180 Movie Review

After two debacles in the row, Siddardh comes back with new movie 180. This time he brings his mentor Jayendra as the director, while cuties Nithya menon and Priya Anand pair up with him. Let’s check out if luck favors this Lover boy.

Story(Slightly spoiler!! check before you read this section):  Mano (Siddardh) comes to Hyderabad for a short stay. Vidya (Nithya Menon), A press photographer is fascinated by happy going nature and cute antics of Manu. Their relationship turns into love quickly. But Manu who is diagnosed with a disease (No guesses what it is –obviously cancer) has just 180 days (6 months) to live. On top of it, Manu is already married to Renu (Priya Anand). So what’s the end to this tragic saga is left for your guesses!!

Actors:

Siddardh plays two shades … as a happy going guy in the first part and facing the agony in the second. He is very comfortable playing the first as that was always his comfort zone.

Priya Anand is one solid plus in the film. She excels in all ways…The way she mimics; her costumes and her own dubbed voice are all perfect. She should get some more films.

Nithya Menon seems to be a few film wonder. It’s just a half cute face with No heroine stuff. May be she playing girl falling damn easily for a boy and then running behind him for no reason still irritates us.

Old man who played Siddard’s house owner spills few laughs. Geetha plays his wife. Tanikella plays Priya Anand’s father. Siddard’s friend did decent act.

Everything in slow motion!!

The pain begins with the hero’s intro song where we see everything in not just dragging but killing slow motion. And movie follows the similar slow motion while revealing the two similar love plots one in Hyderabad and other in USA. Interval bang is placed without revealing much...by then the patience is lost. But a minute curiosity of whether your guesses about the twist to be revealed would be right or not still remains. But the later half though makes your guesses right but proves you wrong for choosing this film, thanks to the torturous twist that’s revealed.

 Few Songs in first half are just drum beats that are pictured even slowly especially the title song and a song that’ starts as “AJ Avo”. There’s a child labor episode, but it too lacks the realistic approach. While Love plots with no novelty wastes the first half, overdose of tragedy sinks the second.

Let me sum up few positives…

Balasubramaniam's Cinematography is first-class. But that needs patience to appraise it. Surely there are some good laughs here and there especially scenes with siddard’s house owner. And of course few accidental laughs that comes out of pain. I should tell you two songs “Nee Maatalo Mounam Nenenaa” excellently sung by Karthik and Swetha Menon is excellently pictured. Other song “Ninna leni vinthale choopene” is hummable. So overall music by Sharreth scores pass marks. And as I said, it’s Priya Anand that’s little saving grace. Dailogues by Umarji anuradha who penned for Ye Maaya chesaave has very little scope here. 

Final Say…

With the story that lacks no fresh point and with dragging screenplay...180 do not make a delightful watch. And now why the title 180…It takes your brain away to find that. I guess 108 should have been the apt one.

Rating…

Yeah...one more advantage of the title...It gives me the Rating = 1.80

Hollywood : Summer: X-Men-Hangover-KungFu-Pirates

Hope you guys are enjoying the summer at its best!! And this summer in Hollywood is growing excited week by week. Here’s a gist of coolest releases of early summer…

X-Men First class

Plot: This is the prequel to all X-Men series so far…where we see the origin of interesting characters of X-Men i.e.  Professor X was Charles (James McAvoy) and Magneto was Erik (Michael Fassbender) etc. How together the mutants with variety of skills prevent the World War to happen is interesting.

Goodies: Tightly woven screenplay, interesting story telling, cool performances by youngsters and above all excellent graphics make it the best installment of X-Men Series. One will be thrilled in the scenes where submarine is pulled out of sea, or Pulling back a ship with the giant anchor, Stopping millions of missiles with the Magnetic power…and what not..Everything the young mutants do is exciting and is must a delight to watch.

Rating: 4/5 Strong Go…

Kung Fu Panda -2

How can one just forget the sweet sluggishness of our dear Po? And now he is back in the sequel to save China and Kung fu from evil Lord Shen. In the process Po learns his past and realizes the inner peace. Check out how Kung fu can stop something that stops Kung fu!!

Goodies: With Jack Black dubbing for Po and Angelina Jolie dubbing for Tigress and Jackie Chan for Monkey, Kung Fu Panda 2 has sufficient dose of funny action sequences choreographed in streets of china. Frankly Second installment is not as endearing as the first part, but Po’s journey from being innocent to the winning hero who master’s inner peace with help of his friend’s the Furious Five has good chances of charming you again.

