Movie Review - Oka Laila Kosam (Telugu) - A mediocre mishmash!!

There were love stories that filled the air with romance and pain, and then there are love stories that only bank on the salable factor by forcefully inducing old school clichés and masala tropes in the narration. Oka Laila Kosam struggles to get into the zone of the former, but nestles in the arms of the latter. Director Vijay Kumar Konda won the hearts of many with his first film and tries to recreate the same magic by weaving a similar fabric replete with embellishments. However, this time the gloss stays afloat keeping other elements at the bottom. 

  

Time and again, we are forced upon a happy-go-lucky guy who is self-indulgent to the core. On the day of his convocation at Indian School of Business Studies (nice name though), he professes about 'freedom' and leaves many cushy job offers for it. This spoilt brat falls head over heels for someone with the qualities of a good samaritan. One after the other, few misunderstandings pop up and the gal tries her best to stay away from the guy. But the guy never loses hope and makes it a point to throw many gibes at the gal to the level of intolerance. 

The hero also dabbles with writing and pens his love story with the title Oka Laila Kosam; if that offers some respite, so be it. However, the book gets a mention only during the start and somewhere towards the end, making it another ill-placed prop in the screenplay. After multiple episodes of 'comedy of errors', finally, an untimely twist brings things to a cinematic conclusion paving a way for 'all’s well that ends well'. That's some effort from my end to forcefully fit in Shakespeare in this review and nothing magical of sorts happen in the film. 

Oka Laila Kosam seems like a bag of borrowings – some from recent times and some as old as mountains. All these make it a mediocre mishmash. The visuals and few scenarios offer freshness but the director is hell bent to Telugu-fy the screenplay with mundane treatment. Some sparks which fly in the film’s initial run time are barely visible after interval. Only when Ali appears on screen, you muster all your energy to giggle, otherwise the film stretches like a chewing gum to test your patience. 

The three principal characters (one being a comedian) are not handled with conviction and lot of inconsistencies creep into the narrative. Even some sub-plots protrude as sore thumbs. Adding further woes, the chemistry between the lead pair couldn’t crackle and the jokes, at times, appear as assortments of canned laughter. As the end credits roll, you'd be surprised to see the names of 'Satyam' Rajesh, Dhanraj, Josh Ravi, Vennela Kishore etc., and wonder where they were... err, why they were!

Anup Rubens and Andrew are the real winners with their music and camerawork respectively. The visual panache is finely coupled with few lilting tunes and refreshing background score. Towards the end, the film gets a melodramatic tinge with an over use of emotional tracks, but the performances fail to live up to it. Even the character incoherencies play spoilsport in this film, which stands tall on lackadaisical writing.

Oka Laila Kosam harps on a cliched plot and an age-old storytelling technique. So, it remains as a haphazard effort to paint a coming-of-age love story on a stereotypical canvas. And, if you are looking for some 'love' or some 'story' in this love story, then you may be disappointed!

My Rating: Expectation - 7/10; Reality - 4/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

Movie Review - Govindudu Andarivadele (Telugu) - A colorful canvas!!

Picture this… An urbane bloke from the most urbanized surroundings lands up at rural premises to square things off, a family head melts like a slice of butter towards the end, a gal unleashes her vigorous side when with friends but shifts to a different gear when at home, a generous exchange of gibes by the lead pair, a rival family tries to use the village for their selfish goals, a member of the house with a villainous shade, more colors splatter on the frames than those seen in any commercials for a paint brand, chlorophyll soaked landscapes, larger than life sets and a magical ‘yellow’ light. That’s a warm welcome to the world of Krishna Vamsi.

In a time tested formula; Ram Charan plays Abhiram in Govindudu Andarivadale, whose objective is to unite the family. He crosses paths of a Pawan Kalyan from Attarintiki Daredi, a Jr. NTR from Brundavanam, a Venkatesh from Kalisundaam Raa, and not to forget a Meena from Seetharamaiah Gari Manavaralu. Even other films of Krishna Vamsi fall in the line of the character sketches, conflicts and resolutions. However, every aspect of the film gets a proper shaping with KV’s mark style and sensibilities. You may feel such kind of emotions and expressions can’t be churned out in a daily humdrum, but the perceptions take a detour in this entertaining throwback to other films, with its lead performers firing on all cylinders. Though some characters get a miniscule screen time, the casting never goes wrong.

Prakash Raj is not the regular patriarch limping with a stick but holds a prowess of gyrating it to make a hard-hitting statement. Jaya Sudha does lot of talking through her eyes and her climactic breakdown is sheer brilliance. There’s an electrifying chemistry between Ram Charan and Kajal that sets off a fiery romance laden with a sacrifice. Albeit wearing a dark hue, Srikanth adds humor to the proceedings and acts as a key plot driver. Kamalini looks endearing but still tries to breathe in the mould created by Sekhar Kammula. The other bunch of actors just get their act right.

The protagonist’s character needed some pruning to ward off few character incoherencies. He is seen as a Telugu speaking lad in a foreign nation, but all this goes for a toss when he comes to India. He mouths only ‘Dude’ and ‘Bro’ while talking to people. And his pretext of entering the village to learn the nuances of agriculture never sees the light of the day. He is only busy fighting, romancing, emoting (for lack of a better word) and setting things right for all the members of the family. However, the rugby playing skills of the character are used to good effect in crucial fight sequences.

