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ATHIDHI MOVIE CREDITS:

CAST:
LEAD ACTOR: MAHESH BABU
LEAD ACTRESS: AMRITA RAO
OTHERS: MURALI SHARMA, ASHISH VIDYARTHI, KOTA SRINIVASA RAO, NASSER, AJAY, RAVI PRAKASH, SUNIL, BRAHMANANDAM, VENU MADHAV, RAJEEV KANAKALA, BANERJEE, SUBBARAJU, VAJJA VENKATA GIRIDHAR, MALAIKA ARORA (ITEM SONG) AND OTHERS

STUNTS: SHIVA
EDITING: GOWTHAM RAJU
DIALOGUES: ABBURI RAVI
ART: SRINIVAS RAJU
CHOREOGRAPHY: RAJU SUNDARAM
CINEMATOGRAPHY: SAMEER REDDY
MUSIC: MANI SHARMA
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: SHAKAMURI RAM BABU
SCREENPLAY: VAKKANTHAM VAMSI/G SURENDER REDDY
STORY/DIRECTION: G SURENDER REDDY
PRODUCER: G RAMESH BABU
BANNER: KRISHNA PRODUCTIONS PVT. LTD.
RELEASE DATE: 18th OCTOBER, 2007
CBFC RATING: A

KALCHAs CRITICAL RATING: 3.25/10
[Mahesh Babu=0.5; Amrita Rao=0; Ashish Vidyarthi+Kota Srinivas Rao+Murali Sharma=0.5; Cinematography=0.75; Visual Effects=0.25; Editing=0.75; Art=0.25; Music=0.25; Dialogues+Stunts+Screenplay+Story+Direction=0]
KALCHAs COMMERCIAL RATING: 4.25/10
[Mahesh Babu=1; Amrita Rao=0; Ashish Vidyarthi+Kota Srinivasa Rao+Murali Sharma=0.5; Malaika Arora+Brahmanandam+Sunil=0.25; Cinematography=0.75; Stunts=0.75; Editing=0.25; Music=0.5; Dialogues+Story+Screenplay+Direction+Production=0.25]
VERDICT:
In A Single Phrase, “STYLEish Bolly-Tolly CRAP”.
In A Sentence, “Fancy Hair Styles, Crappy Heroine, Script-Less Story, Mind Numbingly Foolish Stunts, Punch-Less Dialogues, Emotion-Less Characters, Cheap Comedy, Entertaining Songs, Great Cinematography, Aptly Used Visual Effects, Back Breaking Length (2 Hr. 51 Min.) And Last But Not The Least… Direction-Less Director.”

ACTING WISE

MAHESH BABU makes a comeback to the screen with stunning new looks… after about 1 year… And what did he do meanwhile? The answer is… He just became… Undoubtedly, the most Handsome Star of Tollywood. He sports a barrage of fancy hair styles. Then, what exactly is the problem…? Well, the screenplay is so crappy that the intended CHARACTER and CHARACTERIZATION of Mahesh Babu in ATHIDHI is completely Hulla-Gulla… He is an Orphan… He spends best part of his life in a JAIL due to some supposedly serious but inevitably FUNNY circumstances… He constantly beats up goons at random and gets back in jail as a HOBBY. Just think about it… If ever a Mr. ROWDY/GOON/BADDY OF THE WORLD contest is held, then Mahesh Babu would be the undoubted winner… As for his performance, he is left with no real Punch dialogues for an intended MASS entertainer as in POKIRI or ATHADU… And for showing his histrionics, he is left with really crappy screenplay… So, in the end, for no fault of his… Mahesh Babu has given an AVERAGE performance…

UNDOUBTEDLY, THE MOST HANDSOME STAR OF TOLLYWOOD!!!
AMRITA RAO makes her debut in Tollywood with Athidhi. I seriously doubt the intelligence of the Director Surender Reddy for his choice (If at all, it is his choice…) Where shall I start? To begin with, She is not even a minor force to reckon with in Bollywood. Although subjective, she is not even beautiful enough to stand her ground beside Mahesh babu. But gotta admit, Amrita Rao is a great dancer. But when you are attempting to entertain the masses… the heroine should be either Beautiful as Trisha, Sonali Bendre and the like… OR just Sexy as Ileana. If not both, she should be an extraordinary actress. Unfortunately, Amrita Rao is NONE OF THE ABOVE. And moreover, every fault doesn’t lie with Amrita Rao. She is hampered by Cheaply designed costumes, Very poor characterization, Mind numbingly dumb dialougues and every thing else that the Director Surender Reddy did.

As for Mahesh Babu’s statement saying that Amrita Rao is the best heroine that he worked with till date, I gotta say the only Telugu Proverb that comes to my mind instantly… “Erunu Datina Taruvatha Theppanu Tagaleyya Kudadu” Very obviously, it is a cheap insult to TRISHA, ILEANA, SONALI BENDRE and the like… And moreover it is just a marketing gimmickry to fool the genuine audiences to watch this stylish CRAP…

POOR AMRITA… IN A CRAPPY COSTUME!!!
As for the rest of the actors… Kota Srinivasa Rao just walks on this cake… As we say in Telugu, “Vennatho Pettina Vidya.” Ashish does a great job in his “RASTA HAIR STYLE.” Murali Sharma does give a tremendous performance as the main villain. But, none of these actors would be satisfied with this crude screenplay. Great actor Brahmanandam is completely wasted. Very good actors Nasser, Ajay, Rajeev kanakala, Venu Madhav, Sunil are completely wasted.

Mark my words when I PREDICT… “Beautiful teen girl that played the character of Nasser’s daughter… is definitely a future heroine but only if she wants to…” Reason for this prediction is quite simple… She has a NATURAL EASE ease in acting for her first attempt at least in Telugu. She has a mole above her upper lip… If you don’t understand the significance of that mole… Yesteryear Beautiful damsel Jayaprada has a similar mole… Sensuous Manisha Koirala has a similar mole and there are many more such examples…

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING

DIALOGUES:
Dialogues by Abburi Ravi have no real juice or punch in them… Remember the iconic dialogue of Mahesh Babu’s POKIRI… “Evadu Kodithe…” Well, there is not even a single dialogue of that standard. That explains the boredom of the audience that they are subjected to by ATHIDHI.
ART:
Srinivas Raju can be commended here… for the realistic and yet visually good presentation of the locations.
EDITING:
Gowtham Raju does a good job here… The Patterns and Sequential editing that he introduced to Tollywood with Athidhi will be trend setting. These might be an A, B, C for Hollywood… But they are trend setting for Tollywood. To give you an example… Nicholas Cage starer NEXT has the exact same Sequential editing pattern that is used extensively in Athidhi. But at approximately 2 Hr. 51 Min., Athidhi needs a lot of trimming. Because, one can sit through a great movie for such a long time but for Athidhi… it is simply Back-Breaking. Overall it is a PLUS and MINUS performance by Gowtham Raju.

STUNTS:
I know this will be strange for many of you. The popular talk in Tollywood currently is that Stunts are great in Athidhi. But I beg to differ here… Stunts by Shiva have touched the rock bottom of intelligence. While many of them are simply cheap copies from Hollywood… they are executed very poorly. For example, in the climax fight… the villains who are more likely to bring guns with them… bring KING SIZE SWORDS and start fighting in 300ish fashion. How mind numbingly FOOLISH is that? But that is not the most STUPID stunt of Athidhi. The credit goes to the following one… For saving the heroine, Mahesh Babu on his newly acquired SUZUKI HAYABUSA (God only knows from where) comes against the SNIPER carrying SUV. Super man Mahesh Babu comes from the front of the Sniper AND crashes his bike with the SUV AND flies in the air over the sniper AND safely PARKS his pistol in the sniper’s mouth AND then shoots AND then falls to the ground without any scratch. I have just one question… WHAT WAS THE SNIPER DOING ALL THIS WHILE? The only possible explanation would be that he forgot to load any bullets in his powerful sniper gun!!! The best excuse for these brainless stunts could be that they are intended at 5 year old kids… or C center whistling audiences.

