Trisha: The timeless Diva of South

https://www.telugu360.com/trisha-the-timeless-diva-of-south/

"Cheekati Rajyam" Movie Review (Telugu)

https://www.telugu360.com/cheekati-rajyam-night-safari-adventures-of-a-cop/

"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

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"Vetaadu Ventaadu" Telugu movie review/ "Samar" Tamil movie review

"Vetaadu Ventaadu" (Hunt, Chase) in Telugu ("Samar" in Tamil) is quite an unsual movie even though it collapses many genres in one film. It must be Vishal's best film to date even though his character is flaky. Directed by someone called Thiru,  it starts off with a chase sequence and then gives an impression of a usual boy-meets-girl-relationship gone sour kinda story. The girl Sunayanana (a fully wimpish-looking girl who is not fit to play a heroine's sidekick) dates Vishal and then walks out on him. Later, she has a change of heart and sends a note asking Vishal to come and meet her at Bangkok, she even sends him flight ticket. Reluctantly, our six-foot hero Vishal boards the flight to Bangkok and bumps into Trisha who dotes on him to navigate the flight smoothly. Then a half-developed love story with Trisha while Vishal is afoot to trace Sunayana. In this backdrop come some bizarre twists, enter villains JD Chekraverty and Manoj Bajpai. It appears they have played the game with Vishal, setting up the flight tickets, the false hopes of Sunayana coming back into his life and the ignition of romance with ravishing Trisha. Its all set up like a game which the duo villains love to play with characters many more like him.




The story is quite unusual, the treatement quite brilliant though patchy at times. It is quite thrilling at times almost until the cllimax but fizzles out at the end as the plot unravels. Quite a bold and impressive effort by director Thiru to come up with a story like this for South Indian audiences which may not click so well with Telugu audiences who dont soak upto experimental themes and plots lacking in entertainment. The film's strengths are screenplay, music by Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematography and editing. There are some outstanding stunts with Vishal which are a maverick thing for our kind of cinema - it is neither martial arts nor dishum-dishum stunts, just spontaneous and authentic, I dont think such fights are composed ever in Telugu cinema. Vishal fits well in the role of a lost-lover, gullible onlooker who later beats the villains in their own game. Trisha looks as glamorous as ever and ups the ante in showcasing her liberal dressing thats needed to survive as a Diva, 12 years after she set foot in South film industry. Her body continues to defy age but her face is getting tedious and tired. She doesn't look convincing when romancing male co-stars who are younger than her. But to come this far in an industry which is famous for dumping heroines into the trash cans of history is itself an accomplishment. Atleast one more song feauturing Trisha and Vishal could have established the second romance track in the film - needed to rev up the second half. It was definitely good to see JD and Manoj Bajpai team up together for the first time after "Satya" movie, they have the screen presence and chemistry together and carry off their roles with superb ease, they just needed some more scenes to bring out their dangerous side and devilry better, that could have highlighted the climax towards its logical conclusion. Yuvan Shankar Raja is one of my favorite composers who is a worthy successor to his father's legacy. He has it in him to take on the might of Rahman and Harris Jayaraj, what he should do is to focus on the realistic side of Indian films than the surrealistic part of the film grammar. If he gets back the mojo of films like "7/G Brindavan Colony" or "Aadavariki Maatalaku Ardhaale Verule", he can be the music composer that today's stars will queue up for signing. On the whole, 138 minutes of stylish, unpredictable surprises and rollercoaster ride which may or may not be a commercial success. But who cares, if the film is watchable once and gets a rating of 3 on 5!

"Dammu" Movie Review (Telugu)

“Dammu” means “stamina” in Telugu. Supposed to be short-hand for the box-office charishma of the short-statured, short-tempered NTR Jr. He ropes in Boyapati Sreenu who delivered monstrous hits for Balakrishna ("Simha") and Venkatesh ("Tulasi"). And two heroines  - the in-form but ageing Diva Trisha who looks glam despite puffy eye-bags and tired looks, and a not so cute but taller than NTR Karthika. Does it all add to the magic of NTR? No, it fails miserably.


Reasons are manifold like root causes for food price inflation. A hackneyed story set in a village with two families who war with each other for generations. A screenplay that’s jerky, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, overall disappointing. Violence that is inescapable and unreasonable – even fans and Karate Kids and youth won’t clap for one scene of too many that gnaw your brain away. This madness has to stop one day and it looks NTR is still in no mood to wish violence away for family audiences who come to see his films. Characterisation that grossly under-utilises talents like Kota, Brahmanandam, Suman and Venu (“Hanuman Junction”). What redeems the film is the string of punchlines written by M.Ratnam - they may regale the fans for few moments but the excessive trappings of Balakrishna become too much to handle for NTR - he is not yet mature enough to handle such roles of "Samarasimha Reddy". Music by MM Keeravani is average. Only one song "Sri Sri Raja Vasireddy" evokes awe.

