SAAHO REVIEW - Very high on action but a bit low on the content

RATING: 2.5/5

STORY PREMISE
On one side, we see a city of Wazi where a high profile underworld business mafia is congregated. The mafia is headed by Roy(Jackie Shroff). When Roy goes to India to meet his son he is killed in a pre-planned accident. In place of Roy his son, Arun Vijay, ascends the thrown. Arun Vijay ascending the throne is opposed by the mafia gang. Once Arun Vijay ably handles the situation, his next target is to look out for the killer of his father.

On the other side, there are a series of high-tech robberies happen, master minded by one person. Amidst this chaos enters a capable undercover cop Ashok Chakravarthy(Prabhas) to handle the robbery case. He forms a team of his own which includes Amritha Nair(Shraddha Kapoor) as well. The team gets down to work to track down this high-tech thief. How the team of Prabhas is going to achieve that? And how Prabhas, who is a just a cop is pitted against this huge scenario of international mafia? What actually is the intention of Prabhas? Where is he heading, needs to be seen on the big screen.

SCREENPLAY & DIRECTION
The sheer scale of the movie as shown in the teaser and trailer is so impressive that I wondered there is nothing that could go wrong with in this movie. And to amplify that expectation - there is Prabhas, huge budget, more than 2 years of hard work and top class cast and crew - a sure shot blockbuster was written all over it. Yet the movie proves it wrong. And the main culprit here is the amateurish screenplay and direction. There is this missing conviction on the director’s part, in properly realizing the characters and many key confrontational scenes. For example - Prabhas and Shraddha’s romantic episodes, instead of making you root for their personal troubles they seem to distract us from the core story and play as a hindrance to the narrative. We won’t empathize with the lead characters at all instead they are constantly ridiculed for their shallow bonding. The director/writer Sujeeth ignores to develop the core elements of story like character and narrative, and instead tries make it look cool by stylizing the scenes shuffling various bits and pieces of information in a non-linear way, which just confuses and distracts us, rather than allowing us to follow the narrative.



PERFORMANCE
Earnest performances from the ensemble top class artists is sadly dampened on occasions due to poorly written screenplay and bad direction. Prabhas did a fine job shouldering this mammoth subject. Shraddha is at her usual best. And the performances of all the lead supporting cast is good.

OTHER DEPARTMENTS 
Though the action part looks incoherent because of the incoherent narrative, it is this action part that plays as the real muscle of this high budgeted movie with several jaw-dropping moments. The action episodes are of high standards; and who else can justify such huge action sequences better than the full-bodied performer, like Prabhas. And yet, we somehow crave for more action from him as the slick action sequences come in and go in a jiffy. Cinematography is top class. An excellent and praiseworthy work from, the highly talented Madhie. His work did absolute justice to the budget incurred. And the background score plays its part very well in some key stylish moments. It succeeds in giving that adrenaline rush expected from an action movie. Editing is good on its own but seemed helpless in saving some of the romantic scenes. The production design is excellent - be it the locations or props. The costume design is very good and stylish, especially for Prabhas.   

OVERALL IMPACT
The film released amidst hugely mounted expectations (mainly because of Prabhas’s earlier Baahubali series and Saaho’s teaser and trailer cuts). But the underdeveloped subject with shallow emotional content hardly lives up to the expectations. The only saving grace for you is that the visuals and the action part are of highest standards for an Indian Cinema.


RATING: 2.5/5


CAST: Prabhas, Shraddha Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vennela Kishore, Murli Sharma, Arun Vijay, Mandira Bedi, Prakash Belavadi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Supreet, Tinnu Anand, Jacqueline Fernandez, Evelyn Sharma

DIRECTOR & WRITER: Sujeeth

PRODUCERS: V. Vamsi Krishna Reddy, Vikram Reddy, Pramod Uppalapati

PRODUCTION BANNER: UV Creations

MUSIC: Ghibran

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Madhie

EDITING: A Sreekar Prasad

ART: Sabu Cyril

COSTUMES: Thota Vijay Bhaskar, Ellawadi Leepakshi, Rocky S



Thanks for the visit.
Maheshnandu

EVARU REVIEW - An engrossing crime thriller with a complex web of twists

STORY PREMISE
Sameera Maha(Regina), a rich businessman’s wife, is accused of killing a police officer Ashok Krishna(Naveen Chandra), who claims that she had to kill him in self defense as he raped her. And as the case is against a police officer, to save their image from public, the whole police force is hell bent to disprove the allegations of rape on the police officer. To defend the case on their behalf the police get an powerful lawyer who doesn’t hesitate, even to produce fake evidences, if that helps in winning the case. Amidst all these mounting anti forces against her, Sameera has only one option, as her lawyer suggests - a corrupt police officer Vikram Vasudev. As stated by Sameera’s lawyer, Vikram Vasudev would do any thing for money, he is an expert in producing fake evidences.