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Sameer Reddy walks away with the most credits for any technician in this movie… His cinematography is great… He definitely has the brightest future… He highlighted Mahesh Babu with visuals that are stunning to say the least. Sameer Reddy can make Tollywood proud if he works on a great script…
VISUAL EFFECTS:
Visual Effects in the movie are aptly and subtly used to enhance the scenes rather than as ornamental jamboree or rude shocks… This is the way to go to make Tollywood movies more appealing…
MUSIC:
Background score by Mani Sharma is pathetic in Athidhi. Stylized movies such as Athidhi must have unique themes to gel with the movie… Unfortunately, Mani does a very bad job here. As for the DTS mixing is concerned, it is patchy to say the least… As for the songs, all are just about O.K. None of them are spectacularly innovative or entertaining as DOLE DOLE in pokiri…

DIRECTOR SURENDER REDDY: MAIN VILLAIN OF ATHIDHI!!!
STORY/SCREENPLAY/DIRECTION:
Hmmm… How bad the story can be…? THIS BAAADDD… Remember MANASANTHA NUVVE and ATHANOKKADE? Orphan being adopted angle is a straight lift from both these movies… So, is it a complete copy? NO… The difference? For Manasantha Nuvve, it is a COPY… For Athanokkade, it is just a REPEAT performance (Same Director)… AND WE ARE PAYING TO SEE THEM AGAIN… Then, the adopting couple names young Mahesh as ATHIDHI (Of all the names in the world… Isn’t it the most unnatural name?). Then the young kid is sent to jail for allegedly killing the couple… HOW UNIQUELY INSANE IS THAT?

Then on… the overall story and screenplay is a COCKTAIL of MAN ON FIRE, USUAL SUSPECTS, BATMAN BEGINS, MANASANTHA NUVVE, ATHANOKKADE, RAGHAVAN, NEXT and many more… The road side rowdy killing a couple is a straight rip-off from BATMAN BEGINS… Before the interval, the whole scene between Ashish Vidyarthi and Mahesh is lifted from RAGHAVAN. In one of the scenes as soon as Mahesh’s friend informs that the villain has links with a bar… Mahesh Babu starts dancing with “Out Of Age But Not Out Of Shape” Malaika Arora. And as soon as the song ends… he starts chasing a bad guy… (How the hell did he knew that he is a bad guy?) And I have an important question here… One of the kidnapped girls is the daughter of the Home Minister. The other girl is the daughter of Home Minister’s brother… I can understand if they were kidnapped due to the laxity of the Police… BUT WHY THE HELL DID THE ENTIRE POLICE DEPARTMENT SIT SILENT AFTER THAT WHEN OUR SUPERMAN HERO HUNTS AND KILLS THE VILLAIN? This crudest screenplay leaves many good actors like Ajay and Nasser with no character at all… And moreover, there is no real emotional connection between any of the characters… As for the chemistry between Mahesh Babu and Amrita Rao, it is more of geometry… I mean to say they are like PARALLEL lines which never meet. Poor Amrita Rao has got to do a bit of CHANDRAMUKHI in the end uttering STUPIDEST dialogues out of context with a seemingly heavy voiced dubbing… As far as Direction is concerned, Surender Reddy is just a headless chicken which wanders DIRECTION-LESS…

FUNNIEST SCENE: In the introduction scene of Mahesh Babu, as soon as he is released from Jail, he grabs a Jail sentry’s CHAIR and carries it all the way to the villain’s den… and all the while walking through the city roads… like a blurry ghost… And finally sits on it in front of the villain. You gotta see it to laugh at it!!!

MY SINCERE ADVICE: Invite ATHIDHI at your own risk. This is an ALL-RISK investment of your hard earned money!!! The Director Surender Reddy questions the Audience’s intelligence… Show him that we are packed with functioning brains…

READERs RATING ON ATHIDHI:

DO NOT MISS KALCHAs ATHIDHI BOX-OFFICE PREDICTION

ALSO READ

KALCHAs ATHIDHI BOX-OFFICE UPDATE AND ANALYSIS
SURENDER REDDY AND HIS CALCULATOR
KALCHAs ATHIDHI BOX-OFFICE PREDICTION
ATHIDHI MUSIC SOLD FOR RS. 0.75 CRORES

TULASI MOVIE CREDITS:

CAST:
LEAD ACTORS: VENKATESH, ATHULITH (SON)
LEAD ACTRESS: NAYANATARA
OTHERS: SIVAJI, RAMYA KRISHNA, ASHISH VIDYARTHI, JAYA PRAKASH REDDY, RAHUL DEV, RAVI BABU, RIAZ KHAN, TANIKELLA BHARANI, PARUCHURI VENKATESWARA RAO, ALI, RAGHU BABU, JHANSI, VIJAY KUMAR, SHRIYA (ITEM GIRL)
DIALOGUES: PARUCHURI BROTHERS
STUNTS: KANAL KANNAN & RAM LAKSHMAN
STORY: BOYAPATI SRINU & AKULA SIVA
EDITING: MARTHAND K VENKATESH
MUSIC: DEVI SRI PRASAD
SCREENPLAY/DIRECTION: BOYAPATI SRINU
PRODUCER: D SURESH BABU
BANNER: SURESH PRODUCTIONS
RELEASE DATE: 12, OCTOBER, 2007

KALCHAs CRITICAL RATING: 2/10
[Venkatesh=0.5, Nayanatara=0.25, Shriya+Jhansi+Raghu Babu+Sivaji+Jaya Prakash Reddy=0.25, Dialogues=0.25, Screenplay=0.25, Music=0.25, Direction=0.25]

KALCHAs COMMERCIAL RATING: 6.5/10
[Venkatesh=1, Nayanatara=0.5, Athulith=0.5, Shriya+Jhansi+Raghu Babu+Sivaji+Jaya Prakash Reddy=0.5, Costumes=0.25, Dialogues=0.5, Choreography=0.25, Stunts=0.5, Cinematography=0.25, Story=0.5, Screenplay=0.25, Editing=0.25, Music=0.75, Direction=0.75]

VERDICT: “Critically, Very Hollow And Still A Blockbuster…”

ACTING WISE

For Venkatesh, portraying Tulasi is a cake walk… But the character is so cliche ridden that his effort doesn’t fetch him much accolades… But still, it is the best performance of Tualsi. He certainly looks the handsomest among the senior heroes… In fact Venkatesh overtook Nagarjuna in this department since Gharshana… Since Super, Nagarjuna isn’t looking his best and with long hair and a whitish beard he looks pathetic and is fast losing his fan base… whereas, Venkatesh is always clean shaved, sporting cool denims most of the times and with the best muscles among the seniors…

Nayanatara’s character had ample scope to perform but unfortunately the screenplay ruined the party for her… She just had to stare at Venkatesh intently so as to show her anger… And I don’t think it is that hard enough for a talented actress like Nayanatara. As for the glamour part, she is used more for her body skills than her acting skills…

As for Athulith, the kid might be cute but was not at all expressive… He just stands looking cute and the dialogues pour out of the speaker boxes… I know you might feel I am going hard on the kid… But just rent a DVD of ANJALI and have the pleasure of watching Baby Shamili to know how expressive kids could be at a much younger age… And I didn’t even mention Hollywood and its amazing kids… Of course musch lies in the hands of the directors when it comes to Kids…

As always, Jhansi, Jaya Prakash Reddy and Raghu Babu were at their hilarious best… But I am still hoping that someone would write a character challenging enough for Raghu Babu… “Coz he is way better an actor to just remain in the corner post of a villain’s den… If I may say so… He belongs to the league of great actor Kota Srinivasa Rao.

