ANNAVARAM ... Late Later Latest ... Review

Thieves Came. After Six Months Dogs Barked.
But HERE WE GO.. AALEY AALEY AALEY .....

ANNAVARAM has the repeat combination of the triad Power Star, Bheemaneni, O Tamil Story. The earlier film boasting of the combo being Pawan's first big one(aptly named SUSWAGATHAM ) in the string of hits. After following the block-buster caravan with a series of films which did not exactly set the box-office on fire, Pawan comes back. And he comes back pretty strongly.

Remaking the Vijay-starrer Tamil hit TIRUPACHCHI, the director is successful to a great extent in recasting the visuals to suit the Telugu nativity.Abburi Ravi Bommarillu-fame) gave superb dialogue, the outstanding one being "Annee Adigaavu Kaanee Vaadi Debba Elaa Vuntundo Adagaledu..".

DJ Gogs's ( alias Ramana Gogula) tunes are good, and the songs looked great on-screen, the highlight being "Jara Soodu Soodu Mehabooba..." wherein fans get to see a rare double-act from Power Star. The starter "Rakshasa Rajyam..." is meaningful and inspiring but would have been better had the build-up to the song had been something showing the plight of the poor. In "Lucia...", Pawan reminds us of his grace and "Nee valle..." is a delight to the eyes. The sets for "Annayyaa Annaavante..." looked out of place,but the bro-sis combo of Pawan-Sandhya makes you forget them with their subtle expressions.

Coming to the story, the title is a tell-all. A Brother's gift to his sister.The sentiment scenes between the siblings are well handled and the duo showed excellent rapport ( ala Pawan-Devaki in Toli Prema). The pace pickups in the second half, with the entry of Pothuraju.


Powerstar gives a convincing performance.He has got different shades in his character and he carries them all with equal elan. He is Adorable as ANNAVARAM; Powerful as POTHURAJU;Jovial as ZEHANGIR KHAN. Pawan appears in some special get-ups throughout, the highlight being a salesman of MEGASTAR biscuits. His dialogues are razor-sharp. Sandhya proved her mettle in a strong role. Asin, doesnt have much to do, but her Telangana accent is interesting . Venu Madhav and Brahmaji as the hero's friends pull off bright peformances. Balaji as brother-in-law doesnt spoil the role. The only troughs being Venu Madhav's extra histrionics when he is dying and his mother's ( Loud-Speaker Telangana Shakuntala ) overboard OA after he is dead.

All-in-all a movie that appeals across all cross-sections of the audience.

All these days,the Power star was obstructed by fog and smog.Now it is shining as bright as ever. Looks like the King regains his throne and crown. After a few gory days, the glory is all set to be back :-)

Mana Vaadu Vachchaadoy... Jarugu Jarugu Jarugu .....
Merupalle Vachchaadoy.... Jarugu Jarugu Jarugu .....

P.S: I couldnt comment on the back-ground music by DINA, as the sound (for that day, unfortunately) in E-Square, the multiplex in Pune where I watched it is very ordinary.

STALIN - Man for the Society

After dabbling with almost full-length commedies in his previous two movies, Chiranjeevi returns to a line which only can do justice to his image. Expectations for any Megastar movie would be sky-high, and when you know the directorial reins are with the dimunitive but explosive director Muruga Doss, they become mani-fold. Stalin, the deliverer,delivers.

Muruga Doss getting inspired by the multitude that gathered for the INDRA 175 days function and preparing a story for Chiru is now part of the cine folklore. What people are eager to see is, how the director will handle the Megastar and it turned out be picture perfect. He wanted to give the sound division to his Gajini team-mate Harris Jayaraj, but Megastar roped in his Court-Musician ManiSharma.There is some truth in the talk, that music is not that great.But the picturization compensates. "Paraare.. Paraare" as any one would have guessed is the racy opener.Anuskha sizzles in the item "I want my spiderman.." "Siggutho Cheechee.." is refreshing with beautiful locales. Lawrence's "Thoba Thoba" composition stands out,as usual. Finally, the sequencing (rather.. fragmentation) of the "Suryude Selavani.." song is very meaningful. The background score is simply superb.

