Varun Sandesh's Kotha Bangaru Lokam (2008) Review by GreatAndhra

Film: Kotha Bangaru Lokam
Rating: 3.5/5
Banner: Sri Venkateswara creations
Cast: Varun Sandesh, Shweta, Prakashraj, Ahuti Prasad, Jayasudha, Brahmanandam, Rao Ramesh, Vinay Prasad and others
Music : Mickie J Meyer
Cinematography: Chota K Naidu
Editing: Martand K Venkatesh
Story, Screenplay, Dialogue, Director: Srikanth Addala
Producer: 'Dil' Raju
Release date: 09/10/2008

It's a teenage love story retold on silver screen of Tollywood but in different fashion. Let us see how the difference is felt.

Story

Balu (Varun) finds the beautiful girl Swapna (Swetha) in his college and falls in love at first sight. The love reciprocation from Swapna also holds positive and the saga continues for some time till that gets revealed to the principal of the college.

Swapna's father (Ahuti Prasad) knows about the love story and makes his daughter sit at home and study. On the other side, Balu too will go to home. He keeps on attempting to hunt for the hereabouts of Swapna along with his friends.

What happens to Balu who went into deep love with Swapna. Will they unite again? That forms the rest of the story.

Performances

Varun Sandesh did his best in his first solo flick. But still he needs to work on his diction. Expressions wise he scored well.

New actress Swaetha Basu Prasad has aptly grooved in the role of teenage girl. She did her best but eventually she may settle down in sister roles than that of heroine due to her height constraint and no-oomph levels.

Ahuti Prasad entertained well with his dialogue delivery that reminds of his role in Chandamama. Prakash Raj is ok in his father role that's reserved and Jayasudha is apt in her mother role. She looks younger when compared to her previous films.

Brahmanandam couldn't spill any laughs due to the serious role given for him.

Coming to technical departments, music stands outstanding and while cinematography deserves right mention. Editing suffered little hiccups in second half. The director Srikanth Addala dished out a sensible film that stands to be an attention puller.

Songs

All the songs sounded the best and the number 'Confusion…confusion..' was shot exhaustively in Rajahmundry exploiting the locations Godavari Bridge, Devi Chowk, Pushkar Ghat, Asoka Talkies, Mallikarjuna Swamy temple and many more. Out of the routine Hyderabad and Vizag, it proves to be a new treat for the eyes with Rajahmundry.

Nijamga Nenenaa..was canned in average style. It could have been better.

'Nenani Neevani..' is touching to eyes as well. The montage song 'Nee Prasnalu neevi' is also average but situationally fitting.

'Kalasaalalo..' is pictured in interesting fashion.

Analysis

It's a movie for teens in precise, entertainment lovers to be particular and all Telugu audiences on a whole. The tender intermediate age and its ectopic beats are rightly brought on to the celluloid with life in it. It cannot be compared to 'Chitram' or 'Bommarillu' in direct terms but holds uniqueness in clarity of thought and expression by the director on those standards.

The conviction in drama hasn't missed. The tangles in the plot are rightly unknotted at last. The balance of practicality and creative freedom is seen on a whole. The movie stands out to be the best for A class audiences and youngsters in all centers.

First half of the movie and second half go interesting while sentiment dominates the latter. The story line is old but the way of expression made all the difference.

It's worth watching.

source: greatandhra

Raksha (2008) Movie Review

Movie: Raksha
Rating: 2.25/5
Banner: One More Thought Entertainment Pvt. Ltd & Zed3 Pictures Productions


Cast: Jagapathi Babu, Kalyani, Baby Neha, Master Atulith, Radhakumari, Subbaraju, Chandrasekhar, Rajeev Kanakala, Sathya Krishnan, Narsing Yadav, Jeeva, Melkote, Jayasudha, Pradeep Rawath, etc.

Cinematography: Surjodeep Ghosh
Background Score: Bapi -Tutul
Producer: Azam Khan
Director: Vamsikrishna Akella
Released Date: September 19, 2008

Story

Rajeev (Jagapathi Babu) is an Engineering Contractor who lives with his wife (Kalyani) and two kids. He happens to develop strife with two of his business partners and kicks them out of his house publicly when a party was going on. This pumps in a fire of vengeance in the woman (Satya Krishna) who gets kicked out by him. She takes revenge on Rajeev by spelling black magic on his school going daughter Raksha (Neha). Rajeev is an atheist and his wife is theist. Struggle and friction of opinions arise in his house as Raksha becomes the victim of black magic. Both medical science and occult science compete with each other to protect Raksha. Finally, who wins-the medical science or the occult science or both?? That becomes the climax.

Presentation

Jagapathi Babu excelled in the role of a practical man as well as caring father. Kalyani's role is minimal and there is lesser scope for her to show off histrionics. Satya Krishna has over acted and appeared to be funny instead of scary. Pradeep Rawat has perfectly gelled with the role he played.

Baby Neha must be appreciated for her performance. No wonder of she can be nominated for best child artiste award.

And coming to technical departments, the sound effects are weak which need to be spine chilling for the genre of horror. And the art work that has to be ghastly is also not designed well. On a whole, the director missed the tempo to create fear in the movie. Hence the fear factor didn't glue on to celluloid.