Sivaji doesn’t disappoint and this might be his best performance after Missamma.
There are too many waste characters in the movie… like Tanikella Bharani and Ravi Babu… They were just not needed for Tulasi.

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING

DIALOGUES:
Generally, I don’t like Paruchuri Brothers with their cliched dialogue writing in Seema movies… But dialogues in Tulasi were surprisingly toned down and at times refreshing for a Seema movie…
STUNTS:
If I could, I would have given negative rating just for the vehicles flying in an action episode completely out of sync with the point of contact with the hitting vehicle… It is like watching Chinese movies in Telugu with horrible dubbing.
STORY:
Here too… I would have given negative rating if I could. The story at the core is just a plain copy of ANTHAHPURAM. But it is woven with too many cliched characters and so diluting the genius of the story of Anthahpuram. And then it is completely formula ridden with a Cute Kid, Father and Son sentiment, Thali sentiment, Comedy, Songs including one item song, Barrage of villains, Seema faction, Powerful dialogues, Foreign locales, Variety of weapons, Flying vehicles, Bullets traveling at the speed of the hero… (Just before interval, in an action scene, hero looks at the villain as he fires… and then looks at the target (His Son)… and then runs… and then dives in the air… and at last the bullet hits the hero instead of the target… I am just sick of all this…
EDITING:
Editing is not as bad as the story itself… And in fact if not for the editing… the movie could’ve been like 3-4 individual movies in a sequence…
MUSIC:
As usual, commercially good but critically pathetic effort… by Devi Sri Prasad. I believe he has just 3-5 tunes in his repertoire… and mixes, remixes, repeats, tones up and tones down and also copies to make many hits over these years. For instance, beautifully composed NEE KALLATHOTI is a rehashed, re-orchestrated, repeat of Sontham’s TELUSUNA…
SCREENPLAY:
An okay screenplay is what saves this movie… Very cliched largely but with some interesting experiments worth appreciating. I liked the transition of the scene where the audience are involved in the party of Sivaji and his buddy and suddenly Sivaji gets up seeing the villain and slowly goes up to him and bangs a liquor bottle on his head… I believe no one in the theater expects the turn of events in that scene… That is the best scene of the film. In one more scene the audience starts to believe that Rahul Dev is gonna shoot Venkatesh and suddenly the bullet fires but not from his gun… The bullet hits Rahul Dev in the forehead and the audience would be really surprised in that scene…
DIRECTION:
Boyapati Srinu fails in opening this Tollywood commercial potboiler with a bang… I liked the theme of a fashion show with the titles… but it was not presented with the richness in cinematography. I liked the profession that the director and the story writers assigned for Nayanatara… a fashion designer. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been convincing to us when she exposes herself in the movie as much as she did (In Bhayya, Priyamni being a studious innocent girl, whose life is education… suddenly takes off her clothes in the songs for us…). Boyapati Srinu has the nack of making blockbusters out of nothing like V V Vinayak and Puri Jagannath. He picks up a beaten story and stuffs it with enough juice to entice the general movie buffs… He is the next sensation at the Box-Office… Watch out…!!!

READERs RATING ON TULASI:

DO NOT MISS KALCHAs TUALSI BOX-OFFICE PREDICTION

BHAYYA MOVIE CREDITS:

GENRE: ACTION/DRAMA/LOVE
CAST: VISHAL, PRIYAMANI, AJAY, ASHISH VIDYARTHI, DEVRAJ, NIROSHA, URVASI, PONNAMBALAM AND OTHERS… (AJAY - 0.75, VISHAL - 0.5)
MUSIC: MANI SHARMA (0)
DIALOGUES: VENNELAKANTI (0.25)
STUNTS: KANAL KANNAN (0.75)
CINEMATOGRAPHY: VAIDHI (0.75)
EDITING: SASHI (0.25)
STORY/SCREENPLAY/DIRECTION: BHUPATI PANDYAN (0/0.5/0)
PRODUCER: VIKRAM KRISHNA
BANNER: GK FILM CORPORATION
RELEASE DATE: 5, OCTOBER, 2007

KALCHAs RATING: 3.75/10
VERDICT FOR CLASSES: “Priyamani’s Education Will Cost You 3 Hours Of Your Valuable Time… ‘Coz It Already Cost Mine… So, Beware Of BHAYYA”
VERDICT FOR MASSES: “Vishal Anna Fightlu Viragadeesadu…Priyamani Mastuga Vundi…”
FINAL VERDICT: Tamil Nadu rejected it… So, will you be happy eating the leftovers?

ACTING WISE

PLUS SIDE:
Well, I gotta say that the problem of BHAYYA does not lie with acting at all… Although I don’t like many characters, NONE of the actors portraying them let this commercially formatted movie down… But the performance that would stand out from this commercial pot boiler would be that of AJAY… He simply was great with his restrained histrionics and dialogue delivery (Unlike unnaturally over the top, shouting over the roof character that he portrayed in TEJAs LAKSHMI KALYANAM). Coming to VISHAL… I liked that he worked on his body a bit to look muscular in this obviously pathetic action movie.

FLIP SIDE:
Hey Guys n Gals, do you remember yesteryear hottie… NIROSHA? I was expecting a lot of weight for her role which never gains weight at all here… Now, don’t get me wrong here… its not Nirosha that does anything wrong here… it is just that her character that doesn’t do anything at all here…!!! (Sorry for my rapping skills…)

As for Vishal, although he was doing okay with his stunts and all, he had too much screen space for my liking… And he is just pathetic with his COMIC TIMING. He better stick to his underplaying and yet powerful characters of Pandem Kodi and Pogaru.

But the real headache comes from the comedy tracks and actors with pure Tamil nativity…


OH MY GOD… SHE IS SHY!!!
Now coming to the hottest part… PRIYAMANI… Does she have a role here? Yeah! As usual… AN INNOCENT GIRL JUST WANTING TO STUDY HER MATHS OR WHATEVER… But, as soon as, Mani Sharma starts doling out his uninspiring beats… our studious girl suddenly starts ripping off her clothes… Now, how many of you miss RECORDING DANCES back in our villages…? If you are one of them and cannot go back to your village… here is your chance… DON’T MISS IT. Is it that bad? yeah, it is that bad… She made me feel that MUMAITH KHAN is an over dresser… Well, some might like her this way… But COUNT ME OUT from them. She is not glamorous enough to play these roles… She is way better when she plays any solidly written character and not when she strip teases for us.

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Camera work by VAIDHI is one of the departments that stands out well in this movie. In fact, the flashback episode of Ashish Vidyarthi and Urvasi is shown in EASTMAN Color and in 35 mm format. Though the episode itself is a little dragged, the technical work that went into it is worth praising. But his work was best when it comes to action sequences. He used special equipment to capture the LIFELINE of the movie that is ACTION.

EDITING:
Though not bad, editing is not good. And its not SASHIs fault entirely. The movie is so bad that he needed to trim at least 2 hours of it. And how can he do that maintaining the continuity?