The cameraman Sameer Reddy takes a pat on the back and also the writers for inducing the concept of mood based lighting in the screenplay. The lighting is soft, ambient and makes a hyperbolic pronouncement of the vibrant nature of the family. On the other side, it is dark and surfaces the gloomy side of the villain’s house and also in the climax when Jaya Sudha talks about the consequences that may force a family to become separated. The ‘yellow’ light makes its presence felt in most of the frames. The music also pumps soul into the narrative. Thanks to Yuvan Shankar Raja, we could listen to lot of wind instruments in the background. This comes as a relief when our movies are replete with heavy percussions.   

Govindudu Andarivadale may be an effort to dig deep into the same genre again and again, but this time it gets a master stroke from Krishna Vamsi on a colorful canvas. The wafer-thin storyline is supplemented with an ensemble cast of performers, overcrowded frames and dollops of melodrama to bring a gleam on your faces. 

My Rating: Expectation - 8/10; Reality - 6/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

Movie Review - Loukyam (Telugu) - A cringe-worthy cocktail

What’s the difference between film-making and cocktail mixing? In the latter, the mixologists have made mixing drinks an artful endeavor and their adroitness of how to shake, stir and pour churns out a perfect blend. But, alas! This skill goes missing in the film-makers who never think twice to make a film on an age-old template. We can’t even call them ‘an old wine in the new bottle’, ‘leave your brains at home’ etc., as these phrases, like our formulaic films, are getting into the folds of clichés with their repetitive usage.

Yet again our hero Venky (Gopi Chand) is a happy-go-lucky guy who is always there to help and is very effective than any ‘Public Grievance Redressal System’. He helps his friend to runaway with his loved one and, for this valiant act; he earns the wrath of the girl’s family. Let’s call it a Ready or a Rabhasa.

Hero falling in love with villain’s sister can be attributed to a Mass or a Dhee. This time it tilts more towards Dhee as the tone is comical. Wait, our hero asks her to spend a day with him so that he can make her realize his love. The end result arrives in the form of a text message – ‘Hi’. That’s strange. That’s Mass.

Our hero enters the college and tries to woo the girl by pretending as a police officer. This can trace back to a Vishal starrer Malaikottai (Bhayya in Telugu). Not only that, he also learns her hobbies through a friend and makes her dance! Even Gopi Chand’s Ontari had a similar spin-off  And when she realizes that our hero is not what he pretends to be, she asks for an apology and the regular teasing, singing, dancing routine starts. During these episodes, there’s lot of eye candy painted on the screen and Rakul Preet looks drop dead gorgeous. All thanks to her styling, but she needs more meat to her character.

There are many illogical and unwarranted scenes in Loukyam, which do no good for the screenplay rather than offering some throwback to Gopichand’s previous films. May be the writers wanted to pick few good scenes that may work out effectively for this hero and put the audience’s grey cells in active mode. Yes, they need to identify which scene is from which movie. Here, the regular mould of Kona Venkat gets a slight tweaking as the villain and his henchmen visit the hero’s place post interval. That’s a structural reversal. 

Though the entire film looks like a bag of borrowings, the high point of Loukyam comes in the form of comic playoff. Brahmanandam as Sippy and ’30 Years’ Prudvi as ‘Boiling Star’ Babloo pack so much of humor ranging from cheesy, slapstick, situational and lots more. The Legend spoof comes as a relief package towards the end. So, the fact can be reiterated that the comedians can only anchor a movie and keep it afloat amid turbulence. Loukyam also tries to blur the difference between a villain and comedian. This time around, Gopi Chand mellows down the action quotient and stays close to the safe zone of comedy.

Loukyam treads a path where comedy overpowers creativity and peels a layer of irreverence when the hero believes that a journey to a woman’s heart is not through roses or exchanging pleasantries but a tight slap on her face. So, where has all the respect and susceptibility for women gone. Although few bits-and-pieces of comedy and the film’s rich texture drives you to buy this product, a sickening blend of stale ingredients makes it a cringe-worthy cocktail that leaves a bad aftertaste. 

My Rating: Expectation - 6/10; Reality - 4/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

Movie Review - Aagadu (Telugu) - Superstar, the showstopper!!

Director Sreenu Vytla has verve about his film-making; rich, buoyant and lion-hearted. For the third time in a row, he gets his hero to don a cop avatar and for some strange reason, police and their rib tickling modus operandi to deal with goons exude a weird allurement. He ensures to make Aagadu grand, potent and obligatory like folklores, which can draw the viewers into them. This time he even goes overboard with his allusions to Ram Gopal Varma!

After chewing some time for the lead character’s childhood episodes and explaining the current status quo, the director gives a hat tip to the Spaghetti Westerns to pull off a dusty entry for the hero, where the latter flashes his towering machismo with a monumental fight sequence amid the dust flying in the air. Like every other film coming out in recent times, Aagadu, too, is based on a masala cliché: a wisecracking yet dead serious cop taking on the evil forces that bring the clouds of gloom to a town. And this template is fleshed out with flavorful Tollywood masala. This time the protagonist wears a new attitude and gives some importance to his sidekick as they set on a hilarious mission.

