Early Tollywood: SINDHURA GADDE

12.04.2009

Ravi Babu's AMARAVATHI (2009) Movie Review by Greatandhra

Film: Amaravathi

Rating: 2.5/5

Banner: Bhavya Creations

Cast: Ravi Babu, Nandamuri Tarakaratna, Bhumika, Sneha, Sindoora, Raghava, Subhashini, Kota, Paruchuri Gopalakrishna, Kasi Viswanath and others

Music: Sekhar Chandra

Fights: Kanal Kannan

Editing: Shankar

Cinematography: Sudhakar Reddy

Director: Ravi Babu

Producer: V Anand Prasad

Release date: 04/12/2009

Ravi Babu is slowly creating a brand for himself with his different approach towards film making. He has now arrived with ‘Amaravathi’ and how chilling and thrilling it has been, let us see.

Story:

The emergency help line 108 gets a call that a nine month pregnant woman’s life is in danger. By the time the staff reaches there, the baby is taken away by cutting the stomach. This is done by a psychopath (tarakaratna). Such things repeat so the special task force gets Venkat (Ravi Babu) to investigate. He manages to catch the killer but then even when the interrogation is going on, similar incidents happen outside. How does that happen? How does Venkat solve the case? All this forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Tarakaratna
His face was covered with a mask so that his expressions need not be seen, as long as it was seen, he was showing few blank expressions and did an okay job.

Ravi Babu
As a cop, he did his job. Since he has already proved himself as a director and an actor, he has done justice to his bit.

Sneha
As Ravi Babu’s wife, she has done okay job. Her romantic scene with Ravi Babu gathered a good response from the audience.

Sindoora
As Ravi Babu’s colleague, she looked sleek and stylish. Apart from toting the gun, there was not much she could do in terms of expression or performance. There was not even that much scope for her.

Bhumika
She is as usual, sometimes as a mad girl, sometimes in a graceful manner, her role was very limited.

Others
Kota, Paruchuri, Kasi Viswanadh, Subhashini did their bit as required and added value to the film.

Technical crew
As his previous movies, Ravi Babu has taken ‘Amaravathi’ in a very high quality technical standard. Though he has taken the movie from the start to the end in a gripping manner, fifteen minutes after the interval tends to give an idle time to the audience. After that, he has kept them engaged completely and here and there, he also mixed comedy and showed his sense of humor.

For a thriller movie, background score and cinematography are two very key aspects so both departments did very well. The cinematography gave a mood to the audience while the background score had enough punch and shock moment in it. The dialogues were weak, the screenplay was alright, costumes were hyped, art department was creative, editing was nice but it could have been crisp during the first half.

Analysis:

The film ‘Anasuya’ showed heart, kidneys, eyes and other organs being taken away by a psychopath (Ravi Babu) and in ‘Amaravathi’ Tarakaratna came in the role of a baby lifter by cutting the stomach of the pregnant women. But then, the subject of hypnotism, the way it was used for the film and the twists that were deployed using this gave a new feel. The flip side of the coin is some unusually silly things. For instance –

Sneha ‘runs’ to open the door when the bell rings, this when she is 9 months pregnant

The special task force outfit and the office set up, cars, it was obviously a copy of the SWAT teams in the US, how absurd can that be? That could have been realistic

A fat and flabby guy like Raghava goes to catch the psychopath in the climax, is that the fitness levels of the special task force?

The film will appeal to those who like Ravi Babu movies or thriller genre of films. But if you compare it with ‘Anasuya’ then there is disappointment in store for you

7.11.2008

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SANGAMAM REVIEW

Film: Sangamam

Rating: 3/5

Banner: Manoranjan Entertainments

Cast
Gadde Sindhura
Rohit Khurana
Murali Mohan
Suhasini
Brahmanandam
Sarah
Raghuram Reddy and others
Music: M M Keeravani

Camera: Jayaram & Sandeep Reddy

Director: Rasool Ellore

Producers: Ramana Pemmaraju, Kripakar Tadikonda

Released Date: July 11, 2008
Story

A well told tale, the story begins with in the backdrop of a village where Samskruti (Sindhura) is the darling daughter of the village head Raghava Rao and both of them share a very affectionate relationship so much so that she even calls him by his name. Samskruthi is an excellent dancer and a very good singer too while Raghava Rao is respected by all villagers and farmers. However, he hits the roof on hearing the name of America since his brother Jagadish (Murali Mohan) had left him many years ago along with his brother despite giving his word that he would stay and Raghava Rao feels betrayed. A chance accident happens to Samskruthi and when the routine tests take place, the doctors discover that she is suffering from Cardiac Myopia which can be treated only at the US. With great reluctance, Raghava Rao sends her to Dr Geetha (Suhasini) but his intentions are respected by Samskruthi and she decides to stay away from meeting her uncle. Meanwhile, Raghava Rao's close friend passes the message to Jagadish and they plan in such a way that Samskruthi meets Sneha (Sarah) her cousin and in this process she also comes across Abhiram (Rohit) who falls for her at the first sight. Life goes on smoothly and Abhiram one day confesses his feelings for Samskruthi. Meanwhile, she also gets to know about the real identity of her uncle and her cousin and discovers the real reason for the misunderstanding between her father and her uncle. Added to this is the impending surgery. What happens from there? Is Abhiram successful in his love? What happens to Raghava Rao and Jagdish? All this forms the rest of the story.
Presentation

The director has come out with a very clean subject and his thoughts were clear on the message. The presentation was excellent and though the narration lacked pace, it was going at a healthy speed. Full marks to the technical side - the music was spellbinding, camera was brilliant and Costumes were perfect. The script was simple and there were a few dialogues which caught the appreciation of the audience. The screenplay was impressive and though there few quick frames which were visually disturbing in the start, eventually everything settles down. Sindhura has proved that she is not just a glam doll oozing out her curves but also a very elegant actress, her expressions were apt and she has carried out her role with poise and grace. Rohit was energetic but he was looking weak, he needs to build flesh and cheeks on him to look healthy, his acting is nice and natural. Brahmanandam yet again has his own place with his typical comedy. Sarah was a real stunner, she must think of getting into more movies. Murali Mohan, Suhasini and the others did their roles with ease and it never looked like a very theatrical performance from any of them.

Conclusion

The film stands true to the title and starts off at a gentle pace, while the first half revolves around the lighter side of the story with romance, comedy and some interesting moments, the second half gets sentimental and though the intensity of the feelings is not over reactive it is good enough to taste and relish it. The film maker has also come out with few points like the importance of agriculture, respecting traditions, prejudices about America and other things. It is a film for the multiplex and the family audience who can sit back and enjoy the whole treat but mass audience will go nowhere near it. The highlight of the film is the deft handling of the emotional scenes and the reunion of the brothers is touching. If the film is promoted well, it will surely find the deserved recognition and has every chance of becoming a success.