Homam Movie Review

Homam - Different taking style from JD
Jagapatibabu proved his versatility by playing family sentiment films and also in action films. In fact, it is Ramgopal Varma who gave him a different action hero image with his film 'Gayam'. He also played a little rough characters in films like 'Antahpuram, Hanuman Junction, Brahmastram, Samanyudu and Lakshyam.' Keeping all this in view, and with an inspiration from a recent blockbuster like 'Pokiri' where the hero played undercover cop, the story of 'Homam' took shape. There are two heroes in the film. While one hero stays with the mafia though a cop, another hero plays police, though he helps the mafia.
Malli (Jagapatibabu) is a police officer. Though he is an orphan, DIG Viswanath (Pradeep Rawat) brings him up like his own son and makes him a police officer. However, to nab an international mafia gang led by Daddy (Mahesh Manjrekar), Viswanath sends Malli as an undercover cop to the mafia gang and the latter turns a trusted worker for Daddy. He almost believes Malli as his right hand. With the help of Malli, Viswanath and his team tries to corner Daddy and his gang, but could not arrest them due to lack of evidence. Malli falls in love with a doctor (Mamata Mohandas). He takes him to his ailing mother who was in the hospital. At this juncture, Daddy reveals that his person was in the police department. Chandu (JD Chakravarthy), who was a commissioner of police, is the one who was helping Daddy's gang. At the same time, Viswanath also tells Daddy that his man was also with Daddy's gang. So both the teams break their heads to find out the black sheep. But they could not do so. Malli once visits the hospital and doctors tell him that he should keep his mother happy always. Malli reveals his identity but is mother did not believe it. To prove his words correct, Malli tells Viswanath to visit his mother once. At the same time, Daddy's gang attacks the building and in the melee, Viswanath dies. After a few days, Chandu, in order to escape from the blackmailing tactics of Daddy, shoots him to death in an encounter. How Malli proved that he was the undercover cop? What kind of tricks Chandu played to hide the fact? Did Malli was able to return to his duty instead of working as undercover cop? What kind of lesson Malli teaches to Chandu? Answers to all these questions form part of climax.
PERFORMANCE:
Jagapatibabu is the perfect fit to the role. He toned up his muscles and with a light beard, he appeared a little rough and suited well in the role as a goon in a mafia gang. He is at his best in portraying different emotions in various scenes. While he was rough as a goon, he appeared quite innocent in sentiment scenes. Especially, his performance while trying to convince his mother that he is a police officer is simply superb. JD Chakravarthy is also equally good as a cop who helps the mafia gangs. He did not feel shy to stay with an undergarment before the camera and before a heroine to evoke a little laughter from the audiences, despite the fact that he himself is directing the movie. His character which has a negative shade is apt and he did justice to his role. Mamata Mohandas and Madhurima filled the glamour slot well. Perhaps for the first time, Pradeep Rawat appeared in a soft role and Mahesh Manjrekar gave freshness to the audiences in a villain's role. Other roles played by Brahmaji, Raja Ravindra and Ahuti Prasad are also okay. Prabhakar who played the hero's buddy did justice to his role.
TECHNICAL:
JD Chakravarthy, who had a passion for direction, learnt a lot from his mentor Ram Gopal Varma by working as his associate for many films by distancing himself from acting and the Tollywood. Especially, he chose a different method in the taking which resembled the Hollywood action films. He scripted the screenplay with perfection and did not lose grip on the story at any point of time. Though he made a couple of errors especially while killing the characters of Pradeep Rawat, Mahesh Manjrekar and Prabhakar and in fact he failed to establish the scenes properly. Music by Nithin Raikwar was novel. The choreography of the first song and the last song, which contains chides (thitlu), is good. The director chose a different way of shooting songs by involving both the heroes and heroines in the same song. Camera work by Bharani K Dharan suited the mindset of the director and the editing by Bhanoday is also adequate.
REMARKS:The director should have concentrated a little more in love and romantic scenes between the heroes and heroines. Another basic draw back of the film is the lack of comedy. MS Narayana failed to tickle the funny bone of the audiences with his comedy at all. As a whole the film may go well with the city audiences, and one had to wait and watch how big the film could attract the mass and youth audiences.
Cast: Jagapatibabu, Chakravarthy, Mamta Mohandas, Madhurima, Mahesh Manjrekar, Pradeep Rawat, Brahmaji, Raja Ravindra, Ahuti Prasad, MS Narayana, Dubbing Janaki and others
CREDITS: Camera – Bharani K Dharan, Editing – Bhanoday, Lyrics – Suddala Ashok Teja, Music – Nithin Raikwar, Art – Satya, Producer – Kirankumar Koneru, Screenplay and direction - JD Chakravarthy.
Banner: Shreya Productions

Sidhu from Sikakulam Movie Review

Sidhu from Sikakulam - A game on 'love or life'

