Nobody like Mandolin Srinivas

 Most musical geniuses peak at age 44 and with the exception of Mozart and a few others, many go on to cut more discs in their fifties. It is therefore shocking to hear U.Srinivas pass out at the peak of his prowess. I know of few other instrumentalists in the world whose surname is synonymous with the instrument they play with. You won't call Sax KennyG or Tabla Hussain or Violin Subramanyam or even Shehnai Khan or Piano Beethoven. But you will always know this prodigy as Mandolin Srinivas. He brought so much joy and veneer to an instrument which was actually shunned by both Hindustani and Karnatik musicians simply because it was either too simple or too complex - until you heard Mandolin being played by the butter-fingers of U.Srinivas. For those who had the luxury of watching him play the instrument, he released rare joy and energy into the ether when he played the Hamsadhwani or any other Karnatik raga.   

Mandolin was thought of as a western musical instrument such that the instrument was brought into the Karnatik fold only in the 1980s. This is because the bare instrument was beyond the scope of those who tried to navigate the strings for melodic movement. Before U.Srinivas, there was a film composer Sajid Hussain who tried to bring the magic of Mandolin into films. The great Blapu who died recently, used fifteen minutes of one of his compositions in the film "Muthyala Muggu" as a BGM for showing the consummation of a newly wed couple. He tried to use another piece in "Gorintha Deepam" by which Sajid Hussain became famously known in Tollywood too. 

However, the instrument required huge maneuvrability to produce the sounds that come easily in other stringed instruments like the violin or the Sitar - the most mellifluous of classical musical instruments where the semitones (the inter-frequency between each sound) are quick and continuous which expand the range of output. Mandolin had its limitations that got tweaked when it became an electric mandolin similar to an electric guitar - that was the stage on which U.Srinivas launched himself giving one performance after another performance winning plaudits and patronage from kingly sponsors. 

Though he started off with classical concerts playing at every world stage from Berlin to NY to the Asia-Pacific, Mandolin became renowned as an instrument that deserves attention and glory amidst the paraphernalia that musicians and orchestras carry. It was embraced in Karnatik music because of the electric mandolin's ability to create and sustain continuity of sounds  - like the violin or the sitar. Indians have finally thrown up another great instrumentalist - in the same tradition of world-renown as that of a Sarod, Veena, Violin, Sitar or Santoor. Mandolin Srinivas has given scores of concerts in his career, giving many jugalbandis with the other legends. One of his moments of crowning glory came not with a Padma Shri or a doctorate but an invitation to be part of "Shakti" band - which is the gold standard for fusion music combining the reigning greats of the day  - John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussian, L Shankar, Vikku Vinaykram. Mandolin proved to be a good addition to the ensemble of the best percussionists and stringed instrument players of the day. The brand "Shakti" created some electrifying music but later diluted itself further by calling a vocalist called Shankar Mahadevan. Shankar Mahadevan's addition proved inimical to the purity maintained by the Shakti group. But that's besides the matter.

Mandolin Srinivas played with his younger brother U.Rajesh and gave him good recognition and respected the Karnatik music traditions. It is both stress-busting and mesmerising to listen to U.Srinivas. He composed many different versions of the leading ragas and also tried to re-emphasize the versatility of Mandolin to play film tunes. One of the albums that I have is a rendition of Ilayaraja music on Mandolin, an absolute treat. Except for Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and AR Rahman in Bollywood, haven't heard many music directors use Mandolin in their BGMs or songs. But in South, KV Mahadevan, MS Vishwanathan, Vidyasagar, Mani Sharma, Mickey J Meyer and SS Thamman have embellished their sounds with strategic and selective use of Mandolin. The key to getting Mandolin enhance the feel and tonality of your music is to use it a pre-note or in the interlude - and you can see why all the music directors I referred to have used it as aptly. Where does Mandolin Srinivas's legacy go? As long as Mandolin is played, U.Srinivas will live on. It is fitting that the instrument lends its name to a legend who made it world-famous. Or poetic that Srinivas got his name surnamed as Mandolin because that is what gave him identity and immortality. All Maestros have expiry date but Mandolin Srinivas lives on.

