When DSP Met Superstar Mahesh, again

On the choices of music composers by the ruling Superstars. An analysis over the years:

http://www.telugu360.com/when-dsp-met-superstar-mahesh-again/

"Seethamma Vaakitlo Siri Malle Chettu" Telugu Movie Review

"Seethamma Vaakitlo SiriMalle Chettu" is a clean and supergood U-certificate blockbuster from the house of Dil Raju who made some of the finest DVD value catalog of family films over the last several years. "SVSC" is a culmination of many people who are proven talents in their own areas of work and so many of them have come together to give a great film that will be a sure-fire superhit which the toddlers and the seniors can watch together.

First, lets look at the creative team that came together for this film. Mani Sharma scores Background score, he has embellished the exceptionally melodious music given by Mickey J Meyer whose last best score was for "Kotha Bangaru Lokam" and perhaps "Happy Days". There are about seven songs and all of them have lyrics and sonorous music - which means Mickey J Meyer has taken the right feedback from those who apprehended his abilities. Mani Sharma and DSP are the best in Re-recording after AR Rahman and Ilayaraja, and in this film Mani proves that he is a pro in setting the right moods throughout a family film with emotional roller-coaster rides. Next comes K S Guhan whose name sounds straight out of a triumvirate list of AVM producers but he is not, he is the cinematographer of repute and one of his best works came in "Athadu" movie. He has made everybody in the film including an irritating character played by Ravibabu come alive and look good. Then, its time to salute an original legend in dialogues who was gainfully employed by K Balachander for innumerable films with telling effect - Ganesh Patro. He has taken the noblest intentions of Srikanth Addala, the director (of whom we will talk more later) in giving us heart-tugging dialogues, dialogues that come straight from the heart, real and yet credible, touching and sometimes tears-triggering. He has also created within the ambit of a wonderful screenplay and straight narration of a simple family story a memorable line for each character in the film which defines and extends their screen presence. For example, Prakash Raj has a line that defines his personality in the film. Rao Ramesh, the only equivalent of a villain if you can call in the film, has a few lines of "Plan, Scheme and Vision" that defines his world and his character in the film. Venkatesh and Mahesh, Jayasudha and Rohini Hattangadi, Anjali and Murali Mohan all have their lines in the film which create an endearing interplay thanks to the words of the director and the dialogues of Ganesh Patro. Can other legends who are past their prime plan in similar ways plan to stage a comeback, I ask as a film-lover?



The story is not outlandish or complicated, infact it is the simplest storyline for a family drama seen in years. Prakash Raj and Jayasudha live in a village with their grownup sons Venkatesh and Mahesh, their only daughter and their niece Anjali and mother Rohini Hattangadi. Prakash Raj is a Good Samaritan who helps anybody who bumps into him because he feels "we shall not pass this way again". Jayasudha and her mother-in-law Rohini Hattangadi's only worry how the sons settle and when they get married. Venkatesh, the eldest son is a straight faced angry "young" man, he is undiplomatic and doesn't mince words and faces struggles at work with his adamance. Mahesh, on the contrary, is street-smart, sweet-talker who flirts with anybody and is acutely conscious of his handsome looks and has lots of fun at others' cost but tries to bind the family together with his diplomacy skills. Their family is connected to another family in Vijayawada comprising of Rao Ramesh, his wife and two daughters Samantha and another girl. Rao Ramesh has absolute disdain for Prakash Raj's family because he measures his world by materialism and success - and feels the latter's family is a bunch of under-achievers and goal-less people who are just eking out their living by killing time. Samantha falls in love with Mahesh and Anjali, the girl who grows up in Prakash Raj's family is paired with Venkatesh from the beginning and she is the daughter of Rao Ramesh's sister who is no more. The climax of the film shows Rao Ramesh get a comeuppance from Prakash Raj's family in a bizarre episode at Bhadrachalam and he changes his mind to give both his "daughters" to the family almost like in "Hum Aapke Hai Kaun". That is a story which seems quite unimpressive but the way in which Srikanth Addala meshed the storyline with narration, built layers of characterisation of each character with utter honesty and rustic charm, is a visual treat -a celluloid extravaganza, ably supported by roaring performances by everybody with a few exceptions.



