Interview with Rama Jogayya Sastry

My interview with Rama Jogayya Sastry:

http://www.telugu360.com/i-never-felt-pressure-writing-for-a-superstar-ramajogayya-sastry/

 

Bapu-Ramana and NTR - The Story of An Improbable Association

The improbable origins and the legacy of friendship between Bapu-Ramana and the late NT Rama Rao in Two parts:

http://www.telugu360.com/bapu-ramana-with-ntr-not-a-fairy-tale-beginning-but-a-fairy-tale-ending/

http://www.telugu360.com/bapu-ramana-with-ntr-not-a-fairy-tale-beginning-but-a-fairy-tale-ending-2/

"Srimanthudu" - Audio Review

My review of Srimanthudu Audio:

http://www.telugu360.com/srimanthudu-a-good-balance-of-melody-and-rhythm/

V Ramakrishna - the singer who served an important transition in Telugu film playback singing

My tribute to the legendary singer V Ramakrishna:

http://www.telugu360.com/v-ramakrishna-a-talented-singer-who-belonged-to-the-golden-era-of-music/

M S Viswanathan - A Legendary Tune Bank!

My tribute to the irresistab le legacy of the one and only MSV - MS Viswanathan who left the world's most-loved tune-bank:

http://www.telugu360.com/ms-vishwanathan-the-most-prodigal-tune-bank-in-any-film-industry/

Piracey - Only for Big Movies?

My article on Piracy threat that is only remembered during the launch of big budget films:

http://www.telugu360.com/is-piracy-threat-only-for-big-movies/

"Bahubali" (Telugu Movie Review)

My Review of "Bahubali" (Telugu) can be accessed in the following link:

http://www.telugu360.com/bahubali-review-modern-visual-extravaganza-of-an-old-tale/

Aarthi Agarwal - Another story of Expectations and Entrapment!

Aarthi Agarwal's death at age 31 is a tragic event for a heroine who had seen epic success and stardom in an industry which puts any premium for glamor in a heroine. I remember when her first film "Nuvu Naaku Nachaav" was released co-starred with Venkatesh, the press was gaga about the new glamor doll. Ironically, one of the reviewers mentioned, "Aarthi is the new Divyabharathi - the girl who died a mysterious death in the 90s." Those words sounded apocalyptic to me whenever Aarthi Agarwal's career graph peaked and dipped. For one of the longest periods since her first film became a cult romcom classic, Aarthi's career knew no bounds - she demanded star remuneration and was much sought-after glamor doll landing offers to play the leading lady paired with such stars like Venkatesh, Nagarjuna, Balakrishna, Udaykiran, Tarun, NTR Jr., Prabhas, Ravi Teja and Mahesh Babu. Her finest hour came when Megastar Chiranjeevi sought her as the lead heroine in "Indra". Tollywood fans rooted for this North-Indian girl with loose and lush black hair, pouting lips, outstanding screen presence and an over-cute plumpness. Fans did notice her BMI was on the heavier side but that didn't discourage them from watching her films umpteen times. Until the onset of girls like Trisha and Shriya at the cusp of the new millennium, Aarthi Agarwal ruled the tinsel town as the most famous heroine that the Post-liberalisation Telugu audience knew with co-stars like the who's who of Tollywood.

What is trend-setting about her is that she knew her limitations in acting but came to primarily ooze out glamor in a language hardly spoken at home, so her voice was dubbed by Savita Reddy, a convent-school-educated dubbing artiste who was to later dub her inimitable voice to several new girls on the block like Genelia, Asin, Trisha, Shriya and so on. Aarthi's success was well-handled by her father until some producers felt unease over her clash of dates and slippages in her screen magic - as slimmer and trendier females showed up on the horizon. In an industry that had narrow shelf-space for heroines, she couldn't step on the gas for selecting different scripts. One of the most famous rumors was she was dating co-star Tarun and was chasing him to marry her, something that never got established. As she slipped in ratings, she was acting with co-stars in the second rung of Tollywood, she was being asked for item songs - an area that bombed. Though some peppy numbers here and there kept her afloat, the era of rotund starlets doing item numbers was short-lived abridging her chances of success. She was soon paired with heroes as the second-lead heroine - a phase that most glamor girls went through at some time in their careers. Then came a spectacular launch of her younger sister Aditi Agarwal opposite Allu Arjun in the latter's mega debut "Gangotri". The timing of the film came when Aarthi's career was sliding and Aditi's was about to soar. But Alas! both tanked. Aarthi 's career had another sad twist - when she had to undergo a mysterious surgery that led to re-stitching her hair. Many thought she would not re-surface in Tollywood. Then came her last glorious shot - as a heroine to launch star comedian Sunil in "Andala Ramudu". The film was a raging hit that gave a new lease of life to Aarthi Agarwal. But the success was not repeated because there was no improvisation and age and competition was catching up.

With a realisation that Tollywood moved on to more options, Aarthi Agarwal settled down in life marrying a businessman in 2007 that didn't have a happy ending though. From the beginning, the public image of an actress who sees cult adulation could be dramatically different than what goes on in the mind. Very few heroines in modern era have successfully drawn the line with family members interfering in the career choices and personal choices whenever stress levels were unmanageable. The most successful examples in recent times are those of Jyothika Suriyaa, Kajal Devgn and Shalini Ajith. All of them quit careers when they either got married or got tired of acting and moved on in life with more fulfilling jobs of raising children or restoring domestic happiness. The trouble comes when even parents of heroines stop seeing their daughters as human beings but as golden-egg laying ducks. "Show me a hero and I will show you a tragedy" reads a famous line in Hollywood. It is so true of heroines driven by ambitious parents who neither dote on them nor nourish them but instead feed off them. What are the dining table conversations that parents have with children that makes them take such unnatural short-cuts to look good? If Aarthi Agarwal hadn't been forced to go in for liposuction, she would have still been alive, lived her own life to try something different in life. Those options are gone now! And another heroine's life leaves bare the cruel lessons from over-expectations. R.I.P Aarthi Agarwal. Your life took so many turns before life took you.

"Asura" (Telugu Movie Review)

"Asura" (Telugu)

Tollywood never tires of making cliched plots - each hero wants to prove he can dance, he can fight, he can romance and still look good in sentimental scenes while getting the laughs and the claps from audience for outrageous dialogues. But a door for bringing in fresh stories and credible treatment keeps getting pushed every now and then. Krishna Vijay is one such debut director who came up with a winning plot that has a slow pick up, a steady build-out, a dabanng of an interval block and a slithering climax that beats your imagination. Nara Rohit is the hero who at least tries something different in an industry where everybody wants to do formulaic action. "Asura" is a good story to begin with - about an honest and a large-hearted Jailor Dharma (Rohit) of Rajahmundry Central Jail whose job is to ensure the inmates spell no trouble in serving the sentence. He is a protege of a Superintendent who believes in the same sincerity and integrity. He is also in love with Priya Banerjee (a pretty faced debutante) and is about to marry her.

Life moves smoothly for the jailor until a notrious diamond smuggler Madhu enters Rajahmundry Jail as a convict who has to serve the last few days in prison before getting hanged. Dharma is wary of the criminal record of Madhu and allocates "D" block - the cell reserved for the most condemned criminals. Meanwhile, Madhu's petition to the President of India gets rejected and the day of hanging is round the corner. Three key personnel who have to oversee the operation goes right prepare for the D-day - the magistrate, the jailor and the hangman. The person to be hanged, Madhu, however is cool and jibes that he will go scot-free. Here comes a twist - where elements connected to the criminal outside of the prison cast their net on the three key personnel to ensure the hanging never takes place. And then the story, sorry will not give away anything, just builds up to an amazing crescendo and the climax that is a blinder. Will he get hanged? Will the jailor get suspended? Who has the last laugh? These questions linger on throughout the second half until the story comes to a smooth finish with a plot that is bigger than what is plotted inside the prison. 

At a time when the audience is getting vexed with boring plots and insipid story-telling, Krishna Vijay attempts something different that is going to be talked about for a while. How many heroes have the guts to play an unglamorous role of a Jailor? How many have the guts to cast a bevy of characters mostly from the TV Channel segment? And how many can finish off telling a good story with five songs and few stunts in all of 126 minutes? "Asura" needs to be applauded for making a good experiment decent enough to make it watchable except a bit of tardiness in the first half. The second half is racier than the first and all elements of screenplay, background score by Sai Karthik, and dialogues and editing uplift the experience to give us a new feel. If only more people think like the makers of this film, Tollywood's better days may not be far off.
The only thing that can be held against the director is the liberty taken in some procedures of hanging but in the spirit of the story that moves forward, they were quintessential for the main plot. Nara Rohit is getting fat but his brain is working smarter than most of the heroes in Tollywood who are herd-headed in the other direction. Sai Karthik scores good songs and impressive RR. Priya Banerjee is the new Bengali lass who does a good job. The villains look terrific and did a commendable job. 
It is the most thrilling film of the year and I recommend it whole-heartedly.

