Don2 Movie Review

After being liked by very few and disturbing many with his “RA.ONE”…The King of Bollywood, Sharukh Khan is back soon with DON2, a sequel of his stylish franchise “DON”.  He carries forward faithfully his entire cast including Priyanka chopra, Lara Dutta and Boman Iraani…And the Crew Farhan Akthar the director and musicians’ trio Shankar Ehsaan Loy…Great gesture of course!! Well let’s see whether he carried forward that “hit” factor to the sequel…

Plot:

Don surrenders himself to Malaysian Police Roma (Priyanka) and Malik (Om Puri) and goes to jail only to free Vardhaan (Boman Iraani). Don and Vardhaan now have the mission of stealing currency printing plates from DZ bank in Switzerland. So how they accomplish that task…Oh come on any one who watch recent Fast & Furious or any one of the MI series would better explain this…!!

Don yaa Chor!!

While the Original Don (not original...actually a copy of yesteryear Don) has a Plot that is known, a little cocktail mixing of style and sexy “Ye meraa Dil” by Kareena made it a hit then. This has given a boost to the team to make them bring up some Hollywood robbery plot and again make “yaak” tail mix with the Don to create Don2.  As far as I imagine, A Don should command the world...but not “Chor Baazi”. So the plot as such brings no charm to the sequel.

But Sharukh does not disappoint…

Though the Plot disappoints …Sharukh does not fail to enthrall us. He has one-liners in stock for him.”Aaj ye sun kar meri maa kitne kush hoge…Mr. Malik, aap mere Maa ko nahi jaante”…”Sir bahut sheriff saa lagtaa hai ..Call me Don” and it’s always sounds sweet when he calls his Cop friend Roma…”Junglie Billee” and not the least when he says “Don ko pakadnaa mushkil hi nahin…naa mumkin hain”. Sharukh sports the long hair look just for a while for a change and soon switches to his self…So no worries if you don’t like that. He has that magic in his eyes and it actually shows up when he reminds his old romance with Roma. So No doubts, Sharukh always the best…

While many die to see Priyanka’s waist like we go fida for it with “Desi Girl” …Here she does no show...but plays boring cop who runs behind don with no proper plan but for just sake of it. 

Lara Dutta is good enough for a song and few scenes. Boman Iraani the same…love his foolishness once again. Om Puri sticks to the role. Kunal Kapoor as Samir the hacker is a good addition.

And Hrithik plays a cameo and of course he looks stunning. Aly Khan as Diwan, VP of DZ bank Nawab shah as local goon and Sahil Shroff as Priyanka’s colleague are adequate.

Don2 is not even Don/2

Surprisingly Farhan Akthar, who has a film “Dil Chahtha hai” in his kitty, directed this flick which has just a lifted plot of some Robbery plan. There were just couple of chase scenes and suspense elements related to robbery plan but they could not hold you long in seats. And then King Khans one liners will bring some good time and that’s it that Don has!!

And it’s a blunder not to have a jabbardast item like ”Chammak Challo” or “Chikni Chameli” to lure the audience and Musical Trio Shanker-Ehsaan-Lio just lets us down with one ok number ..”Zara Dil ko Thaam lo”

Finally….

Don is a sequel for the sake of it. Who knows you might like it for its grandeur and the grace of Sharukh. So you can have some sweet time if not completely sour. But Sharukh better “Don”t do “Don” yet again...Let him come as in Swadesh or “Chak De India”..We love to see him that way.

Rating…

2.75...Sharukh You can give us much better!!

   

Rajanna Movie Review

The King “Akkineni Nagarjuna” is back in his favorite season…this time not with regular “Mass” film but he has touched a different zone of patriotism with his new flick “Rajanna”. Eney, small girl plays the prime role in the movie. “Rajanna” is directed by Vijayendra Prasad who penned stories for super hit films like SamarasimhaReddy, Magadheera, Chatrapathi and most of his son, the director Rajamouli’s flicks. MM Keeravani delivers the heart, the music to the film.

