Buzzing Movies

Pourudu has a story that could have been quite engaging, but the pace is slow and the impact is low in key scenes. The music is easy on ears, but the comic scenes do not amuse.

Plot Ajay has topped in his civils, and is waiting for his interview call. His father, meanwhile, is Panduranga, the right-hand man of Zakir Bhai, an influential figure locally. Panduranga believes that he and his Bhai do what the law cannot do, owing to long procedures while Ajay maintains that they are all goons. Ajay gets involved in some fights trying to save his father being bashed up by Bhai's rival Kasi's son, Suri. Hussain is a sincere police inspector keen on arresting all the wrongdoers in town, and jails father-son. Ajay's future is in jeopardy, but there's more to it than that meets the eye.

Story, Screenplay and Direction The story actually has potential, but the narration is quite slow. Some scenes are unnecessarily dragged. It doesn't have to be loud, but the grip is obviously missing in the second half. Bland's the word, even with some well-executed action sequences. The editing is okay, but the dubbing is not up to the mark.

The humor element is provided by Ali, and it fails to amuse as it's overdone. The first half concentrates on the father-son conflict and the love story. The second half has the 'Pourudu' coming alive. There's a fair amount of violence in the second half, and a little bit of outsmarting. As mentioned earlier, the impact is quite low.

The pluses: the story, the two well-defined character i.e., Panduranga and his son Ajay, the music.

The minuses: the pace, the wavering direction in the second half and the predictable nature of the climax.

Performances Sumanth shines in a few scenes, but the rest of the movie he looks bored; the pace of the movie has something to do with it. Suman is okay, but Sumanth-Suman scenes are touching. Kajal looks sweet, and justifies her brief role, as it is essentially a father-son story. Nasser suits the role of Zakir Bhai, as does Kota with a fake sharp canine as Kasi. Amit as Kasi's son is convincing, while Subbaraju as Inspector Hussain does a good job. Ali and Brahmanandam are wasted in half-baked comic tracks.

Music and Dance The music is nice, while the picturization is not bad. It could have been better though, especially the choreography.

Last Word The theme and the story are interesting enough, but the narration lacks grip in the second half. It's not a bad watch, but slightly boring due to a slow pace.

End Credits

Cast: Sumanth, Kajal, Suman, Nasser, Subbaraju, Brahmanandam, Ali, Raghubabu, Dharmavarapu, Pragati, Srinivasa Reddy, Amit and Others.
Action: Selva.
Art: Ravindar.
Choreography: Prem Rakshit.
Cinematography: Sudhakar Yakkanti.
Dialogues: Marudhuri Raja.
Editing: Marthand K. Venkatesh.
Lyrics: Bhaskarabhatla, Ramjogayya Sastry & Peddada Murthy.
Music: Mani Sharma.
Story, Screenplay & Direction: Raaj Aadithya.
Producer: D. Supriya.
Presenter: Annapurna Studios.
Banner: SS Creations.
Release Date: 13th January, 2007.

Labels: kajal, review, sumanth, tollywood

Posted by Raj at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Krishna's not bad. It's not the best movie out there either. There are a lot of movies lined up for release, and some other new ones running this season. It doesn't come under the horrible lot, but it's not a memorable journey.

Plot Krishna falls in love with Sandhya, who is staying with her cousin Bobby (Brahmanandam) in Vijayawada. He and his brother's family shift to Bobby's house, then follow her all the way back to her home in Hyderabad. Her brother, though he takes a liking to Krishna, asks him to get out of his sister's life. If he is with her, he is in grave danger of from Jakka, a local goon and his men.

Story, Screenplay and Direction VV Vinayak has an affinity to SUVs. We see a lot of them in the second half following a tranquil first half with quiet humor and the love story taking center stage. The climax has touches of Aadi in it, but in Raviteja style.

The plus points of the movie are: Brahmanandam has a clearly defined character that has situational comedy, which he excels at. Raviteja can carry the movie on his shoulders, with an aura all his own and a role that is bound to suit him.

The minuses are: a story that's not quite new and bad music.

The narration and the editing, including that of the flashback is okay. The picturization of the bland music is not bad. Brahmanandam, Raviteja and Chandramohan's characters work for the movie. Action sequences, especially the one in the midst of bangles, is well done. A little illogical too, of course, during the climax. VV doesn't disappoint, and has given a movie that is at least watchable.

Trisha and RavitejaPerformances Raviteja is his usual bubbling-with-energy, impish self. The script, along with the dialogues are meant for Raviteja to mouth, as he carries off such a role with élan. Brahmanandam is an asset for the movie. Trisha is passable, not having much to do. Sayaji Shinde is tolerable, as is the villain Jakka, played by Mukul Dev. Chandramohan and Sudha as Krishna's family are good. Suneel and Venumadhav are amusing. MS Narayana, Jaya Prakash Reddy and Chitram Sreenu are good.

Music and Dance Mediocre to the core. Actually, less than mediocre.

Last Word The movie is not bad, but we've seen it all before. It comes under the bracket of Time-pass fare. An easy watch albeit once, it's a forgettable flick.

