Early Tollywood: PURI JAGANNATH

5.27.2010

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Gopichand's GOLIMAAR (2010) Telugu Movie Review by Greatandhra

Film: Golimaar

Rating: 2.5/5

Banner: Sri Sai Ganesh Productions

Cast: Gopichand, Priyamani, Kelly Dorjee, Nasser, Roja, Ali, Mukhtar Khan, MS Narayana, Shawar Ali, Jeeva etc

Music: Chakri

Cinematographer: Shyam K Naidu

Editor: Marthand K Venkatesh

Story, dialogues, screenplay, direction: Puri Jagannadh

Producer: Bellamkonda Suresh

Release date: 27/05/2010

Puri Jagannadh has arrived with yet another venture and this time, he has taken the line of encounter specialists.

Story:

Gangaram (Gopi) fulfills his childhood ambition of becoming a police officer and in no time, DIG Bharath (Nasser) promotes him to an encounter specialist. He tells Gangaram to wipe away the gangs of Khaleel (Kelly Dorjee) and Saleem (Shavar Khan). Gangaram begins his clean up task and in this process; he also gets to meet Pavitra (Priyamani). However, there is a twist which awaits him and what happens from there forms the rest of the story.

Performance:

Gopichand has done his bit as required and he is only saving grace in the movie. He looks rather mild this time. But then, he has done a decent job.

Priyamani is not good and she looked with over dosed layers of make up that made her unattractive.

Kelly Dorjee has sharp looks but as usual, the characterization of the villain is not that strong. Being a powerful don, he ends up behaving like a small time ring leader in a slum.

Nasser was natural, Roja was disgusting, Ali was not required, Mukhtar Khan was just around, M S Narayana was average, Jeeva, Shawar Khan and others filled the screen space.

Here are a few vital points that the director should understand:

Comedy should be dosed well for this genre of films
Care should be taken at the placement of songs
How may times the story of Dayanayak will be recycled? People have watched Ab Tak Chappan and Sidhdham
Heroine should be glamorous and lovable but not irritable

Analysis:

The film is said to have been inspired by the life of Daya Naik, the famous encounter specialist. However, one can see traces of top cops like Walter Devaram (Tamil nadu), Pradeep Sharma (Mumbai), Aftab Ahmed Khan etc. But then, this is a serious domain that deals with hardcore criminals and life threatening situations.

And Puri ended up treating it like a filmy affair. Movies like ‘Ab Tak Chappan’ always stand as benchmarks for such genre of movies. The intensity was missing here, dialogues were regular and were good at very few places, the script was not engaging. Above all, Puri is known for his master stroke and unfortunately, there is no flash of brilliance seen in the film that makes you think that yes, it is indeed a film by him. He tried to bring in some twists but they weren’t presented with required depth.

The technical values were okay and there is absolutely no comedy track. This is not to compare the film with ‘Pokiri’ but for a man who has given us a marvel like that, ‘Golimaar’ is definitely not a flick of his caliber.

10.29.2009

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Prabhas In & As EK NIRANJAN (2009) Movie Review

Film: EK NIRANJAN

Rating: 3/5

Banner: Adithya Ram Movies

Cast: : Prabhas, Kangana Ranaut, Sonu Sood, Tanikella, Makrand Deshpande, Mukul Dev, Posani, Ali, Brahmanandam, Brahmaji, Abhinayasri, Sunil, Venu Madhav etc

Music: Mani Sharma

Cinematography: Shyam K Naidu

Director: Puri Jagannadh

Producer: Adithya Ram

Release Date: October 29, 2009

Story:

A regular tale, the story begins with Chotu (prabhas) who works for the police department, unofficially. He keeps tracing out criminals, catching them and takes his commission from the cops. On the other hand, he is also on the lookout for his parents and for that, he looks after Chidambaram (makrand) the man who brought him up since he knows about the parents. The story takes a turn when Sameera (kangana) enters into his life and after some hide and seek, they fall in love. Johnny Bhai (sonu sood) is a dreaded don and he is on the lookout for Kailash (mukul) and his paths cross with Chotu due to a sequence of events. What happens from there forms the rest of the story.

