Early Tollywood: CHANDRA MOHAN

3.13.2009

MESTHRI Review : By Greatandhra.com

Film: Mestri
Rating: 1.75/5
Banner: Siri Media Pvt Ltd
Cast: Dasari Narayana Rao, Mohan Babu, Srihari, Sujitha, Vijay Kumar, Pradeep Rawath, Rahul Dev, Sayaji Shinde, Chandramohan, MS, Giri Babu etc
Music: Vandemataram Srinivas
Cinematography: C H Ramaraju
Editing: Gautham Raju
Art: B V Rao
Story, Screenplay: Dasari
Director: Suresh Krissna
Producer: K Ramakrishna Prasad
Release date: 12/03/2009

It was with a great anticipation that ‘Mesthri’ was awaited since the buzz was it had a lot of dig on Chiranjeevi and his political debut. Also, the combination of the Congress sympathizers Dasari, Mohan Babu, Srihari generated enough excitement for political undertones. How much of it is actually true, let us see.

Story:

Palakollu (Dasari) joins the shipyard as an ordinary loader and in no time, he uses his wit and intellect to arrange for a land to the workers so that they can build their homes. As expected, he becomes the ‘Mesthri’ for them. However, he has obstacles in the form of their boss Subbaraju (Pradeep Rawath) and his brother Adiraju (Sayaji). After the death of Subbaraju, in the hands of Mestri, the flashback is revealed that Mesthri is actually Major Narasimham and he is there to take revenge on the murderers of his disciple Major Devaraj (Mohanbabu). Srihari played the role of a suspended cop. In between all this, there is a Gandhian Gopalakrishnaiah (Vijay Kumar) who helps Mesthri in one of his court cases. But who is Gopalakrishnaiah? That’s suspense. Does he get successful in his revenge seeking mission? All this forms the rest of the story.

Performance:

It was a Dasari show as is the case with most of his movies and he carries out his role with fair standards. His dialogue delivery in some scenes were impressive, Mohanbabu has a whirlwind appearance and he has his share of strong dialogues, Srihari looked handsome and though his performance was subdued, his action sequences were alright, Sayaji was regular, Vijay Kumar was average, Pradeep Rawat was mediocre, Sujitha looked sweet, Rahul Dev came and went, MS was usual, Giri Babu and Chandramohan did their bit as required. The others were filling the screen with their presence. The director has come up with a routine storyline but he managed to keep things going during the first half with a decent screenplay and good pace. However, the narration went really messy during the second half with a lot of drag and some illogical climax situations. The presentation was good as the music and the background score was impressive and the cinematography has captured the angles and the emotions correctly, even the lighting effects have been neat. Editing could have been a lot better during the second half, costumes for Mohan Babu should have been more disciplined in his army uniform, and the art department has done an okay job. The dialogues were filled with enough punch and ammunition and it got few whistles and claps from the front benchers. The script had flaws and the screenplay could have been much better.

Analysis:

The first half of the film was able to keep the curiosity factor high and it looked like the second half will have some good momentum to culminate a good climax and give a thoughtful message to the audience but then the last 30 minutes of the film was a major drag and as it is the content part was not much so the film depended a lot on a tight screenplay which went haywire during the thirty minutes. Though many from the camp were denying that the film did not take a dig at anyone, a fair share of dialogues was spoken that gave a stick to Chiranjeevi and his political role. Literally, the song ‘Nagamalli daarilo…’ looked like a tribute to Chiru, not stopping at that, few scenes with Vijay Kumar and the repeatedly spoken words such as ‘Master’ ‘Andarivaadu’ pointed fingers only in one direction. Even the TDP folks were not left out in this party as references have been made using terms like ‘Tiger’ ‘Garjana’ , Telangana issue and few other aspects. It is also amusing to hear Dasari say that the character played by Mohan Babu gets killed because he is a Dalit and that too by the upper caste. Well, the issue was about the land and caste and creed has nothing to do with the killing. Just when audience was hoping that Dasari will not show his eccentricity, he came up to his original antics in the second half and that too in the climax. How ridiculous can things get when a song sung by Dasari is played on the screen in a public meeting when the time comes to expose the villain instead of showing the evil acts of the bad man. A good thing was the song on the essence of Telugu which was quite patriotic and commendable, written by C Na Re. The film is an outright mass treat and it could have been better had the second half been handled well. Though the content part is meek, it is the presence of the stars and the dialogues that provide some solace. The criticism on Chiru and other parties looked quite evident enough.