Rating: 3.5/5

"Pandaga Chesko" (Telugu Movie Review)

The movies in 80s mostly are about hero dancing with the heroine on the slopes of Ooty or Kodaikanal and then wear a disguise and get into the dens of the villain and tame him. Hundreds of films are mostly about this theme which now seem ad nauseum. In the 90s, Tollywood followed the "Hum Aapke Hain Kaun" formula with films like "Ninne Pelladithaa" for many films until the audience clamored for new ways of story-telling. That came through Sreenu Vaitla's team with movies like "Dhee" in the 2000s and perfected with "Ready". The dizzy cinematic experience of watching a romantic couple unite two disjointed families and rekindling affections for each other has been primed to perfection with "Atharintiki Daaredi" - which crossed Rs.100 crores. That means the plot is beaten to death. But PK's protege on screen, a portly and smartphone version of Pawan Kalyan, Ravi Teja and Mahesh Babu - Ram continues the tedium of the plot mixed in all these movies aforesaid in "Pandaga Chesko" and gives us one of the most cliched and low-energy entertainers of the year. 

The story is exactly like "Atharintiki Daaredi". Ram is a multi-billion dollar scion of a family in Portugal about to marry a business partner Sonal Chauhan that will create a mega conglomerate. On the verge of marriage, his organisation gets slapped by a notice to cease the Indian factory on a PIL from GreenEnergy (Or Greenpeace?) headed by Rakul Preet Singh who cares for the environment more than Al Gore and Dalai Lama. Rakul Preet Singh, at home, gets divided between  a doting father Sampath  and an affectionate uncle SaiKumar who were once thick friends but we gather,  later, become estranged because of Sai's involvement in the elopement of Sampath's daughter with Rao Ramesh. Ram is born to that wedlock and hence has to come back to atone for the misunderstanding and re-unite the families sparring in hatred. How Ram tames the ugly side of his uncles and gets the family rooting for each other is the second half. 

The film runs to 162 minutes length enough to bore you out because neither the story-telling nor the jokes are anything new. Director Gopichand who made films like "Don Seenu" has shown his capability hasn't embraced higher levels of cinema despite the penmanship of Kona Venkat. Kona's dialogues hardly fire with a few pistol shots here and there. Performances by Sai Kumar, Sampath stand out. Brahmanandam clearly is struggling to fire up despite one of the longest roles in recent times - he shows right in the beginning and stays till the end. Brahmi's characterisation is a travesty of modern sensibilities of Tollywood. He is seen leching at heroine, happening more frequently in Telugu films. Can you ever imagine the greats like Padmanabham, Raja Babu, Relangi act voyeuristically and get laughs and respect. Film makers should note this approach is the beginning of the end of Brahmanandam. MS Narayana, lucky to see more of him but since he has passed out before dubbing his own trademark voice, the voiceover does only half justice to his impact. Yet, he has a key important role which gets few laughs. 

Music by Thaman sounds deja vu but somehow gives the sole energy that is lacking in a Ram film. His peppy music alongwith Sameer Reddy's cinematography are the two bright spots of the film. Sonal Chauhan actually outsizzles Rakul Preet Singh in the film with her looks, and glamor. Rakul cannot act beyond her pouts and angry looks and too much exposure with too many heroes is going to undermine her long-term sustainability. Ram  is a super-suave hero and metrosexual to the core but his energy levels have dropped in this film. He concentrated more on his looks and dances rather than performance which is usually in sync with his good looks. Except for one more climactic outburst, Ram the actor is invisible throughout but if you want to see what power-dressing is all about Ram's dress sense takes the cake.  Comedy is cliched and fails to create big impact moments despite a rich talent. On the whole, the movie is not novel, the treatment nothing new and the screenplay average - Tollywood will be better the sooner it comes out of this tried Mayabazar screenplay trappings.

Rating: 2.5/5

#PandagaChesko #MovieReviews #SridharSattirajuReviews #Ram #RakulPreetSingh #SSThaman #Tollywood #TelugufilmReviews

"Pataas" (Telugu Movie Review) for today's Premiere

I wrote this review after watching "Pataas". Realised I haven't posted it and today "pataas is getting aired on Gemini TV at 6 pm."Pataas" (Telugu) is entertaining film. A bit late I know but a short one from me. In a single para, as someone wanted. Good to see Kalyan Ram score a hit after ten long years. After "Athanokkade", this must be a standout film for him - less classy, but more masala-oriented and entertaining. What I like about Kalyan Ram is that he never allowed his family fortunes to build halo around him. He could have chosen to finance half the so-called hit directors, but instead he backed himself with different and at times risky scripts but gave breaks to a new director everytime. This time it is Anil Ravipudi - he will surely go places because he has the knack of packing energy and punch in every scene even if it appears often predictable. 141 minutes of relentless fun with loads of comedy from Srinivas Reddy, Asutosh Rana, Brahmanandam and of course, MS Narayana. MS Narayana signed off with a hurrah and can be seen until the last frame. Music by Sai Karthik is average; he is better at RR than song composing but passes off as okay. For the police force, the film is a morale-boosting film - lifts them into higher orbit with moral rebalancing at the end. Heroine Shruti Sodhi is thunderous but lacks cuteness. Saikumar carries off his role with all sobriety and grace. Kalyan Ram is the guy who worked hard on dancing, acting, dialogue delivery and dress sense in the film  - and comes out good in every frame. Hope he builds on the image from the  success  guaranteed from this film. With "Temper" and "Lion" set for release, looks like the Nandamuri family is on a leash after a long time. Patience is the virtue of Tollywood fans - they will reward you if you are from the film's royal family even if you deliver even after ten years (Kalyan Ram). It happens so often with superstars. Rating: 3.25/5

#Pataas #Patas #KalyanRam #MovieReviews #Tollywood #MSNarayana #Nandamuri #NandamuriKalyanRam 

"Lion" (Telugu)

Tollywood's longest running dual role matinee idol Balakrishna tries to roar back with a different plot and a new director Satya Deva. The film was expected to to do roaring business given this is Balayya's first film as an MLA. It was expected to be a hat-trick victory for all those blazing guns of Nandamuri who sighted victory on "Pataas" and "Temper". But Alas! bad screenplay and lousy narration alongwith zombie treatment have spoilt it. Trisha and Radhika Apte are roped in for glamor but both looked a leaf too familiar from old foliage. Mani Sharma, the music director who gave Balayya second lease of life from "Samarasimha Reddy" onwards scores just one melodious song and lackadaisical BGM for this film - it looks as if he was imitating DSP's "Legend" score. Very disappointing score except the first song with Siva Balaji, Balayya and Archana.

What went wrong in this 137 minute film without a marked-out sequence, if you count out the countless number of stunts and blood-dripping violent deaths and identified flying objects jumping off the earth's axis? Story is under-developed, promising but bizarre in the end. Bose (Balayya) is a tech-savvy CBI officer notorious for raiding the most powerful men amassing public loots and gawdily displaying their stealth. His eccentric ways frame many powerful leaders including CM Prakash Raj who became a CM by killing Vijay Kumar in a "twisted" way. (That is about the most unique point in the film that even channel programming can be hacked to manufacture news). 

Balayya                                                                                                                                                                        is the Joint Director of CBI who is about to crack the "cold-blooded murder". Here is where director Satya infuses a piece out of sci-fi movies. What happens if the CBI officer creates an unhackable firewall that self-reveals itself to the CBI head-quarters whether the officer dies or not? And how Prakash Raj reconstructs a bizarre world that never existed around Balayya while trying to annihilate him through medical, mortal and unthinkable ways of torture and harrassment. All of this masterminding memes are revealed to us in multiple flashbacks before and after interval, sometimes through other characters and sometimes through the hero and the villain. And then, wonder of wonders, after all this mixture of Robin Cook and Sidney Sheldon plot mixture, comes a James Bond twist where the CBI officer does spectacular stunts - with feats galore. 

In one scene, he detects an injectible that is injected into his body so he smashes a mirror in the washroom and thaws out the damn piece. In another scene, he is caught by a speeding chopper out of a bazooka van and then to save himself cuts the ropes that bind him with scissors beneath his shoes ripping open. In almost every scene, the CBI officer has not come for a raid or slapping charges after investigation but actually exchange fire like some battlefield generals across borders.It is encouraging to think that the director has some futuristic vision of our CBI officers - who combine the skills of a Navy Seal with that of a Computer Geek and spice it up with the chivalry of a Jam Bond. Because Satya Deva is a first-time director, the film suffers a lot of impressario stunts and special effects and high-decibel violence with a sense of intelligence that is actually illogical and absurd. Because of the fatal fault in this bizarre storyline, Balayya looks without makeup till interval and then runs like a Gazille without much romance and emotions in the second half. 

The romance remains a non-starter because of the amnesiac Balayya in the first half, and the couple of  songs here and there hardly give relief to the audience. Only those echo-sounding dialogues can uplift a film of this nature but the director has written them himself so he sprinkles just a few impactful dialogues - hardly enough in a Balayya film. My favorite dialogue: "Subash Chandra Bose has no death date, and this Bose has no death"). Comedy by Ali and MS Narayana (how many films has he done before passing out?) doesn't fire. Prakash Raj is the most insipid villain seen in a long time. Despite some dazzling stunts and visual effects, the movie wears you out and bakes your brain. Balayya fans will have to wait for his  98th film or 100th film (with Boyapati Srinu) to have a hurrah after "Legend". There are interesting obvious resemblances the CBI director Laxminarayana's raid on Gali Janardhan Reddy but instead of building it up with the seriousness of a super sleuth, the film loses its way in the middle. Skip it if you can't take mindless violence and senseless story. Satya Deva needs to regroup for better treatment, story, emotions and screenplay..