Eswar, who worked as an associate to director EVV Satyanarayana for many films, got a promotion and made his debut as director through 'Siddhu from Sikakulam'. Though the title has Sikakulam, it has nothing to do with the film in any aspect. The director penned a subject with a mixture of faction and love subjects. Moreover, the film has Allari Naresh as hero. Keeping him in mind, the director prepared the script with comedy backdrop. In fact, it is a nice experiment to mix comedy with faction. However, the end result came out in a cinematic presentation and nothing more.
Siddhu (Naresh) native of Srikakulam joins a college in Visakhapatnam. He loses his heart to Sailaja (Manjari), but discloses it to her in a different method. After a couple of encounters, he pours our his heart to her and Sailaja accepts it. Before going on a vacation, Sailaja explains to Siddhu that her father Obul Reddy (Jayaprakash Reddy) was a big factionist and her marriage was settled with Bhuma Reddy's (Vijayaranga Raju) brother. She pleads with Siddhu to take her somewhere and marry her. Being a middle class boy, Siddhu says a firm no to her proposal. He thinks everything practically and tells her that eloping is a bad idea as Obul Reddy would cause harm not only to him but also to his family, which he doesn't want to happen. He doesn't want to take risk in his life. Sailaja with no option left to her agrees for separation but on a condition that Siddhu should come to her marriage and stay with her till the tying of knot by the bridegroom, that too with a smiling face. Siddhu makes his entry as Siddhartha Reddy and stays with her as her classmate in Obul Reddy's residence. From that point the love game reaches its peak. Sailaja tries to lure Siddhu, and the latter tries to avoid her. In the game another girl Nisha (Shraddha Das), cousin of Sailaja joins for some time. After a few incidents, Siddhu also realises that love is greater than everything. At the same time he doesn't want to face the life and death situation. What Siddhu did to earn sympathy from Obul Reddy and make him to ask by himself to marry Sailaja is the climax.
PERFORMANCE:
The character is just a tailor-made role for Naresh and the hero was at his usual best. Besides providing timely comedy, he got a choice to exhibit his performance capabilities through expressions. As a whole he reached the expectations of his fans and general audience. Though a debutant, Manjari, a look-alike of Keerthi Reddy cooperated well with the hero in several scenes. She not only filled the glamour slot, but also appeared romantic in some scenes. Shraddha Das appeared spicy and resorted to a lot of skin show. Comedy by Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Venumadhav, MS Narayana and Kondavalasa Lakshmana Rao is adequate Ahuti Prasad sported a lazy man's role, while Jayaprakash Reddy is routine as a factionist.
TECHNICAL:
There is nothing new to talk about the film as far as the story. It has no twists and is predictable. In the absence of a crisp screenplay and due to the lengthy narration of the events, the audiences faced a little bore. The director failed to establish the love between the hero and heroine properly. There is no need for the second heroine at all. Cinematography by Dasarathi Sivendra is good, while Radhakrishna's music is normal. Choreography is not bad. The climax of the film was abrupt and cinematic, which is beyond any reasoning. Because of poor screenplay, the comedy track also went haywire and gone out of track for several times.
REMARKS:
Once again, Eswar also tried to use mind games as the basic theme of the film. However, the director's storyline based on love, life, middle-class boy's attitude, use of intelligence in convincing the bride's father to get his love married to him – is good to listen, but he failed to present it on the screen properly. The entire film ran with a commercial formula film without twists. Even many comedy scenes are unnecessary and in one way slowed down the movement of the film. Despite the best efforts of the hero to keep the film on a hit track, the poor narration left the film as an average to below average flick.
Cast: 'Allari' Naresh, Manjari and Sraddha Das, Venumadhav, Chandramohan, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, MS Narayana, Jayaprakash Reddy, LB Sriram, Ahuti Prasad, Vijayaranga Raju, Kondavalasa Lakshmana Rao, Nalla Venu, Harshavardhan, Telangana Sakuntala, Surekhavani, Devisri and others.
CREDITS: Music – KM Radhakrishnan, Lyrics – Veturi, Dialogues – Raju M Rajasimha, Script assistance – Mohan, Balaram and Mukund Pande, Cinematography – Dasarathi Sivendra, Editing – Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao, Art – DV Satyanarayana, Producer – Malla Vijaya Prasad, Story, screenplay and direction – Eswar.
Banner: Wellfare Creations

Baladhoor Movie Review

Baladhoor - Poor mix of sentiment and action scenes

Working for a prestigious banner like Suresh Productions is a great opportunity and Raviteja got one such chance and pairing up with Anushka with whom he gave a hit like 'Vikramarkudu' is like a boon for him. Above all, the film has another highlight in the form of Krishna, who played an important role and he appeared on the screen after a long time especially in a full time role. On the other hand, the film has a director like Udayshankar, who earlier gave hit like 'Kalisundam Raa…' for the same banner. There were lots of expectations on the film but the audiences felt disappointed in the wake poor storyline with routine commercial formula.
Chanti (Raviteja) is a boy who did not spare anyone who resorts to injustice and who disregards women. His father is Purushottam (Chandramohan), who used to assist his elder brother Ramakrishna (Krishna) to run a real estate business. Theirs is a Rama-Lakshmana kind of relationship. At the same time, Chanti has the highest regard to his paternal uncle (pedananna) and could not spare anyone who do not respect to him. Once Chanti goes to their native village along with the entire family and comes across Bhanumati (Anushka). Bhanumati loses her heart to Chanti, when the latter thrashes goons who try to challenge Ramakrishna. Incidentally her father (Ahuti Prasad) too has high regard to Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna faces enmity from Pasupati (Pradeep Rawat) in business. The latter hatches many plans to defeat Ramakrishna but fails in every attempt. Once Chanti's sister in law faces problem with Pasupati's son and Chanti thrashes him. Irked over this, Pasupati's brother-in-law tries to attack Ramakrishna and he also gets a sound thrashing from Chanti. As a result, the engagement of Ramakrishna's daughter gets spoiled and the alliance breaks. Reacting to this, Purushottam necks out Chanti. How Chanti sets the things right? Did he able to convince the family who was supposed to accept his sister as their daughter-in-law? How Chanti thwarted the attempts of Pasupati to attack on the real estate business of Ramakrishna? Did Chanti accept Bhanumati's love? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.
PERFORMANCE:
Raviteja's performance was not that energetic like his earlier films. However, he did his best in the hero's role. Moreover, it is a tailor-made role for him and hence there is no scope to change his body language for him. The film has his mark of instant comedy. Even the script writers too penned the scenes and dialogues to suit him well. Anushka looked quite slim and continued to expose her beauty to the maximum extent. At times, it appeared a little overdose too. The director and the choreographers chose to show her belly button and the waist to appease the mass audiences. Comedy by Sunil is okay, while the comedy track penned for Brahmanandam failed to tickle the funny bone of audiences. Krishna, who appeared on the screen in a little lengthy role after a long gap, remained a highlight for the film. Others like Chandramohan, Sameer, Raja Ravindra and Raviprakash are okay in their roles. Pradeep Rawat and Subbaraju showed their routine villainy.
TECHNICAL:
Radhakrishnan who gave the best music for 'Chandamama' failed to give catchy tunes to a mass hero like Raviteja. Except a couple of songs like 'Tella Cheera Okay…' and another song, none of the tunes were that good. The film runs in a commercial formula and the director could not perfectly match the sentiment and action scenes. The script has no novelty and the movement of the film was also not perfect. There were several abrupt beginnings and endings for many scenes. In a bid to highlight Raviteja's mass image, the script writer chose tailor-made scenes for the film which has no novelty. Even the action scenes were not that stylish and the audiences got a feel of watching a film in 80s and 90s. The romantic scenes between the hero and heroine, the timing of songs were also not apt. However, camera work by Balamurugan is somewhat good and the locations chose for the film are a little new as none of the Telugu films were shot in those locales earlier.
Remark:
With no freshness in the story, the audiences felt bored. The film appeared as a mixture of two, three films that came up on the Telugu screen earlier. But for Anushka's glamour and Raviteja mark comedy there is hardly anything to watch in the film. However, the film will have a chance of above average revenue in other centres and not in 'A' grade cities. Udayshankar's slipshod screenplay and direction resulted in a poor run of the film. Audiences were heard saying none of the songs are good and the Anushka's heavy dose of exposure is unnecessary and unwanted.
Cast: Raviteja, Anushka, Krishna, Chandramohan, Sunil, LB Sriram, Pradeep Rawat, Subbaraju, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, Ahuti Prasad, Sivaprasad, Sameer, Raja Ravindra, Suman Shetty, Mallikarjuna Rao, Raviprakash, Gundu Hanumanta Rao, Kadambari Kiran, Tirupati Prakash, Sumitra, Bhargavi and others
CREDITS:
Story – Lakshmi Bhoopal, Dialogues – Paruchuri Brothers, Music – KM Radhakrishnan, Camera – B Balamurugan, Editing – Marthand K Venkatesh,Presents – Dr D Ramanaidu, Producer – D Suresh Babu, Screenplay and direction – Udayshankar.
Banner: Suresh Productions