8.14.2008

[+/-]

Baladoor Movie Review

Cast:
Ravi Teja
Anushka
Superstar Krishna
Chandra Mohan
Brahmanandam
Pradeep Rawat
LB Sriram
Sunil
Subba Raju
Parachuri Venkateswara Rao and many more.

Banner: Suresh Productions

Music: KM Radha Krishna

Producer: Suresh Babu

Screenplay & Direction: Uday Shankar

Weaknesses: Routine story and slow second half

Must see scenes:

1. Ravi Reja entry shot where he jumps from top of a car
2. Temple fight and market fight
3. Super star Krishna fight in the climax

Story

Chanti (Ravi Teja) is a care-free family member in Ramakrishna (Superstar Krishna) joint family who does nothing but kicking baddies. Chandramohan who is the father of Chanti sends him out of the house. Bhanumathi (Anushka) who is a student falls in love with this Baladoor for his good deeds. Chanti who comes out of the house saves his family members from all the problems created by Pradeep Rawat and his brother-in-law Subbaraju.

In the climax, Ramakrishna and his entire family comes to know about all the good deeds of Chanti from a well-wisher and brings him back to the house along with his lady love Bhanumathi.

Performance And Analysis:

Baladoor movie is a decent family entertainer but with a routine story line. One big family, one useless kid (hero) who is nice at heart. The whole family misunderstands him and he is pushed out of the house. But this good hero saves the entire family from different difficult situations but always is behind the scenes. The family realises his good deeds in the climax and the hero rejoins the family. We as audience have seen lot many telugu movies in the past with the same story line.

This weak and routine story line and a dragging second half makes this Baladoor just a watchable movie. The story writer should have taken care of the script and the screenplay in the second half should have been done better by the director to make it a better movie.

Uday Shankar who earlier directed Kalisundam Raa for Suresh Productions is still in the same mood of family stories. How could he think that a superhit story 8 years back can re-create the same magic and success again??? He could have worked more on the script part and changed it according to the new-age cinema audience.

Performances: Ravi Teja is the saving life of the movie. He has done his routine care free action in the first half and a little serious mixed with mass action in the second half.

Superstar Krishna does the role of peddanana to Ravi Teja. It is very nice to see Krishna in such kind of decent and nice role. He did his performance with ease and elan. The best part in Krishna’s action is the action sequence in the climax where he hits 10 goons at a time and proves himself once again as Superstar.

Anushka is good as heroine. She has lost the unnecessary fat in this movie which she developed for Don movie. Anushka’s role is just restricted to the songs. She showed all her glamour in the songs.

Chandra Mohan as Ravi Teja’s father, Pradeep Rawat and Subbaraju as villans are good and adequate in their roles.

Brahmanandam and Sunil created the much necessary comedy in the movie which was good.

Fights are well picturized in the movie and showed Ravi Teja’s powerful emotions in the movie.

Songs are average. Music by Radha Krishna is also average. No song can make any impression on audience except for the last song. The good part in songs is that they are all shot in good locations and sets. Another asset for the songs is Anushka.

Screenplay and direction by Uday Shankar is just average. He selected a routine and old story line and tried to give a new look to it in which he miserably failed. The story lost tempo in the second half and also he added more emotion in it because of which the audience will feel little bored.Source: Cinegola