The movie sees the return of two yester-year starlets of South India.Urvasi Sarada as Mega mom and an erstwhile Tamil screen-goddess Khushbu as sister have secured meaty roles. Particularly, Khushbu has got a powerful role and she does full justice to it.( Family audience completely taken care of..hehe) And then yes.Trisha! Her role is highly insignificant and appears promptly for songs.Barring some commedy scenes she does not have much to emote.Prakash Raj, as a crooked politician, for a change, appears in a variety get-up and with a Nellorean accent and does a very good job.Sunil plays an important character.

Comparisons to Tagore are common place, as this is also a serious subject. But as Megastar himself has put "Tagore as a concept is not practical in a day-to-day world". But STALIN is." The formula STALIN uses is simple and is highly accomplishable. No, I am not going to disclose it.You got to see it on the screen. The much publicized Kargil episode which features chiru as Major Stalin is very short, but the repercussions that part had on the over-all story is interesting; and the elevation it brings to the character is tremendous. I personally feared Paruchuri Brothers dialog may go overboard but they proved me wrong. Fights by Kannan are well choreographed.The story goes on gathering emotional momentum through out the length of the film and explodes right at the climax.

Of late, there have been some excellent patriotic movies up north like Rang De Basanti, Lage Raho Munnabhai.I perceive STALIN as a Tollywood style reply to the Bollywood feel-good movies.

STALIN is fantastic and realistic, at once.

To sign-off ....



Yuddham bedire sabdham – Stalin!
Nippai ragile nethram – Stalin!
Sathyam saripe yagnam – Stalin!
Visvam yedalo dhairyam – Stalin!

He’s the one and the only one
Stalin’s got the evil on the run
Stalin, Stalin’s got the nerves of steel
Mess with him and you will know the feel

Andaala Ramudu Review

Andaala Ramudu has a casting-coup of sorts with commedian Sunil and the long-long-ago-there-lived Aarthi Aggarwal in the lead pair. Though Aarthi was down in dumps with personal and professional hiccups nobody expected her to be romancing Sunil ( Viwers would very well remember she paried up with everyone in the TOP FOUR).The positive I found in the pre-release publicity is down-playing the role of Sunil. He himself in an interview told that Aarthi is the HERO of the movie. Ofcourse, you know you are fooled when you actually see the film.It's an out and out Sunil's movie and a considerably good one at that.

When you see the first slide of the film titles "Our sincere thanks to Trivikram Srinivas and Abburi Ravi", you are assured of your returns from the ticket you bought. Trivikram needs no introduction and A Ravi is the one who gave dialog to the most recent hit on Telugu celluloid Bommarillu. Ramesh-Gopi are credited with dialogues for the film. Together, they keep you busy almost through out the film. P.Laxmi Narayana alias Deepthi does a decent job directing a film which hints at a subtle message with a comic massage. Nowhere, you see that it is preachy and yet you register something.

Sunil, who was ill-treated by his father ( the chronic cine-rapist Chalapathi Rao. Heard he completed 99 rapes till the mid-90's and then he became a character artist, thus denting his chances to complete the carnal century. Know a guy called Don Bradman ?) vows he would return to his village only when his father takes a ticket to Hell. The opening song "Rajadhi Raja.." praising Sunil ( with the praisers Prepaid ) is good,but it gets a little out of control when he asks them to abuse him. As happens with all village love stories, the heroine is the sister-in-law of Hero.Venu Madhav plays a key role as Sunil's half-brother. Kota is Aarthi's Dad and by inference, Sunil's Mama. For any triangle( equilateral, isosceles, scalene or love) you need three vertices. And "Anandam" Akash, with a new bloated body completes the formalities. Though most of the twists are expected, you wont get bored as you are never far away from a PUNCH. The kids' gang hanging with Aarthi, though humorous, irritated me here and there.

