Seema Tapakai Movie Review

Allari Naresh, who is considered as the bankable Star of Tollywood seems to be on a mission to do as many as films. Seema Tapakai is his second film in the year and he has teamed up with Poorna for this out and out comedy entertainer. Seema Tapakai is releasing with good expectations in the trade circles as Allari Naresh is riding high with consistent hits in the recent times such as Kathi Kantha Rao and Aha Naa Pellanta. Will Seema Tapakai become yet another hit for Allari Naresh? Read On…

Story:

Sri Krishna (Allari Naresh) is the son of multi millionaire businessman (Sayaji Shinde). He falls in love with a girl Satya (Poorna), who works for uplifting the poor sections of society and in this regard develops hatred towards rich people. In order to impress Satya, Sri Krishna and his friend (Vennela Kishore) acts as poor and sooner, Satya falls in his love. Krishna even moves a step ahead and makes his multi-millionaire family live in slum area for making Satya believe that they are poor. Just, when his family accepts the lady, they come to know that Satya is the daughter of Rayalaseema factionist Nagineedu (Nagineedu). What does Allari Naresh do to marry the lady forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Allari Naresh has once again rocked with his fantastic comic timing. He is extremely natural in acting and does his roles with ease. He has tried out something different in songs in Seema Tapakai especially he tried to imitate Super Star Krishna  in the remix track of Aakasam lo oka tara song.

Poorna, the leading lady of the film has done her part well. She is confident and carried out the role neatly. Vennela Kishore needs a special mention, he has excelled in his role with great comic timing. Nagineedu carried his part well. Other artists like Seetha, Surekha Vani, Prabhu, LB Sriram, Shayaji Shinde and Rao Ramesh did their part as required.

Technical Analysis:

Director Nageswara Reddy has come up with a pure comedy film Seema Tapakai and he has really scored well for his comedy in the second half. Dialogues by Madhuri Raja are appreciable, Vandematharam’s music is okay and a couple of songs are good to be watched. Background score is neat. Cinematography by Vijay Kumar is a top notch. Screenplay is commendable while editing could have been better. Production values of Welfare creations are standard.

Analysis:

Director has made sure to entertain the audience to a full extent and he takes us a fun ride with the Seema Tapakai and the movie is one of the good comedy entertainers from Allari Naresh. The pre-climax episodes with spoof songs are hilarious and surely, the audiences will come out of theaters with smiling faces. A good product from welfare creations banner.

Final Verdict:

Have a blast watching it

100% Love Movie Review

Behind the Movie: Naga Chaitanya and Tamanna joined the talented director Sukumar for this unusually titled flick on Geetha Arts. Music scored by Devi Sri Prasad already on the chartbusters, let us see how much % of marks did Sukku score with this ‘100% Love’?

In the Movie: Balu Mahendra (Naga Chaitanya) is an Engineering student at KBR College and also the college topper. He always wants to be Number One and likes to be called as ‘Balu is great.’ Now enters his ‘Maradalu Pilla’ Maha Lakshmi (Tamanna) into the same college and residing in Balu’s house. Being from a Telugu medium background Maha Lakshmi gets assistance from ‘Bava’ Balu and soon she tops the exams. 

Then on cat and mouse fights between the two for top rank gives a chance to other student Ajith (Anand) to become number one ranker in college. Maha and Balu get on to a compromise to beat Ajith in final year exams. In due course of combined preparation, they fall in love but egos stop them from sharing their inner opinions. Although Balu becomes the college topper, he isn’t happy for Maha because she feels that Ajith is still a better student than Balu. 

Clash of egos make them depart while Balu’s grandma (KR Vijaya) wants to see her grand son and grand daughter united for marriage. How did Balu’s grandfather (Vijay Kumar) living separated from his wife make this young pair realize the true meaning of love forms the key point. In between Maha agrees to marry Ajith and Balu agrees to marry his Personal Secretary Priya. Finally how this childish couple changed their self opinions form rest of the climax.

Values of the Movie: Sukumar touched a new, refreshing angle in college love and that too between the two college toppers. They are book worms yet they too have a romantic side. Once again screenplay is the magic thread for these kinds of movies. Hari Prasad seems to have worked enough but some how movie becomes feeble in second half. Sukumar’s strong mark was felt for first forty minutes of movie. Once the central point of movie is revealed when Balu moves away from marrying Maha, remaining portion of the film required strong concept and enormous depth in narration to unite the couple back. Here is where Sukku fumbled with pale stuff. Dialogues were funny and apt to the story line. Cinematography by Venkata Prasad is good especially in grabbing Tamanna’s sensible glamour while editing by Karthika Srinivas is also sharp and acute. Music by Devi Sri Prasad was excellent for two songs and background he impressed. Production values of Geetha Arts are also okay.

Performance wise Naga Chaitanya was at ease shouldering the college portion of film. When it comes to emotions, dancing, expressions and main content in second half…clearly his immaturity was visible. Tamanna was cute in both modern and traditional attires. 100% she dominated Chaitu in plenty of scenes and Sukku seems to have concentrated more on Maha character. Among others Anand, KR Vijaya, Vijay Kumar, Naresh, Dharmavarapu, MS Narayana and others are apt.