The plot of Aagadu belongs to a bygone era featuring a messiah of masses and may not figure among those intense cop dramas or thrillers which would drop the jaws or freeze the eyelids. The technicalities are adequate to showcase decent visuals. However, the film emanates gibes and quips, and its use of different slangs for the hero’s character amply accentuates the comic quotient.

Mahesh is a natural charmer stealing the show with his screen presence and immaculate rendition of his lines. Though, at times, I felt he missed a pause or a punctuation here and there. Tamanna makes a comely appearance with her ethnic look. She has a very limited role and is barely visible in the second half. Shruti Hassan sizzles in an inevitable item number. Brahmanandam and M S Narayana put in their parts to good effect. As standalone entities, the former’s comic episodes make you fall off your chair but don’t quite gel well into the narration.

It hurts to frown at this film for the shades of resemblance it leaves around and for the way it does a repetitive act of a hero making a fool out of the comedians and the villains indulging in buffoonery rather than spreading menace all over. The perennial problem with a Sreenu Vytla film is that the main antagonist fails to get registered; same is the case with Aagadu. Just during the wet firecracker kind of a climax, you realize that there’s a villain character (played by Sonu Sood) that needs to be eliminated.

The piece de resistance of Aagadu is the way it draws the contours of irony by trying to overthrow stereotypical constructions staying in a formulaic zone. Albeit Mahesh’s character ridicules the practice of infesting a film with punch lines and one-liners, he indulges in mouthing many of them with remarkable ease. Even though the film lacks a novel storyline and traverses in an archetypal Sreenu Vytla zone, it doesn’t disappoint for there is a vigor that is contagious. 

With just enough comedy and drama to anchor the sweeping spectacle of Superstar Mahesh Babu smashing everyone and everything in sight, Sreenu Vytla’s Aagadu gratifyingly reverberates commercial cinema. To complain that the scenes are overdone and overproduced is to find fault with a kaleidoscope for having too many colors and patterns. That’s what Sreenu Vytla’s cinema is. That’s what Sreenu Vytla cinema needs! 

My Rating: Expectation - 7/10; Reality - 5/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.
An edited version of this piece can be found here.

Movie Review - Anukshanam (Telugu) - Thriller sans thrills!

Anukshanam was in the news much before its release, not just for the reason it’s another RGV film; but for the innovative pattern of distribution it ventured into. With that, the premise and plot elements were also revealed to an extent. So, the audience expects an intense thriller before walking into the cinema. This concept may sound new on the landscape of Telugu cinema, but has been handled differently and perfectly in other languages, especially the crime thrillers of Malayalam. Then parallels would be rife and how RGV managed to create discretion by holding the bits and pieces of thrills so tautly will make it a cut above the rest.

The movie opens with a psycho killer taking his first victim. Then it runs on the track of a killing spree where the number becomes insurmountable to send enough shivers down the spines of the residents of the city. Gautham (Vishnu) is the special officer in-charge who is on his toes to nab the criminal. Revathi, an NRI who did an extensive research on serial killers comes to his rescue by helping him understand the modus operandi of such people. Together, they try to get close to the killer.

Anukshanam is a rare breed of cinema, where the audience’s preconceived notions get quashed one after the other. Some for good and some go beyond control. The killer’s character is revealed in the first scene, so it’s not another ‘Who done it?’ genre. The killer gets his prey so effortlessly without any resistance, so it’s not a police story where the cops overpower with their heroics. There is zilch of engrossing investigation or ‘connect the dots’ spinoff or finding any traces of vital clues all through the film. A major chunk of the film is dedicated to understanding the background of the softcore individual who turned into a killer, rather than piling more layers of intrigue. Don’t know whether the intention is to send the killer to a rehabilitation centre rather than to a place of confinement.

The characters behave quite differently than required. A journalist always goes with an overblown presentation of cops as spectators and mere caricatures. Revathi’s character brings her personal story to the fore, which is unwarranted. A senior cop gets the information on phone after a gruesome act, and pops up with some flash-in-the-pan moments during press meets. And the behavior of the Home Minister falls on the extremes with his callous nature in this age of media activism. The purpose of Brahmandam’s character still remains a boggling question!

RGV sparkles at places with his technique. There are no unconventional camera angles and the mood and ambience were set up meticulously for the flow of events to seep in. However, the repetitive use of similar sounds for every genre makes it quite jarring. In a typical RGV style, the performances by the central characters are well conceived. Surya as the killer spearheads the film with finesse.

The movie borrows some traces from the films of Davind Fincher and the pre-climax showdown is reminiscent of Se7en. The film’s short runtime and adequate pace may turn into its favour. However, Anukshanam neither stands tall for its substance nor for the sparkling implementation of the written material by the director to create an earth-shattering product. 

My Rating: Expecation - 6/10; Reality - 3/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

Movie Review - Power (Telugu) - ‘Power’less string of scrapes!!

There is a clear distinction set for commercial-style cop stories. They have to be loud and darn loud – both in terms of the background score that tries to elevate the scenes and also the uncanny sounds that only find a place in such films. Of course, you can’t imagine listening to thuds and dishums in real life scenarios. Power wanders around this ambit and climbs many notches in rinsing and repeating the formulaic template of a masala entertainer. There’s no harm in dishing out masala, but to what extent is it palatable and how to run a quality check of the ingredients used would be a matter of concern.

