Kathanayakudu...

Have you seen the hoardings and wall posters of this movie just before its release? Okay now, if you are a hardcore Rajni fan, then you must have already known something about the story, if not then you must be under big impression, this is another standard Rajini movie which would be rocked with his style and dialogues. Even you know little bit about the story, you would have definitely expected those great animated fights and his powerful dialogues from this movie. Let me please tell you, there is a different facet to this movie all together, JagapathiBabu ( Balu- the barber).

If I have to follow the standard movie review style then I have to mention something about the story here. But there is nothing great to tell you about the story. Okay accepted it’s a different story. Heard it’s a great script in Malayalam (apparently a super good movie too). But is it really a working script for a commercially successful movie? I doubt. I think that’s the reason why I found more art movie shades here and there in the movie. The story simply tells you about two childhood friends, one is now in super star stature(Played by Rajini) and another one is an insignificant barber in some remote village(Played by Jagapathi). They got separated due to circumstances and after so many years SuperStar comes to the village where our barber lives, for a movie shooting. What happens next and how our barber meets up with the SuperStar is the story.

First half of the movie is enjoyable. We have Sunil, Dharmavarapu with his gang, Ali and few other comedians to take make the movie balanced from Jagapathi Babu family problems and sentiments. Jagapathi Babu has done a really fine job in the ill-fated barber’s role and Meena (barbers wife) is just adequate as a supporting wife of an unlucky barber. However the second half of the movie is too draggy and sentimental, I could hardly digest it. There is no much comedy, not many heart touching scenes rather than just the effort to fill the length of the movie. The climax is very touching, if you like sentiment you will appreciate it. But if you are fun loving types, I think it will be too heavy on you.

Coming to the real super star, when I heard about the movie I just expected Rajni’s guest appearance in the movie, however he has a full length character as SuperStar AshokKumar in the movie. As he played his real life character, there is no much scope to fill the movie with all those stunts and dialogues. No worries, director successfully pulled those as part of the movie shooting that’s happening in the village, fans need not to get disappointed, you will get you spoon of Rajni in this movie too and moreover you would see real life Rajini(additional benefit ha..). No doubt he comparatively has few scenes in the whole movie, but in those scenes Rajni looked awesome. Couple of songs where he shake his legs are enjoyable. Yeah there is Nayantara too in this movie to dance for a rain song and to share screen with Rajini in a song and 2 scenes. These 2 scenes are spoofs of 2 famous movies are really good.

Finally, If you just want to see Rajini, nobody can stop you from watching the film and if you are really a good fan of Rajni, you should watch this film, you might get to know his real life a little bit. Please don’t expect all the Rajini standard stunts and dialogues from this movie, and then probably you won’t get disappointed. For me, its a different movie more inclined toward an art movie with some heavy sentiment at the end. You can try this if you are ready to come out of the theatre with that heavy sigh.

Sastry’s Rating for Kathanayakudu : 2 and half out of five.

Ullasanga..Utsahanga..

Hi, my name is Dhanalakshmi, and I have most difficult childhood. My dad passed away when I was in my 7th class. My stepmom only wants get my 50 crore money that my dad left for me. Hey even in my terrific life, I have one thing to cheer about, my friend Balaji, he means a lot to me, he is my best friend. See, I told you I am one unlucky girl, even this friendship could not last longer, his dad got transferred and he left our village. Then I realised that I am in love with him (Please note I just finished my 10th class and I stood first in the state in the board exams).For all obvious reasons, my stepmom wanted me to get married with a guy she chose for me. Then I got this awesome idea to run away from my home and search Balaji, I know I gonna get him...

Hi. I am Aravind. The poramboku batch leader of our colony. I have a great family; my mom and my sister-in-law always support me. I have a bunch of poramboku friends to roam with me in the whole city. One fine day I met with Dhanalakshmi. You guys believe in first love? I believe in. So I fall in love with her. I somehow managed to grab her attention. She is an angel, I decided, I love her and I gonna get her, by hook or crook. Rest, watch it on the silver screen.

Dhanalakshmi again, my director chose Sneha ullal to play my role, she looked gorgeous and innocent in my character, and I am also happy coz she looked hot in song sequences. She succeeded in playing my girl next door kind of character. Its okay she does not have much acting skills, after all this her first telugu movie. I think if she works hard towards displaying the character emotions little more, she is here to stay in tollywood for quite some time. Aravind here, God! where did my director found this guy Yasho Sagar? He is terribly bad, accepted he is new comer, this is his debut movie, but for a lively character like mine, I deserve a much talented actor. Seriously he tortured all the audience which his smile, my only problem is people are thinking Aravind smiles/laughs like that only :( He looked very rigid in most of the frames, and he more or less looks like our old Nitin(not the new Macho man). He has to work really hard if he has to stay in the industry. Dances OK, fights fine.