Plot: Though India has got the freedom in 1947, many villages still faced atrocities by landlords and Razakars. Mallamma (Eney) hails from such a village Nelakondapalli in Adilabad district. She is daughter of freedom fighter Rajanna (Nagarjuna) who once inspired villagers to revolt against these landlords. When the Dorasani (Swetha menon) comes to know about the girl’s identity, she tries to kill her.

But Mallamma escapes and travels to Delhi to meet Nehru and ask his help to save her village. How she meets Nehru? And what’s the brave story of her dad? forms the crux of the movie!

Actors…

Eney, who plays mallamma, lives in the character. Her expressions excel the emotions needed in each scene. Her joy, sorrow, struggle, search and pain is made felt, hats off to her express all of them with sheer perfection at this young age. She’s gonna win loads of accolades for her role.

Nagarjuna who plays the title role enters the scene pre-interval. But his presence is felt by the name “Rajanna” as spread all over the film. He does the job with obvious maturity and ease and his presence post interval episodes fills the screen with energy and quenches the thirst caused by an hour wait till interval.

Sneha is seen as lachuvamma…Rajanna’s wife and she suits the role to the core and has enough space to make her presence felt.

Swetha Menon is good as Dorasani, Old man who played sambayya, Mallama’s guardian did good job.

Nasser played Mallamma’s teacher, Telangana Sakuntala and Tamil Actor Vijay Kumar played guest roles.

Ajay, Pradeep Rawath, Supreet and Ravi play Rajanna friends in positive roles, who fight till their end.

Hema and lot other’s in village put up commendable performances.

First half makes us wait and the Second does not wait for us!!

First half shows Dorasaani’s atrocities and Mallamma’s fight for existence and her journey to Delhi. Mallama’s journey to Delhi is depicted with great conviction. The director’s vision is seen in the lyrical content of the songs. MM Keeravani’s music plays major role in engaging the audience without actually showing the hero. And the pace of the movie takes a plunge with the entry of Rajanna in freedom fight scene.

While second half is filled with the flashback episodes, the inspiring and blood boiling scenes are very much there to pump in adrenaline. Wonderful fights (one in the village nelakondapalli in second half for the song “Vey Veyy” and other at Pre-Climax) choreographed by the maverick director Rajamouli lifts the movie to the needed level. And the climax is as predicted but leaves a delightful mark.

It’s a Family effort…”Vijayandra Prasad...Keeravani…Rajamouli”!!

Vijayendra Prasad who directed SriKrishna 2006 long back did not taste success then. But he is well prepared this time. It’s his wonderful screenplay that engages the audience with or without the hero on screen. Good performances are grabbed from every actor and the best from the girl Eney.

Keeravani deliver’s one of his best and each song has marvelous lyrical content. Every Song carries the movie forward and thus all songs play a vital role. While movie starts with a melody “Gijigaadu” and “Raa ree ro” takes you to the village on-screen. “Karuku raathi gundello” is one touching song when Mallamma leaves the village. And there are many written by Shiva Shakthi Datta (Keeravani’s father), Ananth Sreeram and Suddala Ashok Teja.

Cinematography provided by Shyam K. Naidu is awesome.

To say few words on Negatives, Movie should have been little more lavish especially in few scenes you feel the necessity. Movie itself is short as it is just 2 hours and its share of Nagarjuna is still lesser. In a word Rajanna is not a feast or full meals but delicious plate meal where you might not be full, but satisfied.

Finally…

Rajanna deliver’s what it promised. A patriotic musical journey ably supported by good technical team and wonderful performances. If you prepare for the difference, it won’t disappoint you much. It’s a good watch.

Rating

3.5 

Panjaa Movie Review

Hit or Flop…A Disaster or a Blockbuster, craze for Pawan Kalyan is undeterred and expectations on his new film always reach the skies. And here again we have Panjaa…Powerstar’s new film where he sports never before look releasing this week. Movie is directed by Stylish director Vishnuvardhan who earlier directed “Billa” in Tamil. Sarah Jane Dias and Anjali Lavania play the female leads.