Whether or not Vikram Vasudev succeeds in steering the case away to save Sameera from the impending anti forces or succumbs to the pressure from his higher authority, forms the rest of the story.

SCREENPLAY & DIRECTION
The whole of the narrative’s strength lies purely in the screenplay. The brilliance of the screenplay is evident in the way it takes, what can be called an usual kind, of a homicidal criminal case and presents it in a complex web of twists. It keeps you on the edge till the very last moment frequently throwing jaw-dropping revelations at us. It doesn’t seem like a debut director’s movie at all. Director Venkat Ramji did a commending job; be it in accurately judging the performances of actors or in designing the overall narrative build, he handled them deftly. Shown a promise of a seasoned director. 


PERFORMANCE
Sesh and Regina ably shoulder this complicated narrative with their earnest performances. The cold stares between them leave us guessing on what’s going on in their minds, what are they going to throw at us next. They  succeeded in making the double-edged dialogues work pretty well, which is not an easy task. Murali Sharma is at his usual best and, Naveen Chandra’s performance looks honest. All the other supporting cast did well too.

OTHER DEPARTMENTS 
The background score competes with the intricate screenplay, in achieving a pulsating effect of the narrative. It pushes the revealing moments to a whole new level; in the process, enabling the narrative to be a commercially viable.
The background score, the cinematography and the editing work in tandem to get us deep into psych of the characters and leave us off-guard at every opportunity they are provided. Kudos to the whole technical team.


OVERALL IMPACT
After experiencing the movie - Evaru, you can’t help but appreciate how intelligently the narrative is woven, with brilliant twists catching us off-guard at regular intervals, and at the same time not losing the focus on the emotional core of the story. It is an uncompromising story telling, unusual to Telugu Cinema - with no songs, no cheesy dialogues, no fights, and above all a very crisp run time, less than 2 hours.


RATING: 3.75/5


CAST: Adivi Sesh, Regina Cassandra, Naveen Chandra, Murali Sharma, Pavithra Lokesh, Raja Ravindra

DIRECTOR: Venkat Ramji

WRITERS: Venkat Ramji, Abburi Ravi

PRODUCERS: Kavin Anne, Krishnakanth Kamineni, Param V Potluri, Pearl V Potluri

PRODUCTION BANNER: PVP Cinema

MUSIC: Sricharan Pakala

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Vamsi Patchipulusu

EDITING: Garry Bh

ART: Kolla Avinash

COSTUMES: Jahnavi Ellore, Sura Reddy


Thanks for the visit.
Maheshnandu

RANARANGAM REVIEW - Technical work shines while narrative lags behind

STORY PREMISE
Ranarangam is a fictional, semi-biographical story of Deva, who earns living by selling black tickets at movie theaters, along with his group of friends.
In this movie, we witness the rise of Deva, a lower middle class guy, from the suburbs of Vizag city, to an invincible underworld don who can command the whole city’s underworld mafia. To spice up the proceedings, the subject is dealt with two parallel narratives, by intercutting, between the initial phase of Deva’s life in Vizag and the present phase of Deva’s life in Spain.
What are the adversaries he faces? What catapulted him to turn out into a powerful don that he is now, and why he had to move to Spain are some of the unanswered questions, we need to witness in the movie.

SCREENPLAY & DIRECTION
Looking at the bright side of the movie - the emphasis on realistic presentation; the earthy look; the authentic and relatable characterization of people in Vizag city; gives a unique feel to the film. Director Sudheer Varma’s work looks superior in Vizag episodes. The technical and artistic work achieved here looks superior comparatively to Spanish episodes, which somehow lacks that punch.
The story premise is interesting, the efforts the cast & crew have put in, is commendable. And yet the movie viewing experience doesn’t seem to be, as engaging as it should have been. It falls short of our expectations. It falls short, in weaving an engaging story around the interesting scenarios, that are present in the story. The plot seems shallow, lacks depth. This, I believe, is may be because the director must have put his primary focus on stylizing the subject. And in this process, sadly, the narrative gets a secondary treatment. 
Another factor that cuts down on curiosity levels, in the narrative is, everything seems easily attainable to the lead character. We can see, only a couple of scenarios that push the lead character to the extreme, rest of the scenarios seem like welcoming the moves of the lead character. That makes the story look predictable and makes us care less about the proceedings. Another serious issue, because of the weak screenplay, even the most powerful dialogues with deeper meaning, fizzle out without creating any impact, as the screenplay doesn’t deal with the stakes involved properly.