Power stays on the fulcrum with Balupu and Vikramarkudu on its extreme ends. In between, there’s a Don Seenu, Julayi, Gentleman, Daruvu, Lakshmi Narasimha et al trying to cling on it to get a perfect balancing act. The film explodes in Kolkata with a high on adrenaline chase sequence chewing loads of aerial footage. Here, Ravi Teja is Baladev Sahay – gutsy yet corrupt police officer. Then the smoke trail leads to another place where a different Ravi Teja flashes in a mass avatar in the form of Tirupathi. Here, he is a wannabe cop and runs from pillar to post to get his dream job. The film shifts between these two characters with interspersing episodes from both the places and an inevitable flashback to fix the motive of the protagonist in a fight between good and evil.

Now, my question is simple. Why do these movies have to be so predictable? Director K S Ravindra joins the bandwagon of writer-turned-directors and stays close to the concoction he churned during his fledgling days. He is reluctant to tamper with a successful streak of mimicking the framing devices such as an honest cop (with a wife and a young kid) at the receiving end, a mother on her death bed, a caricatured heroine who plays a second fiddle in the flashback episode, an officer’s subordinates with a stench of loyalty, and many more to amp up the emotional quotient. In case of Power, we know what’s going to happen in the next, and the next scene. So, we don’t have to wait for a long time for the so called surprises to unfold on the screen. However, one or two so called twists have been handled well.

Power is a strange regression in the context of a cop-versus-politician kind of themes. There are some tokenistic attempts at making the hero a larger-than-life colossus. As ACP Baladev Sahay, Ravi Teja is comical and brooding. He mixes both the shades to surface the expressions archetypal of a cop with an ulterior motive. As Tirupathi, he chuckles and crackles to the core by reprising his acts from Khatarnaak and Kick. He along with Brahmanandam tries to stir a laugh riot but fails to pull off a Krishna-esque act. Even those few comic spin-offs are clasped in a cocoon of Balupu.

There is an ample scope to do things right with more research put into the script, but the makers paid no heed to it. Instead they have resorted to a big hero, colorful songs and old masala tropes to fill the film’s palette. Though the characters belong to multiple geographies, the diversity never seeps into - the story’s texture. The entire Kolkata episode with Telugu speaking people seems like one that’s shot locally and offers no justification. There are overt references to the uniform reminding the police force of their duty, but the hero puts you in a confused mode by wearing both white and khakhi clothes alternately.  All these make Power a powerless string of scrapes that hinge on the template of a routine cop drama. 

My Rating: Expectation - 6/10; Reality - 4/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

Movie Review - Weekend Love (Telugu) - Routine yet refreshing!!

You walk into the cinema with very low expectations, and the experience slowly turns out to be a bagful of surprises. Then you try to cherish every bit of it and pat on your back for your luck. But this effect becomes fleeting, and as film inches towards the interval you mellow down your expectations. Then again the film rises like a high tide, giving a flight to your imagination, and switching between a smooth and a turbulent sail to reach its climactic shore. This experience can be summed up in a phrase for a film’s title called Weekend Love.

The film is an assimilation of many stories that form the bone of contention for today’s youth as well as their parents. Amid all these, director Nagu Gavara manages to cook a fine broth of a love story – an archaic one set in a modern IT ecosystem. Ganesh (Adith) is a believer of casual flings and Sandhya (Supriya) is inclined towards relationships that stay from here till eternity. These two contrasting characters are colleagues in a software company. How they fall for each other and how Sandhya becomes a catalyst for change in Ganesh’s attitude towards life forms the rest of the story.

There’s a clear-cut demarcation between a love story and a moralizing love story. We have witnessed many films that revolved around both the genres. Weekend Love just tries to do a balancing act between the two. The outsider’s perception of software industry and its work culture has been elevated to next level and at the same time few myths got quashed. The major chunk of the film is laced with situational comedy and the quirky characters bring the house down.

Adith marks the arrival of another commercial hero; he also says that funnily in a scene. His dances and fights perfectly fit the bill and he shows a lot of promise for an actor who is one movie old in Telugu. He is in his elements and is the force behind the film. All through the film, Supriya struggles to fix the right emotions. She tries to look her character by wearing ethnic wear, albeit with low necklines. There’s a clear miss of a charm that defines her fragile nature. The supporting cast gets its part right with clearly etched roles.

Weekend Love also has its share of shortcomings. The scenes are so much stretched that you bleed from boredom to watch the inevitable unfold on screen. You want to count the minutes a bit faster to reach to the next scene. The age old tactic of a conflict resolution mechanism has been used to full force, thus opening the faucets of tears. Many such old school ways of film-making transform this seemingly fresh tale of love into a string of stale additives. However, the justification to every character with a proper arc makes this film a borderline preachy yet perfect presentation of a story that’s ridden with attitudes and behavioral traits of the present generation and ways to mend them before the imminent damage. Here, the writer-director tugs at your heart strings with his incisive dialogue.   

My Rating: 2.5 /5

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

Movie Review - Rabhasa (Telugu) - The FORMULA Factor!!

If you dream to make a film with a star and an astronomical budget, you will run a double check on most of the things to get them in the right proportions. Many a time we see some old plots working big on screen; there might be umpteen reasons for that, or may be no reason. But if someone makes it a habit and calls it an industry benchmark of repetitive use of a formula with different set of actors and a minor tweaking, things may not come out glorified always. Rabhasa gets into the clutches of a time-tested template that’s deeply ingrained in the minds of audience and film-makers alike.

