Early Tollywood: THAMAN

9.19.2009

Kalyan Ram's JAYEEBHAVA (2009) with Hansika Motwani

9.11.2009

Gopichand's Sankham || Shankam (2009) Movie Review by Greatandhra

Film: Sankham

Rating: 2.75/5

Cast: Gopichand, Trisha, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Supreet, Satyaraj, Krishna Bhagawan, Ali, Chandramohan, Srinivas Reddy, LB Sriram, Subbaraya Sharma, Telangana Sakunthala etc

Music: Thaman

Cinematography: Vetri

Producers: J Bhagawan, J Pulla Rao

Director: ‘Souryam’ Siva

Release Date: 11th Sep 2009

The combination of Gopichand and Trisha has been in discussions from quite some time. The film arrived at last today. Let us see how the output is.

Story:
Chandu (Gopichand) lives in Sydney along with his age-old bachelor uncle (Chandramohan). Mahalakshmi (Trisha) lives with her uncle and aunt (Dharmavarapu and Rajitha) and works in a bakery which happens to her uncle’s business. Chandu develops crush on Mahalakshmi for a dramatic reason and slowly she too reciprocates for him. But Mahalaksmi is forcibly carried to Cuddapah by her another aunt (Telangana Shakunthala) and the real faction story runs behind her.

Chandu is the son of Sivayya (Satyaraj) and Mahalakshmi is the daughter of Pasupathi (Kota). A strong rivalry burns between Pasupathi and Sivayya. Chandu believes that his father was dead for many years. Why he believes so? Who makes him believe so? What’s the rivalry between Pasupathi and Sivayya? Why Chandu lives in Sydney? The answers for all these will be unleashed on silver screen.

Performances:

Gopichand: He was given a cosmopolitan look in bigger way than in any other film. It has been a widely spread assumption that Gopichand fits well only for mass rugged roles. Some exercise to prove that wrong is apparently seen in first few minutes of this film. But the make up is like paint on his face which didn’t gel well. Once again he proved that he is the man with macho look carrying on a perfect bearing and dialogue rendition.

Trisha: She is at her best. She gained little weight and perfectly in tune with the taste of majority Telugu audiences. She has delivered best of her performance too.

Satya Raj is good in his elderly role while Kota also grooved well although he did hundreds of such characters earlier. Ali’s comedy has no constructive sequence but his style and presence have brought countless laughs in theatres. Krishna Bhagawan appeared in a small side kick role and could bring little laughs. Telangana Sakunthala is routine. Srinivas Reddy tried to bring some laughs in first half.

Music is very mundane, dialogues are routine with no sparks to underline, Cinematography is good and sound effects are average. On a whole the screenplay is straight and flat. Director could have worked more on the departments of dialogues, music and developing voltage in narration. Especially the scene where Satya Raj discovers his son in battered condition is very weak and couldn’t bring in any emotion in audiences.

Highlights:
Trisha
Production Values
Ali

Disappointments:
Vulgarity in comedy
Music
Flat narration

Analysis:

The movie lacked required voltage and hence it’s average. Director concentrated well on the aspects of framing and bringing richness on to celluloid but didn’t bother much about narration.

Bricks and cement can make a mansion. But not when they are just made a heap. Engineering is required to make use of them in right way to build a mansion. Similarly a few comedy scenes, a few action elements and a little sentiment mounded like a heap will not be sufficient to bring out a commercial entertainer. They need to be rightly placed with right intensity and right flow. That is missing here.

The major pulling factor for this movie is Trisha. Gopichand fans expect energy and hence return back half hearted.

Verdict: Watch it when you really have time to kill

8.12.2009

[+/-]

Ravi Teja's Anjaneyulu (2009) Movie Review by Greatndhra

Film: Anjaneyulu

Rating: 3.25/5

Banner: Parameswara Arts

Cast: Ravi Teja, Nayantara, Sonu Sood, Brahmanandam, Jeeva, Srinivas Reddy, Nasser, Vinaya, Dandapani, Tarzan, M S Narayana, Prakashraj, Raja Ravindra etc

Music: Thaman

Editor: Marthand K Venkatesh

Cinematography: Ravindra Babu

Story, Screenplay, Direction: Parasuram (Bujji)

Producer: Ganesh Babu

Release date: 12th Aug 2009

Having scored a blockbuster with ‘Kick’, crazy mass hero Ravi Teja has arrived with his new movie and given his hit combination with Nayantara, the expectations have been high. Whether it has met them or not, let us see

Story:

Anjaneyulu (Ravi) is a straight forward guy with a care a damn attitude. He works with a TV channel and one day he meets Anjali (Nayan). It is love at first sight for him, his life takes a turn when an unforeseen incident happens for his parents Krishnamurthy (Nasser), Lakshmi (Vinaya). How he deals with that issue forms rest of the story line.

As a part of his profession, Anjaneyulu changes his name as Pavan and enters as sleeping cell in the group of some anti social elements. There is a connection between his profession and personal life from then. The suspense is revealed in second half and real saga continues from then.

Performances:

Ravi Teja:
It is Ravi’s show all the way and his energetic performance keeps the tempo high. He has become versatile with his expressions and his emotions are quite good. The screen presence of Ravi Teja has been growing strong with each passing movie of his.

Nayantara:
She didn’t have much to do in this one but then there is not much of oomph show from her end, Nayan could have checked the hair stylist and the make up artistes, she looked quite dull in this one. Not much for her to do in terms of performance. Radio Mirchi Sowmya's dubbing for Nayantara is perfectly in sync and elevated the role.

Others:
Brahmanandam made his presence felt, Jeeva was neat, Srinivas Reddy was good, Jayaprakash Reddy was regular, Sonu Sood flaunted his muscles but not much scope to perform for him. M S Narayana provided few laughs, Nasser was elegant, Prakashraj was good, Raja Ravindra was normal, the others did their bit to contribute.

Technical departments:
The film has been presented decently but it is the narrative which kept things going. The dialogues were witty and sensible wherever required, script was written neatly, screenplay was apt. Two songs were good, background score was okay, cinematography was up to the standard. Editing was crisp. Costumes were alright but not good for Nayantara, art department was neat.

Highlights:

* Ravi Teja’s energy levels
* Comedy of Brahmanandam
* Pace of the film

Disappointments:

* Nayantara’s make up
* Item song on Kim Sharma with huge noises

Analysis:

The film has got nothing new to offer but one can see traces of Puri Jagannadh in it, though the formula is old, it was narrated keeping the audience engaged. The first half just whizzes past leaving no idle moment. The second half slows down due to the sentiment and melodrama angle and unwanted songs but overall, the film has got enough ingredients to take it to the success mark.

Puri’s influence is totally carried on Parasuram in this film. He has all energies to match the requirements of a star director. He proved with this film that he can handle big heroes, big budget, big comedy and big action. And there are influences of Shankar on his too, especially while dealing with some funeral scenes in second half.

After Kick, again Anjaneyulu has something for masses and action-comedy film lovers.

Bottom line: Can be watched