#Mandolin #MandolinSrinivas #USrinivas #Shakti #ClassicalMusic

"Aagadu" (Telugu) Film Review

"Aagadu" is an alround entertainer starring Mahesh Babu which tries to erase some of the bitterneess tasted at the Box Office by the same producer trio who gave us "1-Nenokkadine". With Sreenu Vaitla, MS Guhan in cinematography and Thaman's techno-trance music on the technicals, the team cast fair and lissome Tamannah, ruling Diva Shruti Hassan in a club song and comedians Brahmanandam, MS Narayana, Vennela Kishore. Apart from a familiiar comic villain Sonu Sood who is a regular fixture in Mahesh Babu films, they cast three musketeers Prabhas Seenu, Raghu Babu and Posani in their career-best performances. The movie sizzles mostly in the 165 minutes of ubiquitous entertainment that moves at lightning speed. The audiences also laugh at all the right places. Yet, something has gone wrong in the film. Is it the story?  Characterisation? Treatment? Heroine? Over-confidence? Dialogue modulation? Lack of novelty? Lack of sentiment? Burden of expectations?

All of that and the fatigue that comes with the familiarity associated with all of Sreenu Vaitla's films. As a director, Sreenu Vaitla seems flawless because he moulds his films in the KV Reddy style of film-making that moves a story forward with all the elements of entertainment that family audiences lap up. But if you see the discography of Sreenu Vaitla after the first five films and compare them with the output of the last four - "Badshah", "Dookudu","Ready", "Dhee" they are the same - a light-hearted romance, a gang of villains, sentiment of family renuion or father-son-brother, hero using Brahmanandam to infiltrate the villain gang and tomfooling them with a fairy-tale ending. That is precisely the story in Sreenu Vaitla's films.

In "Aagadu", Mahesh Babu (Shankar) is a cop who takes revenge on the gang of villains led by Sonu Sood for separating him from his father (Rajendra Prasad) and brother and a lot that follows after that. And then eliminates each one of them in novel ways  - thats the good part of Sreenu Vaitla's screenplay. The story has a picture-perfect ending but takes you through a roller-coaster of entertainment and great comedy that ranges from top-class (like the MEK-inspired quiz show) and sub-standard (the teleshopping ad-inspired advert on Saroja Sweets).

Despite choosing some great jokes (which spare no one from Balakrishna to Chiranjeevi family  to Botsa to politicians and sportspersons) the film lacks freshness in content and treatment. This is where I doubt if the film will have the stamina at box office to beat previous records because as I reiterated in the past, Telugu audience is the smartest when it comes to detecting movies with a deja vu flavor or plot or treatment. While Tollywood doesn't make different films each time, the audience doesn't blindly consume films similar in content. This is the greatest irony of the industry which over-invests in stars and star music directors but under-invests in story-writers. Even if this film is made for the fans of Mahesh Babu, they will be the first to desert the movie after the holiday season ends - thats the cold truth which superstars and mega power stars must realise.

Over 165 minutes, the director goes down the beaten path of entertainment pursued in "Dookudu" - the same childhood days during titles, the romance in pre-interval, heights of comedy, fights galore and the square-off with villain in interval, the item song post-interval and then Brahmanandam's key entry at climax time. Punctuation followed with boring predictability and resemblance to so many films like "Yamudu", "Singham", "Gabbar Singh" and of course, "Dookudu". Sreenu Vaitla's obsession with television shows in igniting comedy out of everything needs to end. He has the commercial sensibilities to take entertainment to the next level without diluting family-wide viewing needs. Unfortunately, he has fallen out on ego issues with writers who supported him till "Badshah" - Kona Venkat and Gopi Mohan. With a new bench of writers, what stands out is the dialogues but not the story outline.

To be fair, there are some highlights in the film. Undoubtedly, there are actors who stand out - MS Narayana (he has the best self-edited lines in the film) who steals the thunder without moving an inch from his seat except in the last scene. And then the three musketeers - Seenu, RaghuBabu and Posani. Rajendra Prasad is under-utilised; a weighty actor like him is reduced to be a poster boy father to Mahesh Babu. The scenes where Mahesh Babu remixes and tells the storylines from his previous films are hilarious and different. The best scene of comedy is the Quiz Show spoof on MEK. All the three musketeers and Mahesh Babu and Vennela Kishore outshine each other with comic voice modulations mimicking TV hosts. It runs for almost nineteen minutes and can get repeat audiences. Sonu Sood, Mumtaz and Ashish Vidyarthi fail to create impact in the film - Sonu Sood salvages a bit in the climax with his own retelling of a Panchtantra story that sort of summarises the story itself. (Maybe thats the source of inspiration for Sreenu Vaitla's creative team). Tamannah seems a misfit in the film despite her bare-all attitude. Shruti Hassan outsizzles Tamannah in one song even if they don't share screen together. One is tempted to think the pairing would have been perfect if Tamannah was restricted to an item song and Shruti was the main lead.

