"Anekudu" (Telugu)/"Anegan"(Tamil) Film Review

This looks like the season of paper-tiger Tamil flicks dubbed into Telugu which are misfiring  - either under the weight of their own expectations or faulty execution. It happened with “Linga”, “I” and now it is the turn of “Anegan”, sorry, “Anekudu” starring Dhanush. The title itself sounded too highfalutin for even Telugu language and drove eyeballs. But in the Inox screen number four we went to, there were twenty people in all including the eight of us. We thought more would troop in as it was a long weekend. That never happened. The censor certificate put the length of the film as 159 minutes enough to doze you off when the show starts at 10 pm. 

KV Anand, the ace cinematographer directed this film starring Dhanush, Amyra Dastur, Karthik (remember “Gharshana” and “Mounaragam”) and Ashish Vidyarthi. Anand is hailed as one of the trailblazers in Kollywood after films like “Koh” and “Maatraan”(“Rangam and “Brothers” respectively in Telugu). He packs a lot into his films - eye-popping visuals, stunning climax, characters oozing out intelligence of the highest order, super speciality effects, melodious music by Harris Jayaraj and an undercurrent of a theme seldom highlighted in the media. Of course, his first film “Rangam” (“Ko” in Tamil) is still talked about as one of the best films in the last five years to hit South screens. “Anekudu” takes a familiar story but gives an unusual twist in the undercurrent to the main plot of a romantic pair - Dhanush and Amyra. Both of them are born and re-born again and again, first in Myanmar (Burma), then in Tamil Nadu and then again in Vizag and finally in one of the modern metropolises in India - call it Chennai or Hyderabad, who cares? Each time before the current avatar, Dhanush and Amyra get separated by death due to somebody’s villainy. Finding it out is the mission of current Dhanush and Amyra in the movie. Is it Ashish Vidyarthi? Is it Karthik? Or is it the lady who loved Dhanush in Burma? This is the story without tadka. Add to this, the jazz of lavish landscapes from Burma, Pallavas and the mass moods kicked up by Dhanush and flashbacks to the past lives through regression theraphy of a cleverly planted hypnotist, the story is talking masala sense. What is the sci-fi twist that KV Anand can add here? It is the villainy of a head-honcho at an IT gaming company who wants to count billions of dollars by making his employees hallucinate over past lives, imagine demons that can get a spectacular finish to the games they conjure up and finally ruin them with memes that maim the mind. One girl even feels she has to escape a demon molesting her and so she jumps off the high floor and commits suicide. 

The end comes agonisingly after many births and re-births of the hero, the heroine and the villains who keep re-surface. The dateline of the last story is about 25 years back - when Doordarshan ruled the airwaves and mobiles were yet to appear but the consistency checks were missing by an over-careful director. How come the girl only remembers her past lives as well as the characters she loves or hates but nobody else recalls any connection with her. The opening sequence, set in Burma, for example, shows the recent turmoil of the Military Juntas taking over Myanmar but oust only the Indians - was that really the case? Then the police cop’s role lacks depth and characterisation - even after the film, you don’t know if he was supporting the hero or the villain. Ditto for the lady who betrays Dhanush as the estranged lover, after first agreeing to protect him and his lover in a chase of their life on a steamship about to leave the shore of Burma. These inconsistencies mar the impressions you gather even if the overall effect is mixed. KV Anand’s efforts have always been this way - too many shades of grey and too many subtexts to interpret for each character except the lead pair. And a glaring irony in his story-telling. Is re-incarnation for real? Good, then why all the manipulation by the villain in the name of spurring his team to get hyper-creative? If the hallucinations are for real via regression theraphy, where is the need to show so many cycles of births? Yes, there are gripping sequences of action and revenge and mesmerising visuals on the life in Myanmar which actually houses a lot of Telugu immigrants but lack of clarity and consistency once again takes a toll on KV Anand’s biopic. On most other fronts, he scores high - flawless screenplay, effortless narration, gripping action, intelligence dripping in every frame untypical of commercial cinema. 