Out of the Movie: If you are a hardcore admirer of Sukumar’s concepts, then you obviously feel pride for first half and bored for second half. Entertaining first half is the life line for 100% Love. Narration was confusing and ordinary in second half. Even main leads couldn’t help Sukku in elevating the principal concept. Tammu and Chaitu were hands up with no adequate strength in their performances in second half thus degrading the final output. Although there are few moments and good filmy climax to relive but second half lacked in regular Sukku style of treatment. ‘Aho Balu’ song is where Sukumar was at his peak. 

Naga Chaitanya dancing to ANR numbers was a good episode but he looks funny. Tamanna might get the acceptance from public with this re-entry into Tollywood. Box Office wise, cool entertainment in ‘100% Love’ might attract youth to theatres in this peak summer season. With no other movies in fray for next few weeks, ‘100% Love’ may make its hold at Box Office for one to two weeks.

Final Verdict: Time pass youthful entertainer worth passing in first division.

Source: Cinejosh.com

Nenu Naa Rakshasi Movie Review

Movie : Nenu Naa Rakshasi
Rating: 2.5/5
Cast : Rana Daggubati, Ileana, Abhimanyu Singh, Subbaraju, Nagineedu, Ali, Mumaith Khan etc Music: Rahman, Viswas, Anup Rubens
Directed by : Puri Jagannath
Produced by : Nallamalupu Bujji
Banner : Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Productions
Music : Rahman, Viswas, Anup Rubens
Release Date : 2011-04-29
Story: Each one has a take on many things in life. Abhi (Rana) becomes a sharp shooter as his family was destroyed by Rathna (Abhimanyu Singh) a gangster. Ileana is a photographer of suicides and she posts these pics on the youtube. She has her reasons for this. But whatever their reason each of the important characters in the film has a take on suicides. The film is a coming together of these characters. The movie has important roles for Mumaith Khan and Subbaraju. To witness how this story evolves and what is the fate of each character one has to step into the big screen. Some endings are unconventional! Artist Performances: Rana looks classy. He is all style and he compensates his lack of dancing abilities with some very good screen presence. Ileana as usual looks classy in a sensual manner. She is maturing as an actress with each passing film. Abhimanyu Singh is as evil as villains could be. Mumaith Khan gives what one wants and she has some dialogues to mouth also. Subbaraju is adequate and does a decent job. Ali in the comical role is apt. Plus Points:     * Locations     * First Half     * Rana and Ileana's Presence     * Visual Grandeur Minus Points:     * Second Half     * Vulgar Comedy     * No Conviction In Exploring The Theme Analysis: This film is the coming together of two very different people the very austere and savvy Rana, who is more of a method guy, someone who believes in writing exhaustive scripts and then rewriting them to perfection. Then there is Puri, who is more of a ruffian, the street smart guy who works on instincts and whose methods are not necessarily refined. This union has worked on certain fronts and has failed on many others. A story of a girl who is a photographer of people who commit suicides and a guy who is a shooter is a little weird for the Telugu audience. Then too much blabber about death and how it should be approached is not something you look forward to in Puri Jagannath-Rana film. The characters in the films look edgy and not fully convincing. This film is certainly not for the masses! Puri and Rana will have to do a lot of explaining for having made this film. Fans will be unhappy and the discerning audience will be critical!           Verdict: Disappointing!

Mr. Perfect Movie Review

Behind the Movie: The recent soft lover boy image of Prabhas secured after ‘Darling’ will be examined once again with this flick in direction of Dasaradh. As usual producer ‘Dil’ Raju keeping too many hopes with presence of two beautiful heroines Kajal Agarwal, Tapsee and music from Devi Sri Prasad, here arrives ‘Mr. Perfect’ today into theatres. Let us see, how perfect is this film?    

In the Movie: Vicky (Prabhas) is a modern day perfect young boy dreaming high about future. He is working in Australia on dream project to start own animation (video games) industry. Vicky doesn’t believe in old ideologies. In order to stay victorious in life, he doesn’t mind hurting others by disrespecting their values and sentiments. He feels himself as ‘Mr. Perfect’ with no adjusting attitude.

One fine day, Vicky’s father (Nazar) asks him to arrive in India for attending sister’s marriage in their native village in a Coastal district. Other purpose of this visit is to make Vicky meet Priya (Kajal Agarwal), his old school mate and fix their marriage. Priya is a girl of self respect who finds her joy in happiness of others. Although Vicky and Priya are initially quarrelsome, they soon patch up and love buds between the two. Finally when Priya changes her priorities and interests getting ready to marry Vicky, he disapproves her reasoning incompatible mentalities. 

On his way back in Australia, Vicky meets Maggie (Tapsee) whose thought of mind is exactly same as him. When both of them get ready for marriage and approach Maggie’s industrialist father KP (Prakash Raj), he keeps an interesting test for Vicky to win his daughter. Vicky on his way to win Maggie by passing this test understands the true meaning of life. How did KP’s family change the thinking attitude of Vicky? How did KP win back his true love Priya? forms the heavy climax.