Between Venkatesh and Mahesh, I honestly liked the performance of Venkatesh for the variety and shades portrayed; first it is weak and then slowly grows in the end. Mahesh's character is good in parts and he shows the youthful fervour and intensity thats earmarked in the story. As a younger brother, Mahesh strikes an amazing chemistry with Venkatesh, the elder brother; he steals the thunder from Venkatesh in some of the scenes because of the way the story moves in the direction of educating Venkatesh for better. There are about six scenes between Venkatesh and Mahesh, mostly at wall corners and terraces - they are the best moments of the film and stir you with what goes on between two brothers when egos are involved and affection takes a backseat. It is captured in the most honest and thrilling fashion and might be one of the best draws in the film. Within the first few moments of their appearance on screen as brothers, you forget that they are superstars and get engrossed in the characterisation. Mahesh, being the younger brother, speaks more in the film, is shown as more ebullient and racy whereas Venkatesh being the eldest brother, shows many nuances of acting with his subtle variations in silence and few lines of eloquence. Prakash Raj's characterisation is not that great in the film compared to the previous films of Dil Raju but his presence lends dignity to the role. Rao Ramesh, who also lends his voice to the statutory cigarette warnings at the outset, has got a role thats consistent and worthy of his potential but towards climax, he could have got more lines as to how he realised his follies; director allows a song to tell it all. Jayasudha has got a meatier role and carries her role with consummate ease. The surprise package in the film is the character of 'Sita" played brilliantly by Anjali (The Tamil girl in "Journey"). If the voice dubbed is her own, then Anjali is the actress to watch out for almost like Soundarya in yesteryears. She is the soul of the film and binds so many characters together and moves the story forward at several moments of the film. She is beautiful, has the looks, got an arresting screen-presence and looks commandingly paired with Venkatesh; pity that this pair got one song whereas Mahesh and Samantha got two songs. Samantha has got three songs in the film including a solo; obviously everybody believes she is the lucky mascot for Tollywood these days. For now, we will hope her luck will favor this time also and she will one day outgrow her cute looks and wimpish girly giggles, she should reach out to the casting directors of Hollywood and get roles like "SnowWhite", "Cindrella", and "Barbie the beauty"!



The running time is 159 minutes. Srikanth Addala who has made "Kotha Bangaru Lokam" is clearly the silent craftsman who has given his best shot after KBL with this film. He has shown that given the backing of a good producer who dirties his hands and gets down to the brasstacks of film-making in tow with the technical team, any director who is earnest, feels sincerely about a message of family values that should reach out to the widest audience in this nuclear-family and fast-paced world, one can indeed make a blockbuster movie. Luckily, for both the makers Srikanth and Dil Raju, the stars are aligned literally for a thorough entertaining film thats given a clean chit at the Censor Board, moves you and touches your soul many a time with lots of clarity. If there are any blemishes in the film, they get over-shadowed by the momentum of the story-telling, music, performances and traipsing speed of the characterisation in giving a warm hug to the audience who come with mixed expectaitons. Ravi Babu's characterisation as a villian, Tanikella Bharani's character as a modern-day Sage Narada who carries tales, and some of the scenes of extreme eve-teasing Mahesh Babu at public places are the only ones I remember, in bad taste. Mahesh definitely looks younger and stylish; his dressing sense looks vastly improved. Venkatesh has got mono shades and could have improvised his dressing patterns. Can the movie be shorter? I always feel so, including this movie review. Is the movie entertaining? Yes and No. Yes, if you expect to be surcharged with emotions and get engrossed with the story and not get bored at all. No, if you expect fireworks from an ensemble of extraneous characters who charge Rs.2 lacs per day and consume Biryani for their entire family. No mainstream comedians in this film except Venu Madhav as a Census Officer. One neat cameo in the film by Producer-Actor Murali Mohan is to be noted - he comes at two crucial junctures and both times he elevates the character of Prakash Raj.



Srikanth Addala is an IIM graduate who has been working for nine years in Dil Raju factory. He has offered a different treatment to how a blockbuster should be and has shown rare sensitivity and dexterity to blend two superstars with different images into one unit of brothers, plain-clothed characters. If this is a trend that becomes more defined and prevalent in days to come, then Tollywood can scale greater heights because this is the industry that remains second to none in terms of entertainment, comedy, scale and technical values. Imagine the power of superstars like Pawan Kalyan, Nagarjuna, NTR, Prabhas, Allu Arjun, Ramcharan, Balakrishna, Ravi Teja and these two to come together for a good story and just be characters instead of being ego-sized cutout characters. Sky's the limit. "SVSC" is an effort that's a dream come true from the beginning for those who believe in the power of cinema to thrill them to bits. For all those who are on this side of entertainment, the side that doesn't take sides of Heroes and only believe in good story-telling, SVSC is a visual treat. I stick to my guns and give it 4.5 on 5. Cheers! Happy Sankranti!

