Early Tollywood: 2005

3.07.2008

3.04.2008

Mogudu Pellam O Dongodu (2005)

Direction: Bobbili Bhanu
Release Date: 9th December, 2005
Banner: Khandoba Productions
Presenter: Smt. Vijaya Reddy
Music: Pramod Sharma
Screenplay: Bobbili Bhanu
Dialogues: Bobbili Bhanu
Executive Producer: K Sridhar
Cinematography: M Joshi
Editing: Rambabu
Art: Yadhukrishna
Producer: G Ashok Reddy

Cast:
Brahmaji,
Gurlin Chopra,
Surya,
Rami Reddy,
GV Sudhakar and Others.

Story: The killings become a sensation and a police SI (Rami Reddy) and CI (Brahmaji) are on hunt for this girl with a wish to frame charges against her and put her behind bars. And they do it once; but Home Minister gives telephonic orders to release her. We also find a senior police officer (Surya) ordering his subordinates not to touch Farah. Obviously he has some relations with her. She with a broad smile and gun in hand could threaten anyone of her choice

Brahmaji gets hold of a CD containing criminal acts of Farah. When he declares he is arresting her she breaks into tears and starts narrating her past, that comes to us as a flashback. According to this story, Farah went to meet a friend in her house, living in another city. A locked door greeted her. GV (Sudhakar), a rowdy sheeter, captured her on road and took her to his home. To satiate his hunger for sex, he locked her inside a room, starved her for ten days and raped her day in and day out. He also invited a friend of his to do the same. He then threw her out, at a dustbin, where a rag picker, picked up this opportunity and forced her into sex. Then he too invited three other rag pickers; Farah bit the neck of one of them, like a vampire. He died on the spot and the rest ran away. Then it was the turn of a police officer to make the same attempt on her but paid it in his being murdered by the girl who used a screwdriver; he was using to break ice for his drink.

Obviously moved by the story, Brahmaji softens. Taking this as an opportunity, she wished a person of his kind be her husband even for a day. Brahmaji softens and starts spending time with her. That is the time his SI (Rami Reddy) comes there and is shocked to see the change in his senior and tells him that he hates him now, for succumbing to the farcical story she narrated. He then shoots both of them dead to stop this kind of culture spreading.

[+/-]

Yuvakulu (2005)

Release Date: 10th December, 2005
Banner: Sudharshan Productions
Direction: Sai Venkat
Music: JA Sundar
Story: Tirunagari Saritha
Screenplay :Sai Venkat
Cinematography: Paidala Srinivas
Producer: Sai Venkat

Cast:
Kiran Tej,
Sangeetha Tiwari,
Abhinayasri,
Swathi Priya,
Raasi Priya,
Siva Reddy,
Ali,
Vinod,
Suman,
Malladi Raghava,
Reethi,
Rajitha and Others

Story: Siva Reddy is rough and tough and calls himself 'Mass'. Kiran is the son of a bus conductor (Raghava). Satish is a Central Minister's son. Gilly is Ali, the only married boy in this gang of friends, studying in the same college. These boys together constitute the lead characters.

But they make Ali a bluff master as to his married status, by pretending a bachelor and Sivareddy behaving like the film character 'Mass'. All these elements render the film cheap and irrelevant. Kiran-Lakshmi, Satish-Asha and Mass-Mallika are the pairs on the show. The role of Raghava's friend Subba Rao is played by Gundu Hanumantha Rao. The latter comes with Harika his daughter who has to take some exams and hires the first floor of Raghava for his stay. Kiran gets attracted to her. The character of Lakshmi (Kiran's ex-girlfriend) disappears at this point leaving the audiences puzzled