NTR definitely scores a fine performance with impeccable dialogue delivery, designer moustache and improved looks. But its unlikely this movie will be well-received by fans as there are too many flaws and inconsistencies that make it tortuously long in 165 mins. Almost every other hero – Nagarjuna, Prabhas, Mahesh, Allu Arjun – experiment with makeovers and crossover roles. But NTR still thinks his surname and family fan base will get him far notwithstanding weak scripts and incredulous storylines - which audiences in villages are also tiring of – two heroines, thigh-slapping, sickle head-chops, whatever. He is too talented for doing just Balakrishna remixes at his age – he can go very far with his “Dammu” if he leaves the beaten path of this “Dammu”.

"Bodyguard" Telugu Movie Review

“Bodyguard” is the last of the films made under the same title in every language in South India and also in Hindi. Venkatesh plays the role of “Bodyguard” in Telugu – bodyguard to Trisha Krishnan. The movie’s main weakness is lack of depth in the storyline itself – not much romance can spring up between a bodyguard and his subject, so a romance gets built up out of thin air – Trisha (Her name is “Keerthi” for the third time in this Venky-Trisha combo) keeps calling Venky as a mystery caller and makes him pine for her. The story then goes through the twist in the last half-hour which is the most convincing part of the film. Venky seems to have changed the rules of bodyguard a bit - to induct more of his brand of humor and get more sympathy which is commonplace. I have watched both Hindi and Telugu versions now and can say but for some more humor introduced through Venumadhav, the Hindi version was better because of Salman Khan’s diginified performance – he had the body and the stoic stature. Even Kareena’s characterization was more consistent and justified. In the Telugu version, Trisha’s character is weakly etched and lacks justification at the point where she falls in love with her bodyguard. Venkatesh, is no doubt, a fine performer always but this role doesn’t suit him and however much he tried with his tired looks and trite melodrama, he looks more like a homeguard than bodyguard. Somewhere, he has failed to improvise on his performance over the last several years – goes for minimum risk family fare. He should take more risks at this stage of career or invest heavily into better storylines which families will anyway come to watch because he has the niche – in that sense, the movie’s cleanliness and family-friendliness is intact. (Unlike the other movie “Businessman” which caters to the under-30 segment with its adult fare).


There is a scene after interval where Venky and Ali sneek into the ladies ‘ hostel with lady attires. Only difference, unlike Ali (who can dress to kill like a lady), Venky doesn’t take his moustache off but still creates a laugh riot with a “Dookudu” number. The impact would have been magnified if he has taken off his moustache. That’s what I call risk-appetite - which is missing. Nag, Balakrishna, Pawan, Mahesh, NTR, even Chiranjeevi experimented with their face and removed moustache even if for one scene but not Venkatesh. Not that it would make a difference but I feel its high time for Venkatesh to think of something dramatic to re-invent himself. If he is doing “Swami Vivekananda” role, why couldn’t he be clean-shaven for a fleeting pause?



Forget this excursion, but back to the movie, “Bodyguard” is barely watchable because the story lacks depth and variety without a scope for getting more bang for bucks –and appears long because you can feel some sequences were inserted only for Venky flavor. But it will get the votes for better songs (atleast three melody numbers), clean family fare, and some good laughs. There are some needless stunts which drag on with excessive slow-motion and threading work – the make the movie that bit unbearably long. The pace and the plot was such that I went snoozing a couple of times. I may have missed Nagarjuna movies often in the last five years, but family always insist we watch a Venky film – afterall Venky gave so many Sankranti hits in his career except some famous duds like “Devi Puthrudu”. My family said they felt they have seen this movie before – it was that old, not that it is a remake of Hindi film but a rehash of Venky films itself. Venky has more potential and talent and a better personaility than plots like this. Even if the movie makes money - which I am sure it will because of the mutual exclusivity of the audience it caters to than the other Sankranti blockbuster "Businessman" - I hope Venky takes bold steps to re-launch himself and take more risks.

"Ye Maya Chesave" Telugu Movie Review

It takes two to tango. Nag Chaitanya has a slick winner in "Ye Maaya Chesave" ("Vinaithaandi Varuvaaya" in Tamil starring Trisha and Simbhu) - his second movie, directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon, with lot of awe and skill. If the essence of a love story is conversations, Gautham navigates the portrayal of a relationship beautifully, showing all the moments that make it, break it, and restore. It shows why some make it and many don't with lots of evocativeness, passion, sensitivity and honesty. Refreshingly, A R Rehman's music (replacing Harris Jayaraj in a coup) feels at-home, competitive and enriching. You remember the output of his early years in this movie. Nag Chaitanya and newcomer Samantha excel in their roles. Sporting to see Mahesh Babu's sister Manjula produce a different film for Nagarjuna's son. Cinematography is another major asset. There are more pleasant surprises in the movie.