Rating: 2/5

#Lion #LionReview #Balakrishna #NandamuriBalakrishna #SatyaDeva #MovieReviews #Tollywood

"Uthama Villain" (Telugu/Tamil) Movie Review

Kamal Hassan’s most-awaited movie already raised huge expectations with a five-star trailer and a once-in-a-lifetime starcast - of Nazar, Pooja Kumar, Jayaram, Urbashi, Andrea Jermea, Parvati Menon and the legendary directors K Balachander and K Vishwanath - two directors who gave the actor his coveted cult status and critical acclaim. It is quite an eponymous moment for Kamal Hassan to see such an ensemble fire as a film unit. But does it have anything to fire? Thats the question that haunts you throughout the 172 minute extravaganza. 

The story doesn’t add up to the standards of a Kamal film. Manoranjan is a superstar with a midas touch and a madcap following who is still remote-controlled by his father-in-law K Vishwanath. But Mano wants to do one last film with his mentor and director Margadarsi (K Balachander). He convinces his mentor to direct him with lot of emotional blackmail which turns out to be for a bona fide reason as we later understand. But Balachander doesn’t direct without a good story - that story is a leaf out of history, it resembles a routine Chandamama tale of a king treacherously murdered by his minister (Nazar) who becomes a king and wants to ensnare the king’s daughter Pooja Kumar. Somehow Kamal fakes a fatal illness with the help of his lady doctor in front of Balachander  and manages to convince him to wield the megaphone. Thats just one half of the story, the other half of the story is about Kamal’s aborted love affair before marriage and the love-child  born out of that relationship - which comes back to move him. There is another side of Kamal’s story - his official family of wife and son who are living their own lives of desperation without staying connected to Kamal. The story telling moves in tandem with these two characters  - of Kamal as a cine-star and Kamal as a historical character  who gets famous for coming out alive each time flirting with death. He becomes an instrument for Pooja Kumar to avenge the death of her father by killing Nazar. The story despite its dual time settings doesn’t have the depth and variety to sustain your attention even as the director Ramesh Arvind gives a visual feast with great music  by Ghibran.

Story and screenplay by Kamal himself hands it on a platter for Ramesh Arvind but the overall output is not entertaining for a biopic hyped beyond expectations. The treatment is casual, lacks the seriousness, entertainment, twists  and the methodicity associated with Kamal’s films with grip on story-telling, pace, and multi-dimensions of his own characters. Twenty minutes into the film which is but a film in an actual film (because Balachander’s film within the film itself is titled “Uthama Villain”) the narrative fizzles out- it is either Kamal the star doting on his children drifting away or in making it out with his doctor friend in a drunken state or it is back to Kamal the ballad artiste  egged on by a princess to checkmate Nazar. The ballads are the soul of the film, no doubt, giving a rich lift to the Thaiyam dance form. Ghibran’s  music is a highlight of the musical numbers sought in the song-and-dance format of the embedded film with mesmerising makeup of both Kamal, Pooja and Nazar. It has been axiomatic for Kamal to create a deviant spectrum of characterisation far-removed from a real-life character  played with  aplomb and the deviant spark  - in this case, Uthama character - wins the acclaim. 

Sure, it could have happened again but Kamal didn’t get it right this time in UV- it is either deadpan humour or a character which insinuates the dramatic personal life of Kamal Hassan  - the flip side of being known as a catnip among women. It is this autobiographical insinuation which fails to take us on an excursion that disconnects us from reality into a world of surreal histrionics. While the character of Uthama tugs at your heart, the Superstar character gets you uncomfortably close to the inner thoughts and feelings that could be troubling Kamal the Superstar in real life with a string of  failed marriages to a series of much-publicised affairs beginning with Sripriya and so on. Did Kamal who penned the dialogues for the film too anticipate an emotional upheaval with his audience - these thoughts distract your attention in an otherwise passable fare but requiring lots of patience and veneration-filled optimism for the consummate actor and his masterly mentors - K Balachander and K Vishwanath. While K Vishwanath peters out in his performance, Balachaner stands out in one last hurrah of a performance. Director Ramesh Arvind and Kamal make Balachander hog all the screen with a fiery performance and impressive lines. Whoever dubbed for Balachander in Telugu deserves kudos. There is a deliberate intent to show Balachander in leniency with Kamal throughout the film except the first shot when the latter approaches him for a film collaboration. What surprises us is that Balachander would have thoroughly disapproved of the plot within the main film - Uthama Villain because he likes arts and folk arts but not so much as to make a film out of a fairy tale. Balachander’s films were steeped in reality and middle-class values - this one had neither realism nor morals that the middle classes keep up with. But the most delectable part of the film is the precious relationship between KB and Kamal and the climax scene does bring out tears. If the film deserves a watch, it is for Balachander’s performance alone and not Kamal’s for a change. K Vishwanath on the other hand, gives a lackadaisical performance. He is unconvincing as a tough father-in-law who is a control freak with an overarching influence on Kamal. Both KB and KV scenes are rich with nostalgic photo frames showcasing some great moments with Kamal, Rajini, Sivaji, and even Vani Ganapathy with Kamal on their wedding day. 

What bores us, though,  is the mutual admiration society formed between the trio of Kamal, KB and KV. The moment sympathy for Kamal grows, the movie becomes a celebration of the legend that is Kamal as everybody bends over forwards to make him feel good and blessed. That part, this celebratory part is a botched opportunity for Ramesh Arvind - if only he could have used the presence of two national-award winning directors to give their two cents on the craft of film-making or the nuances of finer acting through Kamal, it  would have made for different viewing. But Alas, the movie continues in its one-dimensional tirade of father-children-wife affections and the ballads galore. Performances-wise Parvati Menon, Pooja Kumar and Andrea get their share of sizzle - for Andrea it is the last intimate scene in the car with three men travelling together including Kamal. For Parvati, atleast two scenes stand out. And for Pooja, it is the song “Kanuke Bondumalli/Kaadalaaan…” where she essays a well-rehearsed dancing performance. Urmila gives her melancholic best in the hospital scene. Nazar gives an off-beat performance as a scheming minister who is both stupid and wicked at times. He produces some unconventional comedy with Kamal - a feat that never happened in his previous films. 

Kamal does his best to best the film with his histrionics but a lot of scenes look contrived - including his opening duet with Pooja and the scenes with children. One scene with his son stands out as well as one or two comedy scenes with Nazar as an imbecile Minister. Technically, the film resonates with grandeur in music thanks to Ghibran, in cinematography and in set design and artworks. Despite all that, film doesn’t score high as an output that should be one of Kamal’s most-watched films. This is because of the fatal flaw in story selection, as already pointed, with a bias for autobiography and the deja vu characterisation of the superstar - nothing new and fresh in Kamal’s portrayal as a father who errs and repents (“Indrudu Chandrudu”), alcoholic (“Sagara Sangamam”), romantic (“Panchatantram” and “Sati Leelavati”). He didn’t push new boundaries in acting with this film in both the characters except in the make-up department (which has always been the brightest spots in his films). In this film, he has also attempted a lot of singing which might not have registered well with the audience - used to leading singers like SPB or Hariharan as playbacks. In the Telugu version, Kamal dubbed in  his own voice instead of SPB which shows that he is passionate and experimental - but this could have been done when he had seen better days not when the payoffs are huge now. It appears Kamal has stopped investing in stories that pulsate with scope for performance. Instead, he is choosing stories with flimsy characters and somehow fit like a larger china box in a smaller china box - this kind of approach has outlived its utility because the audience are tiring of Kamal’s antics moving on predictable grooves. For almost a decade now, Kamal did films in the genre of comedy  - effectively limiting his own charishma, making him a puppet with many other puppets on screen. Then he realised he should fire on all cylinders with roles like dime a dozen as in “Dashavataram”. It met with limited success but not the levels that shake the box office. In between, he picked successful remakes of Hindi or Malayalam films or acted in crime stories that made his producers reimburse fatter bills. But the soul of his performance is yet to return in more than a decade - and we are still awaiting that perfect moment. Instead, Kamal is seeking more pleasures in selecting unimaginative plots with devious digs at Vaishnavism, brahminism, terrorism and so on. Time for a refreshed study  of one’s potential and what one is actually  doing. Kamal Hassan’s latest film proves that having charisma, superstar persona, raising controversies  and hyping it up with a five-star trailer are not enough to deliver a wholesome visual extravaganza. “Uthama Villain”is not that Utham. But for Balachander’s arresting presence and performance, this film, despite the highs in art department and choreography and music slips into an average category of 2.5. KB gives it a notch better rating. Barely watchable otherwise.

Rating: 2.75/5

#UthamaVillain #KamalHassan #KBalachandar #UthamaVillainTamil #UthamaVillainTelugu #Eros #Ghibran #KVishwanath #Kollywood #Tollywood #MovieReviews #UthamaVillainReview

Sri - Music Director with energy and audacity. R.I.P.