Now this track suddenly changes into a crime drama. The official machinery discovers some arms hidden in the house of the Central Minister (Vinod). Satish and his friends Kiran and Mass are arrested on the allegation that they are abetting the cause of terrorists, claiming that Satish has connections with International Mafia. Suman, playing a CBI officer Bharat, enters at this stage to investigate into this, as a Central Minister's son is named in this case. Bharat proves himself a fool for he beats the boys even before investigating into the case. Then Asha (Bharat's sister) hides the three friends in her house, which means the very house of the police officer Bharat, after they escape, as they were being shifted from cell to the jail, by Bharat. Meanwhile Bharat finds the phone numbers of some terrorists in cell phones used by the three youth. On knowing this the friends recall the way their friend Panda was taking the phones and using them now and then. Some more investigation leads to the fact that his mother is hospitalized and he was raising money from terrorists to get her treated. The Mafia then kidnaps Asha. What unveils from here forms the climax of the film.

[+/-]

Mukhachitram (2005)

Direction: S Babu
Release Date: 2nd December, 2005
Banner: Sri Raja Rajeswari Movie Makers
Presenter: D Suresh Babu
Music: AS John
Cinematography: Abdul
Editing: K Ravindra Babu:
Producer: Ramana Maddineni

Cast:
Sri Varma,
Karuna,
Giribabu and Others

Story: This film is, indeed, the face the of the present Telugu cinema in general. That is what is called 'Mukhachitram' in Telugu. What a pity! They could not give semblance of a story even. The narration moves in a haphazard way. Sometimes it talks about youth power and at another time about sex. The bedroom scenes on a nuptial night are ugly. We find a 21st century girl, that too well educated, talking of the possibility of getting pregnancy, the moment the man touches her and switches off the light. So she wants to keep the light on and not to touch her. When he produces a condom, to convince her of protecting her from conceiving, the girl blows air into it and converts it into a balloon and plays with it. The moment the man touches her, she requests him to remove the hand. These are the scenes we find between a newly wed couple. The director explains away all this, as a kind of lack of sex education. He argues the need of it too. Fortunately there is no discussion about AIDS. All these scenes and some other constitute a purposeless scenario. At another time the director shows a group of youth, fully drunk and getting under the wheels of passing vehicles. Then we find three friends angling for a girl. We also come across a terrorist amidst this senseless drama, only to be booted by the youth, claiming that 'youth' can do anything

These are all examples to tell that this film has no proper 'Mukhachitram'. The basic objective is to tell that the present day youth are careless and aimless in shaping their future. By the time the film moves to the finish, you fail to understand what it has said till then. It is all about college going youth. A young man Seenu (Srinivasa Verma) flies back home from abroad to marry his niece Ramya. She is afraid of marriage because of her own fallacies. This is one part of the drama. The second line of narration depicts the irresponsible behavior of the youth, like the way they drink and even go to the extent of extracting money from their parents threatening them of dire cionsequences if they did not part with money.

On the third track we come across a terrorist who tries to use these very youth for his own subversive activities. He even goes to the extent of attempting to capture Ramya for blackmail. What all we see in the film are tidbits, like a pair of tribals presenting a root of a plant to the newly wed bridegroom, telling that this root, if taken in a glass of milk will act as a kick start of sexual emotions of a woman. But another man swallows it by mistake. The way that man winks at his wife and behaves is nauseating. The film ends with a clash between the hero Seenu and the terrorist.

3.02.2008

[+/-]

Amma Meda Ottu (2005)

Banner: Sneha Chitra Pictures
Direction: R Narayana Murthy
Story: R Narayana Murthy
Screenplay: R Narayana Murthy
Dialogues: YS Krishneshwara Rao
Cinematography: G Chiranjeevi
Editing: Mohan-Rama Rao
Producer: R Narayana Murthy

Cast:
R Narayana Murthi,
Prabha,
Shakuntala,
Lahari,
Mallikarjuna Rao and Others

Story: Bhadra (Narayana Murthi) is the son of Prabha. And this character comes much later into the drama. Actually it is the oath he takes on her, which forms the central point of the drama. The first oath is to destroy the persons who killed his father, a great Saivait (also played by Narayana Murthy) and then the second oath is to kill the second villain in the drama Gowtham Sankar, after he comes to know that Sankar, who is the incumbent president of the village, not only used the second wife of the former president of the village, as his concubine but also raped her daughter, almost before, Bhadra's nuptials with her, pretty well knowing that Bhadra got married to her.