PERFORMANCES
Sharwanand did complete justice to the lead character, Deva. He is particularly impressive as younger Deva in Vizag episodes. Kalyani Priyadarshan looks cute and innocent. Her performance is completely believable. Kajal looks apt. But she has limited screen presence, probably her portions must have been chopped off in the editing room, to keep the narrative short and crisp. Murali Sharma is seen as a local MLA. We see a different Murali Sharma here, because of his distinguished act. And another surprising thing is that he looks menacing with his varied demeanor and voice, shredding down the soft natured man image, that he is usually associated with, in his earlier works. Sudarshan generates good humor. He seems to be back in his elements in this movie. All the other cast did a fine job. Director should be appreciated for extracting good performances from all his actors.


OTHER DEPARTMENTS 
Cinematography - The stylized cinematography is a big plus. It stands out even when the scenarios lack punch(narrative wise).
Music - a couple of songs give fresh and earthy feel. BGM is good, adds value to the proceedings.
Editing - Editing is good but it could have been better, if it had avoided some of the unnecessary detailing that hinder smoother flow.
And lastly, we can witness an impressive work from the production design and costume design departments.


OVERALL IMPACT
On a final note, the hard work put in by the team is very much evident. The technical work is commendable. But unfortunately we can’t give the same appreciation to the narrative part. It lags, a couple of steps behind, compared to its technical counterpart.

RATING: 2.75/5

CAST: Sharwanand, Kalyani Priyadarshan, Murali Sharma, Kajal Aggarwal, Sudarshan Reddy, Brahmaji, Ajay

DIRECTOR: Sudheer Varma

PRODUCER: Suryadevara Naga Vamsi

PRODUCTION BANNER: Sithara Entertainments

SCREENPLAY: Sudheer Varma

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Divakar Mani

MUSIC: Prashanth Pillai

EDITING: Naveen Nooli

PRODUCTION DESIGN: S Ravinder


Thanks for visiting,
Maheshnandu

Manmadhudu-2 - My Theory - A Pseudo Review

A few minutes into the narrative, there is this odd feeling that creeps in, that this movie is not going to be the one that I intended to watch. I came down here to watch the movie because I thought it is going to have those light hearted fun moments with a likable lead character with scenes that doesn’t take themselves too seriously.

It made me feel, a little uncomfortable to see some adult comedy and a bit of realism in the characters and scenes. Why? I am not new to see any adult comedy. And I am a big fan of many films, solely for the realism they try to portray. Then why did I get such negative feeling while watching this movie?

I tried to think over it a bit to decode the real cause. Then, I must be lucky, to have found the root cause for such a half-hearted liking towards a well made movie with the name Manmadhudu-2.   
You see this happens to be the sequel of early 2000s hit movie Manmadhudu which gained a cult following over years. Each and every scene and dialogue in that movie keep resonating in our minds in many occasions in our daily life. The movie has gained that much connect with the audience.

So, my conclusion is, the real reason for the discomfort I felt while watching the adult comedy and realism in the movie, is because of the name of the movie “Manmadhudu 2”. All the time my mind kept reminding me that Manmadhudu was not like this. It was a clean entertainer and was way more fun to watch. My mind couldn’t stop comparing every aspect in this film to that of “Manmadhudu”. So the movie obviously ended up as not reaching my expectations. Hence the dislikability.

What if this movie was given a different name altogether? There wouldn’t have been any comparisons. It could have saved itself from certain kind of expectations. Everyone would have surprised to see Nag in a totally different avatar. And Rahul, the director, would have been appreciated for his efforts to present Nag in new way and for pulling off Nag’s character so authentically, considering his age factor.

If not for the name this film would have stood as one of the fun-to-watch movies in my list of Nag’s movies.

My Rating: 2.75/5

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Regards,
Maheshnandu