Jenelia KATHA Movie Review

Film: Katha

Banner: Just Yellow Media pvt ltd

Cast: Arun Adit, Genelia, Prakashraj, Shafi, Raghubabu, Tulasi, Jayalalitha, Ravikiran Babu, Praneeth, Srilatha, C M Kalyan and others

Dialogues: Gunnam Gangaraju

Lyrics: Anantha Sriram

Music: S K Balachandran

Cinematography: I AndrewEditing: Marthand K VenkateshStory, Screenplay, Director: Srinivas Raaga

Producer: Gunnam Gangaraju

Release date: Dec 12 2009

Slated to be a romantic thriller and that too with the bubbly beauty Genelia in the lead, the film ‘Katha’ was meant to be an interesting treat. Whether it is really interesting or not, let us go into details.

Essense:Chitra (Genelia) is a school teacher who comes to Araku to teach school students. Krishna (arun) is an aspiring director who comes along with his team to make a movie at the same place. Soon, their paths meet and Krishna falls for her. However, there is a flashback for Chitra that is revealed later and to add to it, Chitra says she has witnessed a murder as well. Was it really true or a hallucination? What is the real ‘Katha’? All this forms the essence.

Artistes:The bubbly beauty Genelia has given her best efforts to do justice to the film but then her role was not given that depth and portrayed correctly. However, her chirpy looks and cute smiles make up for the score.

Arun Adit has shown confidence in front of the screen but then he is raw. There are a few things he has to work on like his expressions, posture, body language etc if he is looking at making a career in film industry.

Prakashraj has given another decent performance, though he plays a crucial role and a brief one, he made his presence felt whenever required. No complaints on that one.
The entire film revolves pretty much around Genelia so it must be said that the stand out act has been that of Raghu Babu who spreads good laughter with his witty dialogues and expressions. Shafi was not used to the fullest, Tulasi was standard and so was Jayalalitha, Ravikiran Babu was alright, C M Kalyan was usual, they were regular and contributed as required.

Sign-Out Lines:The film came out with an interesting concept but then it was caught between two genres – romance and thriller. That led to a lot of confusion and it must be said that there is a major flaw in the direction. The storyline was appealing but the narrative was very weak, presentation was good in many places. Dialogues were mild, the script lacked the spine, screenplay was erratic. Another flaw in the film is the background score which was overenthusiastic in every scene. To create an impact in a thriller, silence at the right time works best and the music director is busy giving a sentimental tune which is a major turn off. Editing was not crisp. Songs were not good either barring one which was a bit melodious. Cinematography was professional and the locations were good in few scenes.

The film runs on a very slow pace and given the lack of depth in the plot, it is quite boring. While the first half revolves around the lighter elements, the second half tries to get serious and there are one or two scenes where the audience interest is engaged. But soon, it loses its grip and gets back to a monotonous tune. The lack of comedy is another drawback and despite the presence of highly talented stars like Prakashraj, Genelia, Shafi, the director could not pull a good one. There is nothing for the mass audience, family audience might come for Genelia but lose interest in no time, and youth don’t have much to talk about it either. The film is mostly ending up as a dud at the box office.

Jagapathi Babu, Priyamani PRAVARAKHYUDU Movie Review

Film: Pravarakhyudu

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 ReddyE

diting: M R VarmaDirector: Madan

Producer: Ganesh Indukuri

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

Manchu Vishnu, Ileana SALEEM Movie review

Film: Saleem

Banner: Lakshmi Prasanna Pictures

Cast: Vishnu, Ileana, Mohan Babu, Kaveri Jha, Jaya Prakash Reddy, Tanikella Bharani, Hema, MS Narayana, Ali, Raghubabu, Venkat etc

Music: Sandeep Chowta

Art: Anand SaiFights: Vijay, Kanal Kannan

Camera: Ram PrasadProduction: Padmasri Mohan

, Screenplay Direction: YVS Choudary

Release Date: 12th Dec 2009

Manchu Vishnu’s ‘Saleem’ released today after a long wait. Ileana, the heroine in demand paired up with him. Mohan Babu also played a key role in the film and that attracted the audiences, obviously. Walk into the details to know more…