Values of the Movie: In shorter version producer ‘Dil’ Raju’s team has once again relied on an emotional story line comparing the beliefs and mental outlooks of past and present generations. Shades of ‘Orange’ and ‘Brindavanam’ are easily observable in the film. Apparently story was thin but script was burdensome. Dasaradh tried his best to make patrons glued to his emotions. Unfortunately slow narration and old pickled boiling family drama have taken a toll and director Dasaradh failed in these aspects. Dialogues by Abburi Ravi are quite interesting which can be considered as life line for ‘Mr.Perfect.’ Music by Devi Sri Prasad was good work for two songs and background sensed like a copy of ‘Bommarillu.’ Cinematography by Vijay Chakravarthy was fine while editing by Marthand K Venkatesh became weak in second half.  Production values of ‘Dil’ Raju are definitely remarkable.

Performance wise Prabhas got a new character with two different shades. The macho man well balanced the both and excelled in spelling lengthy dialogues with utmost feel. Surely Prabhas raised his acting standards appreciably shouldering the movie in compliance with beautiful Kajal Agarwal who looked awesome. She is undoubtedly won the hearts of audience. Tapsee enters in second half with a typical character quite matching to her energy standards. Self dubbing of Tapsee left a bad remark damaging her role. Comedy by Brahmanandam as Jalsa Kishore was a laughter riot. His presence saved the first half to maximum extent. Among others Naazar, K. Vishwanath, Prakashraj, Sayaji Shinde, Pragathi, Sameer, Kasi Vishwanath, Master Bharath etc well handled their roles. 

Out of the Movie: ‘Dil’ Raju’s confidence on sticking to his own psychology of repeatedly relying on emotional story lines hasn’t worked totally this time. Although there are few glitches of interesting and heart touching episodes but this is not a Perfect package to shine at Box Office. Prabhas and Kajal gave a delightful performance with superb chemistry which was not alone enough to pull the movie for two and half hours. Especially missing of emotional efficacy and depth of scenes in second half might cause a problem for movie’s success. 

All the village episodes with enough fun generating ingredients mixed in first half worked very well. Of course story moved hardly by an inch. Yet first half is easily passable with an expected interval bang. Second half is where actual movie unfolds which lagged to entertain audience with inconsistence and slow storytelling. In particular lengthy, exhaustive second half served negative for entire film.  

BO wise a section of family audience might like the overdosed emotional and sentimental scenes with Prabhas leading from front. Other wise ‘Mr. Perfect’ is an old wine in new bottle. 

Final Verdict: Not totally Perfect!

                                                                                                          Reviewed by Srivaas 

Source: cinejosh.com

Pawan Kalyan 'Teen Maar' Movie Review

Power Star Pawan Kalyanis back to big-screens this week with a romantic comedy entertainer Teen Maar. Pawan Kalyan has played dual roles for the first time and has romanced Trisha and Kriti Kharbanda. The remake specialist Jayanth.C.Paranji has directed this Bollywood hit Love Aaj Kal remake. Teenmaar is all about Love and relationships. We brings you Teen Maar movie review… Read on…

Story

Story opens in Varanasi with the introduction of Arjun Palwai & Michael Velayudham. Michael works as chef in an Italian restaurant in Bangkok and aims to turn as a stock broker at New York stock exchange. In the meantime Michael falls in love with Meera (Trisha) and in no time they were seen in relationship. After a year, Michael who doesn’t believe in long relationships breaks up with Meera and celebrates the break-up party.

Senapathi, the restaurant owner narrates Michael, the life story of Arjun Palwai that took place 30 years back in Varanasi. Arjun Palwai is a student leader and he falls in love with Kritikharbandha. Arjun is serious about his love and wants to make it long lasting with marriage. He speaks to Kriti’s father regarding this for which the later disagrees. On the other hand, Michael and Meera who breaks up can’t get over each other though they find hard in finding their new one’s Johna and Sudhir (Sonu Sood).  Arjun’s love story influences Michael and he slowly changes his nature towards love and long standing relationship. He now tries to get back his love Meera. How does Michael and Arjun Palwai succeed in their love is to be watched on big screens?

Performances

In a word, Teenmaar is Pawan Kalyan’s show all the way. Pawan Kalyan has excelled in both the roles as Arjun Palwai and Michael Velayudham. Arjun Palwai’s role remains hot favorite to every one though Michael’s characterization is big. Pawan Kalyan looked quite handsome in the Michael’s role in his cool costumes. Power Star has this time rocked in romance and dances too, especially in Aale Bale and Oho Basti Dorasani songs.

Trisha’s characterization is good and the actress has carried out the emotional scenes quite well. But she could have taken much care in her make-up, where she looked elder to Pawan Kalyan in a couple or more scenes.

Kriti Kharbhannda looked extremely good but the actress doesn’t have much role for performance. Nevertheless, she scored well in what she was offered.