Dhanush’s performance sizzles again. He is better as the Vizag underbelly and as the chivalrous male in an IT company. Karthik looks fighting fit as a business leader, but his swagger is sometimes too much to digest, he needs to rough up more to become a baddy than use MC English for style. He has no need for props as decades after those memorable hits in the 80s, his screen presence is arresting enough. Amyra Dastur gets a range of costumes to show her lissome body and lovely face - she can be the next Amy Jackson to burn the screen. Harris Jayaraj’s music is the real treat in the film. All the songs set in varying tempos are well-shot and picturised thanks to KV Anand’s flair for panoramic scenery. Burma is my next destination and yours too, if you glimpse the first twenty minutes of the film - the rest is routine crime thriller jazzed up with theories of Karma. Must add that the title credits show Harris Jayaraj’s music effort with a spectacular fifty-plus member orchestra, manning music arrangements in Bazooka, Harmonies, Violin and Mandolin- he seems to have aced up for this movie and his soundtracks look particularly fetching for lovers of the Russo-Oriental music. Cheers to Harris Jayaraj, one of the most under-appreciated composers in Telugu and Tamil films. On the whole, the film is watchable once for the visuals and action scenes, some of them picked from “Titanic”. Despite flaws, movie-makers like KV Anand are needed to break the mould of formula fare in commercial cinema.

Rating: 2.75/5

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"Om" 3-D (Telugu) Movie Review

This year's much-advertised 3-D film begins and ends with a sordid stunt, several false starts and a bizarre climax that might give you a headache. There is neither "Om" chant in the beginning nor a "Shanti" at interval or at "The End". It is quite a twisted plot with a lot of twists throughout the film which make it quite taxable viewing.  

Story is deceptively simple: Kalyan Ram is a business tycoon's son  - his father Karthik (Remember "Mouna Raagam" and "Gharshana"?) and his uncles Suresh and Aahuti Prasad run the show. There is a pack of villains  - Rao Ramesh and another toughie who want to eliminate Karthik. Enter Kriti Karbanda, first heroine who entraps Kalyan in love. Enter Nikesha ("Komarum Puli" fame) who wants to marry Kalyan as well. But it turns out Nikesha is out to eliminate Kalyan Ram because he is one amongst villains. Even the first heroine is another cat set among the pigeons - the pigeon being Kalyan and family. Interval block shows Kalyan shooting Nikesha point-blank range. The second half has greater unravelling of dramatic fiction: the toughie who is a cohort of Rao Ramesh is the real father of Kalyan Ram and not Karthik as believed. Karthik is the original villain who kills Kalyan Ram's grandfather, usurps his wealth and brings up Kalyan Ram while making the toughie go to jail for his wages of sin. Quite a dazzle of a story with unprecedented twists and turns but what's the point of all this? Has it justified the title - Om? No. Has it developed the romantic track? No. Has it enough material to entertain and sustain the zig-zagging screenplay's running time of 125 minutes? Partially yes. Does it catapult Kalyan Ram to the next level? Hardly so. 

Kalyan Ram produced this film again directed by a newcomer Sunil Reddy.That seems to be his business model throughout his inconsistent career-graph so far. He introduced many newcomers which includes technicians and always has a first-time director and makes a film with good production values and a well-heeled budget. Some of his directors like Surinder Reddy have become star directors. With this film, he has introduced 3-D technology  - which makes it the first action 3-D film in Telugu. The total 3-D footage is commensurate with the action sequences of the film which is about half-hour - but the sequences don't thrill you with emotions, they merely explode on the screen  - tyres tumbling out in your direction, synthetic fires engulfing the villains,SUVs flying like amoeba particles, and the occasional side bars and pillars making way to the characters you see on screen. Is this what 3-D film all about? It's not worth all the buzz. No wonder, there are more 2-D films than 3-D films and there are more pirated films than there are 3-D versions in Indian Cinema. 3-D makes sense if there's more depth in the storyline than a mere revenge story with a love triangle as this. 

Production values, however, stand out. Cinematography by Vincent Ajay and music by two -  A Rajamani and Sai Karthik - uplift the film in both the songs and the BGM. Glamour is in ample measure - both Kritti and Nikesha look good. Comedy is weakest and that can undermine the film's mass appeal. Rao Ramesh gets the only chance to play a comic villain like his father. Karthik as the father and the villain is thorough and impactful - he maybe the only reason to watch the film despite special attractions, Ghantasala Ratnakumar who synced his voice for Karthik for so many years returns to uplift Karthik. Kalyan Ram should learn that time is running out for him to re-establish his stardom; his films are different but not very different from one another - at the core, they are turning out to be tales of revenge, graphic violence, modest romance and negligible comedy. He needs to try out different roles, stylise his looks, and try different commercial formats. Otherwise, the man who made "Om" and "Hare Ram" will become "Hari Om". Rating 2.5/5.