SA Raj Kumar comes up with his standard orchestra. Sunil's dance movements in almost all the songs are simply superb. He definitely has RHYTHM in his body (Remember Santhosham?). "Super Good" RBC ( no,not Red Blood Cell,its R B Chowdary) delivered a reasonably good movie.


Sunil wont disappoint you.
And You wont repent.

Fully Furnished BOMMARILLU

When we are in our 8th standard,Nirmala Teacher told us Bommarillu = Bomma + Illu ( Rugaagama Sandhi). This is the first thought that flashed,at knowing the title. That time I felt for a film that boasts of talented youth in its crew (Producer 'Dil' Raju, latest heart-throb Sidhaarth and the glamorous Genelia) the title is surprisingly "Family Type". I was wrong and I was right.


Bommarillu is fresh and at the same time intense. It is youthful but with a underlying message.It is entirely based on the theme of human relationships and their emotional undercurrents. The interactions between the lead characters have been developed in an interesting way.Some earlier films, touched the topic but only fleetingly. The film succeeded in striking an amazing balance between entertainment and emotion.It is refreshingly peaceful in the midst of fiercely violent flicks.Ofcourse, there is a mandatory fight through which any Telugu hero proves his lady-love that he is indeed in love with the lady.



Sidhaarth's and Genelia's are very good roles and they excelled at them exceedingly well.Sidhaarth is charming as usual as a lover-boy and looked an immensely matured actor when playing the son. His monologue towards the climax is the icing on the cake.I feel Genelia got a bigger pie compared to Sidhaarth and she helped herself to discover unknown depths as an actress.She did a truly commendable job even going to the extent of eclipsing Sidhaarth at times.But in the process, she got on my nerves sometimes ( 2 or 3 times maybe), no fault of hers though, its the character which irritated me.Guess need not pat the backs of Prakash Raj,Jaya Sudha and Kota , all verterans who know how to play their respective characters as well they know the respective backs of their respective hands.Though I have to admit each time I took my kerchief out fearing tear-lash from Jayasudha whenever she appeared on-screen,she did not trouble me much. Suneel has his punches.And the hero's friends gang inluding Chitram Seenu, Vennela Ravi Verma did well.Neha (Dil fame) plays an insignificant role.


The film's director Bhaskar earlier assisted Sukumar and Boyapati Srinu for Arya and Bhadra respectively; both Dil Raju ventures. He did a truly truly good job here. Let us only hope, unlike most of the youth brigade, he gets better with the next one. Abburi Ravi penned some very good dialogues; though a very few of the jokes may come across as stale.And then there is this good 'old' music bloke called Devi Sri Prasad. "Apudo Ipudo Epudo..." is surely the pick of the lot.

Nede Choodandi ! ( It not today; tommorow. But do see it.)

Mee Abhimaana Theatre lo !! ( The 'abhimaana' part is not mandatory )

BOMMARILLU BOMMARILLU BOMMARILLU ....

Ashok - A Shock

Ashoka means “without sorrow”. Jr.NTR hopes to be “Ashoka” with his latest venture “Ashok” produced by Nandamuri clan-loyalist Vallurupalli Ramesh. The film is the second attempt of the stylish director Surender Reddy who stuck gold with his maiden effort “Athonokkade”.

As a pre-cursor to a discussion about the movie itself; let us have a very quick look (it’s a promise!) at the Jr. NTR phenomenon. After a nightmarish debut in “Ninnu Choodalani”, the young actor quickly covered some valuable ground with Student No.1 (SS Rajamouli directorial debut under Raghavendra Rao B.A.’s supervision. Now wake up. Don’t day-dream about navels, honey, fruits, milk and other diary products).Followed it up with a forgettable Subbu (essentially a remake of Student No.1). V.V.Vinayak resurrected his career with Adi (with a strong and violent Seema backdrop). Allari Ramudu (on the lines of NTR’s social movies) and Naaga fall flat on their respective tummies. Then comes the blockbuster Simhadri. SS Rajamouli’s mixture of emotion and action coupled with a power packed performance from Jr.NTR hits the right chords with the audience. The parallel downfall of Balayya Babu helped him to carve a nice niche for himself among the legend late NTR’s legion of fans. What lined up later is an arithmetic progression of mediocrity in the form of Andhrawala, Samba, Naa Alludu and Narasimhudu. The last one was producer-turned-politico Chengala Venkat Rao’s suicidal attempt (both literally and figuratively).