Technical Aspects

Cinematography by Vincent is on top-notch. The movie looked colorful right from the first scene with every frame standing. The exotic locales in songs and scenes are well picturised.

Mani Sharma’s Music has received positive buzz prior release and three of the songs are good to be watched on-screens. While Basti Dorasani and Aale Bale are to be watched for dances, Vayyarala makes a good number to be watched.

Editing could be much better as there are many dragged portions both in the first half and second half and they could have been trimmed off easily.Dialogues by Trivikram are good in parts especially in the pre-interval portions and pre-climax portions. Trivikram played a big role in bringing out the positive buzz for Teenmaar. Being a remake specialist, Jayanth has handled the subject well in the direction part. Parameswara Arts banner’s production values are rich and lavish.

Analysis

Being the remake of Love Aaj Kal, the film-makers didn’t make any major changes to the Telugu version and played it safe. Teen Maar is almost the carbon copy of LAK. So people, who have already watched LAK, may not find anything exciting about Teen Maar. However, Pawan Kalyan is the show stealer of the film. Pawan Kalyan’s fresh looks and his performance along with Trivikram’s dialogues are the big time plus points of Teen Maar along with its climax, cinematography and the production values. On the flip side, slow paced narration with some dragging portions is a minus point. All in all, Teen Maar is a decent remake and makes a good watch.

Final Verdict Entertainement guaranteed!!! Go for it and you won’t get disappointed…

Jr.NTR 'Shakti' Movie Review

Shakti Movie Review - Shakti Review - Shakti Telugu Movie Review: Aswini Dutt said that Shakti is the highest budget movie ever in Telugu. Jr. NTR stated that except him no one else can do this film. Meher Ramesh added that late NTR would be once again seen on screen in this film, such is the intensity of Rudra character, he told.
Well, after hearing such statements from the hero, producer and the director, anyone on earth would expect an earth shattering film. Shakti did shatter, not the earth but all the hopes and expectations. This is one of the poorly made high budget films in the past ten years. Read on Shakti Movie Review…
Story:
Egyptians (Sonu sood, Pooja Bedi) eyes Shakti Peethams in India to get their mummies back to life. However, they come to know that it is not an easy task to get that Shakti Trishoolam as it was guarded by Rudra (NTR Jr.). Sonu Sood dies in his hands when he tries to get that Trishoolam. His wife (Pooja Bedi) avenges her husband’s death and takes an oath to fulfill his desire. After 27 years, when the time arrives, she sends his men to get the Shakti Trishoolam. For that she has to kidnap Aishwarya (Ileana) who is born with the special powers of Shakti Matha. She is safeguarded by Shakti (NTR Jr.) and what happens next is the rest of the story.
Analysis:
Meher Ramesh seems to have a knack of picking the format of previous blockbusters and writing a new story in the same lines. His first film Kantri is a poor copy of Pokiri and it deservedly ended up as a flop. After making a below average film Billa, which is again a remake of Tamil hit, Meher is back in business.
Now,he took a cue from the biggest blockbuster of Tollywood, Magadheera and has written a story based on Shakti Peethams. When Magadheera is still afresh in the minds of Tollywood audience, making a film on the same lines is a bad idea. And when crores of rupees are at stake it is even more disastrous.
Shakti opens on a dull note. The concept of involving Egyptians in to this story didn’t work at all. The film is set up in 1984 and 2011 where the people are civilized and the kingly rule was vanished. But the director deliberately ignored many logics and blindly told whatever he felt like. May be he might have thought that anything is possible in a socio fantasy flick. When he has involved politicians, police and also military into this it is no longer a fantasy film, especially when the director revealed the period of time that the story is running in.
Even after ignoring logical errors, Shakti seems unconvincing and meaningless due to the lackluster script. The narrative too weak that you lose focus on the happenings within no time. First half of the film is sheer time waste. Interval twist is borrowed from Pokiri again.
The flashback part involving Rudra character has to be the lifeline for this film. But sadly that has turned out to be the major disaster. Meher Ramesh directly lifted dialogs and happenings from Magadheera in this part. Even NTR’s getup and outfit resembles to that of Charan’s in it. When the director faltered at the crucial juncture, there is no way that a film could survive. He might have tried to end the film with some sense so that the audience might have given him grace points. But the climax is ridiculously horrible.
Performances:
NTR Jr. is the only saving grace in this film. If not for him, audience might have walked out of the auditorium by the interval point. His performance as Shakti is cool. He looked dashing in those blazers in post interval scenes. However, he should have taken care on Rudra’s getup. It didn’t suit him at all. Even NTR diehard fans would be disappointed with it.
Ileana plays a spineless character which hardly gives her a chance to act. She has sizzled in the songs though. Sonu Sood’s role is limited and he is wasted. Pooja Bedi doesn’t know the basics of acting and watching her on screen is sheer torture. Manjari Fadnis played Rudra’s wife. There are hordes of actors in this film and none of them are given a purposeful role. Everyone looked pale and dull due to poor characterizations and bad dialogues.
Tehnicalities:
Mani Sharma’s music is another weak link in this movie. None of the songs are worth hearing repeatedly. Hari giri Nandini… song was good on ears but the director spoilt it with his picturization. Background score is bad too. Keeravani might have done a better job for this film. Dialogues by Satyanand are weak. None of the jokes worked and also the dialogues in crucial scenes are a big let down.
Sameer Reddy’s cinematography is good. Art department did a very good job. So called visual effects aren’t great. Producer has hyped this movie as the costliest film in Tollywood history but the grandeur is completely missing on screen. Except for shooting in number of locations, Shakti doesn’t possess any visual splendor.
Meher Ramesh yet again proved that his skills are limited. He should stick to commercial flicks rather jumping the genres.
Plus Points:
- Jr. NTR
Minus points:
- Story
- Screenplay
- Direction
Final Word:
Shakti is a major disappointment for all the hype it generated. Now the economics of this film completely depend upon the fate of other releases and holidays season. Given its budget and the high rates it was sold for, Shakti would find it really tough to get into a safe zone.
Shakti Review rating: 2.5/5