Music Director Srinivas Chakravarty’s death due to renal failure is eerily similar to his father’s death for the same reason in 2002. Sri, as he was popularly known is the son of the most prolific music director of Telugu Film Industry in the 70s and 80s - Chakravarty. His name meant he was the Emperor and indeed Chakravarty was the go-to music director for all the commercial film-makers at one time whenever dates were difficult to get for the older generation of KV Mahadevan, MSV, Satyam and so on. Chakravarty composed music for 959 films - a feat that has been surpassed only by Ilayaraja. But Chakravarty was adamant his sons had to earn their spurs by themselves. That was how Srinivas Chakravarty and Ramakrishna Prasad came to the industry. Ironically, even between themselves, the two brothers couldn’t even compose music for even five per cent of the number of films their dad composed. But Sri, the elder of the two, made a mark for himself and earned a good name as a composer who can energise the film and uplift the moods to a new high. But in the years that he composed music growing out of the shadows of his dad (“Ammoru” was unofficially his first because he stepped in when his father was ailing and ready to pass out almost in the same style as RD Burman took over the reins from SD Burman in “Aaradhana”), Sri scored some peppy tunes which are still hummed in bachelor parties and chirpy get-to-togethers - “Bhadram Be Careful Brotheru” and “Chakravarty ki Veedhi Bicchagathiki” and so on. With movies like "Gaayam", “Money”, “Money Money” and “Anukokunda Oka Roju” with RGV and movies like “Sindhooram”, “Little Soldiers” and “Sahasam”, Sri proved he is a versatile composer with a sense of modern sounds and orchestration along with musical arrangements that differentiate the new generation of composers from the old. But it remains an enigma why he got so fewer chances despite huge talent and untapped reservoir of musical abilities - he can sing better than many modern music directors in a rich voice that doesn’t need track singers’ support, he can play guitar and violin better, he can create good background scores (although the earlier part of his career was marred by childish imitations of western composers like John Williams from “Jurassic Park”) and he can also give accomplished dubbing support to heroes. Some say, he was whimsical and critical of film producers and directors who were unappreciative of his genius. Some used to say, his ways of working were lazy and wishy-washy, there was no way to trap the tunes that he would think up one fine day. Whereas,  he used to say he didn’t feel like working after becoming embittered after his mother’s death. But his mother passed away atleast five years before his father passed away in 2002.  His elder brother passed away in a bike accident and Sri named his son after him - as Rajesh Chakravarty. Then he came across many times saying the film industry which extracted blood out of his father in over thousand films never came in droves to give his father a fitting final salute - which he truly deserved. In his interviews, he used to be very outspoken about why selection of tunes or the choice of music was beyond the comprehension of the producers and directors who approached him. The industry labelled “Sri” for many years as a composer with loads of attitude problems - but all directors who worked with Sri vouch for his versatility and sincerity in output. Whatever reasons lie in the realms of truth, Sri moved out of limelight into years of wilderness until he re-surfaced a few years back - with “Sahasam” and “Aadu Magadraa Bujji”. Only few stars like Nagarjuna and directors like Krishna Vamsee, RGV, Gunnam Gangaraju and Chandrasekhar Yeleti gave Sri the real breaks - the rest of the heroes hardly engaged with him. Chiranjeevi who has given a chance to RP Patnaik to compose a song in “Indra”  promised a song, if not an album,  to Sri  in “Anji”. But we never heard anything come out in the album.

For Sri, success came whenever he released an album but he was upset with the success-chasing addiction of the Telugu film industry. He wanted to show he was as much a volcano of talent as neighbourhood Rahmans and Jayarajs. But alas, the same directors who gave him an early break - RGV and Krishna Vamsee passed him in later years by recruiting composers like Raj Koti and Mani Sharma who had less qualms and no airs. They had hunger and thirst to be adaptive. But Sri had talent but wanted work on his terms. Unfortunately, thats not how the creative industries work. If you browbeat me today, I will survive for another day and scout for a better guy than you. Despite the nonchalance of Sri, he could have channelised his anger and frustrations into the albums -like what he did with Singer Smitha. Or, he could have taken up the magnum opus work-in-progress of father Chakravarty  - to create a body of compositions based on the 72 Melakartha Ragas of which he recorded about eight cassettes with Veturi Sundara Rama Murthy. Sri’s music has the hallmarks of a great composition - modern orchestration, rhythmic sounds, and an energy to sound different with a western beat. The last famous song he sung himself in “Chakram” was a soulful number written by Sirivennela and composed by late Chakri. But the melody songs never came back in his score after “Little Soldiers” - an album that is still a classic among the school-goers of the nineties. “Little Soldiers” put him in the dazzle of the great composers of the decade but sadly, it created a vacuum after that for a long, long time. Chakravarty, his father also grew lonely after his wife’s death and adopted a girl child (Chakravarty had four sons of whom, one died, and Sri was the second son, followed by two more sons, one in music and another in medicine). Sri’s father gave away half his estate of huge legacy of music rights and royalties to his adopted daughter who is now happily married and settled in life. We still cannot think Chakravarty’s musical legacy has created so many hits and songs that still play in the half dozen radio channels and many other channels worldwide to get huge royalties - because 959 films multiplied by six songs on an average means  5754 songs. That legacy split into two halves, if public domain speculation is to be believed is what could have easily settled the brothers. But bad health has snatched a gifted director who is one of the most intelligent and improvising composers that Tollywood failed to use better. If only the fickle-minded Tollywood had listened to this composer’s tunes more or made Sri experiment more, we would have had atleast fifteen percent of Chakravarty’s musical output in the name of Sri.  But the impact on sounds, musical arrangements, BGM scores and tunes created by Sri will be remembered forever. He will be more than just a footnote in the long tradition of successful music directors in Tollywood. God give him peace tonight as he meets with his prolific dad. His father was popular but not widely respected. Sri, was never popular but widely respected for his candidness. Today, he belongs to the ages. R.I.P.

My favourite top five tunes composed by Sri:

1.“Vaarevva Emi Face” (Money)
2.“Aayilaaa Aayilaaa Aiyilaaayeeee…Lechinde Lediki Parugu” (Money)
3.“Chakravarti Ki Veedhi Bichchagathiki” (Money)
4.“Adagalani Undi Oka Doubtu ni” (Little Soldiers)
5.“Alupannadi Undaa” (Gaayam)

#SrinivasChakravartyKommineni #Sri #SriMusicDirector #MusicDirectorsofTollywood #ChakravartyMusicDirector

"Ok Bangaram" (Telugu)/ "O Kadal Kanmani" (Tamil) Movie Review

When it comes to romance, Mani Ratnam has an uneven advantage in making even the mundane plots dance on screen with unblemished technical brilliance and undiminished attention to the nuances of love. “Ok Bangaram” passes the test for Mani Ratnam  and it is no mean feat for one of the finest masters of Indian Cinema. He has made a memorable romantic movie in every decade since the 80s that gets burnt in our psyche. “Mouna Raagam”, “Gitanjali”, “Sakhi” and now “Ok Bangaram” joins that league. Even if the plot is not something unfamiliar and the treatment lacks wow factor at few places, the finesse of the film with all the visuals, the rich music of AR Rahman and the tracks between the lead pairs (there are two pairs in fact) transport you into trance. Roping in such technical stalwarts like PC Sreeram, Sharmistha Roy, Sreekar Prasad and Rahman, Mani can heave a sigh of relief that his product, after a long gap, will taste some success at the box office. 

Indeed the plot is mundane and much cited on silver screens - a live-in relationship between two mature professionals - Aadi  (Dulquar Salmaan) and Tara (Nitya Menen) who are spectacularly in love with each other while keeping an eye on their fledgling careers. Dulquar is a gaming guru who conceptualises  imaginative online games that rake in the millions and Nitya is an architect who is seeking her Masters in Paris. Dulquar stays as a PG with an elderly couple  - Prakash Raj and Leela Samson. Love grows between the two young pros with faultiness often arising from live-in expectations. It goes through a roller-coaster ride before a familiar climax with many moments of truth inspired by the geriatric couple of Mrs and Mr Ganapathy (played by Prakash Raj and Leela Samson). But Mani Ratnam doesn’t believe in a riot of love without a cause, so you see a romantic track with the duress of a success-seeking professional and the affections of your immediate family, however dysfunctional or the care of those who need. In 138 minutes or so, Mani Ratnam’s old magic of story-telling returns without any temptations of narcissism of the craft or visuals that rush up your adrenaline. With good screenplay, stunning visuals and a commendable starcast, the movie deserves a once-watch even if some familiarity with his treatment creeps in at many points. In many ways, the old film “Sakhi” still remains unsurpassed because of the beauty of a sober plot that has many uncharacteristic twists and pathos moments. 

