04/05/08 ~ Early Tollywood

4.05.2008

Banner: Creative Commercials
Dialogues: Trivikram Srinivas
Lyrics: Sahiti, Pothula Ravi Kiran & Sirivennela
Camera: Ramesh Babu
Art: Anand Sai
Music: Harris Jayaraj
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Thrills: Vijay
Story - Screenplay - Direction: A Karunakaran
Producer: KS Rama Rao
Theatrical Release Date: 10th April 2002

Cast:
Venkatesh,
Bhumika Chawla,
Ali,
Vijay Kumar,
Manjula,
Varsha,
Sunil,
Jogi Naidu,
Achyut

Story

After graduation, Vasu (Venkatesh) runs a college canteen, music school and teaches music for seven years to make his living. His father (Vijay Kumar) is an IPS officer and he wants Vasu to appear for Civil Services examinations to take up IPS career. But Vasu has different plans for his future. He dreams of becoming a musician and a singer.

One fine day a young IPS officer comes to Vasu's places to seek the blessings of Vasu's father. He admits that Vasu's father is the source of inspiration for him to become an IPS officer. Vasu's father, dejected that his son does not heed his advice of giving civils exams, feels bad about his son. Meanwhile, Vasu spots a beautiful girl Deepti (Bhumika Chawla) on the street. He plays every possible trick to woo her. But all his plans backfire on him and make himself a fool in the eyes of Deepti.

Vasu father spots Vasu bashing the guys up in the streets and asks him to leave the house and stay outside. Venky leaves the house. Deepti comes down to Vasu's place along with her luggage when Vasu was about the leave the house. Later on, Vasu comes to know that Deepti is the daughter of Vasu's father's childhood friend. Vasu sees this as an opportunity to get close to Deepti. He returns to his home and promises that he won't touch music again and concentrates only on his studies. But Vasu secretly pursues his music ambitions.

Vasu passes the preliminary auditions of Music Talent search conducted by Sony Music Company. When Vasu's father spots the letter from Sony, he argues with his son and asks him to either be there in house and study for IPS or leave home to pursue his dream of becoming a musician.

Deepti falls in love with Vasu and vice versa. But they never express their feelings towards each other. Vasu's sister loves the brother of Deepti and its okayed by the parents of both parties. It is also revealed that Deepti already Okayed a guy called Manohar by looking at his photograph (this is much before she met Vasu).

Now it's time for the real test. It's D Day. Vasu is on the stage to prove himself as a singer and musician in the final auditions of Sony Talent Search. Deepti is getting married to Manohar on the same day. Vasu's sister is also getting married to Deepti's brother.

Will Vasu win the prize at audition and marry Deepti? Watch the film for yourself if you want to know yourself.

Artists:

Venkatesh: Venky performed well in this film. He toned down his body. But he is not looking good in the get-up of Vasu. There seems to be something really unpleasant about his get-up. It could be either the goti or the fat-reduced cheeks. His hogged the screen all the time. He got 95% percent of screen presence.

Bhumika: She got very less footage in the film. Her screen presence on the film is just about 20% (excluding song). She did well within the limitations of her character. Bhumika, as usual, is looking very pretty in Vasu.

Technical Departments:

Screenplay - Direction: Karunakaran concentrated too much on the character of hero and did not really expand the role of heroine, which is very uncharacteristic of him (if we look the way he beautifully explored the roles of heroines in Toli Prema and Yuvakudu). That hero orientation for Vasu has robbed off the family story tag this film. He took so much time to explain how good is the hero. But when it comes to other characters, he just managed to introduce them to the minimal effect. This kind of narration caused lots of confusion in the second half and it resulted in climax getting totally diluted and left the viewers in the state of chaos. Karunakaran should better choose the storyline and stick to it's screenplay rather than wavering by doing hero-image-building exercises. Viewers are bound to get disappointed with Karunakaran work.

Dialogues: Trivikram has done a neat job as the dialogue writer in this film. The comedy dialogues in the first half are good. But most of the serious dialogues written to Venky go on 'lecture-giving-mode'. Right dialogue in the right moment gives the bright effect. But lots of dialogues are misused in the film, as the situation does not demand that kind of serious dialogues.

Music: Music is one thing that stands out in this film. Songs are excellent and background music is brilliant. Harris Jayaraj proved his mettle again with this film as a good music maker. He also did two brief music bits for Vasu, which are pretty mellifluous and peppy.

Photography: Photography by Ramesh Babu is pretty good. The way he canned the beautiful sets and exotic locations in the film is commendable.

Production: KS Rama Rao has made this film on a lavish scale. The film looks pretty rich and colorful. He should have taken more care about the second half and especially climax.