Source: supergoogmovies.com

KSD Appalraju Movie Review

Behind the Movie: Ramgopal Varma’s comeback Telugu film with Sunil in the lead is the continuous attention grabber from the moment it was launched. Being publicized as a satire on Tollywood, KSD Appalraju arrived today in theatres. Let us see, how strong was Varma’s Katha, Screenplay, Darsakathvam?  In the Movie: Appalraju (Sunil) is a die hard Telugu movie lover and an avid movie buff in Amalapuram living with only dream to direct a Telugu film and raise the standards of our Telugu cinema. Challenging his father Uppalraju (Chalapathi Rao), Appalraju arrives in Hyderabad landing up in Krishna Nagar.  In the very first meeting, Appalraju impresses film producer Rakhi (Raghu Babu) and his creative head Pushpanand (Harshavardhan) with the tragic, heroine oriented story of ‘Nayaki.’ With in no time, team of assistant directors Gogineni Venkata Ramana (MS Narayana), Rudra Veena (Tameem), Annamacharya (Suman Shetty) and Krishna (Colors Swathi) join director Appalraju.  Next task is to find right casting as famous heroine Kanishka (Sakshi Gulati), her love interest Babu Garu (Adarsh) agree to do the film and Mega Max head  Data Base (Krishna Bhagawan) agrees to finance the project. Calculations go wrong, Kanishka gets into a naughty quarrel with Babu Garu and they are separated disturbing the entire project. Time when financiers step back, Kanishka ropes in another top hero KT (Ajay), an opponent hero of Babu Garu and local goonda Sri Sailam (Brahmanandam) becomes financier and lyricist while Rahman Sharma (Ali) is the music director for ‘Nayaki.’ Bowing before all the demands of this big crew, Appalraju completes ‘Nayaki’ and gets it ready for release opposite Babu Garu’s film ‘Pranam Teestha’ which had the backing of media criminal No Brain EV (Raja Ravindra), top distributor Onti Kannu Gavarraju (Kota) and senior director Y. Venkat (Tanikella).  What happens next? Did Appalraju’s film ‘Nayaki’ win the Sankranthi race? Is Appalraju satisfied with the judgment of audience? form the climax. Values & Out of the Movie: Basic theme visualized by Ramgopal Varma is to showcase the inner troubles and hurdles in directing a movie, completing it in time and releasing it to win the appreciations of audience. Though the line was clear, Ramgopal Varma rolled out a senseless product that never looked appealing. Neither there was script nor was direction. Entire movie was a big mess with lengthy, boring, painful scenes. Not even for five minutes that audiences get involved into the story and get into the groove of Varma. It will be more apt to title this flick as ‘Pappularaju’ or ‘Thippalaraju’ or ‘Chippalaraju’ rather than ‘Appalraju.’ Neither there was conviction in story telling nor an element of genuineness in Varma’s effort. Audiences continuously drain their energies getting out from theatres dragging their feet with discontent. Especially comedy between Brahmi, Tanu Rai; episodes between Sunil, Harshavardhan, Colors Swathi; final cheap tricks of Babu Garu’s villain team to burn the negative of ‘Nayaki’ is such a low grade stuff which is never expected from an intellectual brain like RGV.  Every attempt by Sunil to save Appalraju was devastated by co-artists. He was the only artist in the film tried to play his character authentically. Special appearance of Raviteja is an absolute waste. Apparently RGV explained the core message of his film with voice over in the very first scene with Comedy Vs Tragedy dichotomy but there were no such strong points plotted in the entire movie.  Finally RGV seems to have not only insulted the tastes of Telugu audience by making tragedy ‘Nayaki’ treated as comedy flick but also sent a strong message to new directors entering into the field about the possible humiliations to face, is the one and only positive outcome of Appalraju. Strictly speaking Appalraju isn’t worth a flick to review, from the point of view of zero positive points in it. A person sitting besides me in theatre was happy to see the negatives of ‘Katha Screenplay Darsakathvam Appalraju’ thrown into fires (a scene in the pre-climax of movie). Such was the level of irritation of audience.      Performance wise Sakshi Gulati was red hot, ready to reveal everything before camera while Brahmanandam did over action with Tanu Rai and Venu Madhav. It was only in the first few minutes of second half that audiences get some entertainment from Brahmi’s rowdy den else Appalraju is a complete dud with no ‘Thala’ and no ‘Thoka.’ Neither dialogues from Nilesh nor the camera work of Sudhakar Yakkanti nor music from Koti are to save this. Production values of Kiran Kumar Koneru were also very poor.  The name of Ramgopal Varma may pull good openings on first day and negative mouth publicity may harm the film from matinee of first day or morning of second day. So BO success is an out of scope subject to think or discuss about.    Final Verdict: ‘C’ grade effort from ‘A’ grade director.                                                                                 Reviewed by Srivaas Source: Cinejosh.com

