Early Tollywood: RAMANA GOGULA

6.12.2009

Sumanth's BONI (2009) Telugu Movie Review

Film: Boni

Rating: 2.25/5

Cast: Sumanth, Krithi, Trinetrudu, Tanikella, Jayaprakash Reddy, Ahuti Prasad, Chandramohan, Babloo, Velu, Satyaprakash, Sudha, Surekha Vani etc

Music: Ramana Gogula

Cinematography: Andrew

Director: Raj Pippala

Producer: Ramana Gogula

Release date: 12 June 2009

It has been a while since Sumanth has not been to score a hit in his career but this time, he has come up with another rather interesting title. Yet again in a mass entertainer, let us see if Sumanth scored success in this or not.

Story:

D D (Sumanth) and Chinna (Trinethrudu) are childhood friends and they grow up to be recovery agents and goons.

They have a long ambition of setting up a Pulihora Centre and for this they need money. So they join the mafia don Giri (Tanikella) and he gets them to Das (Jayaprakash Reddy) another evil don. Meanwhile, a sequence of events happens and DD kidnaps Pragati (Krithi), daughter of Minister Prasad Reddy (Ahuti Prasad).

However, Pragathi is happy she got kidnapped but there is a small twist which she and DD realize at a later stage. What is that twist and how DD comes out of it forms the rest of the story? Why Pragathi is happy for kidnap? That forms rest of the story.

Performances:

Sumanth has come up with a mild performance and though his is a mass role, he still has a classy look which is a contradiction. He lacked in those energies that a mass hero should possess. Somehow he proved once again that his body language suits only for class roles but not mass ones.

Krithi looked gorgeous and at ease in front of the camera, she has traces of Jayaprada in few shots. Trinetrudu provided few lighter moments, Tanikella was effective, Jayaprakash Reddy was regular, Ahuti Prasad had a brief presence. Chandramohan was alright, Babloo was just average, the others did not have much to contribute.

The dialogues were regular, script was written but there was no depth, screenplay was adequate, both background score and two songs were credible and worth listening, cinematography is above average, and the art and costume department did a good job. Keeping the artistic bent and creativity in titles and picturing songs, entire movie proves to be heavy for audiences with weak narration.

Analysis:

The film takes off on a rather mild note and it must be said that the chemistry was missing on the screen. The technical values are very high but the content and the narration needed lot of energy. Sumanth needs to focus more on doing classy and urban roles since his attempts to get into the mass category are not up to satisfaction.

While the first half goes about in a regular fashion, there are few sequences in the second half that keeps the audience busy but yet again, the feeling was missing on the screen. The film is more for the multiplex audience though it has a mass backdrop and the makers should have worked more on the comedy. The trigger of romance is something that is missing a great deal although Harshavardhan could attempt well. The film might pass off as a technically well made and some fairly decent songs but as such success would be difficult for this.

5.01.2009

[+/-]

Ramana Gogula's BONI with Sumanth : Wallpapers

1.28.2009

[+/-]

Pawan Kalyan's BADRI (2000) Lyrics

3.22.2008

[+/-]

YOGI 2007

Director:
Vinayak V.V.

Writers:
Prem (story)
Vinayak V.V. (screenplay)

Produced by
P. Ravidranath Reddy

Original Music by
Ramana Gogula
Guru Kiran

Cinematography by
Sameer Reddy

Film Editing by
Gautham Raju
Action:
Stun Siva

Production Companies
Eeshwari Films

Release Date:
10 January 2007 (India)

Genre:
Action / Drama more
Cast :
Prabhas,
Nayanatara,
Sarada,
Kota Srinivasa Rao,
Pradeep Rawat,
Subbaraju,
Ali,
Venumadhav,
Sunil,
Chandramohan,
Chalapati Rao,
Rajan P Dev,
MS Narayana,
Prasannakumar,
Uttej,
Melkote and others.
Story:
VV Vinayak is known for directing good action-oriented films and 'Yogi' is the latest from his school. It is the remake of Kannada hit film 'Jogi' which has mother sentiment in its backdrop. It seems sentiment has become the hot topic these days. The directors follow the trend though unintentionally, as there are many films with sentiment in their backdrop. While, Raakhi and Annavaram are based on sister sentiment, 'Yogi' has mother sentiment.

Eswara Prasad (Prabhas) stays in Bethamcharla in Kurnool district and is being pampered by his mother Santamma (Sarada). Prasad leaves for city in search of a job, but gets caught in the hands of land mafia unknowingly. Prasad saves one Kotaiah (Kota Srinivasa Rao), who leads one of landsharks in the city, when he was attacked by the other group led by Narsing Pahilwan (Pradeep Rawat) and his brother Saidulu (Subbaraju). So Narisng decides to eliminate him. In the process, Narsing insults his mother by stamping the golden bangles meant for Prasad's brother. Irked over this, Prasad kills Narsing. A tea stall owner Chandranna (Chandramohan), who gave him employment in the city, gives him the name of Yogi while securing his release from police. In this backdrop, Santamma reaches Hyderabad in search of her son and stays with a journalism student called Nandini (Nayanatara). Prasad's friend Basha (Ali) who meets Santamma takes her to a temple to unite the mother and son. Yogi fails to visit the temple and Santamma dies while waiting for her son at the temple. While Santamma's body is being taken to crematorium, Yogi reaches the place and joins the funeral procession but could not realize that it was her mother. He realizes the truth only after it is moved into the fire cabin, through Basha and Nandini. The film ends with tragedy as Yogi fails to see his mother again after he comes from his village.
Prabhas did justice to his role with good ease in action scenes and the sentiment scenes as well. Especially he gave superb performance in the climax. Nayanatara restricted to glamour role and only had a couple of duets with the hero. It is Subbaraju who needs complements for giving an aggressive performance as villain. Pradeep Rawat is okay as villain. Action by Vijayan and the cinematography by Sameer Reddy are good. Despite all this, the film lacked the punch that was visible in Vinayak's films. It looks as if he tried to follow the original film and pushed back his own screenplay. In fact the flavor of Vinayak's direction is missing with the screenplay is shoddy. The 'taking capabilities' of Vinayak are missing, giving a doubt whether it was done by Vinayak or not as the entire concentration was focused on boosting the image of Prabhas alone. While the following the original, Vinayak might have kept his inherent skills in the cold storage, which resulted in poor narration of 'Yogi' and left it with an average mark. However, the comedy track in the film is good in Venumadhav character while that is on Sunil is poor as Aparichitudu kind of action has become a laughing stock these days.

TO SEE MORE STILLS CLICK HERE