Rating: 3.25/5 Watch it at Leisure

Hangover-2

Plot: This time, our funny four Stu (Ed Helms), Phil (Bradley Cooper), Doug (Justin Bartha), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) head to Thailand to attend Stu’s wedding. That night, they sit over a campfire and have a beer and roasted marshmallows. And the next morning, they end up waking up in dirty hotel room in Bangkok along with Chinese gangster Chow. And the Adventurous tracking of “what happened Last Night” continues!!

What’s Good/Bad: Seriously the second installment just made in very similar fashion to encash the expectations set by the Original released 2009. This one though was not that rocking because of predictability, is still a great fun.  This time they are given company by chain smoking monkey, silent Buddhist monk, a trans-gender Prostitute and what not that keeps you engaged at its best.

Rating: 3/5  Alas!it’s a Copy of Original!!

Pirates Of Caribbean: Stranger Tides.

Captain Jack Sparrow(Johnny Depp) is back in the fourth installment, in an unexpected adventure to the “Fountain of Youth”. Joining him in the adventure are beautiful Angelica( Penelope Cruz) along with Hector Barbossa, Captain Teague and of course the entire bunch we see in the series.

Goodies: If I guess right, Half of the patrons of pirates have already lost the interest with the series while other half naturally jumps at every release. But trust me, “Stranger Tides” offers way much better than the preceding two parts. Uninvited joiners this time are mermaids,  where a lengthy action sequence where mermaids attack the pirates is mind-blowing. Then we had a romance blossoming between a trapped mermaid and a captive. Johnny Depp with the growing ease provides us more fun with his silly antics.

Rating: 3/5 Pirate Lovers should never miss it!!

That's the fun for now....See you soon!

Badrinath Movie Review

Ufff….Finally we reached the end of summer spree of movies with Badrinath that released this weekend. Badrinath which has stylish star Allu Arjun and Tamanna in the leads, and being produced by successful banner of Geeta Arts (Allu Arvind) and equally successful director VVVinayak carried enough expectations. But sometimes expectations turn out to be bigger spoilsports. Let’s see how?

Plot: Badrinath is chosen as a guardian to protect Badrinath temple by an old saint warrior Bheeshma Narayan (Prakash Raj).  Alakananda (Tamanna) who comes to the holy town Badrinath due to the threat from her maternal aunt falls in love with the hero. Now Badrinath has to choose between Alakananda’s love and his master’s faith on him?

Weakness List goes on!!

Let me list out the weaknesses of the cast and crew to explain what all went wrong…in a different style.

Ok....start with central character Badrinath. His weakness is his 10 Kilo sword he carries. When he holds that sword, he could easily pierce the bullets, cut off the limbs and arms of innumerous terrorists and factionists and even Chinese warriors.  But don’t dare to make him devoid of it, for he jumps on mountains and into rivers now, flexing his muscles.

Then comes Alakananda…beware don’t ever pronounce “Badrinath” in front of her, for there is high chance she could go into an irrelevant dream sequence. So her duty is to either scream at her enemies or get into dancing, the moment someone reminds her of Badrinath or if she feels the touch of her love.

And we have PrakashRaj if I figured him out correctly as he is fully covered by very odd white beard. His weakness is Kungfu and he does nothing except calling Badrinath now and then asking him to do some samurai stunts with his sword

The villain Kelli Dorji has a weakness of Helicopters…as he is rarely seen coming out of it and his wife has weakness of madly shouting at him.

Similar weak are comedy gang, Brahmanandam, MS and Krishna Baghwan who play tasteless sequel track to the comedy they did in Indra. Raghubabu had some handful of witty dialogues.

Now coming to crew!!

Biggest culprit among the crew is Story-writer Chinni Krishna who gets inspired by his own films Narasimhanaidu and Gangotri and ofcourse recent Shakti and even Indra. May be one can figure it out the reason easily as he has now become “Genius” with his weakness for TV anchor Omkar.

Then we have Vinayak bitten by Kungfu bug and thus cook this no-where plot with Gunasekhar’s style of costly background and Meher’s style of heartless making. 

Peter Heins had flying sickness I guess…as he never allowed our hero to be on the ground for the action sequences.

Allu Aravind’s weakness is his own success; he tasted with magnum-opus Magadheera. And he thus forcefully hands over the sword to his son and asks him to repeat the magic in an irrelevant plot set up in this contemporary period. 

Film has its Strengths by the way…

Allu Arjun really rocked with his stunning dance moments almost in every song. And one should appreciate his hard work put into toning his body to suit the warrior role. And Gorgeous Tamanna entertains us to the core and seriously she is one damn reason for her admirers to look at the movie.

Music by Keeravani is good for couple of songs…And I really liked the picturaization of all the songs. “Omkareswara” is beautifully choreographed giving justice to its lyrics.  “Nachuvaaraaa” is mouth watering rain song and “chiranjeeva chiranjeeva” pictured at lavish foreign locales. While “Ambadhari”,”Nath Nath” and “In the night” are shot indoor have rocking dance moments from Arjun.