Mahesh Babu, despite all the limitations and fatigue in content, carries the film entirely on his shoulders. He spares no effort in taking charge of every scene where he is either leading the show or insinuating an outcome. His voice modulation is seeing an unprecedented transformation. In "Dookudu" he tries two modulations (Telangana and Andhra accents). In "Aagadu", he tries too many to remember and register. Thats a fatal flaw because the audience need time to process so many modulations and in the end you may remember only few dialogues but fail to acknowledge the effort. In an attempt to make himself a Superman in all departments, his efforts may go waste unless audience repeats to this film. It may well be a costly lesson for all heroes - don't over-invest yourself in one movie unless you plan to retire with this one. Dance movements have been more graceful for Mahesh in the film. Prem Rakshit seems to have done his job well in the three songs that had some choreography to note. Stunts have been many but only one stunt pre-interval has been good - that should have been all there is in stunts thanks to Vijayan. The rest of the stunts actually suck including the costly one shot at Bellary in the opening sequence. With all the modern technology available, today's stunt masters don't seem to get the emotion that accompanied the "dishum dishum" sounding stunts of old times - today's heroes are better at bending limbs and breaking bones but not at getting whistles. Mahesh Babu has already made a statement in "Dookudu" that he is the best in the current crop of actors in range and repertoire of acting and screen-sharing with seniors. In this film he may have overdone his bit that borders on over-confidence. What undermines his efforts is the choice of the plot and the absence of connect with the audience in the form of sentiment. It was sentiment and comedy that made "Dookudu" a blockbuster. By firing on all engines of comedy, director overlooked the role of sentiment in this film.

Thaman's music in his fiftieth film is good in parts but not in the same league. One finds the BGM score reminiscent of "Dookudu" re-recording. While two or three songs stand out for the beat, the picturisation lets the output down. Sreenu Vaitla chooses outdoor setting for both the fast songs in the film which makes it monotonous to watch. Atleast the last song should have got done in a lavish indoor setting or in Chiraan Fort  (his lucky setting for scoring a hit). On the whole, you can watch it once for Mahesh, comedy but the length and the fatigue wear you out in the second half. First half by itself should have been the length in this 165 minutes of reptitive fare. For that it doesn't deserve the top-notch rating.

My Rating: 2.75/5

#Aagadu #Tollywood #filmreviews #MovieReviews #MaheshBabu #TeluguFilms

"Sikindar" (Telugu)/ "Anjaan' (Tamil) Film Review

"Sikindar" had raised unprecedented expectations and got bid for a whopping crore count in Tollywood with Lagadapati Sridhar buying it wholly. The film has Superstar Suriya, reigning Diva Samantha, Yuvan Shankar Raja as music director and a director N Linguswamy who made some of the coolest movies in South. Not any more. "Sikandar" sucks and proves the biggest I-day bore of all movies.

Set in Mumbai with gang-wars as backdrop, the story opens well with a studious Suriya getting out of a train in search of his brother Raju. His enquiries take him to all the folks who are suspected to be involved with his missing brother. It brings him eventually in contact with the right and wrong people who entered Raju's life. Some say he got murdered by rivals, some say he has gone missing. Most people believe Raju Bhai was a do-gooder with a large heart who put his life before buddy Chandu (played by Vidyut Jammwala). Plenty of flashbacks later, the truth comes out - Who is Raju? Where is Raju? Why is his brother Krishna seeking him out? Is it dual role? Or are they the same? The flashback also throws in the glamor of Samantha who exposes herself like never before, more desperate than an item girl. Samantha is the original lover of Raju bhai in the film. We got to infer that since there is no other title justification - "Sikindar" is a sobriquet for Raju Bhai. The saga moves briskly in the first 20 minutes and then halfway in the first half loses the fizz with one of the most hackneyed plots and lazy treatment. The end is in sight  - the unravelling of the villain gang starting from Dileep Tahil, Manoj Bajpai and others - but not before an agonising 170 minutes. It appears director Linguswamy has lost his marbles in presenting a superstar at the peak of his career in different moods and styles. Generally, Linguswamy has created stars out of characters that are rustic at heart and unchiselled bag of surprises. In "Run" he unleashed Madhavan. In "Pandem Kodi" he gave the solitary superhit for Vishal. In "Awara", he gave Suriya's brother Karthi his best shot as a cool dude. But in "Sikindar", he gets carried away by the persona of Suriya and wastes many characters and technical talents in giving one of Suriya's lackadaisical films. Imagine when you had Santosh Sivan, Yuvan Sankar Raja and a starcast like this, you got to over-invest in better storyline and depth in narration.