STUNTS:
The actual hero of the movie is the stunt master KANAL KANNAN. As this is a commercial format, there is bound to be extensive WIRE WORK and all making them unrealistic at times but he executed many of the stunts very impressively elevating the character of the hero in the film.

MUSIC/BACKGROUND SCORE:
Background score is adequate and nothing outstanding here. But MANI SHARMA composed songs which are… well… DUMB.

DIALOGUES:
Dialogues by VENNELAKANTI are not bad if not great.

STORY/SCREENPLAY/DIRECTION:
STORY of the movie is beaten to death in our Indian Cinema to say the least. Well it is about a good guy (We never know what he does for living…) on Bail… He takes up the job of protecting the innocent girl caught up in a mess of his own creation. You want to know how bad it is… Well, the heroine’s education causes a BANDH in the city. The whole city gets cleansed off the GOONDAS (by hero of course…) which probably could never have happened if not for the heroine’s eduction. Finally, the heroine’s education not only costs the movie but also our valuable 3 hours of life… And what does the heroine do all through this? Dancing with the skimpiest of skirts and sundry to Mani Sharma’s pathetic music.
The only thing that saves this dust bin material is SCREENPLAY. The script is well written so much so that at times we forget that we are watching a gruesomely bad movie. And that is an achievement.
Directing this crap is the hardest part and worth appreciating… KUDOS to BHUPATHI PANDYAN.

READERs RATING on BHAYYA:

DO NOT MISS KALCHAs BHAYYA BOX-OFFICE PREDICTION

HAPPY DAYS MOVIE CREDITS:

GENRE: HUMOUR/ROMANCE/LOVE
CAST: VARUN SANDESH, NIKHIL, VAMSI KRISHNA, RAHUL, TAMANNA, GAYATRI RAO, SONIA, MONALI CHOWDARY, KAMALINI MUKHERJEE (GUEST APPEARANCE) & OTHERS (1)
ART: KISHORE CHOWKSI
CHOREOGRAPHY: NOBLE
EDITING: MARTHAND K VENKATESH (0.75)
CINEMATOGRAPHY: VIJAY C KUMAR (0.25)
LYRICS: VANAMALI, VETURI (1)
MUSIC: MICKEY J MEYER (1)
STORY/SCREENPLAY/DIALOGUES/DIRECTION: SEKHAR KAMMULA (0.5/0.75/0.25/0.5 - 2)
PRODUCTION: SEKHAR KAMMULA/CHANDRASHEKHAR KAMMULA (0.5 - For an honest and sincere effort in contributing a step forward for Telugu Film Industry)
BANNER: AMIGOES CREATIONS
RELEASE DATE: 29, SEPTEMBER, 2007(USA) & 2, OCTOBER, 2007(INDIA) (0.5 - Just for targeting as it happens with many Hollywood flicks ala NAMESAKE which started with just 6 Screens in New York and went on to earn way more than Rs. 80 Crores)

KALCHAs RATING: 7/10
VERDICT: “Being A Student And Skipping HAPPY DAYS Is Like Being Married For Five Years And Still Virgin…”

ACTING WISE

PLUS SIDE:
VARUN SANDESH as Chandu, TAMANNA as Madhu, RAHUL as Tyson, SONIA as Sravanthi, NIKHIL as Rajesh, GAYATRI RAO as Appu gave tremendous performances. Except Tamanna (Paired with Manoj in SRI), all others are new comers and that makes it more astounding.

For once, Varun Sandesh(Chandu) and Sonia(Sravanthi) proved that a good actor/actress doesn’t need to shout at us crudely written, vulgarity ridden, heroic dialogues to convey the message… to us. They convey their feelings through extremely well crafted and subtle expressions. But it is Rahul(Tyson) that stole everyone’s heart with his very rightly improvised, very aptly enacted, genuinely touching performance.

Especially, Varun Sandesh, Nikhil, Gayatri Rao and Tamanna have bright futures in the Telugu film industry (if they don’t get carried away by the adulation). They should certainly plan their future well… in to our hearts through Great Acting. Nikhil’s comic timing is impeccable for a new comer… and this is just the beginning. Gayatri Rao(Appu) has done enough justice to her role that she demands a mention in the PLUS side… She is an amazing and natural performer… Varun Sandesh (A bit Sidhdharth look-alike, but doesn’t rot Telugu like him and has a clean accent on screen), is a revelation for the Telugu film industry. Directors who give acting a first chance rather than box-office returns with crudely written mass flicks can mould VARUN SANDESH into a fine actor who can make Telugu audiences proud. Tamanna is so well packaged with Beauty, Glamour, Acting Talent, Dancing Talent and Body language to be a leading actress that it makes me wonder as to why the SO CALLED HIGH BUDGET MASS FLICKS ignore genuinely charismatic SHOULD-BE leading ladies (Not in this context, but I believe VEDIKA too is a SHOULD-BE leading lady). And, last but not the least, Kamalini Mukherjee as the English teacher pulled off a Sushmi off Main Hoon Naa…

I SALUTE THESE AMAZING ACTORS:

FLIP SIDE:
VAMSI KRISHNA as Shankar and MONALI CHOWDARY as Sangeetha gave the most half baked performances when they had enough chance to show their talents. Sekhar Kammula always falters (Remember Bamma who is the house owner of Kamalini in Anand, Bamma of Sumanth in Godavari was way over the top…) when it comes to senior citizens… I appreciate his intention to pull off natural appearances… But unless they walk and talk at the same time that is not possible. I mean they should emote when they talk and shouldn’t when they needn’t… It looks funny when some good actors and some bad actors share the screen space at the same time… The characters like Panduranga’s mother who gives standing speeches and Bamma (Oh! Not once again…) of Madhu (Tamanna) who utters a few lines which doesn’t even enter our ears… are completely misfit and unnecessary. And even the character of Paidithalli though well intentioned was under developed (I would have liked the character to be a part of the gang…). The character of Panduranga lacks the emotional connect with the gang and so… soon forgotten before you even try to register it…

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
VIJAY C KUMAR… is just below average (But Good for the song in Vizag). I’ll tell you the reason… The college street median lights have been overused in the movie in songs and in some scenes (similar set up and camera angles can be traced back to Prema Desam which was outstanding for those times and looks just crude for these times)… I hear a lot about cinematography being mind blowing and end up finding some hill station locations or at best a rainy scene(in our movies)… Clearly, the creativity is lacking in many of our movies… But is cinematography that simple? The answer is NO… For example, the scene in which Tyson gets beaten up had the camera so still that even anyone’s Bamma could shoot that… There are n number of ways to shoot that scene… And the best way is an IN and OUT camera movement to let the audience feel the heat. Great examples are Mano-O-Mano combats in BOURNE Series (Advanced level)… and Our own GULABI had a great scene where the goons stab Chakravarthi in an alley (Basic level - Budget Constraints)…

EDITING:
Editing by Marthand K Venkatesh was one of the most excelled departments in Happy Days. Though it was at times jerky (scenes before and after Sangeetha is slapped by Tyson)… All in all Editing is the backbone of the movie…

ART/CHOREOGRAPHY:
Both are just about Okay and doesn’t warrant a mention…

LYRICS:
Lyrics are the elements that make this movie so appealing. Neat, tidy, poetic and creative… So, full marks to Vanamali and Veturi.