Rabhasa is a cinematic realization of dreams of many characters – a mother, a girl, a father, a son, two feuding families and the list is endless. But the catch here is, only our mighty hero struggles to the core to bring others close to their dreams. In this process, he never allows the dream machine of the audience to watch an engaging, entertaining cinema to take-off. He only feels his job is done if he makes the goons do a salsa in the air and shake a leg with two blistering beauties.

Director Santosh Srinivas delves into the story and characters without an iota of novelty. He never gave it a thought that audience might outsmart his narrative style and predict the so called plot twists. The campus comedy scenes in the first half remind you of Bunny with an unwarranted overdose of Attantiki Daredi. However, the scenes between Praneetha and Samantha don’t let any sparks to fly off and again it’s NTR’s show all the way. Raakasi song in this part comes as a relief.  

The second half rides high on the emotional quotient with immense and inevitable action sequences ruling the roost. Don’t be surprised to see a lavish spread of Brundavanam, Ready and Mirchi. There’s a bit of Brahmanandam added to the mundane offering to make it sugary and spicy, but that couldn’t thwart the yawn-worthy narration. NTR’s character breaks out the trauma he’s going through all these days and the sacrifices lined up in front of him, only in the pre-climax, but the audience never realizes this intense drama unfolding on the screen. The movie’s template is also home for many glaring flaws, which defy logic and make the proceedings way too far-fetched.

Rabhasa is a strange regression in the context of a-man-enters-the-mansion-to-change-its-residents kind of themes. There are some tokenistic attempts at making the hero a larger-than-life colossus and the heroine, just a showpiece. The movie never departs from stereotyping a female character where she is only present to fill the blank spaces with her glamour. The supporting cast never gets their due to display their acting prowess. They are invariably made dumb beyond their usual levels. All this has been done under the pretext of raising the hero above all. Is this character elevation or hero worship?

The music fails to create the much need zing for a commercial entertainer. S S Thaman recycles the leftovers from his inventory and does nothing earth-shattering. The same holds good for other technical departments. Though NTR’s performance is laudable, it is watching him reprise many of his past outings. You may watch Rabhasa if you can drink an old wine from an old bottle and never complain about it; or if song-and-dance numbers and overblown fight sequences are your cup of cinema, and painstakingly accept a long show-reel of the hero for a feature film.  

My Rating: Expectation - 7/10; Reality - 4/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

Movie Review - Nee Jathaga Nenundali (Telugu) - Obsessive-compulsive love story!!

For a long time, I have been waiting for an old-fashioned, romantic film. I really love them. In recent times, we hardly see pain and heartbreak getting their due credit in penning a love story. Either the passion with which these stories are made goes missing or the film-makers fail to induce soul into their characters. Nee Jathaga Nenundali has been touted as a poetic retelling of Aashiqui 2, which in turn was a remake of the classic A Star Is Born. Though it manages to pool in all the old school tricks that go into a conflict-ridden story, it leaves you wanting for more in terms of a better structure and resolution.

Raghav Jayaram / RJ (Sachiin) is an alcoholic rock star whose career is on a decline. He bumps into Gayatri (Nazia), sees his mirror refection, spots a talent, and breaks all hell loose to make her a singing sensation. A misunderstanding here and there distances them, but finally they bond together and Gayatri touches the pinnacle of glory. RJ realizes that Gayatri’s uphill climb should not be curtailed by his self-destructive mode, so he tries to go away from her. Here, the film takes a cyclic pattern of the girl struggling to help the guy, but the latter indulges in his own world of conflicts. The climax gets a tweaking, from the original, to accommodate ‘a star is born’ culture prevalent here.

The story is not bad, just the way it is told in an unconvincing way is. The screenplay meanders as it progresses and doesn’t move you by an inch. We know that RJ is a ‘rock’ sensation but never get to see his heydays, and what the real problem that made him an alcoholic is. And for God’s sake, why can’t he leave it and try to resurrect his failing career. A few independent scenes stand out to showcase the male psyche and its incapability to deal with downfall. However, they fail to stitch together the emotion and the true intent of this story. Also, the chemistry between the lead pair never graduates to a level where they can make such sacrifices.

The performances are dismal with Sachiin’s wooden face eclipsing others. Some scenes look believable to an extent, but the dialogues are far-fetched. Every dialogue has been written to paint a mawkish picture, but they are atrocious and make you laugh in disbelief. Nobody speaks like that, even in the utmost cinematic constructions. Again, nobody knows about the hero’s father who plays an agony aunt, err, dad and is restricted only to telephonic conversations!

The music is the saving grace, but for how long. We watch a film for lot many things rather than just the music. The songs and background score are recreated from the original and few soulful renditions become repetitive after some time. Like Gayatri who always stays with RJ and never thinks of getting him admitted into a rehabilitation centre, the director also focuses only on a strong sense of visual style and leaves the script and execution in the lurch. A couple of intense scenes and the famous ‘jacket’ moment couldn’t save this film from slipping into the crevices of a tiresome, syrupy tearjerker.

My Rating: Expectation - 6/10; Reality - 4/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

An edited version of this piece can be found here. 

