July 2009 ~ Early Tollywood

7.31.2009

Movie Review : Magadheera
Rating : 3.75/5
Banner : Geetha Arts
Cast : Ramcharan Teja, Kajal Agarwal, Devgill, Srihari, Sunil, Brahmanandam, Sarath Babu, Subbaraya Sharma, Kim Sharma and Others
Cinematography : Senthil Kumar
Music : M M Keeravani
Producer: Allu Aravind
Director: S S Rajamouli
Released Date: July 31, 2009

Story:
A gripping tale of romance, the story begins with Harsha (charan) who is an avid bike racer and his life takes a turn when his hand brushes with that of Indu (Kajal). Since he does not see her face, he wants to know who she is and finally manages to get her. The truth goes back 400 years ago when Harsha was Kalabhairava, a brave warrior general. Indu is princess Mitra who falls in love with Bhairava. However, her relative Randev (devgill) has an eye for her and he wants her at any cost. A tragic ending happens there but the story comes back to the present and Randev is again the relative of Indu. Whether Harsha gets successful this time or not forms the rest of the story.

Presentation:
The director has come up with a regular storyline with an element of past life but then the presentation was fabulous. The dialogues were apt, the script was sensible and the screenplay was adept. Background score and music were alright but cinematography was mind blowing. Special appreciations to the graphics and visual effects department for doing a remarkable job. Editing was neat, costumes were royal and trendy, art department was top notch. Charan has did full justice to the role and has carried both characters very strongly. Kajal was seductive as usual and she will steal hearts. Srihari gave the momentum, Devgill was just okay, he could have been better, Sunil and Brahmi gave few moments of humor. The others contributed effectively to the film.

Conclusion:
The film has been a brave attempt at taking the Telugu cinema to a different level. Not just in terms of genre, but also in terms of the technical aspects and the production values. While the first half of the film was quite pale, it is just before the interval that the heat builds up. The second half makes up for the slackened pace and is a gripping treat to the audience. The idol of Lord Shiva gives goosebumps. Keeping the content part aside, this is truly a grand effort by the makers and it has created a new dimension to historical movies.

Bharatstudent Verdict: Technical extravaganza, don't miss it!!!

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Its a Historical Wonder : Exclusive : MAGADHEERA (2009) Movie Review : By Great Andhra

Film: Magadheera
Rating: 4/5
Cast: Ram Charan, Kajal, Dev Gil, Srihari, Surya, Sarath Babu, Sunil, Brahmananadam, Hema, Chiranjeevi, Kim Sharma, Mumaith Khan, Subbaraya Sharma, Rao Ramesh etc
Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Music: Keeravani
Cinematography: Senthil Kumar
Fights: Ram Laxman and Peter Heins
Lyrics: Chandrabose, Keeravani and Bhuvanachandra
Released On: 31st July 2009

The much awaited ‘Magadheera’ has arrived. It has created huge expectations by the virtue of its posters, trailers and above all the music. Finally let us see if it has reached those expectations.

Story:
Harsha (Ram Charan) is a young man who earns money on bike races and bets. He loves such adventures on two wheelers. He happens to touch the hand of a young girl Indu (Kajal) accidentally and that ‘soul touch’ connects his present to the past.

What’s the past?
That’s 1609 AD when Kalabhaiarava (Ram Charan) was the warrior in Udaigarh who trains the soldiers. The Senadhipathi Randheer (Dev Gil) lusts on Yuvarani Mitravinda (Kajal) but the latter loves Kalabhirava. That results in a huge battle between Randheer and Kalabhairava which puts end for their lives. Sher Khan (Sri Hari), the Muslim invader witnesses the valor and love of Kalabhairava and salutes to him.

They take rebirth as Harsha and Indu. And many characters from the past also come to present with the soul connectivity. But where? What happens to them? How the past life matters for them in present life?

That has to be watched on big screen to experience the marvelous treat along with unleashing those queries.

Performances:
Ram Charan:
He stood as an icon of macho look. He portrayed the 1609 AD role, Kalabhaiarava, with right bearing and voice modulation. Chiranjeevi’s yester year’s voice echoed in the ears of audiences with that modulation of Ram Charan for that character. His dances are spellbinding, especially in ‘Bangaru Kodi petta..’.

Kajal:
She is the right choice and perfect blend. Her elegance is amazing in queen’s role.

Sri Hari:
His portrayal as Muslim warrior Sher Khan is quite wonderful. He added value to the movie on a whole.

Dev Gill:
This Bollywood villain has shared screen in the main antagonist role. He proved perfect particularly in ‘past birth role’.

Others:
Sarath Babu is ok in the role of old king, the father of Yuva Rani Mitravinda.