Sastry here :) So finally my words on the movie, its good entertainer except the fact that hero is the only drawback. Almost all the scenes in the first half are good and well taken, Karunakarn made sure he entertains his audience well. Second half is little weak when compared to the first part but not that bad either. These days most of the films banking on comedy to draw audience to theatres and this movie is no exception. You can expect good comedy from this flick. Story is just fine, not an extraordinary or a completely new one. Music already rocking, if you dint here yet, go get the mp3 downloaded. GV Prakash Kumar is the music composer and this is his first telugu movie. For your information, he is ARR’s nephew and is below 20. I suggest you go and give a dekho.

Sastry’s Rating for Ullasanga Utsahanga : 3 stars on Five.

Sastry

Jane Tu ya Jane Na....

A Simple Sweet Love Story of Jay and Aditi narrated by their friends to a new friend in their group. That’s it; I decided not to discuss anything more about the story. There are lot of other things to tell you. Let’s start!

As I mentioned, it’s a simple and sweet lover story. The script has all those elements that attract young generation, it has group of friends, it has well written and shown chemistry between them, it has love and it has comedy above all it has that simple easy going guy and that cute little doll. First half of the movie succeeded in pulling you into the story very quickly. Comparatively, first half of the second half is little elastic in nature, but that’s fine, it’s just a quarter of the whole movie :)

Jay singh Rathore (Imran Khan) handsome, cool, calm and ideal for most of the girls out there. He has this, Oh so Cute! Look all over the movie and no doubt girls would already have started dreaming about him. Aditi (Janelia), we have seen such characterizations already in Bomarrillu, Ready, Happy and few other movies, but it could be new and fresh in Bollywood. She has all those attributes that are required for a so called cute girl,( gorgeous, little stupid, extreme emotions, and jealous :)). Imran and Janelia carried these chars very well. It must be a cake walk for Janelia, Thanks to Tollywood. Imran also did a fantastic job, long way to go Dude!
Do I really need to tell you about the music of the film? Songs are already rocking whole India. People in theatres can’t stop shouting, humming and clapping when they see their favourite song. Couple of my favourite songs went as background and bit songs though :(. Only comment I have for the music director, Rahman is GOD!

Finally, it’s a cool movie to go watch with your friends, family, lover and enjoy all those scenes which would definitely cherish your memories. A must watch!

Kosa merupu: Nuvve Kavali in new Bottle :)

Sasty’s Rating for Jane Tu: 3 and half out of five.

Ready - Denikaina

After watching two consecutive movies the Friday night (DeTaali(Please read it as DeGaali and Dasavataaram)) this is my 3rd movie in a row I watched on Saturday morning. So this would definitely have some kind of positive effect on my review after watching one disaster and another mediocre.

Coming to the movie in the context, It’s called Ready – Denikainaa. Now don’t ask me how that title suites the essence of the movie. Ok if I start thinking about it now, the hero, his name is Chandu, is ready to bring any bride from the wedding hall and get married with her lover. He is ready to take any risk if he likes it (Seems to be a common standard quality for all our tollywood heros nowadays). He is ready to do anything to fulfil his lover’s desires, etc etc. There is this girl called Pooja, Chandu mistakenly takes her away from a wedding hall thinking Pooja is his friend’s lover and then the struggle starts. Obviously whatever hero does that turns out to be for good. Pooja doesn’t like that marriage to happen and she herself wanted to get away with it. Chandu unintentionally helps her. Now as the story progresses, hero saves her from her factionist uncles who want Pooja to be their daughter-in-law for her money. Chandu sends Pooja to his home and provides shelter and there she manages to attract Chandu’s joint family with her affectionate and sensitive behaviour. Eventually Chandu and Pooja love each other and how Chandu manages to marry Pooja with her uncles’ consent is the rest of the story.

Now that you know the story, don’t start thinking that remembering the provious movies you have watched, like Okkadu, Gudumba Shanker, Aata i don’t know how many more. The core concept is same for all these movies. The girl is in danger and the hero is her saviour. Finally they fall in love and get married making fools out if villains. When coming to Ready, there is nothing new in the story but I don’t have any complaints for that because as long as the treatment is different and entertains people the same story can be watched a hundred times. Sreenu Vitla most of the times good in delivering some good whole family watchable movies like Aanandam, Dhee and now Ready. Especially the second half of the film is really a package for families. So many artists perfect in their roles and some good scenes about the relationships in a joint family and how they should be is nice to watch on screen.