Movie Review - Lovers (Telugu) - Where is the love?

Lovers harps on a point that all it needs to make a Telugu film is a bunch of star comedians and the audience peeps only into the comic department to absolve the other sins committed by the makers. Maruthi sets his foot forward to etch few quirky characters and crowd-pleasing hilarious lines to sell his stuff in the name of cinema. If you are an ardent fan of this film-maker and well-versed with his style of offering, you may buy part of it and for those who are still searching for meaning and promise in cinema, this film distances their expectations by ages. 

The film’s flimsy storyline revolves around an insensible boy in a problematic situation because of a girl who is quirky to the core. They study together in their high school and the guy dreams of eliminating her one day. The director tries to project this as the central conflict point, but he forgets that puerile emotions and standings may not stretch for a long time. 

The guy has another story of being lovelorn and going through turmoil in his relationship. When this is brought to the notice of church father, he extracts some chunks from a case study to help the boy. All this may sound ridiculous and so are the lame interval and the climax, which remains as a scar on the face of all old and new love stories.  

Sumanth Ashwin struggles to find his way through the film. Is he trying to do something different, or restricted to taking brickbats from the fairer sex, or at least is he trying to act becomes the film’s bone of contention. Nanditha brings few finely carved moments with her menace and vibrancy. She is apt in her portrayal of a girl who is against flirts and stalkers. However, this director’s muse and golden goose takes a back seat after interval when there’s a heavy downpour of Sapthagiri – the madman. A couple of unwarranted blocks of comedy have been created to appease the aficionados of male-centric comedy.  

Lovers tries to tell so many things when there is nothing in the script. Director Harinath relied on Maruthi for the dialogues and they turn out to be lackluster embellishments. More than the comic punch lines, Sapthagiri’s over-the-top histrionics evoke laughter. The character elevations of the lead pair take a detour to accommodate few laugh-worthy and few cringe-worthy assortments. In the initial overs, JB gets the proceedings in the groove with romantic numbers, but the excitement fizzles very soon.  

The film banks upon the youth’s craving for a romantic comedy and delivering things sticking to a formula. It lacks excitement, twists and drama that call for a decent viewing. Above all, Lovers stands as a misnomer as it becomes an arduous task to find an ounce of love in this film. 

My Rating: Expectation - 5/10; Reality - 3/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

An edited version of this piece can be found here.

Movie Review - Anjaan (Tamil) / Sikindar (Telugu) - Heights of predictability!!

In a key scene from Sikindar, Suriyaa steps into the shoes of Clint Eastwood to render the Telugufied version of the most famous line from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. So, when he says “When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk!” that seems to be a signature moment for his style and attitude. Now, right from fixing the characteristic traits of the protagonist to the henchmen of mafia dons, the film embraces many western films. Although it gives an impression of The Usual Suspects kind of a spin-off, it eventually gets into the mould of a Baasha. The much revered Stockholm Syndrome and a string of local mafia films also find their place in the narrative.

Sikindar is the story of Krishna (Suriyaa) who comes to Mumbai in search of his brother Raju (Suriyaa). There he learns that Raju is Raju bhai, who’s strong, fearsome and emotional, alongside finding tons of time for bromance and romance. Raju is in stark contrast to Krishna. The former strikes heavily with a dazzling look and hairdo, whereas the latter is meek and struggles way too hard to trace the whereabouts of his brother. 

Samantha plays the role of the daughter of the city’s police commissioner who misinterprets mafia goons to be good Samaritans and falls for Raju. In another irritating episode, Raju and his friend Chandu (Vidyut Jamwal) lock horns with Imran bhai (Manoj Bajpai). This drops both of them in a life-changing situation and what follows is a predictable turn of events. No cookie to guess what happens to Krishna’s quest. 

Now that the plot is revealed, it’s time to showcase the glaring plot holes. Director Lingusamy tries to keep all his cards close to chest till interval to make way for an earth shattering twist and he does the same for the climax. However, he forgot that he triggered the predictometer at the start of the film, and the audience is booing the so called twists miles before they appear on screen. If the film-makers call these as twists, then their definition of twists is definitely flawed. This makes you think that is this coming from a person who is known for taut narration in his movies.

Yuvan Shankar Raja tries to salvage the damage done by the writer – director. The background score, especially during the character transformations is experimental, but the songs fall in the line of definitive loo breaks. Santosh Sivan’s cranky camerawork and yellowish DI give a different look to Mumbai. However, it leaves you wanting for more in terms of setting the right texture for the film. The compositions aren’t dark enough to accommodate the grim nature of the script. Editing by Anthony gives a flow to the narration and properly plugs in few allegorical references, but many repetitions and unwarranted subplots make it unpalatable.

                                                                                                                   

Sikindar tries to stay afloat as a revenge drama, but lacks both. The entire setup for the second half proves to be baseless, when every scene offers no justification culminating into a slipshod pay off. The film offers nothing new, nothing entertaining, nothing spectacular in its 3 hour long run time and just remains as an old wine in an antique bottle with kitschy adornments.

My Rating: Expectation - 8/10; Reality - 3/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

An edited version of this piece can be found here.

Movie Review - Geethanjali (Telugu) - More comedy, less horror!!