All we  see is mindless violence, and frames that show Suriya as stylish as ever. He comes out good because he is a natural good-looker. Samantha also carries off her girlish demeanor with ease. Brahmanandam has an act as an unmelodious vocalist but doesn't fire with full impact. Infact, the artist who gets more laughs is the guy who drives Suriya all around Mumbai in his search for his brother. The day the stars realise that it is not important to have gang-wars and item girls like Chitrangada Singh to look heroic, directors have half a chance to make meaningful cinema. But one senses that after the mixed success of "Singham part two" and  experimental debacles like "Maatraan" and "7 Ariyu", Suriya is desperately seeking success. In the march to superstardom and the pointless struggle to retain it, superstars eventually go from hubris to debris. Suriya hoped to see a luck-turn by changing release of his movies from Diwali weekend to I-day weekend. Too bad, this won't work out again. But he has the range of acting, the talent and the patience to re-invent himself better than many other Superstars in Kollywood. At quite a few places, worn out scenes and fatigue in presenting sequences dullen your senses. Otherwise this could have been atleast averagely watchable film. Yuvan Shankar Raja needs to reduce his techno mixes and concentrate on straightening his tunes alone. He has the talent and the gene pool to give great music. Why doesn't he get it? On the whole, a film that tests your patience despite all the respect and admiration we may have for the team that has given us great films.

My rating: 2.25/5.

"Run Raja Run" (Telugu Film Review)

RRR is a classy and crisp film, perhaps the best Telugu film of 2014 so far and must be a trophy film for all the talents associated with it. Sharwanand, the boy next door who debuted as a drug addict in "Vennela" and later starred as a rocket scientist in "Amma Cheppindi" and lastly as a don in "Prasthanam" has hit bull's eye with a winning script and an affable story - a story that combines the genres of action, romedy and revenge drama in a commercial format that will turn many heads in Tollywood. Sujith, a new director, makes a stylish debut inter-mixing many elements of story-telling borrowed from short films, joke books, novellas of crime fiction and action films. But he makes a grand entree' with story-dialogues-screenplay and directing skills.Two gutsy producers offer this film under the banner of UV creations; they literally bankroll the film to emit production values usually reserved for superstars - so rich is the film that also casts a motley gang of artists oozing out talent - Sampath as a maverick cop, Adivi Sesh as an out-of-box-thinking cop, Jayaprakash as a delectable dad with uncharacteristic affection for son Sharwanand and a petite new starlet Seerat Kapoor with cute demeanor but not beautiful by convention. The director wastes little time in introducing characters and establishing their quirks while moving the story at a frequency that oscillates between two parallel narratives - one is a saga of a kidnapping spree in the city by groups wearing masks of the ruling superstars of Tollywood, the other narrative is the lighter, fun-filled version of a romantic track between Sharwanand and Seerat with a track that has an under-current of police machinations and tensions.

These two stories move in enchanting ways giving us a run a minute in unchartered territory - a breakup with a cute girl, a situational comedy with unsuspecting artists, flashbacks that clarify the motives and the messages and a game of Russian Roulette between the hero , the anti-hero and the heroine that goes right down to the wire. The only thing that distracts is the occasional attempts to humorise a situation when actually tensing the scene might have been better. But you realise the director has a funny bone in presenting the story - he digs out wit, romanticises little and weeds out any scene that smacks of cliched treatment. Because of this thinking, concise and no-lazy-thinking, Sujith infiltrates your viewing experience with images and expressions that can make you watch many times over without fatigue. The movie's content appears fresh and yet larger-than-life  - a combination that even ace directors can match upto. In 138 minutes, Sujith showed us that Telugu Cinema can surprise you, entertain you without making a PG version and wow you.