I am sad and happy at the same time as my favorite number “Vasudhaara” is not used in the movie.

Art direction by Anand Sai and Cinematography of Ravi Varma offer grandeur and pleasantness. The sets are natural. Movie has some good Production values.

Finally I Conclude...

With nothing to offer with the story, Badrinath still can be watched at leisure for Allu Arjun and of course white beauty Tamanna. And for nice songs but alas they come hand in hand with annoying fights.

 Rating

I give it 2.5/5. So Half century for good things I mentioned.

Salman's Ready Movie Review

Salman Khan, after shaking the box-office last Christmas with “Dabangg” is back again with his new movie “Ready”. Nowadays he’s more inclined towards the South Indian hits…and now “Ready” too is the remake of a Telugu film with the same title. Aneez Bazmi directs this flick, while Asin pairs with Salman.

Plot:

Prem(Salman), a happy-go-lucky guy falls for Sanjana(Asin)  after few regular cat-mice fights between the couple. Sanjana is stuck between her greedy uncles who want her to marry their respective brother-in-laws to grab her property. How Prem manages to solve her problem by turning her uncle’s good with an intelligent game played with the help of Balidaan Bharadwaj(Paresh Rawal) is the entire movie about!

Sallu bhai Rocks…

Sallu goes with his lucky on-screen name “Prem Kapoor” and he’s got more time to romance his love and play around the house like in Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. He’s there in almost every scene, loud enough in his full form doing all sorts of nakras. It’s only Salman who can go to “Pee” on-screen and call“Pee-time” to declare the intermission, place his glasses to the back-collar to remind us of “Dabangg”…or not to say the least ..take off his shirt at the climax and ask the audience/Asin …”Mazaa ayaa kya..” and of course his repeating dialogue  "Life mein kabhi teen cheese ko underestimate mat karna I, Me And Myself". That’s Salman for his fans, he who holds up the film firmly till the end-titles scroll.

What about others…

Asin obviously is not Madhuri of HAHK, but she does her best to match the Prem. With not much to play, she convincingly does her role.

Paresh Rawal does a decent job, if not dominated by Salman. Huge supporting cast comprising Mahesh Manjrekar, Paresh Rawal, Sharat Saxena, Akhilendra Mishra, Aarya Babbar, Puneet Issar, and Manoj Joshi did well too.

But seriously a good female casting is missing opposite them…Likes of Kiron Kher or Fareeda Jalal would have been effective…

Luckily audiences have an item number and a cameo by Zareen Khan. AjayDevgan, Sanjay dutt, Arbaaz khan and Kangana Ranauth make a brief appearance in the beginning. So don’t be late to theatres as they vanish within first 15 min!

Dhinka chaka ….Dhinka Chaka ..

Other cool stuff in the movie are the songs…”Dhink Chaka..Dhink chakaa” composed by Devi Sri Prasad, which topped chartbusters in last month is very good on-screen too. Then we have “Character Deela” with Salman dancing with his Katrina’s look alike Zareen Khan.”Humko Pyaar hua” is soothing one.Pritam composes them

Direction and Screenplay…

Director Aneez Bazmi deviates a bit in first half to suit Salman’s stature and age of course. That leaves few blind spaces in between and Love angle of the lead pair is not much established. He sticks to the original in second half mostly, tackles the huge cast efficiently without much confusion. He gives enough space to funny one-liners to rejoice the audience in frequent intervals. But he comes up with an idiotically extended climax far from the original. And Emotions take back seat which does some damage. So overall he scores just pass marks

Let’s compare with the original(This section for Telugu friends…)

“Ready” in Telugu has budding star Ram as hero. So it’s more of story that is aptly supported by the good cast. And ace comedian Brahmanandam who plays the crucial role lifts the original to the next level, similar role played by Paresh Rawal in Hindi version is not that great as Salman takes over all the control here. So among those who saw the original, only Salman fans would like this Hindi version. Zareen and Ajay plays the cameo played by Tamanna and Navdeep in original.

Final Say

Huge but not so attractive cast, lack of depth in emotions or love scenes, few dull moments will definitely drag it badly from it becoming other “Hum Aapke Hain Kaun”. Nevertheless it is Salman’s omnipresence and chartbuster tracks and decent storyline that will help it sail the Box-office safely.

Rating

I go with 3 stars…And Thanks to Salman’s craze post “Dabangg”, it will be a hit if not a block-buster.