Mid-way through Geethanjali, I told myself there better be a good reason why I’m watching a film that’s failing repeatedly to offer what it has promised. So, this film dusts and tests the horror film template of a haunted house and a ghost, which has adorned the Indian cinema for ages. To that it adds a layer of comedy to make the proceedings not so serious and scary. 

Few films, in the recent past, such as Pizza have revisited a similar structure but there things worked because of jump-scares and the big ‘twist’ towards the end. If the twist appeases your cranial cells, you may deduce reasons why the rest of the film makes sense, and if it doesn’t, the entire film ends up being a bland assortment of scares.

The movie sparks off with the struggle of a wannabe director Srinu (Srinivas Reddy) to make it big in the tinsel town. Srinu finds a producer for his film and starts narrating a story of another struggling film-maker who gets swindled by two people. The characters in Srinu’s story move to a haunted apartment and trouble mongers them. Things have been manipulated cleverly to give the sense of a ghost lying there, although the comedy in this part overpowers the spine-chilling moments. There’s Anjali (Anjali) brought into the plot, who befriends Srinu for an ulterior motive. All the characters don a mysterious shade and what they are aiming for is brought to light after the interval.

The filmmakers use every horror trick from the textbook. They sprinkle many dots all around and try to connect them. Few get connected and few defy all the logic. The only thrill the audience may get is the wonderment when they come close to the pattern picked by the director to connect these dots. And once the crucial twist unfolds in the second half everything boils to a predictable Om Shanti Om kind of a climax. 

That being said, Geethanjali is watchable for two things – the comedy that pops up in bits and pieces and the impeccable camerawork that breathes life into the narrative. The frames, weird angles and lighting create an aura that’s reminiscent of an RGV film.

Geethanjali stays miles away from being a horror flick. It does not have its story in place and leaves lot of loose ends. I presume the writer and the director deliberately chose not to watch the other films made in this genre. So, if you have any preconceived ideas of how a horror-comedy shapes out to be, this one brings everything to life on screen. 

If you belong to a section of audience who willingly pay to get scared, this offers you nothing in the chills and thrills department. It’s a curious case of the writer’s inability to build a spooky setup on an intelligent premise. The film undoes what it starts with and marginally redeems towards the end. 

My Rating: Expectation - 6/10; Reality - 4/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

An edited version of this piece can be found here.

Movie Review - Galipatam (Telugu) - A new age love story!!

In recent times, Telugu cinema has witnessed some new age love stories. They were either too trendy or too far-fetched to be plausible, and it’s needless to say about oodles of double entendre that fill the film’s template. Many operated in the mold of commerciality and the truth, which such movies wanted to convey, was hidden deep under multiple layers of gloss. Galipatam tries to break that jinx with a fresh treatment of love, marriage, family and how far can anyone go in resurrecting their strained relationships. All these were brought to good effect with a subtle dose of sugar and spice.

Karthi (Aadi) and Swathi (Erica Fernandes) get into the wedlock recently. For the world, they are the best couple, but on the flipside, they are brimming with indifferences and marital woes. The story slides back to their past where Karthi has a fling with Parineeti (Kristina Akhheva), which couldn’t last long owing to their contrasting viewpoints about the institution of marriage; and Swathi has a staunch admirer in the form of Arav Reddy (Rahul Ravindran), whose loves gets rejected as the former is a non-believer of love and is inclined towards an arranged marriage. The rest of the story is about the overplaying emotions, twists and turns in their life’s journey and how they deal with it.

At times, Galipatam suffers with a heavy Bollywood hangover. There are some shades of films such as Shaadi Ke Side Effects, Desi Boyz, Love Aaj Kal et al. Some scenarios may give you a feeling of déjà vu and the youth may instantly connect and emote with this film, and few dull moments get a proper seasoning to look alive and kicking. The film culminates into a heated and over-stretched debate of clash of generations and their attitudes. Just at this place, it inches into a preaching zone but the director adeptly pulls it off to dish out an unconventional ending.

Aadi shuns his regular avatar and flies high with a refreshing look and restrained performance. Erica does a tight rope walk by juggling between the roles of a comely lover and a demanding wife. She is a bundle of talent. Kristina looks promising and her histrionics justify her lovable returned-from-Canada character. However, Rahul Ravindran’s role is limited and he fills the gaps with an understated performance. It would have been better if they had delved into a little more of his story. The supporting cast also fetches brownie points as their stories turn crucial for the film.

Galipatam is a dauntless attempt by Naveen Gandhi to bring to the fore the grim realities of life, albeit in a sugar-coated way. The razor sharp dialogue of Sampath Nandi brings the house down alongside rolling few tears down your cheek. The film balances every aspect of relationships and presents the views of everyone. The character sketches, emotions and proper reasoning to every strange scene make it a high-flier. Though few comic scenes are blown out of proportion, they are plugged in to satiate the formulaic requirements of the script and clear the air of emotions to play it to the gallery. 

My Rating: Expectation - 5/10; Reality - 6/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

Movie Review - Maaya (Telugu) - Fails to cast a spell..!!

National award winning director Neelakanta always tries to walk against the grain and his quest for uncommon storylines is never ending. If one could draw a pattern from his previous films, he plants a disorder in his protagonists, and this has become his obsession. However, in Maaya he is confused, in turn confusing audience, whether the trace of visions that surmount the lead character is actually a disorder or a gift.