Technically, the film is brilliant in cinematography - most shots are picture-perfect, show the artists especially Sharwanand in fine fettle, do not strain your eyes with awkward movements and angles and leave a lasting impressions. Great work by Madhie in the visual department. The film's alluring appeal, rests largely on the shoulders of music director Ghibran - familiar to Tamil audiences. Ghibran's sound of music certainly has range, class in arrangement, melody and presentation. Though his music seems inspired by the Western influences, there is huge promise and excitement in his output. All the songs elevate it to a status of hummability - and his repertoire of songs with varying lengths and rhythms must get him new fans in Tollywood. "Bujjimaa... is a rarity that haunts you because of the beats and the timbre in a new singer's voice. Ghibran's background score is  uplifting - it doesn't have orchestral brilliance like that of K or Ilayaraja but enhances the  crux of a sequence. Over-instrumentation can be a temptation but it doesn't jar.  Almost all songs are preceded by the instrumental version of the song precursing it - a technique to burn your music deeper into the audience's minds. Ghibran, dear Tollywood fan, remember this name and you  will fall in love with the music more after watching the film's mesmerising song picturisation. What is different about his music is also that the songs do not always follow a typical format - and use instrumentation that sounds novel. That makes the unpredictability more welcome  - in music as well as in the frames back-ended with the music.

The film makes use of in-film advertising subtly with Naturo foods and studio settings provided by Ramoji Film City and Golconda Fort effectively. Quite a few scenes are shot in Golconda Fort, I wonder how the authorities have allowed even the room where Sriramadasu was imprisoned. The climax has a dramatic twist that must not be missed. For Sharwanand, Adivi Sesh and Sampath this film will be a harbinger of new offers. Sampath is intense and comical at times - sure, it will usher in many roles in comic villainy a'la Prakash Raj and Sonu Sood. Sharwanand is in his element and deserves a pat, he improved his screen presence. Content like this is hard to back up on first instincts, so the entire team has to be patted for an effort like this; it energises the audiences who lap it up, gets the cash registers ringing for the producers and equalises the arena for artists and technicians for a while. Sujith must take a bow for redefining how clean, entertaining films can be made, hope he gets a long haul. That he can write dialogues that pack a punch is a bonus.

My rating: 4/5

"Kick" (Hindi Film Review)

Salman Khan returns again in 2014 with a swashbuckler of a film "Kick". The last one "Jai Ho" was a great story remade from Chiranjeevi's "Stalin" about a Good Samaritan who starts a chain reaction of good actions. "Kick" has been in the works for a long time and easily the most awaited film for Salman Khan fans and Eid weekend entertainment-seekers. Remade from a blockbuster Telugu film "Kick" released in 2009, the film was a sensation earlier which created stardom for atleast four people - Ileana D'Cruz who never looked better since, Music Director Thaman who got offers for atleast 30 films after that, director Surinder Reddy who is hailed as the new Red-Bull action film-writer-director and hero Ravi Teja who is the raunchiest, naughtiest star in Indian films - a deadly combo of Dada Kondke and Amitabh Bachchan. Given that background and record, "Kick" had to deliver for Salman Khan who is waiting for a hit after his last film got washed out under fatwas of all kinds. It delivers on many counts.

"Kick" (Hindi) faithfully builds on the original plot of the Telugu film and then alters a few angles here and there - a medico/psychiatrist Jacqeline Fernandez bumps into an aimless prankster Devi Lal Singh (Salman Khan) who loves her. Devi is driven by adrenalin and loves the "kick" of things - he joins and chucks jobs, dates and breaks up and seeks adventures of the kind that even blissed out creatures under the sea don't venture into. Jacqueline loves him and loathes him and soon dates Randeep Hooda, a police officer at her father's behest. She narrates her story to Randeep to pass time. Randeep, in turn, tells his story of a fugitive who is still at large - a "Devil" who hoodwinks him all the time while decamping with ship loads of money. Who is the man in Randeep's life? Is he the same as in Jacqueline's ? The twists in the film take you far from Delhi to Poland and back with hyper-action sequence after hyper-action sequence - that remind you of the dare-devilry of a "Krish" or a "Dhoom" franchise.

What makes the film mostly watchable is the tempo of the plot which is essentially two flashbacks and one forward-moving story. In 148 minutes, the film starts as a fun film, just like the original and gets into top gear around interval time with a dramatic bang. To adapt the original nativity to the Hindi sensibilities, three people worked  on the screenplay including Rajat Aroraa and then Chetan Bhagat was asked to chip in. Atleast twice, Salman Khan asked Chetan to rewrite a better screenplay. His effort to nativise can be seen in few places - one in the interplay between the characters of the heroine's family and second in the treatment of the gang of villains and creation of a few more plot points which give depth to an otherwise frivolous fun film. The raw appeal gets short-changed with deja vu motifs borrowed from "Dabbaang". Comic scenes like the police station where father-son collide  (which could have been over-extended) or the hero reprise as a memory-loss patient would have created a cloudburst of uproarious laughter. There are few sentimental scenes with the kids which is the crux of plot. Instead, we see many scenes which make way for  in-film advertisements for Mother Dairy and NISE Gel - wonder why UTV had to resort to such, not seen this kind of stuff in a long time.