Essence:The movie starts with Satyawati (Ileana) and her story in a village backdrop. She is the daughter of Singamanaidu (Napolean), a respectable villager. She comes to the village for a brief vacation and lives amidst all lovable relatives recalling the movies Murari, Athadu, Ninne Pelladatha etc etc (sorry for taking the comparison. This film has no glory close to an iota of those master pieces)!! Like in many other films the hero (Vishnu with character name Munna) arrives in that village and stays along with the family in the disguise of orphan. The story runs with insipid dialogues, stupid screenplay and energy less narration till the interval. And the interval bang has got a twist that rotates the heads of audiences to 360 degrees. I cannot reveal that here as that is the only ‘suspense factor’ in it. And the post interval period is another hard nut to bite. Mohan Babu plays the mafia don OJO (an acronym for Ogirala Joginatham) and he has a duet with Kaveri Jha. The twist in the interval narrates rest of the story line with all confusion and cacophony. Who is Saleem is another part of the story that unwraps in second half. What happened for about 150 minutes will be in question mark at the conclusion of the movie.
Artistes:Mohan Babu wouldn’t have played this role OJO at all. He has shown a teacher as source of eroticism. The artiste of his age shouldn’t have encouraged the director to demean a female teacher that way. It’s a head-down for entire female teacher community. I feel the teachers in Mohan Babu’s school ‘Sree Vidya Niketan’ would keep their heads down if they identify themselves in Kaveri Jha’s character and their master Mohan Babu in the role he played.

Vishnu has picked up considerably. He is really looking smart with lean look. His face is also showing some glow and young charisma. Dances are also impressive. But he needs to do exercise in voice modulation. He should take a few leaves from his father’s experience for next film.
Ileana is restricted to enticing male crowds through songs. YVS Choudary seems to have crossed the caliber of K Raghavendra Rao in igniting screen to flame with female glamour. But Ileana’s over action while delivering some dialogues is horrible. Kaveri Jha is also used for the glamour factor. But her role is disgusting.

Ali looked promising when he entered the screen as choreographer Gafar Khan. But his rotten country comedy makes decent crowds inconvenient.
Technically the movie is good. The sound effects, action part and cinematography are dealt up to perfection. Music is below average. And the main spirit of the movie is missed by director with erratic screenplay and punch less dialogues.

Underlines:
Poolu Gusagusaladenani, the old from 1973 ‘Sreevaru Mavaru’ is remixed here and canned on Mohan Babu and Kaveri Jha Ramya Sree, the actress known for playing vamp, servant maid and college lecturer in different films appeared in a serious deglamorised role in it!

Sign-Out Lines: This is the nastiest movie that I have ever seen. Rotten comedy, over exposing heroines, non-piercing dialogues, and senseless screenplay- everything is worth forgetting. I’ve been a filmophile but happened to review this film for the first time. It swallowed my patience completely but I’ve got no other way than reviewing this since I promised the admin.

To sign out on lighter note, Saleem boils the heads of audiences like ‘Haleem’!

Varun Sandesh, Neha ' KURRADU' Movie review

Film: Kurradu
Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: Anandhi arts
Cast: Varun Sandesh, Neha Sharma, Tanikella, Ravi Shankar, Venu, Ali, Surekha Vani, Pragathi etc
Music: Achchu
Story: Vetri Maran
Cinematography: Sarvesh Murari
Director: Gunnam Sandeep
Producer: Gemini Kiran
Release date: 12 Nov 2009

Varun Sandesh has been on top ever since his Happy Days. His Kotha Bangaru Lokam also had set a new record and thus he became a youth icon. He came up with Kurradu and obviously the expectations will be above the plane. Let us see how this worked.

Story:Varun (Varun Sandesh) is a young boy who loves owning a sports bike. But his below middle class family background turns a barricade to fulfill his dream. His poor father (Tanikella Bharani) worries about his day-dreaming and irresponsible son. But after a dramatic incident his father gives him Rs 70000 to purchase bike out of his all life time savings. Varun buys a bike and enjoys. He finds a girl Hema (Neha Sharma) and both fall in love. But that bike results in turbulence in Varun’s life. What is that? That has to be seen on big screen.

Performances:Varun Sandesh looked lean and lanky and he didn’t suit for the energy levels required for the role. He needs to upgrade his dialogue delivery pattern especially while portraying the roles of this kind.