Presentation:

The director has come up with a formula storyline and though the presentation was okay, the narrative was not upto the mark. The dialogues are good in places, the script was inconsistent and the screenplay was alright. Background score was good and songs were nice. Cinematography was standard. Editing could have been better, costumes and art department did their bit as required. Prabhas gave a good performance but he must be careful not to get repetitive with his body language and dialogues, Kangana looks sweet but she is not that good looking, make up was a defect, Sonu Sood was worth watching and he has given a good performance, the comedy track of Ali, Brahmanandam, Abhinayasri was dull, Sunil was brief, Venu Madhav was regular, Makrand was underutilized, Posani was eccentric, Tanikella was as usual. The others just came and went.

Conclusion:

The film is a typical Puri flavor and has multiple tracks running. However, there is not much voltage in it and there are no great scenes that really catch the chord with the audience. While the first half is light hearted with comedy, romance and some action, the second half goes about with the routine process and ends with an abrupt climax. Romance was weak, comedy was stale. The film doesn't have much for family audience and mass would relate to it. This will be an average grosser at the box office.

10.24.2009

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Nandi Awards of the Year 2008 -- Announced

10.23.2009

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BUMPER OFFER (2009) Movie Review by Greatandhra

Film: Bumper Offer

Rating: 2.5/5

Cast: Sai Ram Shankar, Bindu Madhavi, Sayaji Shinde, Rakhsa, Chandra Mohan, Kovai Sarala, Ali, Venu Madhav, Khayyum etc

Fights: Ram-Laxman

Art: Chinna

Editing: MR Varma

Camera: Sree Ram

Choreography: Dinesh, Sobha

PRO: BA Raju

Lyrics: Bhaskarabhatla

Music: Raghu Kunche

Story and Dialogue: Puri Jagannath

Screenplay, Direction: Jaya Varma

Released On: 23rd Oct 2009

The much publicized film that tuned most popular with the super hit song ‘Ravanamma’ has released today. Let us see how it faired well.

Story:

Sai (Sai Ram) is a motor mechanic. His father (Chandramohan) works as a clerk in a construction company owned by a rich real estate lord Surya Prakash (Sayaji Shinde). Surya Prakash’s daughter Aishwarya (Bindu Madhavi) is an arrogant girl. Consequences make Sai and Aishwarya love together. How Surya Prakash reacts to that forms the main story. He gives Sai an offer that he is ready to give his daughter to him if he can earn at least half of his property. But Sai says that if financial status is the barrier for marriage, he would bring down Surya Prakash to his standard. Things move accordingly in second half and finally how Sai gets success is the climax.

Performances:

Sai Ram:
He groomed to some extent but stills needs to be. His hair style and costumes are in tune with the character he played but his dialogue delivery is pitiful. He is not appealing for any set of audiences with that. He needs to get trained in diction part.

Bindu Madhavi:
She looked spicy and perfectly gelled well in arrogant role. Director proved successful in giving a different look for her and broken the jinx of family look that she acquired with ‘Avakai Biryani’.

Raksha is ok as rich mother of heroine and Sayaji also grooved well in his part. Chandramohan and Kovai Sarala did their part as parents of poor hero.

Ali and Venu Madhav could bring only minimum laughs with their Magadheera spoof, although there is better scope.

Music is good and trendy. Dialogues are good, screenplay is normal and direction is average.

Highlights:

Music
Lyrics in ‘Ravanamma..’
Dialogues to some extent

Disappointments:
Hero’s diction

Analysis:

The movie is a reverse of Chiranjeevi’s ‘Challenge’. The protagonist in this denies the offer given by his rich lover’s father to become rich and marry his daughter. But in turn he gives a bumper challenge that he would bring that rich man to his level (poor) to marry his lover as financial status is the only barrier for their marriage.

The scope to make it a wonderful entertainer is very big. But this movie is limited only to a few laughs. The entertainment graph has been up and down since the beginning. A few scenes like when heroine beating the hero with stick received good response. The credit goes to dialogues there.

The ‘Magadheera’ spoof of Ali and Venu Madhav started with promising entertainment but that ended up very weak. There are no thrills and chills and everything goes as predicted. On a whole, the exercise is done but that’s not sufficient for this type of film.

The take off is good, first half ends up with a powerful interval bang. The second half goes as expected and finally it ends up as predicted. The film could have raised interest levels with more humor in it. To sum up, it ended up as a mundane treat.