"Krishnam Vande Jagadguru" Telugu Movie Review

“Krishnam Vande Jagadguru” is quite a resonant title taken from a Sanskrit Sloka in Bhagavatam. It has Rana  Daggubati who hasn’t yet tasted Box Office success and casts Nayanatara in her first glam role after “Srirama Rajyam”. Director Radhakrishna Jagarlamudi is known for themes which are seldom dwelled upon on celluloid. In “Gamyam” he talks about being a humanist instead of a hedonist and enjoying the journey more than the destination in life. In “Vedam” he talks about the essence of right living and right thinking taking stories of five different people and blending them in the climax to drum up  the broad message of Vedas. It broke new ground in presentation and clearly remains a unique film of sorts  - in genre, theme and vivacity. “KVJ” his current, therefore, built a crescendo of expectations  - it has the implicit backing of the king of script-judgements D Suresh Babu, and all the paternal support that comes with such backing – theatres, distribution, the works. It is touted to be the real launch film of Rana. Does it deliver? Maybe, but it’s a mixed bag, according to me.

The story is quite explosive. Loosely borrowed from the famous “Surabhi” Nageswar Rao character. The patriarch of Surabhi theatre  (Kota Srinivasa Rao) runs the troupe with new generation of artists who show mixed commitment to the craft. One of them is BTech Babu (Rana) who is the “manasa putra” of Kota Srinivasa Rao, he is 6’3”tall, handsome, built like a planet and pulls off any role from the mythologies from Abhimanyu and Ghatotkachha to Narasimha and Krishna Avatars. He is the only hope for Kota to enact his magnum opus “Krishnam Vande Jagadguru” in Bellary Mines but BTech Babu has plans to study in US. Crest-fallen, Kota  dies. Shaken by Kota’s death and his past, BTech Babu re-dedicates himself and unites the troupe to  carry on the tradition. This takes him to Bellary where he falls in love with Nayanatara (an investigative documentary film-maker on mining scam). He also meets with the real baddies of Bellary – Murali Sharma and Milan Gunajee and finds more economic and social arson leading to imbalances in the surroundings of Bellary. Then the climax in a filmy way where Btech Babu pounces on the real villain who disturbed his ecosystem: While playing Narasimha Avatar, he pounces upon the villain (find out yourself) and eventually lets the displaced villagers give a fire exit to the villain.  

Director Krish had picked an explosive theme of Mining loot and its effect on the underbellies affected by it. He blends it half-heartedly with the declining patronage for theatre arts with the influx of media and economic boom leading to evolving forms of crisp entertainment. He lacks the control and finesse to blend both. In 136 minutes, he shows half-hearted will to grapple with the issues of the movie. Unlike Bengali and Marathi theatre, why did Telugu theatre vanish after centuries of fantastic run? There must be reasons beyond the evident – could it be mass urbanization or media invasion? Could better improvisation of language (simplification, actually) helped? Could they have picked up shorter and more vibrant and relevant themes? Any craft dies not because of falling patronage but only because of lack of marketing initiatives and perceived value – those aspects were not properly investigated. If Annamacharya had sung several thousand keerthanas, how come only few are sung with telling noticeability by even the unitiated? Some soul-searching needs to be done by Telugu theatre why such a decline befell it  - those who don’t adapt to the changing times in technology, presentation, content, theme or relevance, they are bound to perish. Krish disappointingly, has done no justice to the relevance of this debate. Instead, he sprinkles a few powerful dialogues that art is that which wakes you up from dreams, not the dream itself. Point taken, but how does the art become sustainable, remunerative and fulfilling? Krish doesn’t answer:  If you use  language that’s not crisp or clear to the current generation, the theatre has no hope in hell. But if you make it entertaining and improvise, it can survive the odds as in cities like Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata etc. For every “Surabhi” example, we need to see why some others have succeeded like “Prithvi” or “Qadar Ali Baig theatre” or some noted English theatres. Everybody loves a good play and stage performance and I can vouch that given good presentation and content, people will go to any lengths to watch theatre, there’s no dearth of audience here.