Yet, “OK Bangaram” scores high because of the freshness of the pair. Nitya Menen takes the cake in the movie with an effortless performance that will win hearts, she is at once vulnerable yet measured, cute yet cold-blooded with her mother, innocent but also volatile in moods. Wearing dresses that she might wear on a day of no-shooting, Nitya strikes a delicate balance with versatility and grace unbelievable for a South heroine. The only thing that takes away marks in her performance is the  inconsistency in her characterisation; she first turns down a lover who is interested in her estate but with Aadi, she gets distracted all the time falling for the same tricks that she believes boys play before getting fresh with girls. Aadi, played by Dulquar Salmaan is exciting. The boy who won all the hearts in “Bangalore Days” is the most promising youngster that Mani Ratnam has re-launched for an audience far removed from Mollywood (Malayalam movies). Whether in control of emotions in love or losing it, in anger and poise, camaraderie at work or sympathy for an elderly landlady, Dulquer smarts ahead with a great show of talent - something that comes easily to him from father and superstar Mammooty. His characterisation is the most consistent and worthy of a protagonist coming of age. Kudos to Actor Nani for lending his inimitable voice to Dulquer in the  Telugu version. Nani’s voice has amplified Dulquer’s character for the masses - it is a great idea and a good sporting gesture. Normally, Aalap Raju or Srinivas Murty are the only voices you hear for all Tamil heroes in Telugu versions but this is a delectable experiment - must be at Dil Raju’s bidding who produced the movie in Telugu. Prakash Raj gets such a meaty role in this film, after “Iruvar”that he should thank his stars for a spotless role which will re-ignite his career in that space where he was virtually unchallenged. If Jayasudha stole the show in “Sakhi”, Prakash Raj did it in “Ok Bangaram” with shades of “SVSC” performance. Leela Samson gives a soulful performance as a lady losing her way in life with Alzeimer’s. Her lines linger on and give the depth to an otherwise elementary story. 

What endears the film is Mani Ratnam’s mature handling of the themes and visuals he wants us to go home with. He could have been tempted to show cliched scenes of fights to elevate heroism or sympathy to pad up the love story etc.but he shows great restraint by sticking to responsible and refined cinema. In the film, for example, the heroine’s mother uses her influence to subject the hero to police torture. Any other director would have shown the scene  - right from Shankar to Rajamouli but Mani dismisses it as an aside plainly told by the hero to the heroine, matter-of-factly. Similarly, a love story doesn’t fire up without a customary item song or a drunken scene or fights. Cleverly, quite deftly, Mani shows none of these banalities - instead, he uses the montage of the gaming animation to show stunts and other chutzpah - skip it or snooze, the story doesn’t jar you. Heroism for the heroes and glamor for the heroines - both these get redefined by Mani in the film, a lesson somewhere for master manipulators of emotions in Tollywood. It is good that successive failures and biting criticisms of Mani’s previous films have made him mellow in his love with the craft versus attempt to tell a good story. 

Mani has told a good story with a familiar message though - with conventional trappings and some deja vu moments of bitterness and celebration in love and life. But the effort shows and leaves you with a nice aftertaste unlike some of his forgettable films in the last decade. Helping him to get a breather again are technicians who worked closely with him in several films. PC Sreeram, that ace cinematographer proves  a nonpareil when it comes to catching fire with screenshots. This time, he choses Mumbai’s lesser-highlighted imagery - torrential rains, jerky rides  on bike, high seas of the Arabian Sea with up-close shots of the ships that keep a vigil on the coast at night and many other shots like that. Sreeram’s work is itself paisa vasool for the film and makes it above-average viewing. Of course, his lighting is legendary - and while he makes the lead pair sizzle in their chemistry and screen presence, he has highlighted the old pair in the moods that Mani wanted them to be in, Leela Samson’s shrinkage from a carnatic musician to a forlorn patient is captured well by Sreeram as also the shots in the trains in which lot of Mani’s films revel. AR Rahman’s music has been a chart-buster before the film released, now it will egg you on more since the film is a treat to watch. With nine songs rich in variety and orchestration, Rahman has given the season’s best songs and BGM. And Mani hasn’t fully done justice to their picturisation;  he hasn’t subtracted though from the music with his visual output. Visually, the song on the gaming concepts that greets you on titles has the raciest groove in the score. The carnatic  number sung by Chitra is the only song abruptly cut short by Mani. Otherwise, almost three or four songs which are good audio tracks are extended in the second half which increase the hummability of the songs. Songs by Rahmanand the music co-scored by Rahman and another troupe take the experience to a new high. Mani’s imagination is not commensurate with Rahman’s perceptible instrumentation reserved for “Mani Sir’s films”. The only song that stands out is the duet in the lodge in Ahmedabad where the young lovers feel the physical temptations of love but don’t give in yet. Dubbing-wise, you don’t feel this is coming from Tamil, the quality and the Telugu diction  is so good. Also, references to local towns and a couple of politicians make it credible. Sirivennala’s lyrics make the Telugu songs enchanting and classy compared to some of the hopelessly inapt lyrics penned in Mani’s previous films dubbed from Tamil. Instead of using words like “Gunde Kinda Needocche” and “Kuriseti Gadiyaaram”, Sirivennala uses lilting words which are also sensible. Dialogues by Kiran are in the same metric length of Mani Ratnam - crisp and business-like. Despite many moments where you feel the lag of a director who is not able to outgrow his favourite love scenes and hurrah moments, “Ok Bangaram” will get Mani’s fans happy again. Here’s a master who gets his mojo back. It is not brilliant and not the best of his movies - but he re-presents the timeless paradigms of skin-deep love for another generation confused in online chats and careerist obsessions with reinvigorated craft and squeaky clean touch of class. Watchable, for sure.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

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Bapu's "Seetha Kalyanam"

Watching ETV on Sundays post-lunch is getting quite nostalgic for Bapu film fans. Last Sunday, they aired "Radha Kalyanam". Today, we watched "Seetha Kalyanam". This film, despite the extravagant efforts in trick photography by Ravikant Nagaich and a poetic treatment of Ramayana story from birth of Rama to Seetha Swayamvar turned out to be a damp squib at the box office. 

Made in 1976 at a cost of Rs.14 lacs, it was made in just 14 reels but it created history of all kinds for Bapu-Ramana. Before its release, noted maker B.NagiReddi was shown the first copy. Obviously taken in by the visual treat, and buoyed by the stupendous success of the earlier classic "Sampoorna Ramayanam", Nagi Reddy is said to have remarked: "This should run atleast for an year." It probably ran for as much time - but not in the theatres but at major film festivals around the world - London, Chicago, Berlin, Denver. The producer lost his shirt in the making - his name Pinjala Ananda Rao. What made the Indian audiences walk out of this lyrical beauty and made the Western audiences croon over this film is a mystery. Perhaps, the absence of too many dialogues and too many songs spoiled it. Mullapoodi Venkata Ramana in his autobiography says the film has been the most relaxing for him as a writer because all he had to pen was ten pages of dialogues in the film  - the rest was all Bapu's hardwork and the work of the cinematographers, artists, music director KV Mahadevan and Ravi Nagaich. Audiences in AP however didn't receive the film well - when the movie started playing and the songs wouldn't end - they were clamoring: "Sound! Sound! Can't hear the dialogues." Obviously it bombed and after soaking up earlier to the complete six-course menu meal in "Sampoorna Ramayanam", the visuals didn't strike gold at the Box Office. But it became a milestone for Indian films in special effects and cinematography used in mythologicals. Before Bapu-Ramana stepped into the arena making mythologicals, the benchmark was Kamalakara Kameshwar Rao who was called Mythological Brahma. After the duo stepped in, there was only one way to make Ramayana and that is the Bapu-Ramana way. 

After the film's release, one film critic who wrote for "The Guardian", Derek Malcolm actually sang hosannahs to the team that made "Seetha Kalyanam". And I quote Derek Malcolm: 

"It is one of the most extravagantly beautiful films I have seen...It was really made by a team who have worked together often before. Mullapudi Venkata Ramana (writer), KV Mahadevan (the superb carnatic music), KS Prasad (Cinematography) and Ravee Nagaich (the Ray Harryhausen of Indian Special effects) have combined with Bapu to illustrate part of the Ramayana. The result is like a Hollywood Bible Epic done with real taste - an amalgam of lyricism, poetry and spectacle achieved with rare authenticity (everything is as accurate as possible to the legend and to the centuries-old paintings and decorations that embellish it). All is done with a gravita and dignity that is ultimately very moving. I have seen nothing like it before and can't help thinking that its popularity in the West is assured."

This film review ensured Bapu and producer get the passport to London film festival and get accolades galore. Later, the BBC released an English version of the film as "Seetha's wedding" in four episodes. Most of the world fame attributed to Bapu Ramana came with this film itself - despite the film losing the plot for the audience and the money for the producers. A few years back, one of my close friends gave me a contrarian viewpoint on "Seetha Kalyanam" written by none other than the legendary Satyajit Ray. It pained to read Ray's opinion on the film and here I quote again Ray:

"The chorus of praise showered on the south Indian mythological film "Seetha Kalyanamm" launched it on an invitation tour of the international film festival circuit where it won more praise. And yet, in fifty years of film-going, I have not come across a more flagrant exhibition of unmitigated kitsch. As a cultural hybrid which takes an episode from one of the two great Hindu epics, swamps the interiors with Persian carpets, Mughal chandeliers and comic-strip wall paintings; floods the soundtrack with what is claimed to be classical Carnatic music, but it turns out mostly to be high-decibel film songs a la Bombay; punctuates the story with camera tricks that were already cliches in the early days of the talkies; and wraps the whole thing up in the colours of a chocolate box, "Seetha Kalyanam" is a concoction par excellence. One could see it as being mildly enjoyable as camp, though that is not how the critics saw it.. They took it seriously." Those were the words of Satyajit Ray - one of the all-time Asian legends of film-making who thrived on making films for the western audiences. Phew! I was devastated that a film like this which is an outrighht mythological could be received so differently from a man who was an atheist and whose father Sukumar Ray, another multi-faceted legend wrote stories and spoofs on the Ramayana. One cannot judge Ray for what he said nor take what he said as the measure of what Bapu created iin "Seetha Kalyanam" because Ramayana and Rama-essence was what Bapu breathed all his life. So you cannot fault Bapu for failing to portray a mythological (which by its very nature cannot have historical angles and authenticities of settings) in the myriadness with which he endeavored to.