Performances-wise, Jacqueline paired well with Salman although she lacks emotional play. Randeep Hooda gets a meaty role against Salman Khan and remains in the zone throughout. But the surprise packet of the film is Nawazuddin Siddiqi. He gets the loudest snares and the best lines in the film. His swagger, his dangerous giggle preceded by a tongue-lashing sound and his menacing looks leave a lasting impression. Salman's generosity in sharing screen space with one of the iconic actors of our times is rare. Music by Himesh Reshmiya is average, wonder whatever happened to his melodies. Even a song with Nargis Fakshri is wasted in mindless gyrations and noisy rhythms. What elevates the movie though is the exceptional background score by Julius Packam - and one number by Yo YO Honey Singh which comes in the second half. Dialogues are racy and crisp - and many had the original touch, if not better impact thanks to the collaboration of the team which usually writes for Milan Luthria movies. Hyderabadi fans will rejoice that their most-favorite Hindi superstar utters three dialogues in pure Telugu - as a tribute to the Telugu original. Mithun Chakraborty as Salman's father shines yet again - wonder why we are not having enough of him in the role of a hero's father. The original disco dancer shakes a leg with a crow-feet superstar and the screen outcome is hilarious. A welcome trend in Salman's films is the absence of statutory warning for cigarette smoking - it saves three minutes of a grotesque warning and saves millions from undue influence. But why, I wonder was a warning for booze was not given when Mithunda and Sallu drink like fish at a party?

On the whole, a clean and watchable film with paisa vasool action and entertainment built on the bedrock of a blockbuster plot. The originals can't be compared here as both Tollywood and Bollywood have learnt to adapt winner scripts better to native sensibilities. For example, "Dabbanng" the original was remade into "Gabbar Singh" with better comic sensibilities to deliver the biggest blockbuster in Tollywood at that time. "Kick" (Hindi) is fully adapted to the HIndi audience with sentiment, action and comedy. With over 4000 screens, and a long weekend till Tuesday, "Kick" may rake in like never before.

My Rating: 3.5/5

"Drusyam" (Telugu) Film Review

"Drusyam" is an ambitious remake of the original Malayalam film by the same title - which hit national headlines with simultaneous bidding by leading film industries to reckon with - Bollywood, Tollywood, Sandalwood and Kollywood. With Ravi Chandran playing the role of Mohanlal in Kannada, Kamal Hasan in Tamil and Venkatesh in Telugu, expectations soared before the release. As usual, Telugu producers rushed to the fence in releasing the film. D.Suresh Babu backed Sripriya to direct the remake originally made by Jitu Joseph. Sripriya is that sizzling actress who starred in some unforgettable films of the 70s and 80s - "Anthuleni Katha" and "Vayasu Pilichindi".

The starcast is impressive - Venkatesh, Meena, Saptagiri, Kruttika, Ravi Kale, Nadiya and Naresh - and all of them have given great performances except Nadiya and Kruttika who were inconsistent in their performances and sometimes unconvincing. The story has been sensational and revolves around a six-sigma event - a highly improbable event in the way the ending goes.  According to what I read, the story is an autobiographical adaptation by the original director Jitu Josph; it happened to him and his family and hence he approached a producer. After shooting for the first thirty minutes, the producer threw in the towel and in stepped Superstar Mohanlal who backed it to the hilt. "Drusyam" in Malayalam collected over Rs.50 crores and became the first film to cross that kind of a milestone reserved for big-brother film industries of erstwhile AP and Tamil Nadu. The original film runs for two hours and forty five minutes with minimum props and gripping intensity. The current remake runs for almost two hours and fifty minutes. The original film shows Mohanlal in a status of humble economic conditions. The remake shows Venky as a serial entrepreneur and  reasonably affluent farmer-entrepreneur.

To tell the story will be to give away the plot. And to analyse the treatment and faultlines in the story will also unveil the storyline. But we have to make a beginning somewhere and talk turkey. So the story begins with Venkatesh and Meena and their two lovely daughters, one a teenager Kruttika and the other a pre-teenager. Venkatesh runs a cable TV business which goes well into the graveyard shift. His world at work revolves around movies - and he watches them every waking minute at work which starts around noon and stretches till the morning dawn. His assistant Saptagiri helps him out at work and they take the calls from customers at whim. At home, Meena is the boss and runs the household with the daughters and her indulgences in shopping. Its a happy world for Venkatesh and family even if they quibble and crib about the world until one fine day an intruder disrupts the  peace. The intruder who takes lewd video of the teenaged daughter gets tackled in the most appropriate manner when he comes to Venky's home and makes fresh advances against Kruttika.