End Credits

Cast: Raviteja, Trisha, Brahmanandam, Mukul Dev, Chandramohan, Sudha, Sayaji Shinde, Sana, Suneel, Chitram Sreenu, Venumadhav, Jaya Prakash Reddy, Tanikella Bharani, Kota Srinivasa Rao and Others.
Action: Ram-Laxman.
Art: AS Prakash.
Cinematography: Chota K. Naidu.
Editing: Goutham Raju.
Lyrics: Chandrabose.
Music: Chakri.
Story & Dialogues: Siva Akula.
Screenplay & Direction: VV Vinayak.
Producer: B. Kasiviswanatham.
Presenter: Danayya DVV.
Banner: Lakshmi Narasimha Visuals.
Release Date: 12th January, 2007.

Labels: ravi teja, review, tollywood, trisha, vvvinayak

Posted by Raj at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Take plots or sub-plots from Bharateeyudu, Aparichitudu and Shivaji (all three Shankar movies in fact) and mix-and-match with inferior production values and bad makeup. Then sprinkle a heavy dose of vulgar and double-meaning dialogues courtesy the two ladies, Nisha Kothari and Anushka. What's the result? One and Only.

Plot Satyam (Veeravenkata Satyanarayana Swamy) a.k.a. Tsunami is a beloved person for several villagers, having touched and changed many a life. His grandmother is 'Baby' whose husband dedicated his life to gain independence, taken later as a prisoner of war and missing henceforth. Meanwhile, corrupt doctors, lawyers and journalists are allegedly killed, but their bodies are missing. The suspicions are on Swamy who is arrested, but an old man calling himself Okka Magadu claims to have committed those acts. The point is, OM looks like the older version of Swamy whose sworn enemy is Namboodriyar, a politician whose son elopes with a middle-class girl under Swamy's protection. The search for OM intensifies and the confusion thickens.

Story, Screenplay and Direction As mentioned before, the story is mishmash of earlier successes, but with production values not up to the mark. The first 30 minutes with Nisha Kothari is like watching a C-grade movie with a big star in it for unknown reasons. Then you have the last 30 minutes which should have been a high-impact, high-voltage sequence, but is completely bungled up.

The scene before Anushka enters i.e., the confrontation with Namboodriyar is a scene meant solely for getting a message across-that he will eventually enter politics. Not surprising. The movie picks up a little for a brief period of time, only to finish off with a regular fight sequence and then fall flat after the break with a half-hearted pre-independence era flashback. The speech at the climax and the subsequent fight sequence using Chinese (supposed to be martial art experts) is a lift from Aparichitudu, but a low-key lift.


The makeup on Simran as an old woman is terrible, while NBK manages to get away with an old man get up. All this distinctly reminds you of Bharateeyudu, and even the part where the irresponsible press is punished reminds you vaguely of a sequence in Bharateeyudu where he kills in front of the camera. There is a lot of inconsistency in the narration and the characters are not clearly defined apart from 'Baby'.

There's hype and hoopla that a star with such mass appeal can generate, but one can do so many other things than waste him with absolutely vulgar sequences. K. Raghavendra Rao and Rajamouli's school of thought seems to have a taker in YVS, but the entertainment quotient in the former's movies also keep the pace up instead of relying on cheap gimmicks with women throughout.

Performances Balakrishna looks fresher and the stiffness of his earlier two movies is completely absent. In a few scenes, he is engaging while some scenes are so badly scripted, that it all looks plain silly. It's a weak script, and there ends the matter. As an old man, his performance is just okay, but definitely better than Simran's over-the-top cantankerous old woman act.

Simran, who is actually a good artiste, is wasted in what seems to be a challenging role on paper, but ends up being utterly ridiculous. Nisha Kothari, the less said the better. Same goes for Anushka, because both are used only to wear skimpy outfits and mouth (and worse, act out) third class stuff. Ashutosh Rana acts and the dubbing is like that of Raghuvaran, while surprisingly even the old NBK's laugh is similar to that of Rajnikant in Shivaji.

Song and Dance The title song is good. It's good to see Balakrishna energetic and also minus the little stiffness that was just setting in. The duet with Simran is okay, while the ones with the other two female leads are just what the doctor ordered for the front benchers. And the rest of them too.

Last Word Shankar's movies are huge hits, or at least well-known and mimicked all the time. You just can't go take ideas from his movies that are relatively recent and think you can get away with it. YVS made watchable movies before, but he disappoints thoroughly in handling the star. Why do directors forget the script and bank entirely on the star now-a-days? The star, some purposeful and well-meaning dialogues in trademark style, a little skin show plus two fights and three songs that stand out does not make a good movie. YVS disappoints terribly in this seen before inferior quality yarn and a star has been totally wasted in an incompetent script.

End credits:
starring: NBK, Simran, Anushka, Nisha Kothari, Ashutosh Rana, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Krishna Bhagawan, Raghubabu and Others.
Action: Vijay.
Art: Anand Sai.
Cinematography: Madhu A. Naidu.
Dialogues: Chintapalli Ramana.
Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao.
Lyrics: Chandrabose.
Music: Mani Sharma.
Story, Screenplay & Direction: YVS Chowdary.
Producer: Yelamanchili Yuktha.
Presenter: Yelamanchili Geetha.
Executive Producer: Kommineni Venkateswara Rao.
Banner: Bommarillu Vari.
Release Date: 11th January, 2007.

Labels: anushka, balakrishna, okka magadu, review, simran, tollywood, y v s chowdary

Posted by Raj at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post