In his own version of what Satyajit Ray commented on the film, Bapu wrote in one of his last pieces that instead of commenting on whether he liked the film or not, Ray had made just two points on the film. "The carpet on which Seetha sat is of Arabic design. There were no crotons in those times." Bapu was sportive enough to take it on his chin on what the Oscar-winner felt honestly about the film. Then he asked for a snap with Ray which is stuck in his library with a caption: "The Long and short of Indian Cinema." So much for the criticism and its reception - Bapu style. But let me make out another inference: it is after watching Jayaprada play Seetha in the film did Satyajit Ray make the famous statement: "Jayaprada is the most beautiful Indian actress." Even the great director K Balachander once put his hand on Bapu's shoulder and said: "I don't go to temple or do pooja, being an atheist. But after watching "Seetha Kalyanam", my mind was reeling with visuals of your film for one week."

Back to the film SK. Not content with the film's poor reception, producer Ananda Rao went ahead post-film to make another two films with the same starcast of Jayaprada and Ravi who fit so well as Seetha and Rama. They were directed not by Bapu but by Kamalakara Kameswar Rao - "Seetha Rama Vana Vaasam" and "Sri Rama Pattabhishekam" but both bombed at the box office. Large-hearted Bapu Ramana who were paid Rupees Sixty thousand as remuneration for SK returned fifty thousand to the producer who was struggling to make both ends meet. 

Those were some of the tit bits I remembered after seeing the film "Seetha Kalyanam" (even as I am still at a loss of words to pay a fitting tribute to the great Bapu uncle). Most people rate the scene which shows the river Ganga's descent to earth as the best SFX scene which was created by Ravikant Nagaich using loads of chalk powder in gunny bags poured from atop the mendicant hoods of Lord Shiva. Yes that was something ingenious in those days. But my favorite scene is the climax where Parasurama comes after Rama breaks the Shiva's bow at Swayamvar.  It is a fantastic interpretation of what happens when one incarnation makes way for another and there's subtle psychology at work in all the characters in limelight for the scene - Parasuram who feels like a spent force after Rama takes the Vishnu's bow as a test of greatness and breaks with equal elan, and then Vishwamitra who is witness to a new history in making -  he divines that Rama is indeed Vishnu's incarnation and then magically moves his hands - first as an acknowledgement of divine blessings and then waves them back at the Lord as if all that comes to us should go back to Him only. One of the most subtle scenes that tells a lot. 

Those were the times when movies were made with purity of heart and without an expectation of rewards or awards. 'Seetha Kalyanam' will stand the test of time as long as Ramayana stands.

#SeethaKalyanam

"S/o Satyamurty" (Telugu Film Review)

The much-awaited film from ace director Trivikram starts out with an ominous censor certificate that puts the movie length at 162 minutes. You expect plenty of fireworks because the starcast itself calls for a Tollywood party - Stylish star Allu Arjun, Kannada Superstar Upendra, Mollywood cutie Nitya Menen, Samantha, Rajendra Prasad, Sampath, Rao Ramesh, Ada Sharma, Sneha, Sindhu Tholani, Vennela Kishore,  Kota, Brahmanandam and of course, late MS Narayan. With that kind of a starburst and the scale of budgets of a generous producer like Radhakrishna, one would expect Trivikram to deliver a blistering output that will glow on screen. Instead, what you get is a not so entertaining stuff and despite a lavish extravaganza and touchpad characterisation - the persona of the film slips and something  pulls down the rating of the film in the wake  of Trivikram’s celluloid capabilities.

Get it straight, there is nothing wrong with the film or the plot or the characterisation. The story itself is narrated first like a trailer of thirty seconds with visuals cut and pasted across the length of the film and then winds its way back to the inception. Anand (Allu Arjun) is the son of Satyamurty (Prakash Raj) with a networth of Rs.300 crores. Prakash Raj dies in a car accident and the world of Anand and his family of brother, his mother and himself is turned upside down. They lose the crores because half the net worth is leveraged or no, half the networth is in equity shares or wait, there is a land parcel. Whatever the rigmarole, Anand sells the assets and pays the dues disregarding the advice of Rajendra Prasad (friend of Prakash Raj) to dupe the public and make away with the debts. Because of the values that Prakash Raj instilled in Anand and because of the goodwill of his father, Anand takes the onus of repaying all the debts by fair means. And he embarks on a journey - first to earn something to pay off his niece’s school fees. This journey takes him on voyage of self-confidence as he gains good name wherever he goes - Rao Ramesh who breaks the marriage of Allu with his daughter Ada Sharma, Samantha who gets smitten by his level-headedness in giving up three hundred crores. Destiny takes him to Rajendra Prasad again because his daughter Samantha  is in love with Allu (Anand). Anand now enters into a bet with Rajendra Prasad to get original title deeds of a property in the custody of a quasi-government authority Upendra who heads dozens of villages and maintains an army of 600 (Looks like double the number of “300”) and marry his daughter. Upendra has another daughter Nitya Menen - and there is a twist in the tale but that comes after  a lengthy characterisation. On the whole, the story despite a complicated structure is not inexplicable. It is just about a young man who is determined to keep the reputation of his dead father high long after he’s gone  and how he succeeds thanks to a strong set of values imparted by his father.

What helps the film is the framework of story-telling with utmost dignity and class. Performance by Allu Arjun breathes life into many listless moments of canned jokes and quotations and the pet peeves of Trivikram on middle class moralities and values. His dancing skills are outshined by his emoting this time - using variety of accents and impressive one-liners, Allu Arjun packs quite a punch. Upendra with a baritone voiceover by Ravi Shankar makes his formal screen appearance after interval and gives an electrifying performance - something steals the thunder from everybody including Allu Arjun. His character has the X factor that elevates the second half despite everything else coming unstuck. Rajendra Prasad whose chemistry with Allu Arjun worked in “Julayi” extends that in this film with greater length and impact. He gets many genuine laughs especially the scene where Ravi gets killed while eating lunch with Upendra. Rajendra Prasad gets the best one-liners in the film. Samantha doesn’t have the depth in her acting to supplement the over-dosage of giggly vivacity she gave us since her first film. Nitya Menen has been grossly under-utilized and she gets short shrift in every frame  - at the cost of Samantha. Since Nitya’s next film is a Mani Ratnam release, this role is neither fulfilling nor memorable. Prakash Raj - whose character is the reference point for the entire movie and climax hardly gets to speak. His dialogues must be about half a page, Trivikram could have highlighted more instances of what made Prakash Raj such a principled man - you could have built a few scenes highlighting him because the message kept ringing that he was a man who stood for public good through Anand but not from Satyamurty himself. Others like Kota Srinivas Rao and MS Narayan have a handful of impactful dialogues. MS Narayana, especially brings out tears with his hug with Rao Ramesh - it’s a pity he died while shooting for this film. The result: dubbing for MSR is done by- someone else. Brahmanandam’s character has become ad nauseum - again, demand for a “Bakra” and all that. There has to be a saner way to bring Brahmanandam to life. If one has laughed heartily in the film  - and that happens in 3-4 scenes, it is not always with Brahmi on screen.Sampath is wasted. Fights by Peter Heins are well-composed: the fight with water hosesand the one in Upendra’s house stand out for their variety. Music by DSP is not in the same league of Trivikram’s or Allu Arjun’s earlier films. All songs are mass beats or fast beats. 