Salute Movie Review

Salute - Vishal makes perfect debut with a message
Telugu audiences are familiar with Vishaal as hero with his hit films like 'Pandemkodi' and 'Pogaru'. He impressed them with his action scenes, though he is a little dark in colour. It is a little surprise that most of his films were produced by his brother Vikram Krishna and present by his father GK Reddy. Though brought up in Chennai, Vishal, being a Telugu by origin, could speak fluent Telugu. So he decided to go for a straight Telugu film and director Rajasekhar made his dream come true with an excellent mass-oriented police subject, which had a good message that the police and the God are one at the same and both of them had the power to punish anyone who is guilty. Presence of Upendra was a surprise, while Nayanatara added spice to the romantic songs.
Satyam's (Vishal) father is a tahsildar. He is a committed government official and gets killed by a quarry contractor. Though Satyam plans to take revenge, he shuns it, following an advice from Pratapa Rudra (Upendra) a sincere police officer. Taking him as an inspiration, Satyam completes his IPS and becomes an ACP. Home Minister Kondala Rao (Kota Srinivasa Rao) aspires for CM's post and decide to eliminate all the others who were in the race. He contacts Dilli (Ravi Kale) and tells them to kill his opponents Mahadevayya (Santana Krishnan), Chandramati (Apoorva) and Punyakoti (Jeeva). Even before Dilli attacks Mahadevayya and Chandramati, they die in the hands of some others. Naturally, Kondala Rao suspects it was the handiwork of Punyakoti. Satyam tries to save Punyakoti from death but fails to do so. However, he was able to nab the killer and to his utter dismay it is Pratapa Rudra. Upon being challenged by Pratapa Rudra that the Satyam can't do anything as a police to curb the crooked politicians, he sets out a plan and arrests Dilli, but he gets out of the court casually. To prevent recurrence of such incident, Satyam arrests Kondala Rao's aide Acharya. After a few turn of events, Acharya turns an approver. When Satyam takes him to court to make a confession, he gets killed by Dilli. Before this, Dilli also kills Satyam's mother. Satyam goes behind bars on the charges of killing Acharya. In order to prevent Dilli's arrest, Kondala Rao decides to make him a politician. Why Pratapa Rudra resorted to kill the polticians? Did Satyam was able to teach a lesson to the politicians? How he made the people realize who were the culprits? Answers to all these questions form part of climax.
PERFORMANCE:
But for Vishal and Upendra who played the key roles and Nayanatara who filled the glamour slot there is nothing to boast about the film. Vishal's performance a highlight in the film. He was so cautious in appearance and built the six-pack for exclusively for the film. The surprise entry in the film is Upendra. He appeared with clean shave in the flashback scenes, but when the story comes alive he is at his usual style with long hair. His performance and his challenge were quite natural and inspiring. Nayanatara, though portrayed the role of a TV journalist, did not appear much in that job, and was chosen to shake her legs with the hero. She is quite romantic in a song and exposed overboard in that song. She appeared a perfect match to the hero.Kota Srinivasa Rao is at his usual best as a crooked politician, while Ravi Kale is okay as his aide. Sudha Chandran of 'Mayuri'-fame appeared in an insignificant role of Vishal's mother. Comedy by Brahmanandam and Senthil fails to evoke any laughter. Tanikella Bharani and Hema played the parents of the heroine.
TECHNICAL:
Like all the earlier films in his career, the latest flick of Vishal, 'Salute' is also good in technical aspects. Especially the action scenes in the films, which are the forte of the hero, were excellently choreographed with lot of power and style. Cinematography by RD Rajasekhar is good in both action scenes and in songs. Dialogues by Sashank Vennelakanti are good in parts. Especially the ones scripted for Upendra evoked good applause from the audiences. Music by Harris Jairaj is also good.Though not very melodious while listening to them, they appeared good on screen. The producer spent a whole lot of amount on the choreography of songs. One of the songs involving the children and super heroes is worth watching.
REMARKS:
Once again Vishal came up with an energetic performance in a fully loaded action thriller. He is a perfect fit as a tough cop with a well-built body. Though the storyline is based on cops, the message given by him at the end that it was the people, who had to teach a lesson to the corrupt politicians and cooperate with the police in teaching a lesson to the traitors who do harm to the society. A worth-watching film for those who love action films with police in their backdrop.
Cast: Vishaal, Nayanatara, Upendra, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Brahmanandam, Ali, Apoorva, Jeeva, Ravi Kaale and others
CREDITS: Dialogues – Shashank Vennelakanti, Lyrics – Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry, Sahiti, Chandrabose, Music – Harris Jairaj, Choreography – Brinda, Suresh, Costumes – Ramana, Camera – RD Rajasekhar, Editing – Anthony,Action – 'Stun' Siva, Effects – Craig Muhma, Art – Thotta Tarani, Presents – GK Reddy, Producer – Vikram Krishna,Story, screenplay and direction - Rajasekhar
Banner: GK Film Corporation