Analysis: First half of the film is average. Second half is little boring. Plus points in the film are songs and comedy. Climax is the main drawback. This film has got the best of the cast and crew - Venkatesh, Bhumika Chawla, KS Rama Rao, Karunakaran, Trivikram Srinivas and Karunakaran. If you examine individual scenes, they are excellent. But the soul of the film is missing. One does not understand why this film is captioned with 'The Voice of Youth'. The caption for the film is totally unjustified. The classes might find this film to be OK. But masses may not hog on to Vasu.

[+/-]

AADI 2002

Banner: Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Productions
Dialogues: Paruchuri Brothers
Music: Mani Sharma
Photography: Ram Prasad
Stunts: Vikram Dharma
Story - Screenplay - Direction: VV Vinayak
Producer: P Naga Lakshmi
Theatrical Release Date: 28th March 2002

Cast:
NTR,
Keerthi Chawla,
Rajan P Dev,
Ali,
LB Sriram,
Chalapati Rao,
M.S. Narayana,
Ahuti Prasad,
Raghu Babu,
Rajeev Kanakala,
Venumadhav,
Sangeetha and Bangalore Padma

Story

The story is set in the backdrop of Rayalaseema. The film opens with Veera Reddy (Ahuti Prasad) returning from USA after a long gap with his wife and 8-year-old kid Aadi Kesava Reddy. Veera Reddy's deceased father is a well-known factionist in that area and owns a land of 4000 acres. While leaving to states Aadi Sesha Reddy keeps the responsibility of managing land to Siva Reddy (Rajan P Dev). Veera Reddy realizes that Siva Reddy is misusing the responsibility given to him. He wants to donate all his land to the 2000 families staying in that village. Upon coming to know about this, Siva Reddy attacks Veera Reddy and kills him and his wife. Veeranna (Chalapati Rao), a trusted lieutenant of Veera Reddy, takes the kid Aadi Kesava Reddy and escapes to Hyderabad city. All the trusted people of Veera Reddy were put in jail for a life sentence for 14 years.

Then the titles of the film are flashed after which it says the caption '12 years later'. We see the grown up Aadi (NTR) studying in a college. He falls in love with Nandu (Keerthi Chawla) and vice versa. Veeranna raises Aadi in Hyderabad. Aadi is a fun-loving, yet hot-blooded guy and is cynosure of all eyes. Later on it is revealed that Nandu is the daughter of Siva Reddy.

After the studies are completed Nandu is back in her hometown at her father's place. After a hiatus of 14 years, Aadi enters the Rayalaseema along with the just-released lieutenants and Veeranna to take revenge on Siva Reddy and get back all the land so that he can distribute it to the poor families. The rest of the film deals with how Aadi achieves his objective.

Artists:

NTR: You are bound to see a new NTR in this film. He trimmed his body a bit and did an extraordinary work as an artist. He carried the entire film on his shoulders. He did all the scenes with the consummate ease. Be it action sequences, romantic teasing scenes or dances! NTR turned out to be an extremely talented actor in comedy scenes. He is too good in those scenes. You can even see him cracking a joke on his shape in this film.

Keerthy Chawla: She is very decent looking and glamorous. She suited the character well and is bound to win the hearts of audience with her action. But she looked little awkward and out of place when she wore ultramodern dresses and danced in the 4th song.

Other actors: Raja P Dev does justice to his role by giving a balanced performance. Chalapati underplayed his role very well as the God Father of NTR. LB Sriram gives a nice performance as the principle of the college with Amitab Bachachan (of old films) get-up. MS Narayana renders another good performance as an assistant to villain in the second half with his 'assam' comedy episode.

Technical Departments:

Screenplay - Direction: For a starter VV Vinayak has done an excellent job as the director. The story of the film is an age-old revenge saga where son comes back to take revenge on the killer (who happens to be an assistant to his father) of his father after a gap of 14 years. But, it's Vinayak imaginative direction and tight screenplay that keeps you glued to your seats. This film is a pucca mass film. But the director made sure that the comedy is rightly blended in the film without losing the balance and seriousness. Vinayak has a bright future ahead for him in the years to come.

Dialogues: Paruchuri brothers gave perfect dialogues for this film. There are rib-tickling college humor dialogues and powerful emotional dialogues.

Thrills: Vikram Dharma composed very good fights. They are all improvised ones to make us believe that they are real.

Music: Background score for this film is very good. Songs are good too. But when you compare these songs with those of NTR earlier films, you will get disappointed. The best song of the lot is the only melodious song in the film 'Toli Pilupe'.

Analysis: The first half of the film is stuffed with college humor and romance. The second half is focused on how NTR teaches a lesson to Rajan. Both the halves are equally entertaining. But the climax of the film is weakened with unnecessary extended fights. The story is a routine and predictable one. But it's purely the imagination of the director that saved viewers from getting disoriented. The ending scene in which the villain's wife and son help the hero in burying villain alive is little too cinematic and unimaginable. The movie would have been a better film if they took care of those sensibilities in the climax. Over all, it's a good film to be watched by one and all.