Now the winning point of the film, Comedy. Mc Dowell Moorthy, Chitti Nayudu, Happy Reddy, Janaki, Raaju Garu, Chinna Sastry garu, you need more? Seriously the comedy is good that you just can’t stop laughing in quite a few scenes. Especially with Moorthy, though the character has lot of similarities to Chari Garu in Dhee, Bramhanandam manages to deliver a lot through his facial expressions and he deserves a very special mention in this review. Rest of the comedians are good too. Sunil has got not much to do though he is capable of much more. Chitti Nayudu(The same pokiri guy, ade nandi Iliyana Tammudu) is good too. A healthy non vulgar comedy across the movie makes you feel that you got the value for your money.

Music by Devi is good, though I got disappointed with the visualization of couple songs. I understand the timing of Ayyo Ayyo Ayyo Danayya song, however for the beats that are there in that song, it deserves to be a good dancing number. Same with Om Namaste Bolo. Fights are excellent and decent enough for Rams body language.

After watching those two movies, I felt refreshing with this one and should say I enjoyed it whole heartedly. Just don’t think too much about the story. Go and watch the movie to enjoy its comedy.

Sastrys Ratng for Ready: 3 and half Stars out of Five.

Parugu...

Run Run Run

Before starting anything on the movie, I should appreciate the director for his aptness in selecting the title for the movie. “Parugu”, SubbLakshmi(PoonamBajwa) Parugus with her lover Babu on her wedding day, Neelakantha, SubbaLakshmis father(Prakash Raj) parugu to find her daughter, Babu’s friends pargu to escape from Neelkhanta, Krishna, one of Babus friends (Arujun) parugus to catch Meena (Sheela), Neelakhanta wants Meena to be with him in his parugu as Meena happens to be his second daughter and he does not want her to make the second parugu movie...... All in all, a perfect title for the movie. Yeah, I am not going to tell anything more about the movie, by now you got the whole story there, only thing you should watch on screen is, how Arjun manages to marry Meena.

Puri - Badri, Baaachi
VV Vinayak -Aadi, ChennakesavaReddy
Karunakaran - ToliPrema, Yuvakudu
Sukumar - Arya, Jagadam
Vn Aditya - Manasanta Nuvve, SreeRAm
PrabuDeva – Nuvvostaanante..., Pournami
Bhaskar - Bommarillu, Parugu
Yes all the above movies and directors have one similarity, First movie a blockbuster and the second a flop or an average movie. You take whatever inference you want from this statement, but I suspect now it’s become a tradition and we can safely ignore the second flick by a block buster debutant director. Now when you have two movies from the same director they are ought to be compared (though i strictly wanted to avoid thisL), Bomarillu has all the ingredients which are must for a successful movie, on top of all it has Hasini (Jenilia), Parugu lacks this character. Though Arjun did a good job in the first half, the second half is little too elastic and plot got slipped from the directors hands. You cannot expect any titillating scenes between the leads, as they both don’t even face each other for most of the first half. Not a commercially viable mantra!

Songs average, Female lead average, Comedy average, everything is average about this movie, movie becomes very flat at very regular intervals. Arjun, not very charming, Sheela, not at all attractive, tough she managed to give proper expressions. Prakash Raj looks ok, JayaSudha not required at all for that small character. Bhasker tried to show the counter side of Bommarillu, the fathers version of emotions when his kids don’t understand his love towards them, but he should have done more work on the story and screenplay. Can watch it once.

Parugu: 3 out of 5
Sastry

Kantri....

Typical example for another “Formula” movie, the only variation from the standard formula is, it does not have a punch tag to its title. Looks like the debutant director Mehar Ramesh wants to make it doubly sure that he wants to hit the bulls eye with his first venture in telugu film industry so he doesn’t want to experiment at all and plainly adopt the standard winning equation. After watching the movie, just dig into your past movie watching experience, you will find lot of similar films and why not they are based on the same “Formula”.

The movie opens up with same old violence where PothuRaju alias PR (PrakashRaj) and his friend Seshu(Ashish Vidyarthi) kills their friend and his family and steals one crore money from them. In these scenes you will observe one small kid who is supposedly the victim’s son, appearing here and there in those shots. In the process of escaping, PothuRaju leaves behind his wife and son and run away with the money. Ultimately PothuRaju becomes PR, a multi millionaire and have his operation in HongKong and have Seshu in India to run all his dark business. Don’t ask me how this happened, there is no explanation in the film as well, i know there need not be any explanation in these kind of formula movies. As you can expect, he has lot of enemies as well, like Dasu (Shiyaji Shinde) in India and few others in HongKong. This background of Mr PR and yeah he PrakashRaj looked awesome in the movie in this role.