Conclusion

It has already released in Hindi with the title 'Phoonk' but it has been publicized by Ram Gopal Varma specially that it has more fear factor than the original. But the fact is that the fear graph has fallen down from 'Phoonk' to 'Raksha'. The main reason is the lack of proper grip in narration.

Telugu audiences generally consider horror films as B-grade stuff as many have already seen light in this genre. The quality of making and technical standards should be beyond a certain level to make it reach people in right way. Here except Jagapathi Babu Factor, there is nothing that goes in tune with the interest levels of audiences.

It is only the hype that was created by media, pulled audiences to theaters. And the crowd pulling names like RGV behind this flick, Jagapathi Babu and horror-genre would bring in a good set of audiences to theatres. But finally it cannot be called the great flick. One wise thing, that's observed here, is that it is made with very low budget and hence commercially it may go safe.

Mallepuvvu Audio Release Coverage

Hotel Taj Deccan, Hyderabad, marked the venue for a fragrant, musical evening in the form of the audio launch event for the film Mallepuvvu. Produced under Sree Samudra Silver Screens banner by Sree Mohan Vadlapatla, the film directed by V. Samudra stars Bhumika as the female lead, while the male lead is a debutante Murali Krishna. Several showbiz personalities were seen at the occasion where the film's music director Music Maestro Sree Ilayaraja was the main attraction. Veteran lyricist Sree Veturi Sundararamamurthy penned all the eight songs in the album. Audio is marketed by Aditya Music.

Apart from the crew of the film and the lead pair, producers D. Suresh Babu, M.L. Kumar Chowdary, Dil Raju, Vakada Apparao, Raasi Movies' Narasimha Rao, Paras Jain, Ramanamurthy (of Thyagayya), directors Sagar, V.N. Aditya, Thammareddy Bharadwaja, N. Shankar, Harshavardhan, G. Ramprasad, Chandra Mahesh, artistes Nandamuri Taraka Ratna, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, Vallabhaneni Janardhan, Jayasudha, Roja Ramani, etc. were among the attendees. Financier Sunku Ramesh, B.A. Raju of Superhit magazine, and Aditya Music representative Umesh Gupta were also present. Jhansi presented the event with her impressive anchoring, requesting everyone on the dais to remember Late Sobhan Babu who starred in the yesteryear hit film Mallepuvvu. Jasmines showered Sobhan Babu's photograph at the dais as everyone paid their homage to the great artiste. Trailors and music teasers of the movie followed.

Speaking on this occasion, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao revealed that nearly every director and hero that debuted through their movies became successful and quoted some examples of some of the attendees. Sree Thammareddy Bharadwaja complained cheerfully that Samudra took the title Mallepuvvu that was originally registered by him, and added that he's not sad about it since Samudra made a good movie. V.N. Aditya thanked Samudra for acting in his film Rainbow and commended the director's work for Mallepuvvu. Dil Raju and Paras Jain said that Ramesh Varma worked for all their movies as a publicity designer and commended his work for Mallepuvvu too. Suresh Babu recollected his experiences as a producer when he worked with Ilayaraja gaaru in the past, and commended that Ilayaraja was one of the finest technicians ever that he worked with! He said that whenever they had a recording at 7 a.m., Ilayaraja was always there by the time anyone else reached the location before 7 a.m. and the recording would also be completed very promptly.

Male lead Murali Krishna expressed his joy to have worked with the music magician in his debut film as a hero, and thanked Bhumika for being a cooperative and friendly co-star though she was much senior. Bhumika's was one of the finest speeches of the evening. Starting her speech in Telugu, she first invited people behind the successes of the artistes - cameraman Anil Bhandari, Deepa, and designer Swamy - onto the dais and thanked them, adding that those are the people that deserve applause for the way they project the artistes. She remembered her association with Smt. Jayasudha in her debut film Yuvakudu. Jayasudha spoke about her film career of 38 years, wherein she was in the classical dilemma - "To be or not to be" (in the filmdom) - for 35 years! She also recollected the memories of the yesteryear film Mallepuvvu that she acted with Late Sobhan Babu.

The highlight of the night was not just his presence and his music but also his speech - that's what the audience would have thought when Ilayaraja spoke. He was jovial all through, and spoke in Telugu completely. The modest creative artiste humbly elucidated, "You cannot make music. It should happen! ...I don't know music and that's why I am still trying to compose and let more music happen." While saying this, he also expressed his dislike towards some music directors (clearly mentioning that he is not taking any particular names and is talking generically) that claim they "did" this kind of music or that, or that they "did" innovative music! "What new musical note can anyone create?!", he wondered. He explained that Ramesh Varma approached him earlier for the latter's debut film and asked him to compose music for the film, but that he refused without any serious thought. Later again, Veturi gaaru called him, he said, and said that an youngster would come meet him to request his musical score, and that it was Ramesh Varma again, for Mallepuvvu.

He called up on Ramesh Varma and asked him to continue his side of that experience. Ramesh Varma said that after Ilayaraja gaaru agreed, he met the maestro and narrated the story and that they planned five songs in the film. However, Ilayaraja gaaru himself suggested more situations for songs, adding that they could make the album with eight songs instead of five. And, Ramesh Varma revealed that Ilayaraja had composed all the eight songs in just one hour!

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