The crux of the film revolves around how Venky rallies behind his family. What really happened to the boy? Is he dead? Missing? Killed? Action speeds up with the boy's parents, Nadiya and Naresh stepping in. Nadiya is IGP and uses her full force to investigate the matter. Naresh is a doubting Thomas who always feared his wayward son was spoilt and had to end in a mess like this. The biggest support for Nadiya comes from a vengeaful constable of the local police station - Ravi Kale who    was rubbed on the wrong side by Venky. The film goes in a different direction of suspicion, witness-examination and probe into the antecedents of the boy's travel to the village. This part, the cross-examination part and the preparation by Venky in psychologically steeling his family's nerves is the most exciting part of the film. The treatment is more nuanced and works on aspects seldom highlighted in films about the elements of criminality - mind-body coordination, body-language, evidence and its destruction and reconstruction, the art of dodging cross-examination, and the psychology of a crime-implicated person. The ending of the film takes one or two extra turns before it leaves you with lots of food for thought - on how the justice system works in India and what happens when someone were to subvert it.

Surely, the second half throws in a basketful of surprises but the first half lags because the director takes a lazy approach to establishing the characters and their idiosyncracies. Despite a valiant attempt to remake the film, the film's original script seems to have some flaws which can't be overlooked. But if you see the film in its flow, these faults may not be relevant because the treatment of the story takes a different direction but still they are plausible. For instance, on one hand, Venky works in the night shift as a cable TV owner but there is no reason to stay out of home when the whole world is sleeping when you have an Assistant and customer calls are few. If Venky really loves his family so much, as they show later in the film, why does a father of two girls and a loving wife spend his nights out watching silly movies? Not once do they show either Venky or Saptagiri, his assistant taking customer care calls seriously. Secondly, in Malayalam film, Mohanlal has a pitiable economic background but here, Venky has a five-acre plot with a lovely pathway and an opulent house but still cribs when his wife shops or demands an extra ice cream? Third, the police who beckon his family for interrogation do not  check out his vast plotted house even once with sniffer dogs to find out if something's fishy. Fourth, almost every other character in the film uses a mobile phone including the delinquent boy but Venky doesn't use - which world is the director thinking of? If it is cable TV business, why do they show Venky all the time watching latest movies with channel logos shown once or twice? Does it mean that the customers also spend the night out watching the films all night? And not once do we see Venky using a remote while his assistant is shown photoshopping lovely females. Fifthly, the clues and alibis used by Venky during the interrogation - they don't really add up  on closer watch - which is what Nadiya alleges. (For example, no bus ticket  is issued without a date printed). Sixth, the interrogations done in a guest house are unlawful - they even interrogate a child and manhandle the womenfolk. And not once does a lawyer show up anytime during the in-camera interrogations. If watching films like "Ankuram" gives one knowledge about such subtle legal aspects as "habeus corpus", pray, why such a slip up? Seventh, in the Malayalam film, even the cable films watched by Mohanlal are intelligently assembled to stay relevant to the basic plot of the film. But here, they show films for populism - a Pawan Kalyan film here, a Mahesh Babu or a Sobhan Babu film there. But the beauty is why, the hero doesn't know that a naked SIM Card is less dangerous than a SIM inserted into a carbonn mobile phone. Lastly, since the film's perspectives are entirely shown from Venky's angle, enough care hasn't been taken in the characterisation of Nadiya - the mother in her dominates the policewoman in her way beyond the endurance levels of the audience. Which is why, she misuses the system of interrogation blatantly until she pays a price with her post. The ending is quick and brilliant as you leave the hall with a mixed feeling - Can everything be manipulated in the name of love and selfishness?

Performances-wise, Venky and Ravi Kale stand out with contrasting beauty. Venky is shown glamorously even if it is a dull character. The last several films of Venky have been forgettable flops and everytime he experimented in the last decade - "Nagavalli" or "Eenaadu" the audience rejected him. Despite the flaws, this is his best comeback film. It is not perfect film but it is watchable and draws you in despite inconsistencies. There are not many films that Tollywood can boast of in this genre. I didn't get goosebumps watching this film. But I didn't feel bored either. Music by Sharath is good in atleast the two songs. Cinematography by S.Gopal Reddy looks good. Comedy by Saptagiri alone is good the rest do not just fire up. Yes, visuals can be deceiving but to take a tongue-in-cheek approach to the film's title, it should not have been named "Drusyam". "Adrusyam" is better!