Vastaadu Naa Raju Movie Review

Behind the Movie: Manchu Vishnuvardhan urgently needs a hit to re-establish career while Tapsee is to prove that she is not a one movie wonder. With both of them in lead, debutant Hemant Madhukar handled the movie which is released today. Let us see, how far did it succeed in reaching the expectations? In the Movie: Narasimha (Prakashraj) is the local goon and the right hand to Home Minister Aadikeshavulu (Sayaji Shinde). Narasimha has a dream to become MLA and enter Assembly. In the mean time Aadikeshavulu’s son Ajay (Ajay) is clean bowled by the beauty of Pooja (Tapsee), sister of Narasimha. Soon both the families catch up and decide for the marriage and Aadi promises Narasimha to offer MLA seat in coming elections. On the other side Venkatappayya Naidu or Venky (Manchu Vishnu) is an aspiring kick boxer and a go lucky dude. In some unfortunate situations, Narasimha mistakes that Venky and Pooja are in love though both of them are real strangers who never met. Worried about loosing the MLA seat, Narasimha disturbs the marriage of Venky’s sister and attempts to kill Venky.  As revenge Venky kidnaps Pooja to settle the scores and hides her in the house of Home Minister’s PA Rajesh (Brahmanandam), who is luckily the love interest of Home Minister’s wife Anjali (Surekha Vani). How Pooja and Venky fall in love during this kidnap? Did Narasimha agree for their love? What happened to Home Minister Aadikeshavulu and Ajay? form rest of the story. Values of the Movie: Despite story having a different element of love, script was weaved loose and the direction of Hemant Madhukar had the weak spine. Although started the movie on an interesting note, Hemant lost the grip gradually dishing out a weak entertainer with limited strong points. Dialogues were quite routine while cinematography by Gopal Reddy was a better show in songs. Gowtham Raju’s editing was imperfect in second half. Music by Mani Sharma was again conventional for songs and back ground. Production values of 24 Frames Factory were just average. Performance wise Manchu Vishnu tried the character with a care free body language which was in fact good in first few minutes of movie. Later on when dosage of dialogues was increased his weak diction turned negative. In second half, his performance was more controlled New dance movements were tried and stunts wise he was impressive yet Vishnu has more scope to improve. Heroine Tapsee’s character is not the regular bubbly one. Despite wonderful expressions in many sentimental and love scenes, Tapsee got over cautious about lip movement. She scored good marks both glamour and performance wise. Prakashraj and Brahmi had nothing different to prove while Sayaji Shinde, Surekhavani, Ajay, Tulasi, Tanikella, Shiva Reddy, Benarjee and others were just okay. Out of the Movie: Downhearted by the failure of Saleem, hero Vishnu has taken enough precautions in offering major focus on entertainment and story and it was debutant Hemant Madhukar’s immature treatment that left half of the movie run pale. The anxiety factor in audience never existed as entire movie ran on known lines. Though story has sufficient matter to dish out an average regular mass flick, Hemant failed to utilize it properly but good point is that he maintained the even pace in story narration.  Vishnu urgently needs to put on some weight and get his body little stiff rather than looking tired. Tapsee will be rated not only as a glam doll because she had good basics even in acting. First half of the movie had some interesting comedy bits but songs are wrongly placed. Second half is a better show till Tapsee goes back to Prakashraj. Later on the painful scenes start again leading to a regular climax.  BO wise, Vastaadu Naa Raju may not serve a big break that Vishnu is waiting for but surely a better show than disastrous Saleem.  Final Verdict: Just an average flick and try it only if you have ample time. Source: cinejosh.com

Gaganam Movie Review

In Radha Mohan’s remarkably written hijack drama, there’s a scene where Prakash Raj who acts as the mediator between the government and the terrorists breaks down. After hours of restraining himself from saying anything that’s provocative, he explodes with anger and anguish when he finds out that the terrorists have crossed the line. Now, why’s the scene so important? In lot of ways, Radha Mohan makes us a part of this intense drama that it’s hard not to empathize with his characters’ agony. Quite rarely have films done that in recent past and Gaganam truly stands as a class apart. The film starring Nagarjuna, Prakash Raj and a host of other actors is a hijack drama where lives of 100 civilians are at stake. What’s the story? A Chennai-New Delhi flightis hijacked by five terrorists and they demand it to be diverted to Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Due to a technical snag, it finally lands in Tirupati where they make contact with the Airport authorities.National Security Advisor’s team and National Security Guards (NSG) team takes control of the situation to broker a peace deal with the terrorists for the safety of passengers. The terrorists demand the release of Yusuf Khan, an international terrorist who’s in a high security prison in Kashmir. And they give the Indian government less than 48 hours to accept their demands or face severe consequences. Will the Indian government accept the demands? What happens to the civilians inside the flight? Will the NSG do something to save the passengers? This forms the rest of the story of this intriguing drama.