Kathanayakudu Movie Review

Kathanayakudu - Jagapatibabu excelled in a low-profile character


Jagapatibabu, though popular as family subjects' hero, had several hit films in other subjects too. He had a different image. He is a very good performer too and this was proved with films like 'Hanuman Junction, Gayam, Antahpuram and Samanyudu'. Once again, director P Vasu chose this hero for a deglamourous role which maintains a low profile all through the film, but has a lot of scope for performance. The film explains the value of friendship. The story runs between a rich man and a poor man and their childhood friendship. In order to show the richness, the director chose films which is the most common commodity among the people. People always think that the heroes would earn lakhs of rupees besides a huge image and going near them is a difficult task.

Balu (Jagapatibabu) has a small saloon in a village, which doesn't have the basic requirements like a revolving chair and a good mirror. He has a wife Sri Devi (Meena) and three children including two girls. Sri Devi was very accommodative and has an understanding. However, Balu is unable to make both ends meet with his daily earnings. He is not in a position to pay his child's school fee. He used to say that Super Star Ashokkumar (Rajanikanth) was his childhood friend.

Incidentally, Ashokkumar comes to their village for a 20-day outdoor shooting. Balu's children start pestering him to take them to Ashokkumar, but Balu is quite hesitative as he is not sure whether Ashokkumar could identify him. If Ashokkumar did not recognise him, Balu might be necked out and that would be not only an insult to his friendship, but also Balu would lose the prestige before his family. At this juncture, the school principal (Gita) comes to Balu and pleads with him to invite Ashokkumar as chief guest for the silver jubilee function of the school, which Balu could not.

Somehow, the college management gets the appointment of Ashokkumar and invite him to the school function. Ashokkumar accepts their invitation and reels out his experiences in childhood and talks great about his friend Balu. Did Balu meet Ashokkumar even after realising that he did not forget him? What Ashokkumar did when he learns about Balu? Is that lecture at the school function is like filmy dialogues or did he really remember his friend? Answers to all these questions form part of climax.

Performance:

Jagapatibabu gave a brilliant and excellent performance all through the film. Especially, doing such a character, especially the role of a barber, is great for a hero with some stature. Moreover, the character was completely deglamorous and had a very low profile. But Jagapatibabu really lived in the character. His histrionics and body language were perfect to the core and director was able to extract all the acting talents from Jagapatibabu.

Meena, who played opposite Jagapatibabu, also did complete justice to the role. She appeared on the screen after a long gap, but was good to watch as the mother of three children. She lost her weight considerable and appeared glamorous.

Rajanikanth played the real life role in the film. He maintained his usual style and appeared glamorous in the film. He has not much scope to perform in many of the scenes in the first half and most part of the second half as well.

However, it was he who mesmerised the audiences with his performance in the climax. Veteran playback singer SP Balasubrahmanyam lent his voice to Rajanikanth. His dialogue modulation perfectly suited the style of Rajanikanth, especially while delivering the lecture in a school function, where he narrates the value of friendship.

Nayanatara also played the real life role in the movie.

Comedy by Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Sunil, Ali, MS Narayana and others are okay and was able to tickle the funny bone of the audiences, especially when the movement of the film is giving boredom.

Technical:

Padma Shri Thota Tarani, who was responsible for excellent sets for Rajanikant's latest film Sivaji, once again came up fantastic sets for this film too.

Camera work by Arun Krishna is okay. The most notable technician for the film after the director is the dialogue writer. Marudhuri Raja penned dialogues for the film, which are very good and casual. Dialogues in the climax were quite heart-touching.

Editing is perfect in the film, as the audiences can't find even a single scene which is irrelevant and boring. Above all, it is P Vasu who needs compliments for coming out with another good film. After a blockbuster like 'Chandramukhi', he came out with another notable film. As was rightly said by Rajanikant during the preview of the film, such movies would come very rarely. The director was able to maintain the friendship thread in a peculiar way. Though the story appears dragging till the climax, the audiences never feel boredom with occasional and timely comedy track.

Music by GV Prakash Kumar, the nephew of AR Rahman is melodious and the audio was a big hit even before the release of the film. Especially the song penned on the making of a film was worth listening, with good literary values.

Remark:

Though the hero of the film is Jagapatibabu in reality, the producer and director chose to highlight Rajanikanth, keeping in view the saleability of the film. Though Rajanikant appeared on the screen for less than 45 to 60 minutes, the film made a business of more than Rs 60 crore, just because of the image of Rajanikanth. The film proved a tear-jerker in the climax. The audiences who pay a price of Rs 50 for the ticket would feel satisfied with the last 20 minutes' of the movie.

