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.