their part as parents of poor hero.

Ali and Venu Madhav could bring only minimum laughs with their Magadheera spoof, although there is better scope.

Music is good and trendy. Dialogues are good, screenplay is normal and direction is average.

Final Analysis:

The movie is a reverse of Chiranjeevi’s ‘Challenge’. The protagonist in this denies the offer given by his rich lover’s father to become rich and marry his daughter. But in turn he gives a bumper challenge that he would bring that rich man to his level (poor) to marry his lover as financial status is the only barrier for their marriage.

The scope to make it a wonderful entertainer is very big. But this movie is limited only to a few laughs. The entertainment graph has been up and down since the beginning. A few scenes like when heroine beating the hero with stick received good response. The credit goes to dialogues there.

The ‘Magadheera’ spoof of Ali and Venu Madhav started with promising entertainment but that ended up very weak. There are no thrills and chills and everything goes as predicted. On a whole, the exercise is done but that’s not sufficient for this type of film.

The take off is good, first half ends up with a powerful interval bang. The second half goes as expected and finally it ends up as predicted. The film could have raised interest levels with more humor in it. To sum up, it ended up as a mundane treat.

Jayeebhava Movie Rating


Movie: Jayeebhava
My Rating: 3/5
Banner: Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao Arts
Music: SS Thaman
Cinematography: SS Thaman
Story and Dialogue: BVS Ravi
Editing: Gowtamraju
Producer: Kalyan Ram Nandamuri
Direction: Naren Kondepati
Cast: Kalyan Ram Nandamuri, Hansika Motwani, Mukesh Rushi, Asish Vidyardhi, Jaya Prakash Reddy, Chalapati Rao, Ali, Brahmanandam, Rahubabu, Raghu Karumanchi etc
Release Date: 23rd Oct 2009

Review

Story


Bhavani Shankar (Mukesh Rushi) and Narasimha (Jaya Prakash Reddy) are two warring leaders in that town. Ram (Kalyanram Nandamuri) is the son of Bhavani Shankar. He falls in love with Anjali (Hansika Motwani) when he is in abroad. After coming back to the town, they realise that they belong to two warring groups. The rest of the story is all about how Ram and Anjali play a game to unite their fathers.

Artists Performance:

Kalyan Ram Nandamuri is pretty good as Ram. His dialogue delivery improved a lot and he is looking good in casual and comedy scenes compared to his earlier movies. He underplayed his character well. Hansika Motwani offers loads of glamor in the movie without being sexy. Asish Vidyardhi is alright in a limited role. Jaya Prakash Reddy is good in certain scenes. Mukesh Rushi and Chalapati Rao are adequate. Raghubabu's comedy in this movie is good. Ali is also good. Brahmanandam has a cameo towards the end.

Technical Side:

Story of the movie is adequate. Screenplay should have been better. Direction is decent in the second half. But the director couldn't articulate story in a clear manner in the first half. The movie gets better in the latter part of the second half where there is family orientation and comedy. The characterization of hero is good. But the characterizations of Jaya Prakash Narayan and Mukesh Rushi should have been more logical and consistent to convince the audiences to believe in the proceedings of the second half. Music by SS Thaman is alright. The picturization of songs is good. The second song with graphics backdrop is nicely done. All songs are picturized with lot of care. Dialogues by BVS Ravi are adequate. Art direction is good. Cinematography by Dasaradhi Sivendra is neat. Editing should have been crisp as there is lag in the movie (runtime is more). Production values by NTR Arts are good.

Final Analysis:

First half of the move is inarticulate and uninteresting. However the movie gets better in the second half where the hero and heroine swap their houses. The comedy and entertainment is good in the last half an hour of the movie. The plus points in this movie are Kalyan Ram, Hansika and last half-an hour. On the flip side, a better screenplay and an articulated first half would have helped the film immensely. We have to wait and see how Jayeebhava works at the box office.