What undermines the film is the length - you could knock off forty minutes and still convey the kernel of the message. Trivikram has, for the first time faltered in this film. IN his bid to make an intelligent film, he lost his sharpness and clarity of thought. It is not clear how the Rs.300 crores networth ended up, how  it shrunk the lifestyle of the hero, what the company’s business is that suddenly skyrockets the valuation to ten crores, what is the connection of property papers lying with Prakash Raj and the business he is in. There is title justification but if only Satyamurty’s character is illustrated well, more key messages of relevance to today’s youth would have registered; it is important to inherit the values more than the assets of your elders. For a long time, Allu keeps mouthing clever aphorisms from Ramayana and Mahabharata which bore you like a vegetarian meal without salt and sambar. In spite of the load taken by the hero in preserving his dead father’s goodwill, there are inconsistencies in Anand’s character. He uses a short cut to fabricate stamp papers at the behest of his friend, he doesn’t reveal to Upendra first that he is not in love with his daughter but with someone else. There are inconsistencies with Upendra too - for twenty years, everybody except his wife knows his super-violent streak - that is highly implausible. Treatment-wise, the film is burdened with the same  genres that Trivikram likes to deal with. If you take “Julai and “Atharintiki Daaredi”, and mix them up with a bigger starcast, you get the experience of “S/o…”. Trivikram has mellowed in his aggression in violence and his story-telling is still a pretty above-average throwback to the old movies of B&W era where producers and directors collaborated with a mission to deliver quality films  - high in production values and high in morality. In fact, if you take many of Trivikram’s dialogues which have received dizzy heights of popularity, there is an undercurrent of old movies’ one-liners which are repackaged with modern makeup. For example, “Luck has come to give you a shake hand but Misfortune has jumped the gun to give you a lip-lock kiss.” Or something to that effect. These kind of dialogues were dime a dozen in old Tollywood films but Trivikram’s copywriting approach has sharpened the wordiness - despite sounding repetitive. He will also use one or two Telugu words which are incomprehensible to the current generation who ceased to have Telugu as their third or even optional language in curriculum. For example, in this film just like “Ayimoolagaa (Or Diagonally)” used in “Jalsa”, he uses “Manovarthi” or “Manovyatha” in the context of divorce. He creates that spark of curiosity to learn a word or two in Telugu which is lost on today’s generation. But if he has to take his story-telling to the next level, he has to prove his mettle lies beyond assembling an army of artistes, giving stars a good push, and trying genres different from each other. Otherwise, the dangers of familiarity will breed contempt. This film is alright in frames and conveys a compact story but there is no extra factor or layering in the screenplay or characterisation that makes you watch his movies again and again  - hoping to catch a new glimpse every time. He has the spark to move out of comfort zone - this movie should be a wakeup call to move out of that comfort zone in making films that test new genres and content delivery; he has the grip on narration, sense of good cinema with appeal for family audiences - even if he forgot to entertain much in this film - but he has to concentrate on more aspects than verbosity that got him massive fan base. “S/o…” finally ends in a climax that surprises you and despite a rocking first half, it leaves many things unanswered and a big void in entertainment that he forgot to fill. You can watch it once with many lags and drags but don’t bet on this film becoming a blockbuster.

Rating; 3/5

#S/oSatyamurty #AlluArjun #Trivikram #Tollywood #MovieReviews #Upendra #MSNarayana

"Jil" (Telugu Movie Review)

After an entertaining "Loukyam", Gopichand returns in 2015 with a metrosexual film that casts him in different light - trimmed hair and moustache, toned body and suave looks. Directed by Radha Krishna Kumar, "Jil" is a two line story. First line: Gopichand is a fire-officer in a family who is full of fire-brigade men who falls in love with a girl who he rescues atop a multi-storeyed building. Second line: Gopichand confronts a gang of underworld don when they are chasing down Brahmaji who runs away from the gang with a Rs.1000 crore. His confrontation gains momentum at inteval block. Ideally, the movie should have ended at interval but being Tollywood and FDC rules of above two hours and above, the movie agonisingly drags with slower narration and amateur comedy and love songs between Raashi Khanna and Gopichand.

What mars the film is the violence and the monotony of the villain with a beard shorter than Rabindranath Tagore and a voice that is more powerful than Amrish Puri. We have seen that kind of villain many times before in Tollywood where slaying of men is common and one loses count of the people chopped. The justification for such violence was never clear in the movie. "A" certificate was given because of that I assume. Generally, Gopichand has picked up good subjects with variety but this film produced by the brother of Superstar Prabhas beats imagination and logic. Because the hero is a fire-officer, we see atleast four or five fire accidents in the film, some he saves and some he doesn't. What is ridiculous is that the entire family runs the fire brigade like a Hindu Undivided Family - father, friends and the hero all are on standby for a fire-alarm. I never knew that fire-brigades are run like family businesses and that smoke signals can set the cash registers ringing. 

Let that be, the good part of the film is Gopichand's new looks and his cute romance with Raashi Khanna which lifts the film out of normal college romances. Both exude good screen chemistry and look both dignified and colorful in costumes. Raashi Khanna has urban appeal but can't act beyond a gentle gaze and cherubic face. Gopichand maintains a cool look and an under-stated termper - something we are not used to seeing him. Every Star experiments with versatility but that can only go well when the story is unique or rich. This film doesn't give scope to much of Gopichand's histrionics or loud-mouthed dialogues. The only dialogue that stands out is "I get calls when everybody's on fire. But you called me when I am on fire." Or something to that effect. Stunts despite their elaborateness don't sizzle, and humor is either bland or missing in action. Ghibran's music tries to elevate the film's moods better and the songs sparkle in general with rich picturisation and different sounds. You can't stop Ghibran from enjoying himself with experimentation of music with different scripts - he is on a new high and is flavor of the season. Production values are good - with some songs shot in Spain etc.

On the whole, a pale film with a weak story and low-energy narration.. Good in parts but wait for a better Gopichand film.

Rating : 2/5

#‎Jil #‎MovieReviews #‎Gopichand #‎UVCreations.

"Evade Subramanyam" (Telugu Movie Review)

Nani's new film releases had seen so much drama amidst the confusion created by release of two films of the same hero on the same day. The last time this happened was for Balakrishna's film which saw release of two films "Nippu Ravva'' and "Bangaru  Bullodu" on the same day. "Nippu Ravva" was released in 12 out of 25 main theatres in Hyderabad and both became hits. Nani is not so lucky, he has no Godfathers, he was a Radio Jockey and married his beau some time back - the girl is the grand daughter of legendary journalist Khasa Subba Rau, thats all. In the morning, when I went to "Jenda Pai Kapi Raju" first, the multiplex returned my money saying the show was cancelled because the producer didn't release the print yet. Then we booked for ES movie.

ES turned out to be one of the most soul-stirring,  beautiful films ever made in Tollywood - and the experience of watching a director Nag Ashwin tell a story of friendship, romance and adventure of finding out one's true purpose in life has been rewarding. In 145 minutes, the director takes us on a magical tale of self-discovery that connects to most human beings who mistake their jobs for life, chase materialistic dreams and neglect the self within that never stops asking searching questions. The story is unusual for a commercial film especially in the way nutty delights churned out in crass and zombie plots of Tollywood: Nani is an IIM graduate who is a fast-rising corporate executive, a cerebral and cut-throat investment banker who is baited by Nazar, owner of a growing seeds company to buy out all the shareholders of a rival Seeds company run by a man with unimpeachable morality - Krishnam Raju. Nazar tempts Nani with even an offer to give his daughter Ritu Varma in marriage to him if he succeeds. Nani almost succeeds but the sellers do a U-turn. Nani finally approaches Krishnam Raju to cash out of the company with loads of money but being a man of principles he disagrees. Back to square one, Nani has a final warning from Nazar - either get the company shares back or both  the carrot and the sweetner of his daughter are off. At this juncture, Nani's childhood best friend Vijay Devarakonda enters the scene  - he has been an adventure-seeker and an iconoclast all through the growing years - he sees life as job and doesn't see through the paradigms of a 9 to 5 career-seeker, he takes risks every second and goes out of way to help people in distress. The two long-time friends bump into a third party who is just like Vijay - bindaas and backpacking good-samaritan. They make an odd three-ball but soon there is a twist in the film  - the girl is someone who can bail out Nani out of his current dilemma - she holds a lakh shares of the most crucial "Class-A" shareholders of the Seed Company. Vijay rekindles an old dream of making a trek to Doodh Kashi, high up in the Himalayas. Will Nani make it ? Who make it finally? Does Nani change? What happens to the Krishnam Raju's company finally? Does he lose out his company? Who will Nani marry finally? Questions galore - and a riveting narrration albeit  a bit slow scores convincing answers to all the Qs.

Tollywood should salute the film for the breadth of the canvass covered in this visual treat covering a story that gives you goosebumps at many places. It is a spiritual film finally as it connects with the concepts of what determines our career choices, our values, our financial goals decoupled with notions of enjoyment and coupled with delayed gratification. This is not for the faint-hearted in the sense those who believe in structured ways of building wealth that covers the Templeton Plan of building retirement nest egg. The director speaks innately to voices that brew in most people who live pipe-dreams and stop living in the moment. Nani gives a fluent performance that shows the cascade of a memorable character from a "caterpillar" to a "butterfly". After "Pilla Zamindar", this is the movie that delivers for Nani. It's a pity that none of the ruling big producers and distributors picked the tab for the film. Malavika Nair who debuts in the film  shows promise of a new star  - she has glamor and sparkle to ooze intelligence and class with her looks. Vijay Devarakonda essays the most memorable role in the film as the starry-eyed youth who breathes fire into his one-liners and lives life like a child - his character sashays  the crux of the message that the director wants us to take home. Krishnam Raju gives a neat performance, his lines and character stand out after a long time - infact, his dialogues haunt you for whatever they are worth. All others who do a cameo including Prathap Pothan and Sowcar Janaki come out good. The freshness of the starcast  is a new high for Tollywood - you don't see this happening often - right from the child artistes to the adults who played the weighty roles, you can see the spark. One wonders why the directors and the casting directors don't think so fresh instead of typecasting the same people again and again like over-used balls in death overs. Music by Radhan is not spectacular but every song gives you new sounds. By borrowing one of Ilaiyaraja's most famous songs as the romance track between Nani and Malavika without remixing much, Radhan shows class and creativity. Even the BGM is above-par for a fresh composer. Cinematography and other technical crew's output give the film a backpush into higher orbit. The film has humor hidden in almost every scene without the director making efforts; because of the narrative, the audience may miss it here and there. Producer Priyanka Dutt deserves appreciation for backing a film that is not a leaf out of regular films which her dad Aswini Dutt produced. How often do you get a Clean U Certificate Telugu film that too on a Ugadi?  You miss this movie, you miss a part of yourself and history in the making. Watching this film will make you wince at all the regular greats you greet in Tollywood with epithets like "creative director", "magician of words" and feel sympathies for the superstars of Tollywood who can't risk their careers on scripts like this.  Although this is the first film, director Nag Ashwin shows class and caliber  in making a film that doesn't bore you but leaves you happy and fulfilled with remarkable clarity. "Evade Subramanyam" is Tollywood's answer to critics of zombie movies. Hope it heralds a new era of hope and promise.