What is Good: Gaganam derives its strength from human desire to be righteous and do or say what’s right. It’s about ordinary people from different walks of life who are pushed into an extraordinary situation of turmoil and utter chaos. Be it an action hero who chickens out in real life or a kid who questions the terrorists’ intentions to hurt innocent people, they all strike a chord immensely. Nagarjuna is terrific as the NSG commando. He’s in complete control of the situation despite the indecisiveness of his bosses. At times, the situation spirals out of control, but Nagarjuna as Major Raveendra keeps his composure and chalks an elaborate rescue mission. On the other hand, Prakash Raj dazzles in his role. He’s the personification of a helpless civil servant who cannot stand the fact that they are running out of time. Both Nagarjuna and Prakash Raj are on the same side of the fence who are determined to make sure that the rescue mission is a success. Poonam Kaur, Harshavardhan and all the actors who act as the terrorists do a commendable job. Over 90% of the film is shot in the hijacked plane and the commando base in the airport terminal. Despite the sense of claustrophobia, the film touches upon several themes like why the government delays taking important decisions, how the media sensationalizes issues and most importantly how complete strangers come together irrespective of their cultural backgrounds during such incidents. It’s here that the film transcends from just being a well written film to an engrossing drama which brings back memory of infamous incidents of the 1999 Kandahar hijack and perhaps even the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai which continue to haunt us. Another important aspect to observe is how cleverly Radha Mohan manages to add humour in such an intense drama. The scenes featuring Prithvi & his fan onboard the plane and Brahmanandam & the guy named Ranganth (in the film) are hilarious to say the least.

Technical Departments : Cinematography by K V Guhan is another reason why this film is an edge of the seat thriller. There’s a sense of urgency in most of the scenes and the hand-held camera movements add more drama. The film has been shot on a Red camera which explains the lighting patterns seen in the film – there’s hardly any sunlight since most of the film is shot indoors. Background score is very good and dialogues by Anuradha go well with the mood of the characters. Editing by Marthand K Venkatesh is crisp making the film a gripping watch. Radha Mohan sticks to the seriousness of the theme for the entire length of the film and there’s hardly a dull moment in the film. A top notch cast and crew who has put in their best of efforts also helps Radha Mohan’s endeavour to make a taut thriller. Kudos to him for such a superb effort. Bottom-Line: At a running time of 1 hour 58 minutes without any songs, romance and the usual fare of masala quotient, Gaganam is quite an achievement, especially in terms of writing and screenplay. Such films are rare and perhaps the onus is upon us to encourage and applaud people who do the so called ‘different’ films. Quite frankly, every now and then, a film like Gaganam is necessary to make us realize that cinema isn’t always about escapism or a dream factory churning out candyfloss films. Two big thumbs up for the film…go watch it. Even if you are an ardent follower of commercial cinema, you never know when you might become a convert and embrace newer genres. And Gaganam is you best bet this month! Final Verdict: Edge of the seat thriller. Go watch it! Source: 123telugu.com

Wanted Movie Review

Gopichand has stuck to his genre of movies and has managed to carve a niche for himself as an action hero. His equation with his female costars has earned him some fan following amongst girls too. It will be interesting to see if he has tried anything different with Wanted, his first movie this year. 

What’s it about: Rambabu (Gopichand) is a happy go lucky chap who does nothing for career, and doesn’t mind a ‘fight’ for the heck of it. Inspite of this, his parents love him completely because they think they have earned enough for him. Rambabu comes across Nandini (Deeksha Seth), a house surgeon. When the girl saves his mom’s life, Rambabu falls for her and chases her. After almost following her everywhere, saving her from goons few times, Rambabu gets frustratedand asks her what she wants him to do to prove his love for her. The girl asks him to kill Basava Raju (Prakash Raj) and company, as a revenge for killing her honest cop father (Nazar) and her entire family. Rambabu goes after the goons and kills them one by one.

What is Good: The first half of the movie has some interesting elements of narrative style. The director chooses to tell the story showing three different characters – Rambabu, Nandini and Basava Raju, and joins them all towards the end of first half. Gopichand is good in action scenes, though he has to get his comedy timing right. Deeksha Seth has a lengthy role compared to her two previous films and she looks cute in mostly traditional dresses. Prakash Raj, Nazar, Subba Raju, Ahutri Prasad, RK etc. do what they do in most other films too. Brahmanandam generates few laughs, and so does Ali in a short stint. The movie is interlaced with some laughable comedy situations which come from Jayasudha and Chandramohan. They bring all their experience to make some extremely cinematic situations truly laughable. Otherwise the story is a typical revenge saga, which starts off differently, focuses on the love story and then leads to action sequences.

