Early Tollywood

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

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Jagapathi Babu's PRAVARAKYUDU (2009) Movie Review by Greatandhra

Film: Pravarakhyudu

Rating: 3/5

Banner: Tolly 2 Holly Films

Cast: Jagapathi Babu, Priyamani, Hamsa Nandini, Brahmanandam, Sunil, Ali, Chalapathi Rao, Dharmavarapu, Rajyalakshmi and others

Music: M M Keeravani

Cinematography: Surender Reddy

Editing: M R Varma

Director: Madan

Producer: Ganesh Indukuri

Release date: 4th Dec 2009

Prime star Jagapathi Babu and Priyamani are being known as the ideal pair of Tollywood and here they are with a new movie that is meant to be a different love story and an entertainer. Let us see if it was impressive or not.

Story:

Sasi Kumar (Jagapathi) and Shailaja (Priyamani) study in the same college and though they are of opposite natures Shailaja gets attracted to Sasi. However, he doesn’t believe in love and Shailaja is disgusted with him. They get into their lives separately.

Years pass and Sasi becomes a noted name in his field of Zoological studies. He leaves Harvard job and comes to join a girl’s college as a lecturer. The principal of that college is Shailaja.

Why did he come to this college? Will their love rekindle? Will ‘no love’ factor transforms to ‘full love’? All this forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Jagapathi Babu:
He has carried out his role with ease and the scenes where he is shown as a student, he looked too puffed up. Performance wise, it was a normal walk in the park so not much to be said.

Priyamani
She has done her job perfectly in terms of glamour and performance department, though she looks more sensuous in the Indian outfits, Priyamani was seen in all varieties. Two emotional scenes were good from her.

Hamsa Nandini
She has a brief presence and looks hot. As is the custom, she was given with a song and she has not disappointed.

Sunil
Though his role was small, he managed to come up with good laughter from the audience.

Others
Brahmanandam was regular, Dharmavarapu was effective, Ali failed to impress. Chalapathi Rao, Rajyalakshmi and other senior actors came up with the standard performances to add value to the film.

Highlights:

* Content in plot
* Music
* Cinematography
* Picturization of songs

Limitations:

* Jagapathi Babu touching the tummies of young girls while teaching music is not convincing but confusing and appeared ‘extra’!
* Girls’ getting carried away by charms of Jagapathi Babu is repetitive
* Lion episode is not well-fitting although pictured with good technique
* Ali’s comedy turned mere waste
* The climax scene where students and staff hold placards recommending love was ridiculous.

Analysis:

The director has come up with a simple tale of relationships and with a message that each has their own outlook depending on their experiences. The dialogues were simple but they could have added more depth, script was okay and screenplay was good during the first half. Comedy was not that much and editing was neat.

Costumes and art department made their presence felt. Full marks to cinematography and background score. The songs were captured really sensuous and though they were not situational, the picturization made up for it.

There were few silly things that the director could have avoided to make things look mature. Overall, the film relied heavily on the screenplay and due to that, the first half went smoothly without much complaint. However, the second half fizzled out and got dragged with unwanted songs and weak comedy. The climax should have been etched out with more impact to drive the message. The mass will like the songs and the family audience might find the narrative appealing barring a few elements of erratic script.

Bottom Line: Ok for family audience and ladies