My Rating: 3/5.

"Bobby Jasoos" (Hindi) Movie Review

You are Vidya Balan, lovingly called Bobby. You live in Moghalpura, Hyderabad, a pincode that has a density of over 100 people per sq.meter. Narrow lanes, dingy corners, claustrophic separator roads and noisy people. You have a doting mother and two younger sisters but your dad has an eerie coldness to you and doesn't treat you like the eldest child in the family - that regrettable male fixation thing. Still you pick a reputation as a quick-fix spy - someone who noses in on neighbourhood girls with "excusable" traits to help out reluctant bridegrooms or help aunties with "reliable" information. One thing leads to another and you soon become a sleuth to reckon with your own "adda" and assistants. One of them, played by the charming Ali Fazal becomes your unwilling lover and eventual supporter of all risky undertakings. One such undertaking, the riskiest one, comes calling in metastazing instalments from one Anees Khan, played with uneasy grit and intensity by Kiran Kapoor who comes in limousines and oozes out royalty unlimited. What does Anees Khan want? He comes and goes in a jiffy everytime but leaves Bobby with two brown envelopes, one gives cryptic details of the girls he wants Bobby to track down and the other envelope gives a hefty advance sum. The pattern repeats, Bobby succeeds in getting to the "X" or "Y" and the stakes get bigger. Then, at interval time, Bobby gets a doubt. What is happening to the girls she is ferreting out for Anees Khan? What if there is a twist in the tail, for the girls? What follows is a different drama with hugely unintended consequences and a cool ending.

Made by a debutant director Samar Shaikh, "Bobby Jasoos" is not a regular spy-thriller fare. It is a quirky, raw attempt at blending the genres of thriller with emotional drama and desi humour from the street corners of the bustling old city of Hyderabad. If you want to savor the charms of Charminar with a candid camera  that peeks into what a half of Hyderabad are all about - stuck in simple ways, hard living and countless paradigms of male stereotypes and "chalta hai" attitudes while eking out a honest day's labor, "Bobby Jasoos" serves you right. Vidya Balan is one woman too many in the film as she straddles many roles and costumes to come up trumps on her assignments - using innovative and sometimes bizarre ways of ensnaring her "target". There are emotional angles - the father-daughter angle between Rajendra Gupta and Vidya Balan and the romantic angle between Ali Fazal and Vidya Balan which make the film evocative amidst the distractions of a boisterous i-spy game played by Vidya throughout. The film's weaknesses lie in its treatment by Samar Shaikh. Director takes a flippant route to the protagonist's job description and makes mockery of how many folks get fooled by the maverick methods of Bobby Jasoos in getting to her targets - even as she covers humongous ground in uncovering them. She covers her constituency of Moghalpura better than what the local MLA does - covering the range of her target universe with her own sampling techniques - doing a census of an audition for a serial her aunts watch for smoking out the girls of the desired age-group or making elbow room in Spoken English tutorial classrooms to figure out the right birth marks of the girl. All that gets sometimes trite and outrageously irritating - because not a voice is raised in the neighbourhood against such antics.

Be that as it may, the redemption of the film lies in its many strengths - its starcast that is too perfect from Supriya Pathak, Tanvie Azmi, Kiran Kapoor, Vinay Varma (what a cameo by Suthradhar Agency's Vinay!) and the lovely pairing of Ali Fazal with Vidya Balan. Music, especially the BGM and the two cute songs uplift the film's dull moments. One of the songs, composed like a ghazal duet with an unusual rhythm stands out. Dialogues liberally sprinkle the notorious "Hurdu" slang of Hyderabadis with killer effect - "Hau", "Nakkho" abound enough to tickle you. Undoubtedly, Vidya Balan is the greatest strength of "Bobby Jasoos" as she effortlessly delivers a range of emotions with her spontaneity and charm. Neither obesity, marriage nor recent flops deters her confidence as she exudes perfection in her roles of a focused spy or as a misunderstood daughter or as a paradoxical lover. This may be an imperfect spy thriller by Samar Shaikh but "Bobby Jasoos" wins your hearts with positivity and sincerity to the plot. At 121 minutes, "Bobby Jasoos" is a family entertainer that deserves cosmopolitan adulation.
My rating: 3.25/5