MUSIC/BACKGROUND SCORE:
Background score by Mickey J Meyer is largely apt though needs some polishing… But when it comes to the soundtracks of Happy Days, Mickey J Meyer proves that he belongs to the league of A R Rahman. Unfortunately, he is a little obsessed with music maestro A R Rahman and lifts his tunes seamlessly… But gotta say, ARARE was simply one of the best melodies ever composed (Not just in Telugu)… Ye Cheekati amply brings forth his Synthesizing capabilities… Although the melody HAPPY DAYS is Rahmanish with obvious inspiration… it was never copied… and it is simply SUPERB. But Mickey J Meyer loses my admiration when it comes to JIL JIL JIGGA which is blatantly and cleverly mixed version of Oh Yuva Yuva from YUVA and Queen’s We Will Rock You… You can find Mickey’s obsession with Rahman tunes even in his earlier outing NOTE BOOK where a song on the banks of the river is a blatant copy of Rahman’s superb tune from MEENAXI.

STORY/SCREENPLAY/DIALOGUES/DIRECTION:

The story is well targeted and well conceived. The story is about a bunch of Engineering students and their 4 years of college life including some beautiful romantic escapades. The performances contributed more than the story. Although the screenplay is not seamless, it holds its ground. Sekhar Kammula once again comes forth as a refreshingly good intentioned man and we need more such Guys n Gals to save Tollywood from today’s mediocrity. But even then, Sekhar needs to improve his technical know-how to make classics of any genre. And he should never attempt Neither Here Nor There pokes at Massy-Classy mixes to break into the big league… He shouldn’t even remain in the league that he currently caters to… I mean when he is so ready financially with a string of successes in his own production, he should try to improve his technical departments especially Dubbing, Cinematography and Re-Recording and try to make his good movies into World Class Motion Pictures in the genre that he currently caters to… (Notting Hill, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless In Seattle, As Good As It Gets, Jerry Maguire and the like). And lastly yeah!, Sekhar has exceeded 50-60% script reproduction on screen that he intended to…

BEST DIALOGUES:
TYSON (Rahul) to SRAVANTHI (Sonia): “Ishtam… Bhayam… Eppudu Kalasi Vundalevu. (Love and Fear Can never co-exist).”

A reader ARYAN reminded me this Dialogue through Comments… When fellow friends try to control Tyson over Shankar’s love affair… TYSON says, “Enthaina Mana Friend Kathara…” Tremendously, there is an instant applause for this Dialogue through out the theaters…

BEST STATEMENT: The college days are HAPPY DAYS and the later days are PURPOSEFUL DAYS…

READERs RATING on HAPPY DAYS:

ALSO READ
HAPPY DAYS BOX-OFFICE UPDATE AND A NEW PREDICTION
HAPPY DAYS FREEMONT CELEBRATION GALLERY
HAPPY DAYS SATELLITE RIGHTS SOLD FOR RS. 1.15 CRORES.
KALCHAs HAPPY DAYS BOX-OFFICE PREDICTION

CHIRUTHA MOVIE CREDITS:

CAST:
LEAD ACTOR (Ram Charan): 0.5
LEAD ACTRESS (Neha Sharma): 0.25
REST OF THE CAST (Ashish Vidyarthi, Prakash Raj, Ali, Dharmavarapu Subrahmaniam, Brahmanandam, M.S. Narayana, Surya, Pragathi, Sayaji Shinde, Venu Madhav, Tanikella Bharani, Daniel Balaji and others): 0
STUNTS (Vijayan): 0.25 (For the first fight in jail)
ART (Chinna): 0
CINEMATOGRAPHY (Shyam K. Naidu): 0.25
EDITING (M. R. Varma): 0
CHOREOGRAPHY (Raju Sundaram, Nobel): 0.25 (For the first song)
LYRICS (Sirivennela Sitaramsastry, Viswa, Bhaskar Bhatla, Kandikonda): 0.5
BACKGROUND MUSIC/SCORE (Mani Sharma): 0
MUSIC (Mani Sharma): 1
PRODUCER (C. Aswinidutt): 0.25 (For the premier show at Prasads)
BANNER: Vyjayanthi Movies
STORY/SCREENPLAY/DIALOGUES/DIRECTION (Puri Jagannath): 0/0/0/0
CBFC RATING: U/A
RELEASE DATE: 28, September, 2007

KALCHAs RATING: 3.25/10

PERFORMANCES:
RAM CHARAN: Well, Ram Charan is a revelation… He has Pluses and some Minuses. As for the pluses are considered… He is a great dancer like his father Chiranjeevi, he has an athletic body like Allu Arjun… He has the ease in his body language like Pawan kalyan. He is at his best when it comes to stunts… Ram Charan has a rhythm when it comes to dances and fights and it can only improve from here on… He has a deep Baritone in his voice that is very manly for his age… (Especially, when you consider Puri’s brother Sai Ram Shankar now-a-days, tortures us with his Unmanly voice…) Ram Charan is good looking from sideways…

Now a few minuses… He is not that great looking straight and up close. His jawline is too bulky… And when it comes to his performance, he is still camera shy… but that will fend off with experience and he really needs to work on his dialogue modulation. Great voices like his, need careful modulation…

So, as for my prediction… He would(should) develop his own mannerisms and style in the future… I have a gut feeling that he will be one of the Pillars of the Telugu film industry in the years to come. Like there were Chiranjeevi, Bala Krishna, Venkatesh and Nagarjuna in the past… Ram Charan, Mahesh Babu, NTR, Ram, Allu Arjun, Prabhas will stand as pillars for the Telugu film industry in the years to come…

NEHA SHARMA: The heroine Neha Sharma is an obvious scapegoat… if the film fails at the box-office. I’m not saying she has done a great job… but she hasn’t done a bad job either. She was given the role of a rich spoiled ultra modern girl and she has done enough justice to the role that Charan’s fans will hate her for insulting Charan in the movie (Which the character demands).

As for my prediction goes… I don’t think she has a bright future in Tollywood… because, although she is sexy and has an Oomph factor, she isn’t beautiful enough or homely looking girl to sustain in Tollywood in the long run… Because 90% of Tollywood heroine roles demand those qualities from a heroine…

OTHERS: Others??? Who…? There are ‘n’ number of forgettable roles to portray for others… In fact, though Ali’s transvestite role evokes some cheap humour, his character is one of the cheapest roles he has portrayed in his career… There are no other good or bad performances to even mention…

BACKGROUND MUSIC/SCORE: Mani Sharma has rendered very lackluster background score… There is no theme, richness, exhilaration or anything else that should be… In fact very cheaply he copies and extensively uses Rishi Rich’s track “My eyes on you” in the first half…

MUSIC: The only department from Chirutha that scores full marks is music. Mani Sharma has given the best possible tunes he could for this uninspiring movie…

CHOREOGRAPHY: Despite the tremendous potential of Ram Charan when it comes to dancing skills, the choreographers completely failed to bring the best out of him… as except for the first song none of the others are good enough…

STUNTS: Vijayan completely failed to deliver a memorable fight sequence except for an O.K. fight sequence in the jail… Ram Charan has an agile body and Vijayan could have made use of his agility to compose some memorable fight sequences… which he didn’t. Vijayan should really rent/buy Hollywood slick flicks Bourne series of films to learn how to compose man to man fight sequences…

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Shyam K. Naidu has done a shoddy job. Except for a couple of night shots in the island that the lead pair are trapped… nothing else is good enough… let alone breath taking.

EDITING: In general, editing is done to show us what the director of the movie shot but may fail to show the audience… As Puri Jagannath didn’t shoot anything good enough to show the audience… Varma remained jobless… So I don’t blame him.