Cast: Jagapatibabu, Rajanikanth, Nayanatara, Meena and Mamata Mohandas, Vijaykumar, Sunil, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, MS Narayana, Narsing Yadav, Duvvasi Mohan, Kondavalasa Lakshmana Rao, Rallapalli, Gauthamraju, Gundu Hanumanta Rao, Tanikella Bharani, Geeta and others.

CREDITS: Dialogues – Marudhuri Raja, Music – GV Prakash Kumar, Lyrics – Veturi, Ramajogaiah Sastry and Ananta Sriram, Choreography – Lawrence, Brinda, Ashok Raj, Art – Thota Tarani, Presents – Seven Arts, Camera – Arun Krishna, Producers – C Aswinidutt and GP Vijaykumar, Screenplay, direction – P Vasu

Banner: Vyjayanti Movies

Maa Aayana Chanti Pilladu Movie Review

Maa Aayana Chanti Pilladu - A xerox copy of Tamil original


There are some directors and producers in Telugu film industry, who believe that remaking of successful films of other languages would be a safe bet as they would surely attract the audiences. Instead of searching for a story, preparing a perfect script and suitable dialogues and selecting suitable artistes, these producers and directors feel that they could easily follow the original. Scripting screenplay and story would be very easy as they could be done in the form of translation. 'Maa Aayana Chanti Pilladu' is one such subject, which was the remake of a successful Tamil film 'En Purushan Kuzhanthai Madiri'. In any society, a legally wedded wife always thinks her husband should be like Rama. But when he tries to wag his tail, she won't hesitate to cut the tail and make him to mend his ways. The basic story of the film is based on this theory.

Bullabbayi (Sivaji) is fond of his sister-in-law Rajeswari (Meera Jasmine). He loves her so much and wanted to be flawless with good character. Though Rajeswari behaves that she is not interested in him, she really loves him. Bullabbayi has a property dispute with his stepbrother Veerababu (Subbaraju). In a bid to save a girl called Chintamani (Sangeeta) from being sold by a brothel owner (Anuradha) to Veerababu, Bullabbayi pays her money and takes Chintamani with him and keeps her in his outhouse. Bullabbayi tells her to leave the place the next day, but accidentally, seduces Chintamani, after an attack by Veerababu's men against him. Being an honest boy, Bullabbayi reveals everything to his father-in-law and urges him to stop the marriage, but the latter refuses to do so. Again, Bullabbayi innocently reveals the incident to Rajeswari as he doesn't want to cheat her that he was pious and flawless. Rajeswari attempts suicide and gets saved by Bullabbayi. However, Rajeswari refuses to share the marital life with Bullabbayi. A few days later, her father convinces her and appeals to honour his honesty. Being impressed with his innocence, Rajeswari allows him into the bedroom and they enjoy a good family life. As a result, Rajeswari turns pregnant, so also Chintamani. How Bullabbayi managed both his pregnant wives? Did Chintamani comes into the life of Rajeswari? Did Rajeswari keep mum on learning Chintamani was also pregnant and Bullabbayi continued to pamper her? What happened to the property dispute between Bullabbayi and Veerababu? How Veerababu reacted against Bullabbayi? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

PERFORMANCE:

Playing such kind of characters is very easy for a hero like Sivaji. The director etched the character in an entertaining way as he had the qualities of innocence and honesty. He showed perfect comedy timing and his body language and histrionics were perfectly suited to the character. Meera Jasmine is adequate as a housewife and her girl-next door kind of performance had a good appeal. She proved that the girl is very sensitive about her husband. Sangeeta, who was off the screen for the past some time, got a good opportunity to play a role which had a lot scope for performance. Subbaraju did justice to the negative role in the entire film and as a changed man in the climax. Other artistes like Chandramohan, Annapurna and others are also adequate and perfect fit in their respective roles. After a long time, Venumadhav had got a good opportunity to play a full-length comedy character with a direct link to the story and the hero instead of doing a separate comedy track. He was able to tickle the funny bone of the audiences with his performance.

TECHNICAL:

Dialogues by Rajendrakumar are good in parts. Music by MM Srilekha is a little let down in the film, as most of the tunes sounded copy tunes and one among the songs was a remix of a hit film of yesteryears which goes like 'Bavalu Syeya...'. The main draw back of the film is the poor screenplay by the director Raja Vannemreddy. It appears that he strictly followed the original while remaking the Telugu version. But for a couple of comedy scenes, there are no changes in the original script. Had he concentrated a little more on the screenplay, the movement would be a little more gripping. The director mainly targeted the family audiences and ignored the mass elements, which could attract masses.

REMARKS:

Making a family entertainer will not just do, but the director should also look for the welfare of the producer as the commercial success would have a lot of impact on the film. Unless there is a wide publicity, the film may not prove to be a crowd puller.

Cast: Sivaji, Meera Jasmine, Sangeeta, Subbaraju, Venumadhav, Chandramohan, Soma Vijayaprakash, Annapurna, Anuradha, and others.

Credits: Music – Srilekha, Lyrics – Bhaskarabhatla, Dialogues – Rajendrakumar, Editing – Nagireddy, Presenter – Mamidisetti Srinivas, Co-Producer – Prashant, Executive producer – Soma Vijaya Prakash, Producer – Bekkem Venugopal, Screenplay and direction – Raja Vannemreddy

Banner: Lucky Media

Ullasamga.. Utsahamga.. Movie Review

Ullasamga.. Utsahamga.. - Karunakaran's magic fails to do wonder


The day Dil Raju announced that he is going to distribute the film 'Ullasamgaa… Utsahamgaa…' directed by Karunakaran, the expectations on the success of the movie went up, in view of his experience in judging the saleability of the flick. Moreover, the film came from a successful Kannada producer like BP Somu. Director Karunakaran who gave a blockbuster with Pawan Kalyan like 'Tholiprema' could not repeat the magic once again, while trying to promote the producer's son Yasho Sagar as hero. The storyline has not much new to talk about, but for the twists and gimmicks added by the director. Sneha Ullal's glamour and performance also went waste in the absence of mass masala elements in this love subject.