Krish also under-utilises his own strengths in documenting social problems well in his assessment of the mining mafia. Even though so much has happened in Bellary, and Goa mining scams, some justice is happening in terms of export bans, invoking of the RTI, land acquisition laws,  etc. I don’t want to delve deep into this issue as there are other larger points of debate which can be tackled separately. Showing how mining barons terrorise the villagers is just old-school villainy. When you have the main villain as “Reddappa”, there is so much scope for bringing real-life characterization and depth to sophisticated villainy. Krish fails to deliver here as well as in the characterization of most roles in the film. Nayanatara is a documentary film-maker on the mining scams. We don’t think she is either intelligent nor capable of the task at hand in the way she is characterized; she is mostly seducing Rana, dancing with him or running with her camera in Ambassador car. And what is the connection between a CBI officer and a documentary film-maker? Do they authorize film-makers to shoot documentaries and give leads? Murali Sharma is a talented villain who continues to be short-changed in Telugu films, he had scope to give a fiery performance but is again given short-shrift. The three best characters in the film are L.B.Sriram as the safekeeper of sand, Brahmanandam as “Rampam” and Posani Krishna Murali as “Tipu Sultan” car driver. Infact, the lightest moments in the film are when Brahmanandam takes a dig at stage artists and when Posani Krishna Murali sizzles on screen with his antics.  Their screen presence electrifies for the moments they appear.

Rana  Daggubati definitely has a diction that is top of the tree and credit must be given for his awesome dialogue-delivery of tough Telugu. He looks very impressive in the roles of mythological characters especially as Abhimanyu and Narasimha but he needs to improve his looks and work on what is the best facial hairdo for a person of his hulk and height. He looked better in “Dum Maro Dum” and previous movies in terms of looks than in this movie. He probably looks better with a stubble or a beard and a moustache like Victory Venkatesh (btw,  Venkatesh has a guest appearance with Sameera Reddy in a song). But he delivers a heartful performance that may make him win more hearts. Had Krish concentrated on every scene one at a time, the intensity of Rana would have come alive because he has streaks of fiery acting like Venky. Krish has treaks of my uncle Bapu – he doesn’t allow a scene to fully develop to its potential (like they say in Telugu, “scene panda ledu”).  Music by Mani Sharma  sounds unlike him and lacks the class and masterly touch of his earlier films. I get a sense that Krish imposes his own restrictions on the music output expected for BGM and songs except in “Vedam”. The background song with SPB at about half-dozen moments of the film brings out the pathos well.  There are songs which abruptly break into the flow of the scenes - like the circus song. What mars the film also is the degree of violence – it has some scenes that you will cringe to watch like tongue-slaying and hot-water throat bath etc. Why do they show such scenes? Why compound cruelty with clarity? I understand the censors have ordered for 36 seconds of brutal violence to be cut but only 12 seconds are cut in some theatres and the rest are showing off.

On the whole, a movie with mixed-bag results and could have been better handled by Krish because he had a great opportunity. I hope he becomes deft enough to be equal to the themes he selects henceforth. I will give this movie 2.5 out of 5 as I was disappointed a bit. It is watchable more in the first half than the second.

"Don Seenu" Movie Review: Tollywood

 

"Don Seenu" puts the ageing but antics-rich Ravi Teja in a stylised role of an improbable Don  with enough referrences to A mitabh Bacchan. It is entertaining no doubt and adds the glamour touch with Shriya, comedy with Brahmandam and Venu but the story is bunkum - and your head aches after an hour with predictable nonsense. The movie is longer by atleast two reels but what more to expect in a formulaic film for a hero who is good entertainer but dragging his feet on precarious scripts. Music by Mani Sharma is average. The content in the movie is so flippant it will not even be  remembered after three months. The trend is not encouraging...

Movie drought ends today

Finally, "Marocharitra" releases today ending the drought of big banner movies for the summer after the intermediate exams ended recently. Would be watching shortly to update on the review...And then over to "Varudu"! Talking about "Varudu", the audio has few great numbers but generally retains a repetitive tonality of Mani Sharma's earlier output.  "Aidu Rojula Pelli" may become popular but looks dangerously close to that School prayer song composed by AR Rehman in "Merupu Kalalu".  But Mani's music grows on you after the movie's release.