Monday, May 28, 2007

RajuBhai - A Review

“My mother said to me, "If you become a soldier, you'll be a general; if you become a monk, you'll end up as the Pope." Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso. "

-- Pablo Picasso

“If you are a music director’s son you will become music director; if you are an actor’s son you will be made an actor”

Rajubhai the movie features atleast two people who inherited the berth from their father. It is not uncommon in India that son inherits father’s wealth. The two sons referred to here are Yuvan Shankar Raja, the son of famous ilayaraja and Manoj, the son of a confused legend/celebrity Mohan Babu. One was terrible in the movie with his action where as the other terrific with his music.

Review:
I am not talking about the story here as there is nothing special in it. The narration was not good either. This is yet another good man story who will kill any one for money, who can utter all bad words to a lady he encounters on road, who fights with someone every time, drinks and smokes as he wishes and has friends who do even terrible things that are shame to mention here. And yet as you may perceive he is good at heart. No matter how many people he kills, he is good at heart and steals the heart of Heroin with his character. Love story proceeds with same historically proven cinematic love scenes. He leaves his bad deeds for love and resumes once he loses love. After some twists and turns in the story both hero and heroin agree that they are best fit for each other leaving audience in peace.

A misunderstanding of above narration can let you think that it is a worth a watch movie. But it isn’t.

Negatives:
Manoj is a negative. He may be a bit better than his brother but still he is not good for the acting job. If he is not Mohan babu’s son you would not get to see him on any screen. Sheela, the heroin is a negative. A heroin must either be pretty or must know some acting. (A third type being give a skin show becoming a norm now-a-days and there are a vast majority of cinegoers who go watch heroin) She is neither pretty nor knows how to act. Actor choice is not correct. Rajeev Kanakala, only worthy actor I see there on screen, was underutilized. Director has neither narration skill nor the creativity to show novelty on a subject.

Positives:
Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music is good. Despite limited role Sunil performed well with in his limits. Songs are not picturised properly. “Kora Meenu Sora chapala Kalyanam” looked like a highlight song. I liked the titles and title music.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Munna - A Review

From the story perspective it can be called a good movie. From narration perspective director did not do that bad. Star cast amazing and performances are decent. But still it marks as first flop/average movie for ‘Dil’ Raju one of the successful producers in recent times. When we look at what went wrong, it is the stardom it has tried to focus on rather than sticking to the script that messed up things for him.

Storyline:
Kaka (Prkash Raj) is a gangster and usual bad guy with a good wife, daughter and a arrogant bad son. He kills everyone who comes his way and his pharma co. Srinivasa Rao (Kota) a respected politician keeps fighting Kaka in an attempt to close his Pharma company as it is causing environmental pollution. Aatma, rival gangster, also claims to fight kaka though no evidences of the same are shown. Munna becomes a hero overnight after his clash with Kaka/’s Son. His boldness in facing kaka fetches his affection of people and Srinivasa Rao. Heroin’s love is a bonus here. It is when every one discovers that Munna is the son of kaka whom he disowns in an attempt to cleanup his past. Afetr murder of Srinivasa Rao, Munna becomes sole threat of Kaka. Story proceeds showing domination of Munna over kaka using his brains and muscles, where ever applicable. Munna soon discovers that it is kaka’s plan to place his rival gangsters in order to keep check on people. Everyone gets killed in the end by Munna.

Review:
Comedy is not bad. Storyline even though not very much novel, the narration makes it a bit novel. Individual performances are meeting the expectations. Songs are not that good but they are not bad I must say. Only thing that went wrong is the editing of the movie. It really irritates audience if the background score dominates dialogues. Every scene looks as if it is introduction scene of the hero. Score has been over used for all key players. Iliyana as usual looks gross in some of the songs. On the whole it is a formula based movie aimed at becoming a blockbuster. How ever it just fell short of it.

Monday, May 14, 2007

AMAV -- A Review

Honestly not many are intelligent enough to understand why the movie is named as Aaduvari Matalaku Ardhale Verule. Definitely I am not so intelligent but I made my own guesses. One guess being Song is one of best songs of NTR whom Venkatesh etc., admire. Other is Pawan Kalyan, a close buddy of Venkatesh, has the parody of the song in his last hit movie. (Kushi) Only thing many people are not very clear is how does it relate to characters in the movie.

Storyline:
Looking at the preview many of us mistook the movie to be software love story that we encounter every day in office. (Silly jokes, uncertain emotions, canteen comedy, falling for each other etc., is what I had in mind when I went to the movie.) Selection of best actors for the roles could not make up for the lousy story and narration. Ganesh (Hero), a jobless man, gets reprimanded by all including his father for his repeated attempts to get a job with out a success. Director made a futile to show that father and son share deep bond in their hearts and messed it up with shabby dialogues. Ganesh after securing a job falls in love with Keerthi (Heroin) and follows a sequence of attempts to impress her. Heroin rejects him and says that she is getting married in a month’s time. I strongly believe many of us (me included) would have heard such a thing from a girl at least once. But hero behaves in a way we never behaved and narration is completely in hero’s perspective making heroin look like a villain. Hero loses his father as a result of his affair. Ganesh gets depressed after his father’s demise.

Hero’s generous best friend held his helping hand to Ganesh and offers him stay in his house till his marriage. It is not a coincidence that Keerthi is the bride/sister-in-law. As usual Ganesh impresses everyone in the family of Keerthi. Story ends with a sentiment scene followed by a comedy climax.

Review:
What a magnificent waste!! He failed miserably in narration. Depiction of father son relation is one thing. Also he under utilized comedians like Sunil but Venky made up for it in the Nuvvu Naku Nachav Style. The editing was not good. This is one of the movie’s you feel bored right through the beginning.

Positives
Colors Swathi is the biggest plus. (I always hated her for the imminent disgust I have for girls who speak like kids for show off but this time around I loved her) She played same role as Mandira in DDLJ but she added lot of humor. If not for her I would have walked out during second half. SreeRam(Roja pulu) did well. He lost some weight and became a bit fair and has good boy look. I can’t imagine why heroin would fall in love with old venky when she has already been engaged to young and handsome SriRam.

Negatives
If you need some one old with authority and morals get Viswanath has been thumb rule in recent cinema. But here Viswanath’s stand was inconsistent. He was projected as similar role as in santhosam movie but sans rationale. His expression towards end of movie was unclear. Sunil was underutilized. Large family with so many members added confusion rather than clarity to the plot. Songs (barring one) are not that great.
I never thought an item song is necessary in a movie like AMAV. Also director wanted to cash in money by using aggressive sentiment where he failed miserably.