Dhanalakshmi (Sneha Ullal) is the lone daughter of a landlord who has over Rs 50 crore property. As she lost her mother in her childhood, her father marries another woman (Kavitha). However, Dhana faces neglect from her stepmother. After Dhana's father passes away, there is no one to console her and the only friend who showed affection was Balaji. He too leaves her after she completes her Class X. After Dhana grew up, she bequeaths her father's property and her mother eyes it and wanted to marry Dhana against her wishes. So Dhana escapes from house and takes shelter in her friend's house in Hyderabad. Aravind (Yasho Sagar), son of a mechanic, who moves like a vagabond with friends sans any responsibility. He comes across Dhana and loses his heart to her. However, after a few encounters, Dhana gets caught by her stepmother and when she was about take her away, Aravind helps her from the abduction with the help of police. This makes Dhana to befriend with Aravind and she reveals her childhood friendship and tells Aravind that she is in love with Balaji and can't imagine any other in his place. After refusal, Aravind decides to go to Kolkata in search of a job and at the same time, Dhana also comes to know that Balaji is in Kolkata. They both again meet in train and accidentally Dhana misses the train during the journey. So Aravind helps her reach Kolkata to meet her childhood friend Balaji. In the process, Aravind gets severely hurt in the hands of a criminal, who tries to implicate Dhana in a narcotics case. Later, Aravind takes Dhana to Balaji's house in Kolkata. Dhana's stepmother also reaches Kolkata and agrees for Dhana's marriage with Balaji. When the marriage was about to take place, Dhana realises that her stepmother enacted a drama and created a fake Balaji to impress Dhana. Again Aravind comes to her rescue and at that time Dhana realises that she was in love with Aravind and the film ends on a happy note with the success of love between Dhana and Aravind.

PERFORMANCE:

Yasho Sagar performed well to a certain extent, though he was a novice. Especially he showed good ease in dances. His facial expressions are fine but his body was a little rigid. Had he improved his histrionics and body language, he could be said as a promising artiste. Hopefully, he could improve his rigidness by his next film. Next comes Sneha Ullal. Though the hero is a debutant, the heroine is not a novice and already faced camera for a Bollywood film, opposite Salman Khan for 'Lucky'. All the other characters like Chandramohan, Kavita and LB Sriram did justice to their respective roles. However, some characters appeared doing a little overaction in the film. Especially, Sudha, Surekhavani and Satyakrishnan appeared a little overenthusiastic. Comedy by Brahmanandam, Suman Setty, Sunil and Venumadhav tickled the funny bone and evoked laughter from the audiences.

TECHNICAL:

The director failed to manage a good tempo all through the film. The entire first half was devoted to show the mischievous acts of the hero and to build the love and friendship between the hero and the heroine. It appears the director did not concentrate well on the screenplay as he lost grip on the script for several times in the entire first half and a considerable part in the second half. But for the scenes about 15 minutes after the interval and before the climax, the remaining part of the film appeared bored. However, the only solace is the music by GV Prakash Kumar, nephew of AR Rahman. All the songs are lilting, the costumes and the choreography of songs are worth watching. Camera work by Andrew is just okay while editing by Marthand K Venkatesh is adequate. But for a couple of unnecessary scenes, which escaped from the scissors of Marthand, on an overall basis it is okay. Chintapalli Ramana's dialogues are good in parts.

REMARKS:

The promos that were released and telecast in various private channels made the audiences to decide that the hero is promising. However, when it comes to the film, the hero appeared very rigid and the movement of the story is full of ebbs and tides. Moreover, the film doesn't have any kind of mass masala elements and were shot in a routine and old fashioned way. Unless the film gets a good mouth publicity, the survival of the film is in a limbo.

Cast: Yasho Sagar, Sneha Ullal, Chandramohan, Brahmanandam, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Sunil, Venumadhav, LB Sriram, Prasadbabu, Gauthamraju, Kavitha, Sudha, Satyakrishnan, Surekhavani, 'Allari' Subhashini, Sobharani, Apoorva and others

CREDITS: Dialogues – Chintapalli Ramana, Lyrics – Anant Sriram, Editing – Marthand K. Venkatesh, Camera – I Andrew, Music – GV Prakashkumar, Art – Chinna, Action – Vijay, Choreography – Kalyan, Producers – BP Somu and GS Ranganath, Story, screenplay and direction – A Karunakaran.

Banner: Amrit Amarnath Arts.

Hare Ram Movie Review

Nandamuri Kalyanram launched a banner called NTR Arts as his career failed to click despite two films to his credit. He himself played the hero on that banner introducing Surender as director for 'Athanokkade'. The film turned out to be blockbuster. Again Kalyanram's films that came after that hit, failed to reach the audiences expectations. To regain his sagging image, Kalyanram planned another film on his banner again and once again he was able to hit the bull's eye with another debutant director Harshavardhan. For the first time, Kalyanram played dual roles in the film and the director too maintained good suspense and the movement of the film was also gripping.