PRODUCTION: Except for the Grand Premier of Chirutha that was organized in Prasads which is a first in Telugu film industry there is nothing else to show us the rich production values that were being publicized about…

STORY/SCREENPLAY/DIALOGUES/DIRECTION: The screenplay pattern and the story of Chirutha is so pathetic that it makes me sick again after Vijayadasami. Puri Jagannath churned out… what can at best be described as… “Copied, Pasted, Tore off the script, Pasted the pieces back in a haphazard manner and then finally forgot the story itself…” or “One pathetic scene, one song, one fight and the rhyme goes on…”

Well, if you are still interested in the story… “Hero’s father(Surya) witnesses a murder by Mattu Bhai(Ashish Vidyarthi)… and so, young hero(Puri Jagannath’s Real Son) is forced to witness his father’s murder and in the process his mother gets injured severely (There are ‘n’ number of Indian movies with the same flashback or opening… so no point in picking one…). Now, to save his mother he needs money for the surgery. So with some help from Tanikella Bharani’s character, the young lad owns up someone else’s crime and goes to Juvenile Prison (In Gangleader, Chiranjeevi owns someone else’s accident and goes to jail…). After he is bullied for some time by the inmates, the young hero fights for his rights (Again, ‘n’ number of Indian movies have these sequences…) by eating an egg from someone else’s mouth… literally (To the director’s credit, this is a first… in our films…).

The hero (Ram Charan) who should be longing to see his mother strangely settles scores with the inmates and extends his jail term every time he does that. And more strangely he is released out of jail along with his buddy (Venu Madhav) on the same day, same time… (Nice facility…) As soon as he is out he starts inquiring about his mother’s whereabouts. In the process gets to know she is resting in peace and before he cries over her grave to his heart’s content, the scene changes and he asks for work from Tanikella… And quite strangely despite being a baddie (revealed later… as if we didn’t know already), he offers a job in a travel agency in Bangkok (Quite a great job in a great city for a jail returned…).

Meanwhile, the hero and his buddy get almost hit by heroine’s car while she cleans the footpath mess with her car as a broomstick (Yeah! daily routine of the rich spoiled brats… in our movies since 1970s). Gotta tell you something here… as soon as the hero hits the window shield of the heroine’s car, he starts falling in love which can be understood as love at first sight… but the problem is that he never actually sees the heroine’s face as she instantly looks away in fear… (or did he fell in love with her hair or back…?). And then in another scene the heroine strangely never knowing her friend’s brother, comes and closes the hero’s eyes mistakenly… (must be a super fast girl… otherwise, who does that to an unknown person?). And now the strangest thing happens as our hero suddenly starts talking in well accented English… in fact through the rest of the movie and even gets the job as a guide in Bangkok (as if he knew Bangkok as his backyard… which is jail) for his English speaking skills (Must be an English medium jail…).

Very conveniently, heroine visits Bangkok with her friends and more conveniently lands in the same travel agency the hero is working in… Then starts the heroine’s brashness… and strangely she never recognizes him from the earlier meeting when she closes his eyes despite having seen him up close (must be medium term memory loss). The rest is straightly and blatantly copied from Kaho Naa Pyar Hai which in turn was copied from an English movie Blue Lagoon. During the climax fight, hero beats up many goons very easily in one of the worst composed fights… in the so called hunting by Chirutha Puli. And then very strangely and yuckily hides himself in the mud and plays a peek-a-boo with the villain who was much older than all the ones that he just beat up… (copied from Predator and which was completely uncalled for…)

Finally, I know every fan would hate me for this… but I recommend after watching the movie please get some pain killers on your way home… The headache is really unbearable… Once again i reiterate that it is Puri Jagannath that has ruined Ram Charan’s debut movie…

BEST DIALOGUE: When offered money in exchange of freedom, Young Charan says to the Police Officer - “Bhayam Vestundi…”
FUNNIEST DIALOGUE: Before the prolonged climax fight, Prakash Raj tells Ram Charan - “Velli Nee Pellanni Techchuko…”
WORST DIALOGUE: Prakash Raj in the process of warning his daughter - “KUTURU Kante KUKKANU Penchukovadam Melu.”

READERs RATING on CHIRUTHA:

DON’T MISS Kalcha’s Chirutha Box-Office Prediction…

FILM: JAGADAM
CAST: RAM, ISHA, PRADEEP RAWAT, SARANYA, RAGHU BABU, CHITRAM SRINU, TANIKELLA BHARANI, PRAKASH RAJ, A.S. RAVI KUMAR CHOWDARY, TELANGANA SAKUNTHALA and OTHERS…
CINEMATOGRAPHY: RATHNAVELU
EDITING: SRIKAR PRASAD
ART: A.S.PRAKASH
STUNTS: VIJAY
MUSIC: DEVI SRI PRASAD
LYRICS: CHANDRA BOSE, SAHITHI
PRODUCER: ADITYA BABU
BANNER: ADITYA ARTS
STORY, SCREENPLAY, DIALOGUES, DIRECTION: SUKUMAR
RELEASE DATE: MARCH 16, 2007
CBFC RATING: U/A

STORY:
The story, plot or the concept (whatever you call it…) is clearly inspired by CITY OF GOD (2002-03), a Brazilian film adapted by Bráulio Mantovani from the novel CITY OF GOD (1997) written by Paulo Lins. It was nominated for 4 Academy(OSCAR) awards. I don’t mind film makers adapting screenplays or stories and improving on them or adapting them to their sensibilities. But that should happen with a caveat that they are duly credited or at least get a mention by the film makers somewhere during the promotion of the film… But this doen’t happen with JAGADAM.
Jagadam is all about the animal instincts in human beings which should be suppressed for a society to progress. Story is all about how a youngster Srinu(RAM) gets fascinated by the Power of Gundagiri.
It all starts with petty offenses, only to become intoxicated with the power to beat up others… From then on he wants and dreams to become a Rowdy Sheeter like Manikyam(Pradeep Rawat), a feared hooligan turned politician. He is in total awe with Violence. He maintains his own loyal gang.
The first half of the movie handles the rising part of how Srinu stands up to Manikyam who incidentally is his mentor.
The second half of the movie is all about the conflict between the two rivals that is Srinu and Manikyam.
The climax of the movie is how Srinu due to the unforeseen circumstantial events tries to quit the Rowdyism…
Excuse me! I don’t want to be the one who spoils your fun by revealing the turning points in the movie…

TECHNICAL DEPARTMENTS:
CINEMATOGRAPHY: This job is done by Rathnavelu. In fact he steals the show on the screen. Rathnavelu is so stunning in his craft that the director Sukumar didn’t needed to take his troupe on a foreign trip for any song. The camera work is slick, stylish, aesthetic and breath-taking (help me out here… I am running out of adjectives…).
ART: Art director A.S.Prakash did a great job in erecting the sets of the Maisamma center.

EDITING: Editor Srikar Prasad did a marvellous job in maintaining the tempo of the movie.

SCREENPLAY: Sukumar wrote the screenplay of the movie which is so gripping that even when the movie falters on a couple of occasions… the screenplay comes for the rescue and lets you continue to enjoy the movie. The screenplay of this movie is like a text book for the young writers, directors of the industry… In fact, the so called creative, senior and aesthetic directors who take the gullible Telugu audiences for a ride should take special classes under Sukumar in this department.