What is bad: Cliche works to an extent. Almost every story we see has already been told, but it is the presentation that gives it a different feel. This is exactly where the second half of Wanted fails. Even though the writer wanted to add depth to Deeksha’s character by showing her at strange places with stranger men, we never know what she was doing there with them! The flashback episode, which was used to reason her character, focuses more on gore than on some originally done content! As a result we have a family killed in most inventive ways possible minus the emotions that such a loss can bring. Once we know the flashback anything after it becomes lengthy and the movie still takes few songs and fight sequences to come to an end.

Technical Departments: : Cinematography is just about good, though the songs have been shot decently well. Chakri’s music for the songs is good too, but he should do something more to accentuate emotional scenes in a movie. Dialogues are funny when required, but end up being too loud in ‘drama’ situations and too contrived sometimes. Editing is too sloppy and the actions sequences are too long to be digestible. Final Point: Wanted is a predictable revenge saga, that doesn’t have anything really exciting. It is only for Gopichand’s fans.Others watch it at your own risk.

Ala Modalaindi Review: Truly a Romantic Comedy!

Ala Modalaindi’, true to its title, begins the career of director Nandini Reddy who should have debuted as a director atleast few years ago. Never late for a good start they say, and she brings trusted friend and bankable actor Nani in her debut feature. What’s it about: Gautam (Nani) is on his way to Bangalore when he is kidnapped by an overconfident rogue (Ashish Vidyarthi). Wielding a gun on Gautam, the kidnapper asks him to entertain with a song, or a story. Obviously Gautam accepts the last one and narrates his story which goes as follows: At a marriage, Gautam meets Nitya, a girl who has had one too many drinks. They both are still nursing their heartbreaks – Gautam over the bride (Kriti Karbanda), and Nitya over the groom. They bond over shopping, career choices and almost everything in their lives. Just when Gautam is about to express his love, the girl’s fiancée comes into the picture. Dejected Gautam stops communicating with Nitya, but unbeknownst to him Nitya had broken up with her fiancée, much to her mom’s annoyance. They meet again, and it doesn’t take too much to get the sparks going on in their life. Problem is Gautam now has a girl friend, Dr. Kavya (Sneha Ullal). This time it Nitya turn to feel dejected as she leaves him, and agrees to a marriage of her mom’s choice. It doesn’t take too much time for us to realize that Kavya doesn’t remain Gautam’s girlfriend for long as he rushes get back to her – but he is now kidnapped. With Gautam kidnapped, and Nitya getting married soon, things take an unexpected turn – they all end up becoming extremely hilarious to an expected climax. What is Good: Right from its start Ala Modalaindi is a true blue romantic comedy and remains so till the end. You hardly worry about the graphics or background music or cinematography – it is just too much fun to think about all these! For a change we have comedy that isn’t too cinematic, but purely situational. Nani is as usual good in the role of a boy next door who directs crime based reality shows! Nitya Menon is a revelation – the ease with which she essays her role is amazing. It seems after doing complex roles in Malayalam films, the role of an ultra modern girl was just a cakewalk for her. To know that she dubbed for the movie and sang three songs is worthy of an applause! The chemistry between Nani and Nitya is subtle, sweet and it gives the movie some of its best moments. Most love stories bank heavily on its character artists and everyone in the movie give good performances irrespective of their lengths. The role of Gautam’s mother is a character that is etched with lots of love around it, and Rohini does complete justice to it. Ashish Vidyarthi, though he could be over the top sometimes, fits the character of an arrogant kidnapper very well. What is bad: The movie does have its dull moments, especially in the initial stages of both halves, when you will hope the story moves a touch faster. Also most love stories, especially in Telugu, can be very predictable. Showcasing ‘lack of communication’ between modern lead pair sometimes gets too cinematic. However director Nandini Reddy manages to come out these problems with some well staged and naturally performed comedy scenes. Technical Departments: : The narrative style with which the debutante director brings the love story is quite novel. Infact it is this narrative style that keeps the audience seated till the end, though we all know how almost all love stories end. Dialogues are peppy, and the movie banks heavily on well scripted conversations. Arjun Jena’s Cinematogrpahy, and Kalyani Malik’s background music are never intrusive, but are spot on. When a director commands the staging, editors have their jobs easy, and that could be the case here for Ala Modalaindi. Except for Sneha Ullal’s ‘oomphy’ number, all songskeep the entertainment factor up! Most of the movie has been shot in ‘real’ locations, and they look as chick as the movie itself. Final Point: For Tollywood Ala Modalaindi is nothing less than what When 'Harry Met Sally' is for Hollywood. It has spirited conversations, humane misunderstandings, cinematic drama and a chunk of comedy that makes you laugh out loud. Just don’t miss it! You will be surprised.