Neha Sharma looked good with naughty smile and big eyes. But she hasn’t upgraded in the matter of performance. Many of her expressions sounded artificial and sometimes lagging in dialogue.

Tanikella Bharani is ok as middle class father while Pragathi is perfect in mother role. Ravi Shankar, the popular dubbing artiste played the lead villain role in fitting manner.
Others are ok.

Technically, the movie has no big thing to discuss about. The story sounds not so great as already ‘Ride’ has come on screen with similar theme.
Highlights:Nothing notable

Analysis:It’s a different version of ‘Ride’. It is also inspired from the Tamil movie ‘Polladavan’. But Pollavadan has already inspired Ride. While Ride has two heroes where one is arrogant and other is the one with poor background, here the hero in Kurradu possessess both in him. The bike forms common element both in Ride and Kurradu.

On a whole, the movie has no tempo that keeps audience fix on to seats with interest. First half is ok while second half seems to have run with no punch and required emotion.
The movie may not appeal in the way it’s expected.

'2012' movie review

Film: 2012Language: English

Banner: Columbia Pictures

Cast: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, Thomas McCarthy, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover, Liam James, Morgan Lily, Zlatko Buric, Beatrice Rosen, Jimi Mistry etc

Music: Thomas Wanker

Cinematography: Dean SemlerD

irector: Roland Emmerich

Producers: Roland Emmerich, Harold Kloser

Release date: 12th Nov 2009

The day has come. 21st Dec 2012- Not exactly but on movie screen today. For all those who believe in ‘Judgement Day’ or ‘Apocalypse’ ‘ Or End of the world’, this is one movie that might give you an inkling. How effective and convincing is it? Let us see…

Story The much talked about Doomsday or end of the world has been predicted and while all developed nations of the world think it is a long time away, the Indian astrophysicist Satnam (Jimi) discovers that the end is quite near.

The news reaches even the President of US, Wilson (Danny Glover) and all key leaders in the world are alerted about it. Meanwhile, there is writer Jack Curtis (John) who is out on vacation with his children and before it actually begins, the fury of the planet begins to unfold.

Who survives the massacre? What happens after that? All this forms the rest of the story.
Performances: John Cusack He did his role as required and though he doesn’t have that tough guy image, he tried his best to fit in the role of a concerned father.

Chiwetel Ejiofor He plays a key role and though he was not that effective during the emotional scenes, he managed to make his presence felt in other sequences.

Amanda Peet Looks hot and sexy and though there is no room for glamour here and she plays the mother of two, her oomph factor is neat and she has delivered a good performance.

Others Thandie Newton was alright, Danny Glover was decent, Woody Harrelson was a wreck, Oliver Platt did justice to his bit, Thomas Mc Carthy was evil enough, Beatrice Rosen was sexy to the core. The others did their bit as required.

Highlights of the movie:Collapse of Lincoln Memorial TowerFall of Vatican CityBreaking statue of Jesus @ Rio De JeneroHimalayas melting into seaVolcanic eruptionsEarthquakes digging the roads and houses in CaliforniaBig ship episode

Analysis:It is the most hyped movie from the past few months and entire world has been more worried, anxious and longing to watch what’s shown on silver screen. The myriad blogs, web portals and TV shows those have been active from many months have turned a default publicity agents for this movie that has released today.

The film didn’t convey anything concrete about Mayan Calendar or about prophesies of clairvoyant sages those had delivered about this 2012 dooms day. The maker has directly moved to the catastrophe that’s going to happen in the form of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions et al and their unbelievable impact on life on earth.

The writer has taken a leaf from Old Testament and created a Noah ship kind of thing called ‘Big Ship’ to save human race to make the new age begin after the doom. The date of new age is read 27th of Dec 0001. This entire episode runs on screen for about last 20 minutes.
It’s like any other Hollywood movie like ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ but with intense scenes and thrilling moments.

Bottom Line: Watch it for a wonderful experience

Krishnudu 'Village Lo Vinayakudu' Movie Review

Village Lo Vinayakudu is a sequel to the hit film Vinyakudu. Krishnudu once again plays hero in the sequel and the theme of a fat by falling in love with a slim girl is repeated in this sequel.

The plot: Karthik (Krishnudu) is a simpleton. He is a school teacher. Karthik meets a medico Kavya (Sharanya Mohan) and they fall in love. Kavya is the doting daughter of colonel Lakshmipathi. The colonel loves his daughter immensely and brings her up in a very loving and caring way. He takes special care of his daughter as she has lost her mother when she was very young. Kavya does not hide anything from her father. She tells him everything bout her love and her love. The only problem is that she keeps the fact that Krishndu is fat a secret. When Karthik comes to meet the colonel he is naturally shocked. He is not at all pleased with the idea of his daughter marrying a fatso. The colonel then approaches his friend Yandamuri Verendranath and asks him to show a way out. Yandamuri offers some ideas but they actually complicate things further for the colonel. How Krishndu overcomes the hurdles set by the colonel and his friend and come up trumps is the story.

The actors:

The film as the title suggests runs for most part on the hero. Krishndu who played the fat hero in Vinayakudu repeats his show in this sequel. He does a neat job and lives up to the reputation he earned in Vinayakudu. The heroine Sharanya Mohan is a disappointment. She looks too young opposite Krishndu and the two also fail to share good chemistry. Rao Ramesh is good and his comic interactions with Krishnudu are hilarious. Yandamuri Veerendranath does an average job. His role is also a bit sketchy. The rest of the star cast is okay.

The bottom line:

The film Village Lo Vinayakudu has been shot for a most part in rural areas. The village scenes looks beautiful and the locales in Razole and adjoining areas have been captured beautifully by the cinematographer. The film also has some good songs and music. The film has some decent comedy. However Village Lo Vinayakudu is not in the same class as Vinayakudu. Still the film is okay and makes for a decent watch along with the entire family.

Srikanth, Meera jasmin, Sada A AA E EE movie review

Film: A Aa E EE

Banner: Kalpana Arts

Cast: Srikanth, Sada, Meera Jasmine, Krishna Bhagawan, Tanikella, Kavitha, Brahmanandam, Ali, Sunil, Kovai Sarala, M S Narayana, Telangana Sakuntala, Raghu Babu, Apoorva, Venkat, Uttej etc

Music: M M Srilekha

Lyrics: Bhaskarabhatla

Camera: Vijay C Kumar

Editor: Gautham Raju

Director: Srinivas Reddy

Producer: Boddam Ashok Yadav

Release date: 6th Nov 2009

Charming star Srikanth came up with his 101st movie and this was on floors since a long time. Whether it was worth the wait or not, let us see.

Story: Chandram (Srikanth) is an honest man and a devoted husband to Kalyani (Meera). His life takes a turn when he discovers that Kalyani has a rare disease and he has to get money. A sequence of events compels him to act as husband to Ramya (Sada) who is thought dead. However, Ramya comes back alive and now Chandram is caught between both women. What happens from there forms the rest of the story.

Performances: Srikanth Srikanth has come up with his performance as usual and he has done these several times before so nothing new from his end. However, his presence on posters after ‘Mahatma’ would add as a crowd puller to the theatre.

Meera Jasmine She looks cute as usual and will appeal to the lady audience. However, she must try not to come up with western outfits in song sequences and that too figure hugging ones. It just doesn’t go with her.

Sada She is sexy and makes up for the glamour quotient in a large way. Despite wearing regular outfits, she still has that oomph in her. Performance wise, she did justice to her role.
Others Tanikella was standard, Sunil gave good laughs, Brahmanandam was okay, Ali was hilarious, Kovai Sarala was loud, Raghu Babu was a bit annoying, Krishna Bhagawan was witty and funny as well, M S was good, the others did as required.
Highlights

Srikanth and Sada Pre-Climax Ali and Sunil’s comedyDisappointments
Outdated storyline Songs Brahmanandam comedy track ScreenplayAnalysis: The film has got every possible comedian in the Tollywood circuit but then the director has not been able to create a laugh riot out of it. The main drawback was the stale storyline which would have fitted the 80s time.
Also, the title conveys a comedy film but there is a strong dose of sentiment and melodrama which downs the enthusiasm. There is not much depth to the characters due to the weak script and there are not many moments when the audience can connect to the film.
There are few sparks of comedy here and there but overall, the film is not that appealing due to the tasteless flavor of the storyline. Except for Sada’s glamour, Sunil and Ali’s comedy, there is not much one can enjoy in this flick.