The director picks a novel concept of ESP (Extra Sensory Perception) – when I say novel, it’s only for Telugu cinema because this thing has been explored in Hindi and Malayalam, and needless to say about Hollywood. He doesn’t stop there and adds a dash of emotional drama and elements of crime to the main plot and force-fits it in the Tollywood storytelling template.

The movie begins with a quote of Sadhguru. Meghana (Avantika Mishra) is a victim of a tainted past where she loses her mother by not paying heed to her superpower. She is a television reporter and falls head over heels for a fashion designer Siddharth Varma (Harshavardhan Rane), who is in town for research work on his upcoming fashion show. Her ability to foresee deaths comes to the fore again and this time she manages to save the probable victims. While she is on her way to propose love, she bumps into her childhood friend Pooja (Sushma Raj) who discloses about her relationship with Siddharth and their marriage which is on cards. A lovelorn Meghana checks all the buttons on melodrama and also gets to see the grey shades of Siddharth in one of her visions. Then the film leans to the side of a crime thriller.

Maaya suffers badly because of a wrong casting call. Avantika is not made for this genre. She is callous to most of the fearsome moments and her dubbed voice sounds more than her age. You can’t emote to her condition as it’s not visible through her expressions. Just a tear drop wouldn’t do. For Harshavardhan, this is arguably the toughest role to pull off, which he does justice to an extent. The supporting cast is a big letdown as neither Nagababu nor Jhansi could understand the gravity of the situation and end up offering lame advices. However, Sushma holds the pieces of the later half together and offers lot of promise.

The first half looks like a soap opera with television like framings. The visions of the heroine pave way to some predictable stuff. The audience expects a Paycheck like spin-off and lot of spine-chilling moments, but not even one satiates their wants. The core concept fizzles out in the second half and the slipshod storytelling adds more nails to the coffin. The only saving grace is the background score of Sekhar Chandra. 

Maaya fails to cast a spell on the audience. It’s a thriller sans thrill elements. The half-baked psychological thriller devolves into a murder mystery, and the latter outshines the concept of ESP that was marketed as the USP of the film. If you are a smart alec you can foresee the big climactic twist and even that earth-shattering one is a rip-off from a popular Hindi film from the 90s. Now, that’s the audience getting a sense of ESP!

My Rating: Expectation - 8/10; Reality - 4/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

Movie Review - Run Raja Run (Telugu) - Fun Unlimited!!

The moment of truth for director Sujeeth has finally arrived. After making innumerable short-films, he ventures into a full length feature for a bigger screen and a larger audience with his flick Run Raja Run. He effortlessly tries to dish out an RGV-esque cool crime comedy, and at places even outsmarts him. This is a test for audience’s intelligence, which the film-maker tries to poke at regular intervals. And movies like these are a film critic’s delight.

Run Raja Run adopts a divisional screenplay and both the plots run on parallel lines till the interval. This type of narration sparks off your thinking faculty to draw some imaginative lines connecting the dots. With your predictions you try to get closer to the reality on screen and rack your brains as how both the tracks merge? However, in this film many such guesses take a U-turn. One track is a romantic comedy involving Raja (Sharwanand) and Priya (Seerath Kapoor) and the other revolves around a series of kidnaps in the town and commissioner of police Dilip Kumar’s (Sampath) constant efforts to bring the criminals to book.  

The beauty of the narrative technique is that the road taken at the beginning branches out into a different terrain. The twists are perfectly peppered all through the film and those popping out during the interval and the pre-climax stage keep you on the edge. The film stands as an experiment to bring world cinema closer home in terms of storytelling and patching up different subplots that culminate into an emotional and expect-the-unexpected kind of climax. Don’t mistake it with a Venkat Prabhu film, where the jokes come first and the plot much later.   

Sharwanad gets a complete makeover and surprises everyone with his great performance. He combines his innocence from Amma Cheppindi with street smartness from Ko Ante Koti. What a fine actor he is. Seerat Kapoor is like a whiff of fresh air and glitters with a radiant smile and twinkle in her eye. Sampath wears a comic tinge on his rugged cop avatar and stands out with a near perfect act. Adivi Sesh pulls off his role with poise. 

Director Sujeeth climbs up many notches to make a quality caper film with a thrilling screenplay, witty dialogue, adept camerawork, well-choreographed dance numbers, stellar performances, and refreshing background score and music. Fortunately for him they all come out as aces. Madhie’s cinematography is excellent in the way he frames his romantic sequences and the manner in which he uses his camera to travel around in frantic situations. Ghibran’s music is an integral part of the film and it blends into the narration elevating key scenes. This composer is a bundle of talent traversing across different sounds and tracks.

Going with Sujeeth’s past outings as a short-film maker, Run Raja Run is more hilarious than expected. First half is an entertaining marathon. The momentum dips a little in the second half, where you also find few loose ends, but the fun and emotions are carried well. The final showdown and emotional block stands as a high point. Though at places the film looks like a bag of borrowings, it transcends many genre conventions and evolves as an uncanny thriller with a right concoction of situational comedy, romance, drama sans the physical confrontations, which are typical of a commercial Telugu film. 

Run Raja Run is fun and frolic meets flair and flamboyance. 

My Rating: Expectation - 6/10; Reality - 7/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.