Rating: 4.25/5

#MovieReviews #EvadeSubramanyam #Nani #ActorNani #Tollywood #NagAshwin #Radhan #MalvikaNair #Vijaydevarakonda

Dr D Ramanaidu - A legend among producers

D.Ramanaidu’s contribution to Indian Cinema in general and Telugu Film Industry in particular doesn’t end with his cremation. The man has played a major part in the evolution of films as a mass medium to growing their appeal and even profiting from their continuing appeal. On face value, the statistics of his achievements as a film producer are staggering: over 150 films in 15 languages including English, debut chances for 21 directors and a few music directors and several technicians. His life is an outstandanding example of how to choose a field you love and then grow in that field to dizzy heights and more importantly, stay relevant and be in the thick of action till the very end.  At the time of his passing, “Gopala Gopala” produced by his son is still running in theatres and a blockbuster called “Bahubali” is in production stages in which his grandson plays a pivotal role.The legacy created by Dr.D Ramanaidu is not just the negatives of those films or the studio but the values which are continuing with his sons Suresh and Venkatesh and his grandsons. His contribution and overall impact on the film industry is a nonpareil in the world of cinema.

He made epic films with superstars of the day, cast them in dual roles (“Ramudu Bheemudu”), made scripts out of top-notch novelists of the day (“Premnagar”, “Secretary”,”Jeevana Tarangalu”, “Agnipoolu”), created modern-day multi-starters with both heroes (Krishna, Sobhanbabu) and heroines (Jayaprada, Sridevi) and also several low-budget films once the budgets started soaring because of hero remunerations. He started productions in the name of his eldest son Suresh and created a decent-scale studio which allows film producers to walk out with the first copy of the film if they have a script in hand - it used to be the tagline in nineties itself before Ramoji Rao came and changed the mindset of thinking from small to big. Dr.Ramanaidu also remade his films into Hindi and created big hits which helped launch stars like Jitendra and gave a second lease to actors like Rajesh Khanna and Anil Kapoor. His model of film production is that he treated it like a sacred business where all the team members are treated well but expected to be professional. There were reports in trade weeklies of how Dr Ramanaidu used to return extra copies of video cassettes or prints to some distributors in north who didn’t budget correctly. Coming from agricultural background in Karamcheedu helped Naidu to count the pennies so that he won’t become a pound-foolish producer.

If you study the careers of the people who preceded Dr Ramannaidu, it appears Naidu learnt his lessons from them too. The most famous example is Dr Raghupati Venkayya - in whose name the most famous and prestigious award for contribution to Telugu Film Industry is given - an equivalent to Dada Saheb Phalke Award. Dr Raghupati Venkayya made the first talkie in Telugu and started a production company with his son R.Prakash. But where Dr Venkayya erred was in not entrusting the financial affairs of the studio to his son. Subsequently, Dr Venkayya’s company was mishandled due to staff ineptitude and financial mismanagement. His company ran into debt and Dr Venkayya became bankrupt. In many ways, Dr Ramanaidu’s life is a mirror reflection of the very opposite of what Dr Venkayya did; Dr Naidu gave his first son free rein in running the production house and the staff were treated well but with rewards for performance and stick for slippages. Which is why, when a few years back one of the foreign production houses came to Hyderabad to buy out Ramanaidu Studios, lock stock and barrel, the offer came to a staggering Rs.1400 crores. Dr Naidu shot down any proposal to sell the studios while he is still alive.

Dr Naidu may have well had a point in holding out. He has little reasons to sell - unlike Padmalaya Studios which had elephantine debt before selling to Zee or Annapurna Studios which had been constructed on land pre-leased from Government. Dr Naidu’s family has ensured that they are a formidable force not only in film production and post-production but also in distribution. Towards the end of the last decade before 2000, they have started cornering the exhibition trade after tasting blood in distribution and production. Lease Rentals were hiked by 200 per cent which allowed several hundreds of theatre-owners to become part of the distribution chain of Suresh Productions - this was soon to become a trend that made many distributors lament but it created an apple-pie of a fabulous business model that dictated the content that is exhibited for the last decade. Even the most talented film-makers had to seek the powerhouse distribution chain controlled by Dr Naidu’s family whether it is “Eega”, “Ashta Chamma”, “Uyyala Jhampala” or the upcoming “Bahubali”. Very few production houses in the country wield so much influence at the box-office as D.Ramanaidu’s family did. Which is why, offers will never cease to pour in. Ramanaidu’s son Suresh has not only consolidated the family business towards safety but also towards a stronghold status in the way the rentals prop up a revenue model which was not even funded by banks until a decade back. Today, even working capital finance is given to his company and a few other companies. Venkatesh, his second son, went on to become the producer’s son who remains always a producer’s hero - he belted many hits in his career, became a safe hero, helped deliver one-sixth of his career hits in his father’s production banner and helped create many multi-starrer movies. Venkatesh and Suresh together held the flag aloft and created the most successful film business family in South or North India. Only Yash Chopra films comes close to what Ramanaidu’s family achieves but Yash Chopra hardly made films in South.

Despite a cult status and a towering influence, Ramanaidu never shied from public service and his recognition as a TDP MLA is proof of his love for politics and achievements as the best Parliamentarian in 2003. Many swear by the support and moral strength given by Ramanaidu in their personal struggles and careers, for many Ramanaidus’ business acumen and discipline in fiscal affairs was a guide and pathfinder. Producers like VB Rajendra Prasad, Murali Mohan, Achi Reddy, KS Rama Rao, MS Raju, Dil Raju and now Bandla Ganesh sought his advice on making successful films and staying solvent - many listened but few benefited from Naidu’s sage counsel. But despite the many highs of Ramanaidu’s career and filmography, if one must objectively assess the man’s impact on Indian Cinema, there are few facets that glare out. By treating film business as much like any other business of trading/speculation/profiteering etc, Ramanaidu has been an exemplar of seeking risk-adjusted returns. So, we find that except for a few at the initial phase, mid-phase and some in the last decade of 90s, most of his films were forgettable hits which didn’t have the class appeal of some of the other producers and makers who made fewer than one tenth of the films that Ramanaidu made - like Murari, Krishnamraju, Krishna Reddy, Aswini Dutt, ANR, NTR, Bapu-Ramana, Edida Nageswara Rao, etc.). His films had the most formulaic content and represented a hackneyed mishmash of the hollowest content which also had the stigma of obscenity, truth be told. Except in occasional films when a classy actor like Kamal Hassan starred in “Indrudu Chandrudu” or a Suresh Krishna directed “Prema”, Naidu’s films after ANR and NTR era were lackadaisical and hardly classics. Loud dialogues, crazy stunts, socialistic and anachronistic themes and puerile songs with belly-dancing and hip-shaking item songs were the mainstay of his films - until son Suresh and Venkatesh changed most of that since they took centrestage. The films he re-made in Hindi with Jitendra, Rajesh Khanna and Anil Kapoor and even those with Venkatesh were intensely feudal and mascochist which merely perpetuated the male chauvinist appeal of the audiences. Towards the last decade, he virtually moved out of production scene and tried to salvage the catalogue value with arty films and message-oriented films. The last good film from his involvement was “Madhumaasam”. 

Despite the flaws which are natural in any film personality’s colossal career, Ramanaidu is a life that will be revered and respected as long as indian Cinema stands. The man gave us a volume of output that will remain forever unsurpassed; he made films as a career and as a business more lucrative than any other film-maker. He had a well-lived life, long enough to deeply impact Telugu film industry as it stands in Hyderabad today with wings spread strategically to wherever it can next re-locate or consolidate itself. Yes, there are regrets too - that he never bought more land than the sprawling acreage of Ramanaidu Studios where you get the best vantage view of the city, that he never directed a film, that he never made a multi-starrer with Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan, that he never got a superstar after Chiranjeevi to act, that he couldn’t make a remake of “Ramudu Bheemudu” with NTR Jr. The list may go on like a litany but the legacy he left is richer than what the unfinished business could have achieved. Respect, for Dr.Ramanaidu always. R.I.P

#Ramanaidu #SureshProductions #DRamanaidu #DrRamanaidu #Tollywood #FilmIndustry #Bollywood #Indianfilmindustry #MovieReviews