Gaayam - 2 Review....

It is..
A film that reminds us why RGV is such an icon (in comparison).


The plot..
The film starts in Bangkok where Ram (Jagapathi Babu) and his family’s well settled life is established for a painful and boring 30 minutes or so. Then it cuts to Hyderabad and the characters of Varma’s Gaayam re-enter, the violent politician Guru Narayan (Kota Srinivas Rao) and the famous lawyer (Tanikala Bharani). Guru Narayan’s son, an impulsive and brainless character played by the late Kota Prasad is an add on the baddies gang.


A small bang bang incident in Ram’s Bangkok coffee shop puts him on the news and Guru Narayan’s stirred up about whether Durga is actually dead. The lawyer and the son leave for Bangkok and events lead up to Ram/Durga coming back to Hyderabad to settle his old score.

Acting..
Jagapathi’s character didn’t have the emotional depth to put forth a performance like in the prequel; he’s done what he can with what was given to him. Kota Srinivas Rao as usual pulls off a brilliant comical performance (just another day at work for the master). His son definitely couldn’t match up to the super dad.  What was good? The film did have its moments.  Scenes involving Ram going back to being Durga and some of the scenes in the second half which mark Durga’s come back were entertaining and probably were the quickest sequences in the film.  The scenes where a few frames from the old Gaayam were shown were so arousing. A film from Varma’s glory days, has to be that way right?

What went wrong?
In comparative terms:
RGV didn’t make this film.
RGV and Mani Ratnam didn’t write the screenplay for this film.
Rasool Ellore is not the cinematographer of this film.
And there are no Revathi and Sirivenella in the cast of this film.

Talking otherwise, the film was not expecting any brains from the audience and was trying to tell too much too slowly. The songs and the montages were clichéd and dull, the only good sound again is the theme from ‘Gaayam 1993’.



Verdict
Don’t compare it with the prequel and it is quite an entertainer. Could have done better, but, at least it’s this good.

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Happy Happyga Movie Review

Banner: Osian Films
Casting: Saranya Mohan, Varun Sandesh
Direction: Priya Saran
Music: Mani Sharma
Producer: Vadlamudi Durgaprasad

‘Happy Happy Ga’ released today wordlessly. The movie stars Varun Sandesh, Vega and Saranya Mohan. Happy Happy Ga is tipped to be a romantic drama, where the story spins around a guy Santosh who believes in leading a happy life. Check out Happy Happy Ga review to know how happy this movie would be!

Story:

Santosh (Varun Sandesh) relishes leading a happy life. He works as a gift consultant and delivers gifts across. In this process, he meets Pooja, an NRI girl and falls in love. However, Santosh tries to impress her rather differently. And Pooja believes that Santosh is honest, and discovers that Priya to be Santosh’s ‘dream girl’ and convince her eventually.

Analysis:

The story is an old one and there’s no novelty about it. Time and again, previously we’ve seen movies having a triangular love story. But just recall how of them were successful. Director Priya Sharan should have done a lot of home work and he’s paying heavily for that. A weak story couple with lack-luster screenplay and unnecessary twists were run too artificial. The casting should have been better or the story could have been better.

Varun Sandesh continues his flop run and it is up to him as how he chooses his path. Few characters really need to elevated, particularly the villain's (Ravi Shankar) character. Music and Lyrics are turn offs for the movie.

The focus is not on trying to make an engaging movie, but rather the other way. But like said earlier, screenplay and dialogues add value to the story, which are completely missing here.

The first half of Happy Happy Ga is a mere formality, and the second half has many twists and ending in an unanticipated format. Wonder how!

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Don Seenu Review

Banner: RR Movie Makers    
Starring: Ravi Teja, Shriya, Anjana Sukhani, Srihari, Shiyaji Shinde, Bramhanandam, Ali
Screenplay and Direction: Gopichand Malineni  
Dialogues: Kona Venkat    
Cinematographer: Sameer Reddy    
Editor: Gautham Raju    
Lyrics: Ramajogaiah, Vanamali, Bhaskara Bhatla
Music Director: Manisharma
Producer: Venkat 

Story:

Seenu (Ravi Teja) is completely captivated by Amitabh Bachchan and aspires to become Don from his childhood. He would be awestruck and compels people to call him Don Seenu.  He elopes from his house to become a don. Later, when he grew up, he decides to join the gangster team of Machi Raju Shiyaji Shinde) and Narsing (Sri Hari) and trap their sisters. Both these rival gangs are trying to please the big boss Duggal (Mahesh Manjrekar), who resides in Dubai. The plot unveils when Ravi Teja reveals the reason why did he choose to join particularly Machi Raju and Narsing gang.

Analysis:

‘Don Seenu’ is a typical Ravi Teja mass entertainer and fans might take pleasure in watching Ravi Teja’s performance.  However, debutant Gopichand Malineni failed to maintain the same cadence and tempo right through, particularly the second half.  Gopichand Malineni has accentuated on entertainment part rather making the story a gripping one.

Ravi Teja is at his usual best giving a wonderful performance - but the problem here is that as the film progresses, the script loses its weight and the focus has been deviated. It is a common sight in Telugu cinema that you cast comedian characters precisely for the purpose of entertainment- which means the story lacks depth in the fist.  In fact, one could witness several hilarious scenes depicted in Ravi Teja earlier movies like ‘Dubai Seenu’ and ‘Kick’.