STUNTS: Vijay has made good use of Ram with creative stunt work. Stunts are really awesome, elevating the hero’s image as was required in this movie. I thank him for not using wire work (Blue rope) where not needed making the stunts look near natural…

LYRICS: Lyrics of this movie are by Chandra Bose, Shakthi and Sahithi. They are perfectly in sync with the movie and elevate the quality of the audio to a greater extent.

SINGERS: Devi Sri Prasad sung the “Violence is a passion” number with much aplomb. He gave the soul to this movie through this song. Mamatha Mohan Das once again rocks with “36-24-36″. She is really a singer who transcends the feel of an item number and gives it a mainstream appeal. Tippu, Priya with “5 feet 8 inches”, Ranjith with “Everybody rock your body” and Raquib Alam with “Mudhante chedha” did marvellous jobs…

MUSIC: Music is the sweetest and strongest department after Screenplay in this movie. Devi Sri Prasad once again gave his career defining work in this movie.

PERFORMANCES:
When it comes to performances in this movie, I can safely and in fact emphatically say that they are career defining for everyone in the movie. But only one person’s career will be defined with failure… The person I am talking about is the heroine of the movie Isha.

Sukumar’s lack of taste in picking heroines is once again exposed after Arya. Just don’t get fooled as I had been by the photographs of Isha. She is so bad looking that every expression that she enacts make her look constipated. She is bearable when she doesn’t act… I mean when she is expressionless. In fact the weakest link of the movie is of the heroine’s character, which is so badly etched out that she looks like a perpetual whore… Just to give you all a hint, she falls in love with the hero because he hugs her tight in a dark street… late in the night…

Now bad things aside, about Ram who plays Srinu… simply power packs himself with so much energy that exudes class and appeals masses. He is undoubtedly one of the best dancers of Tollywood. The choreography is refreshingly new… So, Ram’s every move makes us jump out of our seats to dance… He acts superbly. Now it is clear that all the hamming(over acting) in Devadasu came forth because of that movie’s director Y.V.S.Chowdary. With his restrained and electrifying performance Ram stands out in this movie… But Ram has to work on his body like Allu Arjun did if he wants to continue doing such challenging and mature roles. He has to improve his diction to make his dialog delivery much more clear and smooth.
Pradeep Rawat and A.S.Ravi Kumar Chowdary were very apt and acted well as gangsters. Tanikella Bharani as M.L.A., Telangana Sakuntala as Corporator and Prakash Raj as A.C.P. were apt and acted perfectly well for their roles.
Raghu Babu and Saranya who played as parents to the hero acted marvelously. Their performances just exudes class. The kid who played as hero’s brother acted very well.
Overall the movie is an ensemble of great acting except for the heroine.

DIRECTION:
Director Sukumar, after this movie can easily be considered one of the best technicians in our country. Some high points in the narration of the movie…
The film starts with the most innovative title display on the Telugu screen in recent times…
The opening scene where the hero standing atop a hill, overlooking the city starts narrating the story… is simply superb.
In a scene where the leader of the hero’s gang backs out and the hero comes front is shown with shadows which exudes class and elevates heroism.
In yet another scene … Manikyam, the villain, starts slapping the land owner and the hero starts pleading the villain to talk directly to him… and when the villain doesn’t oblige, hero gives him a push resulting the villain’s fall in a pool of mud and hence the rivalry begins…
But Sukumar failed to concentrate more on the heroine’s character as she plays at least a connecting role in the movie. Irrespective of the fate of this movie, Sukumar has one of the brightest futures in the industry…

To read KALCHAs prediction on Jagadam’s box-office fate click HERE.

READERs RATING:

ANNAVARAM CREDITS:

RELEASE DATE: 29 DEC,2006
GENRE: Sentimental/Action/Drama

CAST:
Pawan Kalyan, Asin, Sandhya, Siva Balaji, Venu Madhav, Naga Babu, Brahmanandam, Brahmaji, Sunil, Ali, Raghu Babu, Ranganath, Dharmavarapu, L.B. Sreeram, Suman Setty, Narsing Yadav, Lakshmipati, Hema, Surekha Vani, Telangana Sakuntala Etc.,

CREW:
DIALOGUES: Abburi Ravi
MUSIC: Ramana Gogula
BACKGROUND SCORE: Dina
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Sethu Sriram
ART: Anand Sai
EDITING: Goutam Raju
STUNTS: Vijayan
STORY: Perarasu
PAWAN KALYAN COSTUMES DESIGN: Renu Desai
PRODUCERS: N.V. Prasad & Paras Jain
BANNER: Mega Super Good Films
DIRECTION/SCREENPLAY: Bheemaneni Srinivasa Rao

EXPECTATIONS:
Remake specialist Bheemaneni Srinivasa Rao teaming up with Pawan Kalyan to make a mass flick and to top that, with village background seems interesting. But genuinely speaking I didn’t like the Tamil version TIRUPACHICHI… So I had my fingers crossed. Read on…

STORY:
The story is about a village guy Annavaram(Pawan Kalyan) who makes country weapons (knives and sickles) for a living. He loves his sister Varam(Sandhya) so much that he wants her to settle down marrying a city guy who can provide her with all the material comforts that are not inherently available in village. Narsimha(Venu Madhav) is his best pal. Annavaram arranges Varam’s marriage with a city guy(Siva Balaji). Varam and her husband settle in the city as her husband maintains a college canteen. Asin is their neighbour. Some hooligans harass the couple in the city which Annavaram comes to know after his best pal Narsimha dies because of some hooligans. The rest of the movie is all about how he eradicates the rowdies from the city so that his sister’s son can take birth in a peaceful city.

PERFORMANCES:
Pawan Kalyan as Annavaram lends a genuine sense of emotion to the character. He maintains a subtlety that is highly impossible in this brainless sentimental action drama. But on the flip side, after a long time he unnecessarily TRIES to dance a lot. Sandhya, a gutsy and natural actress is wasted in this spineless role. She just has to wear Pawan’s shirt a few times… that’s it.
The fact that Asin is a heroine in the movie is reminded to us a few times when the lead couple start dancing around aimlessly in the songs to give the audience much needed break to breathe fresh air or smoke. But the fact that she has the worst character that she played so far is evident when she blabbers in pure Telangana accent which even Telangana Sakuntala might not pull off…
Venu Madhav, Raghu Babu, M.S. Narayana, Dharmavarapu and Brahmaji are seasoned artists and they pull off the characters with ease.
Nagendra Babu has a couple of scenes which are really hilarious and he pulls them off with much aplomb.
Ashish Vidyarthi’s character as Tapas Balu is more of a comedian than villain. Not even a single time in the whole movie we get to see the villain that he is supposed to be… The entire fault lies with the script and the director who failed to etch out the character well.

OTHER DEPARTMENTS:
Dialogues by Abburi Ravi touched the lowest trough when Asin came in to the picture and the “Bond-James Bond” kind of dialogues by the hero, the villains (Raju-Pothu Raju by the hero, Balu-Tapas Balu by the villain) is a cheap attempt which could have been right in a comedy movie.
Art director Sai neither impresses nor disappoints. So nothing much to write on this.
Cinematography by Sethu Sreeram is the reason why Tollywood movies are failing to make a headway… First he has to learn to hold the camera still in many scenes.
Background score by Dina is below average to say the least.
Music by Ramana Gogula is mediocre but not as worst as the movie itself is… Many people would like the sister sentimental song but I didn’t mind to listen to the songs Mehbooba and the one in which Pawan dresses as a cowboy.