Hari (Kalyanram) and Ram (Kalyanram) are brothers with different mindsets. Hari is intelligent and Ram always feels that no one should be greater than him. As their father (Chandramohan) was all praise for Hari, Ram tries to attack his father and brother. On noticing this, Ram's mother (Sita) takes him away, while Hari remains with his father. As Hari's father dies in his childhood, his paternal uncle and aunt (chinnanna, pinni) (Chalapati Rao and Sudha) bring him up and he becomes an IPS officer, while Ram's mother somehow bring him up by working as a cook. On the other side, there is a minister (Kota Srinivasa Rao), whose brother (Rajiv Kanakala) was a scientist. Both are crooked and the scientist invents a dangerous virus which spreads very fast and also its antidote. They plan to spread the virus first and then release the antidote later and earn money. A TV channel camerawoman (Sindhu Tulani) reveals this secret. As a result, she gets killed by the henchmen of the minister in association with her fellow journalist. Later, the journalist and the scientist get killed under mysterious circumstances. Suspecting some foul play, the CBI deputes Anjali (Priyamani) for investigation and she traps Hari and arrests him after he confesses the crime. Who is the real murderer among the two – Hari or Ram? What is the relationship between Ram and the camerawoman? What made Hari to confess the crime? Who took revenge against the killing of the camerawoman? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

PERFORMANCE:

Kalyanram, who faced successive failures, worked with a commitment to make the film a hit. Moreover, the film is being made on his own banner. He worked hard and showed good variation between both the characters. At the same time, he showed perfect ease in dances and they were choreographed in a stylish manner. Priyamani was proved herself once again as a good performer, besides filling the glamour slot. Her costumes in dance sequences were little revealing but not shoddy. Comedy by Brahmanandam and Raghubabu were able to tickle the funny bones to some extent, but the role played by Venumadhav appeared waste. Ali is okay in some scenes. Chalapati Rao, Chandramohan, Sudha, Sita, Kota Srinivasa Rao and Ashokkumar are adequate and did justice to their roles.

TECHNICAL:

When it comes to the choreography of action scenes, Selva and Ram-Lakshman gave the best of their abilities to attract the mass audiences. They were moulded in a stylish manner and the chase with vans and cars was shot well. The blast scenes were also shot in an expensive manner. As far as the canning of songs, they are worth watching, though Mickey J Meyer's tunes were fine with modern appeal. As far as the story and its movement, it has some similarities of an earlier film 'Manmadha', with one hero playing two roles after the death of one hero. Camera work by C Ramprasad is good while the editing by Gauthamraju is adequate. The production values of NTR Arts banner are good enough.

REMARKS:

With a clear indication that the film was aimed at masses, all the action scenes, songs and dances were targeted to attract the mass audiences. In order to give a boost to the image of the hero, the director tried his best to expose most of the film on the hero. The director was able to extract good acting talents not only from the hero, heroine and the villain, but also from all the artistes. The film has many commercial elements. As a whole, the film started with a hit talk from the morning show.

Cast: Kalyanram, Priyamani, Sindhu Tulani, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Ashokkumar, Chalapati Rao, Chandramohan, Brahmanandam, Ali, Venumadhav, Raghubabu, Rajiv Kanakala, Nutan Prasad, Prabhakar, Sita, Sudha, Apoorva and others

CREDITS: Music – Mickey J Meyer, Lyrics – Sitaramasastry, Camera – C Ramprasad, Editing – Gauthamraju, Art – Vivek, Action – Selva and Ram-Lakshman, Producer – Kalyanram, Story, screenplay and direction – Harshavardhan.

Banner: NTR Arts

Sangamam Movie Review

Many Indians settled in the US and are cashing in on their knowledge as they get adequate recognition to their talent there. But, many patriots grumble that they were selling their knowledge to foreigners for the sake of money. But they did not admit that it is not sale of knowledge but recognition of talent. Whatever be the case, the Indians who settled in the US, always used to feel that they were missing the attachment with their relatives in India. The same feeling was portrayed on the celluloid in a fabulous way.

Raghava Rao (Avinash) and Jagadish (Muralimohan) are brothers. Once Jagadish happens to meet a girl from the US and falls in love with her. They get married and Jagadish leaves for the US, against the wishes of Raghava Rao, who always believe that every individual should work for his own country. He feels that it is a sin to go to the US with a view to earn money. He also feels that those who settled in the US will ignore our culture and tradition and get addicted to boozing and other such maladies. Jagadish's wife dies after delivering Sneha (Sarah) and he too suffers losses in business. So he returns to India only to face a refusal from his brother to receive him at home. Unable to do anything, Jagadish goes back to the US. Raghava Rao also had a daughter called Sanskruthi (Sindhura Gadde). Once she meets with an accident and doctors find that she was suffering from a heart disease while conducting tests, whose cure is possible only with a surgery to be performed in the US. Though Raghava Rao is reluctant to send Sanskruthi to the US, he had no option as he loves his daughter. Venkateswara Rao (Raghunatha Reddy), a family friend of Raghava Rao, speaks to Jagadish and with his help contacts Dr Gita (Suhasini). So Dr Gita and Sneha receive Sanskruthi at the airport. In the US, Sanskruthi meets Sneha's friend Abhiram (Rohit Khurana), an agricultural scientist, who falls in love with Sanskruthi. After a few days, he proposes to Sanskruti, but the latter refuses the proposal as she knew very well that her father is against marrying a foreigner. Accidentally, Sanskruthi meets Sneha's grandmother (Radhakumari) from whom she realises that Sneha is none other then his cousin and is the daughter of Jagadish. After a talk with Abhi, Sanskruthi realises that Jagadish and his family is not at fault. She enjoys their company. Doctors perform surgery and Sanskruthi recovers and returns to India. Does the union (Sangamam) of Abhi and Samskruthi occurred? Did Jagadish and Raghava Rao reunite? Answers to these questions form part of climax.

PERFORMANCE:

Though not a very handsome personality, Rohit Khurana gave a brilliant performance and he did it with very ease. He played a typical Telugu guy brought up in the US. His language has a foreign accent in English and scents well while speaking Telugu. He showed nice histrionics wherever possible and his body language is good. The director was able to grab good expressions from all his movements. Sindhura Gadde, for the first time came before the camera after bagging Miss India title. Her performance also had an admixture of subtle nuances. She is beautiful and at the same time, the director chose to use traditional costumes to depict the traditional Andhra girl. Muralimohan is the other notable performer in the film for the smooth movement of the story. Brahmanandam played yet another memorable role in this film. He played the role of an Indian, who gets tortured by a girl in the US, by taking away his passport and Visa. He played 'Vaaralabbayi' role in the US, who moves from house to house as guest to eke out living. All the artistes including Suhasini, Avinash, Raghunatha Reddy gave their best of performance.