Rao Ramesh perfectly grooved in the role of Aghora Sadhu with apt gait and voice modulation

Brahmanandam and Hema got wasted

Sunil’s comedy is ok to large extent

Technical departments:
The movie deserves right mention for music, sound effects, graphics, 3D effects, Cinematography and Choreography. What not! Every technical faculty has rightly worked on this film. Director Rajamouli should be appreciated for his guts to bring such a massive film on Telugu screen.

Allu Aravind should be esteemed for his wonderful production values.

Music And Lyrics:
Keeravani and Chandrabose have created wonder with music and lyrics. Every word has aptly grooved into the situation in finest musical form.

Jorse Jorse is like a sheer poetry drawn on a canvass

Naakosom Juttu Peekkunte (written by Keeravani) is hilarious and entertaining

Panchadaara Bomma will be one of lifetime melody hits in Ram Charan’s filmography

Bangaru Kodi petta (penned by Bhuvanachandra) surpassed the older one in choreography

Dheera Dheera is the song that was ever pictured on Indian screen so far

Magadheera…(rolling title song) is innovative and interesting with the dances of Allu Aravind, Keeravani, Rajamouli, Rama Rajamouli, Ali, Sunil, Brahmanandam, Kajal, Kim Sharma, Mumaith Khan, Saloni, BA Raju and every technician worked in the movie

Above all the background music stood as backbone for the movie

Highlights:

* Marvelous art work carried to portray Udaigadh city of 1609AD
* Battle between Kalabhairava and 100 soldiers of Sher Khan
* Wonderful picturization of Dheera Dheera song
* Lord Shiva’s statue that brings hysterical feeling
* Helicopter and bike stunts of Ram Charan

Disappointments:

* Brahmanandam-Hema comedy
* Chiranjeevi’s episode
* Dialogues in first 44 minutes

Analysis:
“This is our movie-our Telugu movie. This is our pride. This is the creation happened with the cognizance of our Telugu director”…would be the feel of every Telugu film lover while watching this film.

Words wouldn’t suffice to explain the experience of technical extravaganza depicted in this film. It’s just spellbinding. The range of Telugu film has gone to a higher plane with this film. The maker Rajamouli and producer Aravind should be appreciated unconditionally. And kudos would go to the technical team that has kept its brilliance to make this movie a wonder.

Keeping the first 44 minutes away the rest of the movie arrests the audiences completely. The first 44 minutes would literally keep the pulse of audiences down and confused. Pale dialogues, insipid scenes between Brahmanandam and Hema, weak portrayal of Chiranjeevi in a senseless scene would let down the audiences.

The real tempo starts as soon as the completion of the song ‘Naakosam nuvvu juttu peekkunte baagundi..’ The momentum develops with the first horse riding scene of Ram Charan chasing a bus. The interval scene hooks the audiences with lot of enthusiasm for sure. And the audiences can never turn their head and blink eye lid from then till climax.

And the audiences come out from theatre with the experience of a rollercoaster ride, with the sound reverberating in hearts, with a heavy hangover of watching a new facet of Telugu cinema.

The film proves to a historical one with respect to patronage of audiences of all classes.

Rating Judgment: The movie scores 4/5 by the virtue of technical values and adventurous attempt. It would have scored bigger if the first 44 minutes were also dealt well with sensible comedy and treatment.

Great Andhra Verdict: It’s good to watch the film as soon as possible.

7.30.2009

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Magadheera Premier Show At Cinemax Photo gallery

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Its A Grand Film : MAGADHEERA Review : By IdleBrain.com

Jeevi Rating: 3.5/5
Punchline: grand film
Genre: Romance/Action
Type: Straight
Banner: Geeta Arts

Cast: Ram Charan Teja, Kajal Agarwal, Srihari, Sunil, Brahmanandam, Sarath Babu, Rao Ramesh, Surya, Mumaith Khan, Sameer, Sekhar, Kim Sharma, Saloni & Hema

Music: MM Keeravani
Background music: Keeravani & Kalyani Malik
Cinematography: Senthil Kumar
Dialogues: Ratnam
Art: Ravinder
Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Fights: Peter Hynes & Ram Lakshman
Styling: Rama Rajamouli
Co-producer: Bhogavally Prasad
Story: Vijayendra Prasad
Screenplay, & Direction: SS Rajamouli
Producer: Allu Arvind
Release date: 31 July 2009

Review

Story

The story happens in the year 1609. Kala Bhairava (Ram Charan Teja) is the protector/cheif guard of Udayghad kingdom. Mitra (Kajal Agarwal) – the heir princess is in love with him. But there is a bad relative of the king who wants to marry her. Sher Khan (Srihari) plans to invade Udayghad. In the process ensued, all of them die. These four people take rebirth after 400 years in the contemporary era. Harsha (Ram Charan Teja) is a race biker. He falls in love with Indu (Kajal Agarwal). And a bad guy called Raghuveer is after her. The rest of the story is all about how they trace themselves back to the past and settle the unfinished business.