Gopichand Malineni comes up with a very good and interesting subject line – casting Ravi Teja to become a don. But the script might not be the best when it comes to the padding as the remaining characters turn out to be a just for mere appearance. Perhaps, Gopichand Malineni should have gone ahead with introducing Ravi Teja in a commercial don format. The director surely must have done some homework to tailor and script and dialogues to suit Ravi Teja, but in this process, he overlooked the significant aspect of script.

‘Don Seenu’ is yet another Telugu movie where the climax looks dramatized and cinematic – another negative shade for the movie. But Ravi Teja has at least shown the intent to try and do something different, but this might not be the script.



Performances:
Ravi Teja just gets better film by film, but it’s important he chooses a good script. His dialogue delivery is good and body language is excellent. In fact he at times pretty well imitated Amitabh Bachchan. But it’s time for him to come out of that commercial masala format and try something offbeat.

Shriya Saran – This is her come back film in Telugu movies and she has done reasonably well and so as debutant Anjana Sukhani.

Srihari delivers the usual Telangana accent and Shiyaji Shinde continues the same hilarious villain like he did in NTR ‘Kantri’.  Mahesh Manjrekar’s role is no different from ‘Adhurs’ – as in the end he becomes more a comic character.

Ali has done well, while Brahmanandam's comedy is routine

‘Don Seenu’ does not offer anything different and new except for the same usual Ravi Teja antics.

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Is ‘Kaleja’ retitled 'Mahesh Khaleja’?

Is ‘Khaleja’ retitled mahesh Khaleja’? It appears that ‘Kaleja’ movie starring Mahesh Babu is now retitled as ‘mahesh Khaleja’.

Sources say that Mahesh’s name has been included in the new title ‘mahesh Khaleja’. But Mahesh babu’s name will appear in small letters. This mahesh Khaleja’ title has been registered and it would be interesting to see, as to which name would be finalized.

Further, Mahesh Kaleja unit has already cut a 1 minute promo on this and has sent to the censor board. And the censor board has censored this 1 min trailer few days back it seems. And this trailer would be broadcasted from August 9 in all TV’s.

‘Kaleja’ has completed the shooting part and the pending two songs would be shoot after Mahesh Babu’s birthday.

Well, so what’s the titled now - ‘Kaleja’ or ‘mahesh Kaleja’? Hope fans would certainly enjoy ‘Kaleja’!

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Maryada Ramanna Review

 

   

Banner: Aarka Media Works
cast: Suneel, Saloni, Brahmanandam
Director: S.S.Rajamouli
Producer: Shobhu Yarlagadda,  Prasad Devineni
Music Director: M.M. Keeravani

Story:

Ramu (Sunil) is an innocent flat broke orphan raised in Hyderabad and commute by his strange bicycle. But because of his delivery delay, his dealers prompted to buy an auto-trolley costing 2 lakhs. But the helpless and penniless Ramu view buying an auto-trolley as a distant dream. Soon, he receives a letter from Rayalaseema Revenue Office saying that he can apply to valuate his inherited land in Rayalaseema (his birthplace). On the flip side, his parented rivals Ramineedu (Nagineedu) are waiting for his arrivals since 22 years to take revenge on Ramu, since his father has killed Ramineedu’s brother. The plot unveils when Ramu steps in Rayalaseema. In a series of great family drama, humor and emotions, how Sunil escapes death, makes the plot interesting.

Analysis:

The greatest challenge for any director is to sustain the audience for 2 and half hours, particularly when the plot is unveiled to the audience and not to the characters. Rajamouli has delivered successfully and by backing his strategic move of making ‘Maryada Ramanna’ after Magadheera.  ‘Maryada Ramanna’ is a candy script, where one just gets the feeling that that only Sunil can perform the lead hero.
 

          Sunil plays the sheet-anchor role as he shoulders the responsibility of the film right through. And he also sometimes giggles you with his innocent, yet impressive performance. It is very difficult to make scripts like ‘Maryada Ramanna’, where the tempo should slowly pick up as the movie progresses and Rajamouli has banked on his experience to show that. Rajamouli has handled Sunil pretty well in all comic, drama, and emotional scenes and ensured that Sunil does not go over-board. He has struck the right balance in ensuring that the lead character does not dominate the story.
However, the fact that Sunil is playing the lead role cannot be overlooked in certain scenes. The romantic scenes between Sunil and Saloni were well made. In fact, Saloni gives a good performance and perhaps this movie might give her better roles. Contrastingly, you will not witness the typical Rayalaseema chase and faction stunts until the last 20 minutes.  The first half of ‘Maryada Ramanna’ does well and significantly the plot will be unveiled both the audience and to the characters. And the second half is reasonably good as the director managed to maintain the tempo and high emotions taking the centre stage.



Performances:
Sunil steals the show. He has very well to carry the lead character; Surely this movie from Sunil would raise the expectations on his next film with ram Gopal Varma. Needless to expound, he is a good dancer

Saloni has done well and there’s lot of scope for her character, particularly, in the climax. And her on-screen chemistry with Sunil is good as well.

Nagineedu played well and his body language is good. He has maintained that Rayalaseema menace with his expressions. Brahmaji and rest of the casting are adequate.

Technicalities:

Keeravani’s music is not extravagant, but good. The background score and rerecording is nice. Editing is difficult for these films, but the editor has done a good job. Cinematography and visual effects can hog the limelight for this movie.

Maryada Ramanna is a reasonably good film and neat entertainer. Rajamouli’s juggernaut continues in the Telugu cinema industry, but mind you, go to the film with an open mind.

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