TECHNICAL:

MM Keeravani gave melodious tunes to all the songs. Even the background score is also done with precision and helped in elevating the tempo of the scenes. Camera work by Jayaram and S Sandeep Reddy is okay. They were near perfect because the director himself a cinematographer and knows the colour grading and lighting effects. Editing by Gauthamraju is sharp and one can't find any unnecessary scenes in the film. Lyrics by Anant Sriram are good and has good literary value. Dialogues by Surendra Krishna too are good in parts.

REMARKS:

The film gives the audiences a 'feel good' experience and definitely director Rasool Ellore's work would get critical acclaim. But the absence of commercial and mass elements may prove costly for the producers as the film could not attract the mass audiences. It would be a definite hit in 'A' grade centres, but the success of the film in 'B and C' centres is a little doubtful. However, we can't dismiss the success of the film, give the success of films like 'Happy Days' and 'Anand'.

Cast: Rohit Khurana, Gadde Sindhura, Muralimohan, Brahmanandam, Raghunatha Reddy, Avinash, Krishna Kaushik, Anil, Anand Varma, Sivannarayana, Narsing Yadav, Raghava, Subbaraju, Suhasini, Sarah, Anita, Vijayasri, Radhakumari, and others

Credits: Lyrics – Anantha Sriram, Music – MM Keeravani, Camera – Jayaram and S Sandeep Reddy, Editing – Gauthamraju, Story and dialogues – Surendra Krishna, Script Assistance – Suresh and Prakash, Choreography – Babu and Vidya, Presents – Gavara Parthasarathy, Producers – Ramana Pemmaraju and Kripakar P Tadikonda, Screenplay and direction – Rasool Ellore.

Bramhanandam Drama Company:Movie Review

Bramhanandam Drama Company - Galaxy of comedians failed to deliver entertainment

Cast: Brahmanandam, Sivaji, Ravikrishna, Kamalini Mukherjee, Sameeksha, Ranganath, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Jeeva, Ali, AVS, Raghubabu, Sivajiraja, Allari Ravi, Raghu, Kamal, Gundu Sudarshan, Apoorva, Sasirekha, and others
Credits: Camera – PS Babu,
Music – Sai Karthik, Dialogues – Ramesh-Gopi,
Fights – Selva,
Presents – B Gurunath Reddy,
Producers – Palli Kesava Rao and K Kishore,
Screenplay and direction – I Srikanth,
Banner: Sriramachandrulu Films

There are many directors, who could tickle the funny bones, with the movement of the story itself. They could script the screenplay and story in such a way that the scene itself brings smile on the face of audiences. They were able to reap good entertainment with heroes itself. Heroes like Venkatesh, Rajendra Prasad, Raviteja, Vishnu and the latest Ram, were able to give entertainment, despite showing heroism on the screen. There some other directors, who keep a comedy track, which has a link with the story and at times, without any link as well. But, keeping the entire comedians of Tollywood in his star cast, director I Srikanth failed to provide entertainment, though the subject was proved a hilarious comedy show in its original form (Bagham Bagh).

Anandam (Brahmanandam) has two heroes in his drama company Sivaji (Sivaji) and Ravi (Ravikrishna). An NRI contractor (AVS), who was fascinated with the beauty and dance of the heroine of the drama company (Sameeksha) books them to stage shows in Bangkok. Before they leave for the abroad trip, both the heroes misbehave with the heroine. This forces her to quit the job and leave the drama company just before they were about to board the flight. To make use of the abroad trip, the entire troupe boards the flight sans the heroine. They somehow manage the contractor that their heroine was busy with some modelling and will join them later. Then the heroes start search for a suitable face as heroine. In the process, Ravi was able to bring Arpitha (Kamalini Mukherjee), into their troupe. After giving performance in one show, she meets with an accident due to her mental disorder (suicide tendency). Later, she was taken away by one Mahendra (Raghu) who claimed to be her husband. Soon, the trio (Anandam, Sivaji and Ravi) gets implicated in abetment of suicide case. How they were able to come out of the case? What makes her to commit suicide? Did really Arpitha die? What made her to say that she is the wife of Mahendra? Why the gangsters were after the trio? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

PERFORMANCE:
It is Brahmanandam, who is a seasoned comedian, delivered good performance in the entire film. All the other artistes, who were also seasoned comedians could not evoke even a smile on the faces of the audiences, leave alone a big laugh. Moreover, good artistes like Sivaji and Sivajiraja too gave a very unimpressive performance. Ravikrishna kept a big blank face in the film. Neither he showed any feelings in his face nor had put up a good body language. Kamalini is the only saving grace in the film. However, she was also portrayed in a deglamorous character. However, she showed ease in a couple of dances which gave a little relief.

TECHNICAL:
Dialogues by Ramesh-Gopi are very unimpressive. Camera work by PS Babu is a big minus. Though a major part of the film was shot in Bangkok, he failed to grab the beautiful locales with his camera skills. Songs lack any foot-tapping dances and music by Sai Karthik is not at all melodious. Only a remix song, which has a mixture of first stanzas of popular songs evoked good response in the theatre. Screenplay and direction by I Srikanth are very disappointing. The director failed to run the film with a good tempo.


REMARKS: The audiences who go to the theatres with lots of expectations on the entertainment would face miserable disappointment in the absence of any scenes worth watching. The producers who took more than one and a half years to complete the film, were not in a position to release the film in the absence of any takers, possibly because of the unimpressive movement of the film. Somehow, they were rescued by some distributors who dared to release the film. It is very much doubtful whether any of the buyers would get back their money or not.