But WHY?

Typecasting. You might have heard this word a million times if you are into the most thankless job called programming.

New Jr.NTR Role = (Jr. NTR) (Any Role)

/* don’t try this piece of code on your office computer system, if you want to remain employed */

He was cast in the same role over and over again. Rough look. Powerful dialogues. Fighting on the side of masses. Bashing the goons. It has become a routine (to use a mild term). We all very well know that he can don that role effortlessly. But it so happened that he donned only that role.

Readers: Cut the crap !
Sopeti: Ok. Here we go.

Creativity is the ability to hide your sources as someone more intelligent than many of us has put. But all through the film you have this feeling of déjà vu. A son who is not considered as a son by his father (owing to the son’s liberal limb-numbing instincts) is as common on Telugu screen as a sister & mother combo pack trying to re-install Son System Software on their Home PC. To help you further; Think software. Think Satyam. No. I am not promoting Satyam Software firm here, but trying to remind you of Sumanth’s father-repellant character in the movie “Satyam”. The handling of the love tale is pale and stale.

To brush up your Set Theory, I would really like to give a list of scenes which are an intersection of Ashok and movies before that. I even typed some but deleted. I don’t want to spoil your fun. If you watch the movie; do mail me what you have found and we can compare. Anyways, keep these in your cache - Mr.Pellam, Adi, Satyam, Vasu, Super etc.

Novelty in story is a rarity these days. But for the given (rather not given) story, it has been well shot. Most of the scenes reek of technicality. Some of the action episodes are well choreographed. Three of the songs are good with the usual Jr.NTR’s energetic movements. How much I tried to refrain myself from typing this. But…I hate Sameera Reddy sincerely. As is the norm, Prakash Raj plays father. Sudha plays mother. Even the sister (don’t know her name) is also right from the standard template. “Super” hero Sonu Sood (Yes. That’s the film in which Nag did a supporting role) plays the villain. Hero’s friends keep changing throughout the film to offer the much needed variety to the audience, with only Rajeev Kanakala appearing from the start to end (menacingly, even after his end).

Marudhuri Raja’s words and sentences are good in patches. The dialogues from Krishna Bhagawan and Jeeva (at times) stand out. But it could have been better. There is a mandatory "Vamsam-Raktham" dialogue along with the "Amma Thodu Addamgaa Narikesthaa" (repeated from Adi).An uncalled-for satirical reference to a scene in Kushi doesn’t help either. (No. This review is not retaliation in any way…hehe)

On a whole, the film may satiate a few of his fans’ years-long hunger but for most of the rest of them and almost everyone of the average movie watchers, the excessive violence (it has become a norm rather than an exception these days) and the numerous meaningless chases/ assaults/ kidnaps/ warnings are too much to take in.Can't help but notice that the typecasting dragon rose it's ugly head once again.

Advices to Mr.Jr.NTR
1.Please try something different the next time around.
2.Do not hard-code “Heroine = Sameera Reddy” for the coming films.Please.

Nandanavanam 120 KMs Review

Nandanavanam 120 KMs will not last more than 120 Minutes… That’s the only positive the film has to offer. Why this film is categorized a “Mystery” is the actual mystery. The author successfully dodged Neelakanta’s Show, Missamma (Okay. It’s good some say), Sadaa Mee Sevalo but the axe fell,rather heavily, with Nandanavanam.