There is a flashback in this drama after the real mother (Prabha) reveals her identity and then is abused by her son Bhadra, for selling him away to another woman (Shakuntala). This is kept secret from everybody. Only when her son questions her why she sold him away, Prabha starts narrating her story. His father was a great man of the village and a Siva Bhakta. There is a Siva Lingam in the village, which is the presiding deity of the place. The moment the old man learns that the president of the village has annexed all the property donated by previous kings to the temple, he makes it his mission to trouble them and take back the land. But the culprits murder him and the idol is shifted to the neighboring village. Prabha then asks his son, a child then, to avenge the killing of his father and also restore the idol shifted from that place to its original place. Her father-in-law suddenly falls sick and to raise money for the treatment, Prabha has to sell away the child to Shakunatala and her husband Mallikarjuna Rao. Now that the old man also dies of shock after knowing she sold away his grandchild, she is brought to the village court and is banned from the village.

The film actually opens showing grown-up Bhadra believing Shakuntala is his real mother. Now that everything is clear to him and the present president Sankar began destroying them, Bhadra takes upon the job of annihilating the villains one by one, which forms the last part of the drama. He also comes to know that Sankar even raped his wife, soon after they are wed, when he had to visit the hospital to save the pregnancy of his sister. By the time he returns his wife is found raped and is in dying condition as she had already swallowed poison. Police arrive to arrest Bhadra as it is reported that he was responsible for the killing of the former president, as reported in FIR by the former president's step wife.

[+/-]

Grahanam (2005)

Banner: Kanakadhara Creations
Direction: Mohankrishna Indraganti
Music: K Vijay
Screenplay: Mohankrishna Indraganti
Cinematography: PG Vinda
Choreography: Kiranmayi
Thrills:
Editing: Lokesh
Art: Bhupesh R Bhupati
Producer: N Anji Reddy, BV Subba Rao & P Venkateswara Rao

CHANDRA SIDHARDHA

Cast:
Tanikella Bharani,
Jayalalitha,
Surya,
Tallavajjula Sundaram,
Kamal,
Goparaju Ramana,
Master Mohnish,
Sivannarayana,
Phani and Others

Story: The story opens in a hospital with Surya, a doctor there, busy in treating a boy. He notices a woman sitting under a tree, alone looking highly concerned about the recovery of the boy. The doctor becomes curious after realizing who the woman is. But the moment he goes there she disappears. Dr Mohan, a colleague of Surya gets curious about the curiosity shown by his friend. Surya then starts narrating the story that comes to us as flashback.

It takes us to a village where one Sastry (Tanikella Bharani) and his wife Sarada (Jayalalitha) are shown leading comfortable life. A young boy just about fourteen years frequents their house, because the woman looks after him well. He too is attached to her. One day he falls sick and the treatment given by a local quack does not help. Then a Tantrik is brought to treat him. After examining the boy, he tells that the boy is hit not because of any ailment, but because he had an affair with a woman much older than him. He called the disease as 'Dosha Gunam'. The boy in the bed starts uttering the name of Sarada in his delirious bouts. She is the same woman who has been pampering him. And the boy's parents and uncle start doubting Sarada's character. So does her husband Sastry, after learning about the whole episode. The Tantrik (Tallavajjula Sundaram) says that the fever would come down only when the blood of the woman taken from her thigh is injected into the boy's body. Her husband too suspects her character and beats her, when she starts protesting, denying the allegation. When she falls unconscious he takes the blood and gives it to them, which in turn is injected into the boy. Surprisingly the boy recovers. This news makes her husband to demand the wife leave the house alone, leaving their child with him. And this is the child who is grown up now into an adolescent, who is presently undergoing treatment. What happened then to the other boy who recovered? This element of suspense is retained for the climax.