Now coming to our HERO, Kranti (Yeah his name is Kranti in the movie)”Clear ga vinte Kranti ni, Confused ga vinte Kantri ni”, that’s what he says about his himself. He is a new chap in PR’s Indian gang and as expected, he is young, dynamic, fast, macho ( I am not sure about this, but he managed to beat a lot of goons to dust in fraction of seconds). As expected he manages to steal PR’s attention with all his efforts and proves his dynamism in HongKong as well by beating all those Chinese Marshal Arts specialists. In certain circumstances, in need of money, our hero approaches Sehsu and he rejects to give any money to Kranti and Kranti decides to part away from PRs gang and establish a new one. And he approaches Dasu and accepts a contract to kill PR. This brings PR back to India and Kantri encounters with PR within point blank range. Then suddenly out of the Mr DaivaSahatam(Kota) tells something which gives all of us some kind of ripple and Yeah the current passes to PR also(I know by this time you all have expected what the twist is). Now in the second half there is completely a confused story which is difficult to narrate and i am not planning to do it either.

Did i miss something here? Yeah the Glam Dolls, again as the standard formula says, “when you direct a movie with all the hero centric action packed, you need to have min 2 galm dolls to make audience titillate and use them to drag the movie by 30 more mins in the form of songs”. And this time Hansika and Taneesha took this responsibly on their soft and smooth shoulders and did their part to shake it move it in the songs and few scenes here and there. As the first lead actress Hansika got little extra scenes in Singapore etc etc.

As the standard formula says, you need to have lot of fights in the movie and you have plenty of them, as the standard formula says, you need to have couple of comedians , tough they have got nothing to do with the movie and there scenes are to be used when you think audience need some rest from your action packed fights and dialogue hit scenes. You have Sunil, Aleeeeeeee, Bramhi for this. It need a special mention of “Spider Reddy” the indian SpiderMan which i enjoyed. As you can expect NTR does his dance movements well and the songs look nice on screen. If you don’t have anything to do at home, go give a watch.

Kantri: ** (two stars out of five)

Sastry

Michael Madana Kamaraju............

The title reminds the old movie with Kamal acting in 4 different roles and spreading lot of comedy across the movie. Anyways now we are talking about the new movie where there is no Kamal, where there are no 4 characters, where there is no Ilayaraja music.. all in all its a new Michael Madana kamaraju, read on.

Madan(Sreekant) doesn’t believe in love and hates love and lovers, he always says that Love and lovers are trash, where as his cousin Kamaraju is always in search of love. The movie opens with a new format of visit look over a prospective bride for Kamaraju and ultimate Kamarajus parents asks Madan to select a girl for him and affirms that only Madan approval can call them back from US of A and fly off.

The movie suddenly moves from Hyderabad to Goa where Madan catches up with Charmy and Kamaraju with Asha Saini. Yes, that correct Sunil is paired up with Asha Saini in this movie, a little fat Saini with very fat Sunil. MeanWhile Bramhanandam enters the show and does his part to render comedy to the slow paced movie. In some circumstances Charmy becomes close to Madan and Madan also start liking her but because he already conveys his stand point on love he hesitates to tell the same to Charmy. By the time Sunil falls deep into Asha Saini he does some “trick” to let Madan come open about his love towards Charmi and approve Asha as his girl. However this trick has a side effect which actually introduces Michael (Prabhudeva). Michael is not a very good person and he wants to take the “trick’s” advantage and wants to marru charmi for her money. Now the rest you can imagine, how Madan breaks Michaels net to marry Carmi is the rest of the story.

Second half of the movie really has a parade of all the ace comedians we have in telugu industry, we have Kota, Ali, VenuMadhav, MallikarjunaRao, Kovai Sarala, Kondalavalsa, etc.. however this really doesn’t help the director to fill the movie with comedy. The script fall very dry towards the end of the movie and it hardly makes you laugh. Bramhanadam is watchable as usual with Dhoom spoofs here and there. There is lot of skin show contributed by Asha Saini which may be a drawback for family audience. Charmi is OK in the film. Prabhudeva has one dance number which he performs well and is acting is also upto the mark. Sreekanth with his new hair style looks different and does his part for the movie with no great story and punch.

All in all if you want to go and watch Bramhi for 15-20mins, please go and buy a ticket. Otherwise please sit at home and enjoy any weekend movie that comes on television.Michel

Madana Kamaraju.. * (one on five)

Sastry