Artists Performance

Ram Charan Teja: Ram Charan’s performance in his debut film Chiruta is like a show reel of what he is capable of doing. In this movie, he gets an opportunity to do some real good performance and he performs them convincingly with effortless ease. And he had gone through tremendous physical toil in this film as it involves horse riding, sword fighting, dances and many more. His dance in Bangaru Kodipetta after the completion of Chiranjeevi’s appearance is stunning. He is gifted with a good voice and he should fine tune it further to come up with pristine Telugu diction.

Kajal Agarwal: Kajal Agarwal is the surprise pack of this movie. She never looked so gorgeous and lovely in her earlier movies. She is overwhelming in this movie. Soumya who dubbed her voice came up with fabulous job in the first half where heroine’s naughty and is in love. However, she needs to come up with better dubbing for emotional scenes and serious episodes..

Others: Chiranjeevi did a special appearance in Bangaru Kodi Petta remix song. Srihari has relatively small screen presence. But his role is extremely powerful. He is excellent as Share Khan and his get-up and dialogue delivery is superb. And his Srikakulam dialect in the second half is very nice. The guy who did the role of villain has sharp features and he is adequate. Rao Ramesh is excellent in the role of Aghora. His voice and body language is wonderful. Sameer is good as the deputy of Srihari. Sunil and Brahmanandam are adequate. Mumaith Khan danced with Ram Charan Teja in Bangaru Kodi Petta. Kim Sharma did another item song. One wonders what Saloni is doing in this movie?

Technical departments

Story - screenplay - directon: Story of the movie is about rebirths. Rajamouli opened the movie by revealing the story right in the first episode. The challenge lies in Rajamouli’s handling of telling the story interestingly to the audiences though audiences know what he is going to narrate. Screenplay of the movie is good and the Rajamouli trade mark commercial paybacks are nicely inserted at regular intervals. Rajamouli who made a self-confession in the past that he is weak at narrating love stories makes a nice effort to come up with a convincing love story that penetrates eras and generations.

The following three episodes are visually extraordinary

1. The opening sequence.
2. The shot where hero and heroine go to Bhairava to perform poojas.
3. The shot involving of elevating camera on top angle between two pillars in flashback episode.

The following commercial payoffs will work big time

1. White Chunni thread (just like the thread of medal in Yamadonga film)
2. Picking up four important characters from the past and get them closer in the current time.
3. Ending the movie from where it started in the opening episode (usage of same weapons, location, sentiment etc)
4. Aghora tells villain how to recognize the hero. And the same symptoms occur during helicopter fight before interval.

The following scenes will create an impact:

1. The horse coming back to help the sinking hero.
2. Kill 100 people episode (inspired by 300 movie killing style where killing is shown more like poetry than a gore element). The opening credits have the counting of 100 as the backdrop and we realise the importance of it only after watching the last fight of the flashback.

The following scenes are mediocre:

1. The basis of heroine misunderstanding hero is too flimsy.
2. Srihari’s car colliding with chopper looks comical in the serious fight of climax. .

Other departments: Rajamouli should be appreciated for giving due credit to all his technicians by dedicating a full-song to them during the end titles of the movie. Watching that was fun. Songs scored by MM Keeravani are little disappointing when you listen to them on the stereo. But they are good on screen with visuals. Background music (a combined effort of Keeravani and Kalyani Malik) is excellent. Cinematography by Senthil Kumar is very good. It is extremely difficult to recreate the era of 400 years old and art direction by Ravinder is splendid. Fights composed by Peter Hynes are excellent. Dialogues by Ratnam are good. Styling by Rama Rajamouli is very good and you can see chic colors in the costumes worn by the lead pair in abroad song. Editing is good. Visual effects are nice. So is digital intermediate. But at the same time, there seem to be inconsistency in visuals throughout the movie. Some of the visuals are excellent and some of the visuals are good and some other are mediocre. Visuals are the results of combined effort of cinematographer, art director, visual effects department, DI team and film processing lab. One can see inconsistency in the postproduction of the movie. Production values of Geeta Arts are impressive and it is one of the biggest spent movie of Telugu film industry.

Analysis: Opening episode of the movie is superb. First half of the movie is nice and second half is decent. The tempo goes down right after the flashback episode as it’s everybody’s guess that what follows is a predictable climax. The plus points of the movie are Ram Charan Teja, novel subject of rebirth, flashback episode, grandeur and commercial pay offs. On the flipside, there is tremendous scope for improvement in the second half. On a whole, Magadheera might not be a great film. But it is a good entertainer with nicely packed commercial elements and grandeur. Go and watch it in a theatre near you with nice projection and good sound system.

Tailpiece: There is uncanny resemblance to Arundhati and Magadheera stories. Both these films are about incarnations. Both these movies have aghora episodes. And villain lusts heroine and that forms the central conflict point in both these movies.