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.