DIRECTION/SCREENPLAY:
Please someone lock up this director before some other well performing actors blindly sign him up and ruin their careers. To say that direction and screenplay are worst would be a huge understatement. In an ironical way this movie gives a double dose for the same buck. The first half is sentimental bakwas which never moves any heart in the theater. The second half is an action adventure which never makes the blood race through the veins… The director must be having his brain down his pants well below his knees… to make a hero character that goes on a killing spree which is not only unreal but also unpardonable. Bheemaneni is also proved to be a screenplay writer who doesn’t know how to etch out the characters well… leave alone the scenes.

HIGHLIGHTS:
The scene where Pawan enters the villain’s den posed as a sales man.
The funeral scene of Venu Madhav is well shot to elevate the emotional levels that were missing from the whole movie. In fact the scene is one of the most naturally shot funeral episodes out of the innumerable ones on our Indian screens.

BLUNDERS:
Firstly, the script.
Secondly Asin’s tryst with Telangana accent.
Thirdly, making two movies in a single movie i.e., First half being completely devoid of the second half.
Fourth, The introduction scene of Pawan kalyan where he comes with a long sickle and fights off a lengthy line of hugely built men (Come on guys, Size does matter…) in the water with ease and that too under a minute.
Fifth, Trying to play an old trick hiring Ramana Gogula for Pawan Kalyan whose music has gone bankrupt long ago.
Sixth, dialogues by Abburi Ravi many a time brings a loud laughter not in the comedy scenes but in the emotional scenes. Especially, when the prime characters utter James Bondish dialogues, our Telugu film standards seem to touch rock bottom. Pawan Kalyan looks ridiculous in the scenes where he adds a lemon to his weapon and utters the dialogue of VADHA.
Seventh, showing Sandhya’s womb using graphics when Pawan tries to talk to his yet to be born nephew over telephone. Our Telugu film directors never learn to use techniques at right places and more over this is not a SCI-FI movie.
The list is endless but lastly, to think that Telugu audience are fools and taking them for granted…

KALCHA’s ADVICE: My advice to everyone would be… to not only give Annavaram a miss, but also advice your friends and family to avoid this torture called Annavaram. I am here to take the punishment…

To know my prediction on ANNAVARAM’s Box-Office fate, read this POST.

You Can Cast Your VOTE:

MY ADVICE: I know every director cannot be Mani Ratnam but just watch SAKHI by Mani Ratnam if you are really interested in the subject of young married working couple.

MOVIE CREDITS:

MOVIE: PELLAINA KOTHALO
GENRE: FAMILY/DRAMA/COMMEDY
RIGHTS: STRAIGHT
BANNER: AA NALUGURU FILMS
MUSIC: AGASTHYA
CINEMATOGRAPHER: SURENDER REDDY
LYRICS: VETURI, CHAITANYA PRASAD AND UMA MAHESHWAR
STORY/SCREENPLAY/DIALOGUES/PRODUCER/DIRECTION: MADAN
ROLE PLAY (CAST): JAGAPATHI BABU, PRIYAMANI, AASTHA SINGHAL, RAJU SUNDARAM, VENU MADHAV, SUNIL, JHANSI, KRISHNA BHAGAVAN, ALI, KOTA SRINIVAS RAO, DHARMAVARAPU SUBRAHMANIAM, MS NARAYANA, GIRI BABU, RAJITHA AND GEETHANJALI, SANDESH, MADHU, HEMA, KOVAI SARALA AND OTHERS
RELEASE DATE: DEC 9, 2006
CHOREOGRAPHY: SIVA SHANKAR, RAJU SUNDARAM, VIDYA
EDITING: NANDAMURI HARI
CBFC RATING: U

BACKROUND:

· Priyamani is a new actress.
· Jagapathi Babu is in dire need of a hit after a series of flops, although Samanyudu was an average success.
· Madan who proved his mettle with Aa Naluguru is debuting as Director with this movie. Apart from directing, he also provides the story and scripts it too. As if that is not enough, he takes the risk of producing it under the banner of Aa Naluguru.

CONCEPT & STORY:

Pellaina Kothalo is all about the egoistic clashes between couples when both are working to keep up with this fast paced generation. It is all about how that couple separates with misunderstandings and reunites understanding the strong ethos of the institution called marriage.

Hari (Jagapathi Babu) works as a software engineer and Laxmi/Lucky (Priyamani) works as a call centre professional. They both earn big and lead pretty decent lives. Jagapathi has Krishna Bhagavan and Priyamani has Jahansi as their best pals and mentors. Both are equally dominating on their partners and try to preach their ethos as the lead couple are about to get married in an arranged way. Hema plays wife to Bhagavan and Sunil plays husband to Jhansi. Both are equally submissive and yet sensible with unflinching love towards their partners.

The hell breaks lose before the first night as the lead couple following their friend’s advice keep dominating each other and in turn avoid the first night. In the second half of the film the grand entry of grand parents solves the problem although it takes a Vratam to do so. In the end all goes well and the couple reunites.

MUSIC & LYRICS:

Agasthya’s music compositions for this movie have the potential to become commercially successful. But the range of success will be limited because of the “class only” appeal. Lyrics are refreshing in a couple of songs.

PERFOMANCES:

· Jagapathi Babu, the lead actor, is a very good comic timer and excels in family oriented movies. He is looking his recent best. He plays his character that will surely appeal to the wider audience although hardcore masses might not connect as they would not connect with the movie in the first place.
· Priyamani, the lead actress, is a fresh heroine and she definitely has a long innings ahead of her as she connects with every Telugu speaking person with her ease in acting. In fact unless you already know that she is not a Telugu speaking girl, you would take her to be a Telugu girl. Her traditional looks will appeal to many.
· Krishna Bhagavan is at his best in making the audience laugh with his witty dialogue delivery that is his trademark.
· Hema is very good with her role as Bhagavan’s submissive yet sensible wife.
· Brahmanandam and Kovai Sarala may generate some extra laughs but proves to be unnecessary and as a result irritating.
· Kota Srinivas and Geetanjali might click as the elderly couple with a strong bond of love between them.
· Venu madhav might not be connected directly to the movie but generates loudest laughs through out the theatre with his trademark comedy.
· M.S. Narayana is a bit on the irritating side even to the hardcore masses.
· Sunil and Jhansi perform their roles with ease.
· Raju Sundaram and Astha are unnecessary with an unnecessary song as an addition.

TECHNICIANS:

· Choreography is adequate and passable.
· Cinematography is just about O.K.
· Story, Screenplay, Dialogues, Direction are good in the first half and lacks the pace and deviates from the concept in the second half.

DON’T MIND MY MIND:

I expected a lot from this writer turned director Madan. I came out of the theatre disappointed.
· In the first half of the movie, screenplay is crisp. But in the second half of the movie, screenplay gets so worse that at times one is left wondering whether it is a soft porn movie or a family movie.
· The whole Vratam episode generates humor to start but soon turns out to be just too, three, four much. The elderly couple and their ever-romancing servants are just too clichéd and masaledar to be even considered dignified to the storyline that the director chose.
· Now to start with, it is very unconvincing that a newly married couple just won’t have any of the feelings that any couple would have entering the first night room. Then to just start arguing over silliest matters the same night and next and next and on shows how immaturely the script is written.
· The climax is highly boring with a message oriented song and speeches by the elderly couple who up to that moment were just interested to get the lead couple to get on bed to solve the entire problem.
· The only things I enjoyed in the movie are Krishna Bhagavan and Hema’s relationship. Then the conversation between Jagapathi and Priya over the phone. And a couple of beautiful romantic melodies by Agasthya.

To read KALCHAs prediction on Pellaina Kothalo’s box-office fate click HERE.

READERs RATING: