Devisri Prasad and charmy

It’s not required to say who these hot lady and popular man are. They are Charmy and Devi Sri. Gossips have been surrounding them from several years. There were rumors that they are getting married. But both of them have been shunning those scuttlebutts. Now, two pics have come out. These are the pics when both Devi and Charmy danced together in a pub in the past. Charmy rocked the floor wearing sari. Devi Sri also joined her. Her chappal was thrown away during the dance. When Charmy was trying to take the chappal, DeviSri is helping her with a lovely touch.

'Varudu' Review

Film: Varudu

Banner: Universal Media

Cast: Allu Arjun, Bhanusree Mehra, Arya, Ashish Vidyarthi, Suhasini, Naresh, Vinaya, Nasser, Rao Ramesh, Sayaji Shinde, Ahuti Prasad, Brahmanandam, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, Anita Chowdary and others

Music: Mani Sharma

Cinematography: R D Rajasekhar

Dialogues: Thota PrasadEditing: Anthony

Fights: Stun SivaS

tory, screenplay, direction: Gunasekhar

Producer: D V V Danayya

Release date: 31/03/2010

Dynamic director Gunasekhar has finally arrived after the debacle of ‘Sainikudu’ and this time, he took the concept of an authentic Telugu marriage and a mysterious bride, was he successful in appealing to the audience, let us see. Story:Sandeep (Allu Arjun) is a happy go lucky guy who is fun loving but very traditional at heart. He decides to get married in the traditional fashion of five-day events and 16 day celebrations. So much so that he decides not to see the face of the bride until the ‘Jeelakarra Bellam’ time. True to his idealism, even the bride Deepthi (Bhanusri Mehra) sticks to it. Just when they are about to get married, Deepthi gets kidnapped by Diwakar (Arya). Why does Diwakar do that? Does the marriage happen? What happens from there forms the rest of the story.

Performances:Allu Arjun, given his highly energetic image, this comes across as a mild character which was etched out poorly so the flair of Allu Arjun is missing. He needs to work on his dialogue delivery as a lot of accent is surfacing. Bhanu Mehra is not worth the mystery. Barring the beauty spot on her chin and expressive eyes, there is not much from her in terms of glamour or performance. Arya has a strong screen presence and powerful eyes but then his role was not drawn properly and he was not used to the fullest potential. However, he brought some life to the movie at few places. Brahmi was waste, so was Ahuti Prasad, the others like Ashish Vidyarthi, Suhasini, Naresh, Vinaya were just for brand value and they didn’t have much to offer. Singeetam Sreenivasa Rao, the senior director did his bit as required. Lavakusha Nagaraju appears in a single frame. Nasser was natural, Sayaji Shinde was brief, Rao Ramesh came and went. The other bunch of real time families and supporting artistes were there to fill the screen, that’s all.

Highlights:
CG Work in couple of songs
Meaningless Aspects:
Fight on twin towers (I visualized them so..somebody said they looked like Nuclear Reactors/ Gas Chambers)
Truck carrying away the hero along with bike rubbing against the road with sparks…and hero safe and steady
Hero running away with heroine along with Saline bottle in an action episode

Analysis:It is a laudable thought to come up with a presentation of an authentic Telugu wedding but the difference between a thought and getting it onto the screen is like chalk and cheese which is evident here. Gunasekhar has missed the way to do ‘Varudu’ impressively. The entire episode of 5-day marriage is covered in just one song out of which, the first Charanam appeared no less like an ‘Ammavari Jaathara’ on screen, the second charanam got covered up with computer graphics. Why the hero wants to go in for a pre historic style of marriage? Is it his idealism? Is it just a fantasy? The questions aren’t answered logically. There is forcible preaching with less convincing dialogues. Ultimately, what matters is the purpose the film is made at such exorbitant costs and what is the message it is trying to convey. Gunasekhar failed not just in the narration but also in conveying anything to the audience. His focus to bring about visual appeal looked more but he neglected the fundamentals like a strong script, deep content, and attention towards details. Cinematic liberties were used to the fullest and there were some absolutely ridiculous scenes which perplexed the audience at many points. Gunasekhar has always been revered as a brand and not just a director but it is with regret that he has lost it…and that too big time. The film might have a decent opening due to the hype created but given the budget involved; only ‘no-competition factor’ and the presence of Allu Arjun should save it.

'Maro Charitra’ Review

Film: Maro Charitra
Rating: 2.75/5
Banner: Sri Venkateshwara Creations
Cast: Varun Sandesh, Anita, Shraddha Das, Adarsh, Prathap Pothan, Urvashi, Naresh, Kota, Venu,
Music: Mickey J Meyer
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Dialogues: Umerjee Anuradha
Story: K Balachander
Screenplay, direction, cinematography: Ravi Yadav
Producers: Dil Raju, Sirish
Release date: 25th March 2010

Dil Raju has come up with yet another venture and this time, he has teamed up with Varun Sandesh to re-create the yesteryear’s classic hit made by the legendary K Balachander. How successful was he in bringing it to this generation? Is this film worth muscled to create charitra? Let us see.. StorySet on the backdrop of US, Balu (Varun) comes home discontinuing his course at college and chances upon his neighbor girl Swapna (Anita). It is love at first sight for both but trouble is with Balu’s father (Prathap) and Swapna’s mother, America Durga (Urvasi). Anyhow, both of them come to a formal agreement in front of their parents that they will not see, talk, meet each other for one full year to prove their love. What happens in that year, whether they are successful in their love test or not forms the rest of the story.

Performances:Varun Sandesh is energetic as usual and fits the bill of a desi US lad. However, he must put on some flesh to get that manly look and that will help him for the future. He must also control his body language during emotional scenes to show maturity. Anita is sweet looking and has a natural sex appeal in her. She has the potential to grow but she has to change her dubbing artist. Performance and glamour is proportionate to her in this movie but her character was not etched out strongly. Shraddha Das has a meaty role and she has shown the actress inside her unlike the regular sex doll image. She looked elegant and level headed. Adarsh is an apt choice for a negative role, he has the right kind of attitude for such roles. One can see more of him in the coming days. Prathap Pothan was standard, Urvashi did her bit as required but something is not right about her dubbing artist, Thalaivasal Vijay was not used to the fullest, Kota was as usual, Venu was brief, the lady doing Varun’s mother’s role was neat and timing was good. Highlights:CinematographyMusic (although ‘ye teega poovuno..’ and ‘bhale bhale magaadivoy..’ are inferior to original tracks)Heroine (credit goes to make up, costume and camera departments) Disappointments:Mishandling second halfScreenplay hiccups in maintaining emotion graphDubbing given to heroine and Urvasi

Analysis:The movie fails to bring in the emotional depth that is required. The audiences get connected to the scenic beauty on screen and the quality presentation but not to the spirit of content. Certainly, this movie is not for masses. The youth audiences try to connect to some extent but the last few minutes make them laugh at the emotion that is depicted instead of shedding tears. Here are a few scenes those make audience crack jokes and get digressed from the narration. Hero and heroine recognize each other with heart beat. The scene can be used for perfume Ad but not so fitting here. Heroine’s father starts giving a speech when he sees her daughter jumping into Niagara along with her boy friend. After his speech, he starts weeping….(audiences laughed at this scene conception). Shradhdha Das’ character got elevated when she sacrifices her love. Audiences got connected to her grief. But immediately when Babu (Kota Sreenivasa Rao) expresses his feeling with a dramatic liner, the graph has fallen down. On a whole, the first half of the movie sounds normal and second half suffers with many ups and downs in graph. The movie can be watched just for witnessing some quality presentation and well canned songs but not for an emotional ride. Locations in USA are rightly exploited by camera.

'Taj Mahal’ Review

Film: Taj Mahal
Cast: Shivaji, Shruti, Raghu Babu, MS Narayana, Brahmanandam, Venu Madhav, Chitram Seenu, Nazar etc
Story: Chandu
Dialogues: Gangotri Vishwanath
Camera: Srinivas Reddy
Producer: Shivaji Sontineni
Director: Arun Singaraju
Released On: 20th March 2010

Hero Shivaji acted and produced ‘Taj Mahal’, the remake from Kannada with same title. He introduced new heroine Shruthi with this. Let us see how it was dealt. Story:Ajay (Shivaji) is an Engineering College Student who falls in love with a rich girl Shruthi (Shruthi). It happens to be a one-sided love for Ajay as Shruthi already gets attracted to an unseen man, Kumar. He happens to be her phone friend and her father (Nazar) also agrees to the relation of his daughter with Kumar due to a personal reason. What is that reason? How did father agreed for the relation of Kumar with his daughter without seeing his face? What happens to Ajay? That forms the crux of the story.

Performances:Shivaji is ok. He is ok while enacting lighter moments but not gripping with expressiveness as a passionate lover. Dialogues and direction also must be blamed for not extracting the true performance from this actor. (Especially while saying ‘sweet day….’ dialogue during heroine introduction) Shruthi has some attractive features but she has little scope to shine in future in this most competitive field but performance and glamour wise. Arthi Agarwal appeared in a guest appearance for a song..’Mayadaari Maisammo’…Some Telangana-fervor dialogues were projected from her.
Director Srinivas Reddy and Rama Naidu were also appeared in guest roles. Others are ok in their shoes. Comedy is weak. Music is also not so catchy. On a whole, had the dialogue and scene conceiving were powerful, this story would have got justified. Analysis:The first few moments are filled with amateur artistes and the audiences got a feel of watching a B-grade TV serial and a government promotion Ad sort of thing. But eventually, after the first song, the movie got some momentum and took off well till interval.
A few scenes got wasted. The audiences didn’t understand or couldn’t feel the emotion with some scenes. The talent show scene in college conveyed nothing at the end although it has got some build up in the beginning. On a whole, this movie should have started with proper home work. The story requires some emotional platform to narrate. The good part in the movie is revealing the suspense at right time.

'Yagam' Review

Film: Yagam
Cast: Navadeep, Bhoomika, Kim Sharma, Ajay, Harsha Vardhan etcLyrics: Bhaskarabhatla, Ananth Sri RamChoreography: KalyanEditing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Camera: Bharani K Dharani
Music: Mani Sharma
Producer: Raju, Praveen
Director: Arun Prasad
Released On: 20th March 2010

Senior actress Bhoomika and young actor Navadeep appeared promising on the posters of Yagam. Kim Sharma’s glamour dose is another element that pulled a set of audiences to theatres. Let us see the result of this. Story:Santhosh (Navadeep) lives in Bangkok along with a bar girl (Kim Sharma) and he gets so weird dreams. And in those dreams he foresees future. He witnesses the deaths of a business tycoon, an air hostess named Cynthia and a Minister of Thailand. He shares his dreams to his girl friend. Every dream of his becomes true. How that happens? And Nandini (Bhoomika), an air hostess is linked to Santhosh with love.

How is she connected to the ability of Santhosh to foresee deaths? That has to be watched on screen. Performances:Bhoomika is fresh and still looks younger with ample grace. Kim Sharma is for glamour quotient and she fulfilled the requirement. Navadeep is perfect but little scope is left for him to perform as the dialogues are weak and scene conceiving is also amateur. Ajay and Harsha Vardhan tried to spill some humor and they could score well. Others are normal. Rahul Dev appeared in antagonist’s role for sometime. Ali and Brahmanandam appear in two separate weak comedy tracks. Music by Mani Sharma is weak.
Lyrics are mundane. Cinematography is ok and rest is quite normal. Had the director focused on screenplay the film would have worked a bit well. Analysis:It’s a revenge drama that was made on beaten track. Making murder mysteries is a separate art. Director should know where to press the clutch and where to release, where to shift gear and where to keep break. The biggest blunder in this film is revealing the mystery of protagonist’s ability to foresee future.

The tempo has fallen down abruptly. And everything has gone on predictable mode from then onwards. First 30 minutes has very less dialogue and it goes certainly interesting till 2 minutes before interval. The second half proves boring as everything is as expected and audiences walked out from theatres 30 minutes before the completion of the movie. It’s a sign of director’s flaw.

'Sadhyam’ Review

Film: Sadhyam
Banner: KBC Productions
Cast: Jagapathi Babu, Priyamani, Tanikella Bharani, Keerthi Chawla, Kota, Pragathi, Jackie, Munna Venu and others
Music: Chinni Charan
Cinematography: Maro Palini
Editing: Goutham Raju
Director: Karthikeya Gopalakrishna
Producers: Kumar Brothers
Release date: 5th March 2010

The onscreen hot pair of Jagapathi Babu and Priyamani is back and this time, they have promised a very different treat. How different it was and whether it worked or not let us see Suhani (Priyamani) is a timid girl afraid of everything and the reason for that happens to be her past. An incident gets her to save a man (Tanikella) and as a return favor, he gives her his revolver and asks her to go and kill the person that she has hated the most. Suhani goes to kill Anitha (Keerthi) her best friend and fails, then she goes to kill her lover Sandeep (Jagapathi) and fails. Why she wants to kill them, why she fails and whether she kills them or not forms the rest of the story. Jagapathi Babu has done his role as required but nothing different than the regular. He still manages to look handsome and fresh but honestly, his character was shallow and lacked depth. Sad to see a talented actress like Priyamani taking up such roles, her well toned body was used to the fullest by the makers to give a visual feast to the front benchers but no work on her performance aspect. Tanikella has good screen presence though brief and he has got some clear diction in dialogue delivery and elegant performance.

Keerthi Chawla needs to work on her flab and her expressions as well. Though she looks confident, there are other aspects which can give her a better score. Kota was regular, Pragathi was usual, Nalla Venu came and went, same with Jackie and the villain. As such, there is nothing that the others have got to contribute to make this film effective. It’s director’s direct torture from screen. How can he show an innocent and fearful girl in the sexiest way possible with all short dresses? The openings are pretty good and thanks to Priyamani’s posters and Jagapathi Babu’s presence on screen. But a debut director has lost a good opportunity with confused plot and erratic direction. This became evident at the beginning of first song ‘Ayyo Rama…’. There is no lead sequence to that beautiful song. Many expected that hit number will be placed amidst lots of humor. But it has gone in serious track not getting connected to audiences. Too many flash back episodes bewildered the audience.
Songs are good and lyricist Chinni Charan proved that he has mettle in giving contemporary music that soothes the senses of youngsters and music lovers. But the effort became waste. Jagapathi Babu and Priyamani should have thought twice before Okaying this script. Their seniority couldn’t help the novice director. Although dialogues are sensible, they couldn’t get right attention—just like tasty cherries on rotten pastry!!

'Kalavar King’ Review

Film: Kalavar King
Banner: Sai Krishna Productions
Cast: Nikhil Siddarth, Shweta Basu Prasad, Ajay, Ali, Venu Madhav, Raghu Babu, Dharmavarapu, Ahuti Prasad, Suman Shetty, Pragathy, Kasi Viswanath, Anitha (spl song) and others
Music: Anil
Cinematography: Balamurugan
Director: SureshProducer: D S Rao
Release date: 26/02/2010

The young and vibrant Nikhil Siddarth has come up with another solo venture and the title has been quite appealing. His pairing up with the giggly beauty Swetha Basu Prasad is another highlight. Whether it has been impressive or not, let us see.

StoryRajahmundry is the town where all this is happening and here is Rajesh, an intelligent young man who specializes in taking and making loans throughout the area. His father (Kasi Vishwanath) is a school teacher. Things take a turn when Shruti (Swetha) lands up at Rajesh’s place due to a dog chase and in this process, she drops a very important chain by mistake. The chain has a connection with dreaded Narendar Shetty (Ajay). What happens from there forms the rest of the story.

PerformancesNikhil has come up with a high adrenaline performance and he is the soul for the movie. He has shouldered it throughout in a good way and will score the brownie points.
Shweta Basu looks sweet but there is an alarming rate of weight increase in her, she looks chubby and if she doesn’t cut down on that, then her offers also will get cut.
Ajay is tall, he is talented and has those flashes of brilliance in between. He does justice to his role.

Venu Madhav made his presence felt with his regular antics but then it could have been better if his character was given good depth.
Raghu Babu, though his presence was quite brief, gave a good act and generated few laughs from the front benchers.

Kasi Viswanath was standard, Dharmavarapu was okay, Ahuti Prasad was alright, Anitha sizzles with her hot looks but the song could have been made well. The others did their bit as required but nothing significant in terms of contribution from them.

AnalysisThe film runs on a beaten track and though the thought of the makers is good, it was not executed correctly on the screen. Flaws are evident clearly in the direction and the narrative aspects, even cracks in script and screenplay were observed.

If it was not for Nikhil and his energetic performance, the fate of this venture would have been sealed in less than a week. The technical aspects are weak and the production values are low.
So success at the box office is possible only if Nikhil’s performance can pull in some more crowds.