3.01.2008

[+/-]

SP Nayak (2005)

Release Date: 1st December, 2005
Banner: Chandra Kiran Movies
Presenter: 'Raasi Movies' Narasimha Rao
Direction: Selva
Story: Selva
Screenplay: Selva
Dialogues: Vennelakanti
Cinematography: Siva
Editing: Satish & Harsha
Producer: Manchala Venkatrayudu
Cast:
Arjun,
Namitha,
Sanghavi,
Keerti Chawla,
Ranganath,
Ramaraju,
Vadivelu,
Vallabhaneni Janardhan,
Thalaivasan,
Annapoorna,
Satyapriya,
Baby Taj and Others
Story: He is called a powerful police officer and is named as SP Nayak (Arjun), which means he is of the IPS rank. But the director places him in the role of a bodyguard of a child Prema, daughter of an ace singer (Thalaivasan). Namitha is in the female lead.And the familiar Sanghavi plays the singer's wife, that is Prema's mother. One surprising development is that the film opened to full houses may be because it was the lone release and Arjun is more accepted as an action star.

The introduction gives you a hint of the main plot. It is the involvement of the present police chief (Ramaraju) himself in child lifting cases for gain. They are hand in glove with underground dons. A look at the structure makes us feel that this lawlessness is deliberately projected so that Arjun is given enough work as an action star. There is a display of some sample cases of how SP Nayak used to tackle crime and criminals, in a flashback format, as narrated by former DGP (Ranganath). This flashback stops at the point of Nayak's suspension by corrupt administration, unable to stand his sincerity. He is now free to take up any job.On the advice of the former DGP, the singer employs Nayak as the bodyguard for his school going daughter Prema (Baby Taj). Then the narration slips into some sentimental drama, between the child and her guardian Nayak. As expected, Prema is kidnapped after the goons beat Nayak into unconscious state. The child is also believed murdered, even after her father paid the demanded ransom running into crores. Nayak is taken to the house of a trustworthy doctor, for fear of the villains targeting him. The present corrupt police chief (Ramaraju) tells Prema's father that it was Nayak himself who handed his daughter to the underground don for a price. Thus the hero Nayak is given two objectives to achieve – one to clear himself out of this insinuation and the second one is to know what really happened to Prema and to save her and then to expose the corrupt police operating in this underground network.

[+/-]

Ayinda Leda (2005)

Release Date: 18th November, 2005
Direction: Bharat

Cast:
Ali,
Raksha,
Kota Srinivasa Rao,
Mallikarjuna Rao,
Brahmanandam,
Babumohan,
Uttej and Others

Story: Ali plays Ramu the son of a crack business magnate Koteswara Rao (Kota Srinivasa Rao), who has the habit of collecting soda bottle caps lying on the floor. His aged mother is projected as a kung fu specialist. There are scenes showing that woman flooring some gangsters. Plenty of dupes are used for these scenes.

Ramu gets attracted to a girl named Alaka (Raksha). In order to get into her heart he tries many dirty tricks, which by themselves look silly. With the help of his grandmother he allows his dog bite her. He then pretends as a doctor and starts treatment for the dog bite. The process he adopts to befriend her is to give fourteen injections around her navel almost landing on her body. After failing in this method, he pretends as a savior of a bank, she is working for, from the attack of some deceits, which are none other than his own friends. Finally she yields to him. They are in love, now. But his father Koteswara Rao is doubtful of the genuinity of the love of a poor girl with a rich boy. So, he puts a condition to prove that it is lasting love between them, not lust. He asks them to go on honeymoon to a tourist town, stay in a single room, have sex and then comeback. He would then see how long that feeling of 'love' exists between them. His philosophy is that this so-called 'love' disappears the moment they make sex. Till then they crave for each other.