Plot...not spoiler:

Jai (Pawan Kalyan) is loyal aide to gangster Bhagwan (Jackishroff). Everything goes fine until the arrival of Bhagwan’s son Munna (Adivi sesh) enters the town from foreign.  Things change upside down when Munna pricks everyone with his sadistic nature. Jai now has to choose between loyalty and controlling Munna.

Actors

Right from the looks, it’s a totally different Pawan we get on-screen. Sporting a beard throughout brings that rugged look much needed for that role. Pawan wonderfully plays with great ease and slightly deviates in intervals with his superb comedy timing. There are several scenes where he reminds us his old films…Whether posing like chiru...or dancing for “Dappu” in Paparayudu song or when heroine asks whether he ever did Karate in past reminding Tammudu. All in all, it’s a treat and every actor tries to play different once in a while and Pawan got that chance.

Adivi Sesh who played Munna (made a movie Karma entirely in US in past) is next important character. He played the role of Sadist to the core. Especially the pre-interval scene, he just builds up the scene that audience themselves want to kick him off the screen. So it’s all in the acting and he is someone to watch out more in future.

Sarah Jane Dias is just adequate. She is decent enough in simple costumes and provided needed act. But she is not the one who could get into our mind once the film is done.

 Anjali Lavania though had brief role sizzles more throughout her presence. She has solo song on her and she is damn hot.

We know that Pawan and Ali are great friends off-screen and Ali’s role is just extension to that friendship. So the comedy timing between them is more like natural and good to watch.

One guy who got huge response on-screen next to Pawan is Brahmanandam. It’s not something different he did, but he is much awaited in the serious movie and he sprinkled the laughs and brought some energy and he has whole “Paparayudu” song written on him.

Jackie Shroff gets a good role and does it well. Subbaraju is very good. Tanikella Bharani as his manager is fine. Atul Kulakarni and rest are limited.

A different film in one word.

Set up in Mafia background and at the same time, bringing the story touching up with good emotions is not an easy task. And director Vishnuvardhan succeeds in it for greater extent. He builds up each character perfectly in no time. He builds up that conflicting rivalry between Munna and Jai under currently and fires it high by the interval. Entire first half is stylish and thoroughly indulges you giving you that fresh flavor.

Second half goes to faraway lands and it’s a U-turn for us. That way we get a much needed deviation into greenery and wonderful village atmosphere (Pollachi). Then we get this hilarious episode of Brahmanandam and that song “Paparayudu” that’s almost the half the screen presence of Brahmanandam. The entire episode helps the movie a lot. So how the things come into place when the two worlds meet at the end forms the climax.

Good Work off-screen!!

Thanks to the director Vishnuvardhan who has shown us something new on screen than the run-of-mill movies. The entire first half is delight to watch that too in utter silence. He had a gripping screenplay in first half, but it loosens up a little in second. Love story still needs to be worked on. While the love track reminds of Balu, The conflict between Gangster’s son and his aide reminds me of Prasthanam movie for a while.

Yuvan’s music need to be much better. Title track of Panjaa just comes at the rolling titles at the end!! “Elaa Elaa” is good. And “Paparayudu” is the best of all. “Anukoneledu gaa” is trimmed t o two lines in movie as movie does not offer much scope to it. Background score is good. But it’s an opportunity lost for Yuvan.

P.S.Vinod’s cinematography is brilliant and scores equally with slick shots in first half and loads of greenery in second. Producers Shobu, Neelima etc made a commendable job.

Dialogues by Abburi Ravi need applause. “Saayam chesina vaadu Krutagnata choopinchaka povadam entha tappo, saayam chesina vaadu Krutagnatha korukodam anthe thappu. “Bhakthi tho chesedi punyam, dharmanga chesedi daanam, em aasinchakunda chesedi saayam” are good ones.

Finally…

An honest approach in telling a story in a straightforward manner and rightly aided by good technical team. But the entertainment quotient is lesser and thus limits the reach of the movie to great extent. To see a different Pawan and a different film, do watch it.

Rating.

3/5 for that way out of box effort and style.