The film opens slowly but then quickly moves to snail’s pace and continues that way till the interval bang (?) The second half, by mistake, goes with some speed for some time, but again Neelakanta proves to be vigilant and applies the brakes. Curious about the bang? Its the staple scene you saw in all those thrillers, right from the days when "Gundepotu" Gummadi wore knickers. Here is the descriptive screenshot for you:

1. Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board strikes with venom. Power off.
2. Breezes with a speed of 120 KMPH generally accompanied by a downpour, but due to water shortage in Hyderabad (the film was canned in summer), audience are let off with winds alone
3. As a consequence of point 2 above, fluttering and shuttering of windows (Yes. Exactly with the frequency of crashing and rebooting of Windows XP)
4. The behemoth bungalow located in the midst of a jungle was interiorly decorated with dangling , dangerous looking, damning objects on the walls.

I thought it would be condescending to the readers had I mentioned that the time is well over midnight.

The film is devoid of songs. I am not in a position to comment whether it is a bane or a boon. The less we talk about the hero (?) the better. Fit material for a very major cosmetic surgery. Kota, for all his proven talent, exceeds his quota of serious looks. But then, that’s all the script demands of him. Thalluri Rameswari (those cursed ones who watched that unwatchable Nijam, will never forget her 4th degree torture in that movie) pricks the already annoyed audience with her needless needling dialogues. How kind of Neelakanta to include a love angle to this tangle in the jungle? The heroine looks so-so. A special mention of the veteran comedian now- turned-to characterless-artiste Naresh. He is the living example of the proverbial “Dollar action when a Cent is sufficient”.

Thrillers are expected to keep audience at the edge of their seats. This one sure does. Viewers are on the edges of their respective seats right from the beginning… if only... ready to leave the theatre. Hehe…..

Worth a miss.

Weakramarkudu

By now, people might already be cognizant of the fact that there are two RaviTejas in the film. You should be.. atleast after my spoiler.. hehe. Vikram Rathod IPS and Aththili Saththi Babu.

Ravi Teja is at his comical best in the fitting role of Aththili. He along with Brahmanandam provides some very good entertainment in the first half. But with Pokiri, a not so healthy trend of vulgar dialogues has set in in Telugu Filmdom. Vikramarkudu carries along it quite disgracefully. An Item song and an Item-like song tickles the sensuous bone of viewers. Even "Super" Anoushka played her part, revealing more than she is concealing.The pic down under is a uncomforting exception.

The X-factors may keep family audience at bay, despite Rajamouli attempting to woo them with an ineffective Dad-daughter sentiment. After the utter failure of an overdose of Mother-Son sentiment in the second half of an othewise very good Chatrapati,the director dint learn his lessons. The character Vikram Rathod IPS dint get the much required elevation. Some blame can be unhesitatingly put on M.Ratnam, the dialogue writer, whose words (for the IPS character... though less in number..) lacked punch in most cases and logic in many. MM Keeravani's tunes seemed to be okay-okay. I first heard them in the theatre. But after that awe-inspiring background of Chatrapati, its Vikramarkudu counter-part was let-down.

Story by Vijayendra Prasad is a beaten track. I wont reveal it, as you yourself can predict the next scene, sitting in the theatre without much effort. Once more, Rajamouli satisfies his saddistic instincts. 1. A Blade shashing a neck 2. Wife and daughter burnt alive while husband runs helter-skelter to save them 3. A Police man begging the villain for his wife, while the villain's son is satisfying his urges. Yuck.. Enough of them. For once, the attire of the gang of goons in Chambal Valley ( Knowing Rajamouli; he could not fit the whole story in a single state, Remember Simhadri, Chatrapati) provide comic relief with their medieval dressing and barbaric demeanour. Prakash Raj was in the cast. But I bet, he has no clue why he was in there. There are lots of holes,loop-holes and flowers-in-ears scenes but I wont go into the details wasting your and more importantly my precious time.. Hee...

All-in-all "Vikramarkudu" just gets "Passmarkulu" ....

Watch it. If you have time to kill, and if you want to see people getting killed.

I strongly suspect SS Rajamouli's dream-run came to end, much like MS Raju's did with Pournami ( Readers may well remember the author's pin-point prediction back then. A huge self-Sabhaash!).