They are now in a holiday resort. Millionaire Koteswara Rao sends some of his men to see that they have sex. When everybody fails in this job, Koteswara Rao himself comes to the town, camouflaging himself as an African woman, who just returned after attending a beauty contest. For sometime, the hotel manager who calls himself as Mammuti (Mallikarjuna Rao) is after this Africa-returned beauty and for sometime it is the manager's wife who seeks 'her' company. Thus runs the drama for sometime. Babumohan, Uttej, Brahmanandam are the others in this gang, who have to report back to Koteswara Rao whether his son had sex with Alaka. To protect herself from the onslaught of Ramu she plants another woman in this drama, who claims that Ramu married her and is now trying to marry again. She produces some bogus video clippings to prove she is his wife. They gave crazy name to this other woman - 'Agni Saakshi'. Ramu constantly denies. But he later comes to know that his girl friend planted her to play this drama so that she could keep him away from her. He then becomes upset and says he was washing off his hands from this relationship and is going to commit suicide. He jumps off a cliff, but lands in a net, laid there by a film shooting team, expecting that fall from their hero.

[+/-]

Rambha Neeku Urvasi Naaku (2005)

Release Date: 18th November, 2005
Banner: Chalana Chitra Creations
Presenter: K Narasimha Reddy
Direction: M Nagarjuna Reddy
Music: Nani
Story: M Nagarjuna Reddy
Screenplay: M Nagarjuna Reddy
Dialogues: M Nagarjuna Reddy
Cinematography: Thota V Ramana
Editing: Nandamuri Hari
Producer: M Nagarjuna Reddy

Cast:
Jyothi,
Siva Reddy,
Ashwin,
Reethi,
Jayaprakash Reddy,
Brahmanandam,
Babumohan,
Gundu Hanumantha Rao,
Hariprasad,
Jeeva,
Ananth,
MS Narayana,
Venumadhav,
Rajitha,
AVS,
Kondavalasa,
LB Sriram,
Rallapalli,
Mallikarjuna Rao and Others

Story: The film partly looks as if this is another form of exhibition of admiration to Chiranjeevi. By doing so they think they can draw crowds to box office, as Chiranjeevi's posters are associated with the film. This is definitely not true love for Chiranjeevi. If they have, they would never show him in these low taste scenes. Similarly there is another character that projects cricket's hero Tendulkar. He calls himself Sachin (Ashwin) and the other takes the name of Chiru (Siva Reddy). These two boys open the film imagining in their bedrooms of their heroes. They are brothers and their parents (Rallapalli and Jayalalitha) quarrel over the issue of who should marry whom. You may wonder what the other characters do in the film. Nothing. MS Narayana defines the initials M and S in his name as 'Mandu Seesa'. He is seen busy propagating the value of liquor in one's life. Brahmanandam poses as a Don and his character is restricted to a few scenes. Jayaprakash Reddy is busy to find a woman to marry his adopted son (Venumadhav). And he goes for a TV anchor and forces her to marry his boy. He is said to be exporting girls to red light area. JP's character ends in the hands of his unwed wife, who blasts him with her belt bomb, proving perfect suicide bomber. Babumohan puts a pair of shoes around his neck and awaits a right kind of woman to marry him. The foot wear belongs to Brahmanandam. Rallapalli is worried that his sons Chiru and Sachin are not willing to marry. Therefore he drowns his agony along with alcohol in the company of MS. Krishnaveni plays Rallapalli's wife.

The Rambha and Urvasi want to marry only those boys who were their childhood friends in their sixth class. Gundu Hanumantha Rao is the sidekick of Brahmanandam. This is enough to make you understand how loose and senseless is the script. The film after dragging its feet almost till the last reel suddenly ends showing Rambha and Urvasi sleeping in the beds of Chiru and Sachin by their side wearing Managalasutrams. The girls chose their men to contribute some meaning to the title of the film.