  

Rangam Movie Review

Tamil block-buster movie “KO” is remade as “Rangam”. Rangam is directed by KV Anand, A cinematographer turned director, who proved his mettle with his previous film Ayan (remade as Veedokkade in Telugu). Rangam stars Jiiva and Karthika in lead roles.

Plot: Aswathama (Jiiva) is dashing and daring photographer, who risks his life many a times to expose the truth. He falls for his colleague, a dynamic reporter Renuka (Karthika). And there is budding youth leader Vasanth (Ajmal) who struggles hard to change the current system by winning the elections. These three has to fight against two larger force, the current chief minister (PrakashRaj) and opposition leader (Kota).

Who wins the elections? …And several interesting twists unfolds into a gripping saga altogether.

Actors:

Jiiva (s/o RB chowdary) looks cool and energetic. He plays his role to the core leaving no stone unturned. If he comes up with diverse roles in future and markets equally well in Telugu, he could easily expand his market here.

Karthika gets her first success in Kollywood after her debacle with Telugu “Josh”. I guess her different looks are yet to register with the audience. Plus point is she resembles her mother, Yesteryear actress Radha in many angles. She is good overall.

Ajmal who plays Vasant is excellent. He supports the proceedings very aptly and he is something to watch out.  Piya Bajpai who plays another reporter is bubbly. This girl is cleverly used to fill in love triangle and fit in the twist in the second half.

PrakashRaj gets something great where he could just excel. He is awesome in subtle emotions. Kota Srinivasa Rao too plays his role perfectly.

Power packed screenplay and excellent direction!

Screenplay of the movie is perfectly written, where each scene one after other just builds up the expectations.

KV Anand who worked as cinematographer for movies like “Prema Desam” and “Sivaji” to name few does a great job. He balances the political drama and thrilling elements with sufficient commercial elements. He cleverly mixes a love/friendship angle and makes this film more youthful. And True facets of election campaign and interesting episode of youth joining politics should be admired. Don’t forget to watch his previous movie Veedokkade if you missed it.

Cinematography and Music rocks…

Harris Jairaj composes striking and melodious tunes and lifts the film to the next level.  All songs are excellently shot. Especially the song “Nemali kulukula” and “Ee manchullo” captures superb locales in Norway.  And look for guest appearances of Surya, Tamanna, Bharath, Abbas and many other popular stars in “Aga naga naga” song.

Richard M Nathan’s cinematography plays a major role in the songs and of course is top notch that makes the movie appealing all through.

Final Say:

Avidly supported by excellent technical team and awesome performances by youngsters and experienced actors, Rangam stands above all the movies released in recent past. KV Anand, the director makes a gripping and interesting story that appeal to all sections.  KV Anand who worked as press photographer in the past surely makes them proud with this movie.

Rating

3.75/5. Never afford to miss this movie if you are in thirst of good movies… 

Hollywood : Spring 2011

Spring is a sort of new start….with trees turning green...flowers blossoming all over…And shining sun. Nature with its fullest love welcomes you to have some unleashed fun every time…And for Hollywood, spring always brings some exciting movies that warms up and gears us for still bigger summer fun.

Check out some interesting stuff about three “too” good movies of this spring….

Thor

Marvel studios were successful in bringing their marvelous comics on to large screen and win the box-office every time…Unlike Marvel’s earlier fictional heroes Spiderman, Hulk, X-Men and Iron Man, Thor is a born hero. Thor is hammer-wielding God associated with thunder and lightning according to the Norse mythology. You know something; Thursday (Thor’s day) was derived from this mighty God.

Plot: Thor, to be crowned king of Asgard is a powerful and fearless but arrogant warrior. His arrogance reignites the ancient war between the Asgardians and their enemies Frost Giants. Thus Thor’s father Odin banishes him and throws his mighty weapon onto the earth. Thor’s evil brother Loki grabs this opportunity, joins hands with Frost giants to kill Thor.

Now Thor has to survive in USA as illegal alien. And on top of it, he has to save the mankind and his own kingdom from his evil-brother Loki. And thus he learns a lesson f his life as what makes a real hero.

What to look for: The movie comprises of wonderfully choreographed fight sequences, brilliantly dipped in spell-bound CG work.  Awesome production design by Bo Welch (Men in Black2) gives the film, an elegant look.  And Chris Hemsworth stands above all with the honest portrayal of mighty Thor. Overall slick look, good story and wonderful production values make it a delightful “3D” watch!!

Rio

Rio is creation of Fox movies, the creators of Ice Age trilogy.

Plot:  Blu is domesticated little bird, who never learned to fly leads a comfortable life with his best friend and the owner Linda.  Time comes when Blu has to travel to faraway land “Rio de Janerio” to join his only surviving female counterpart Jewel to save their breed. And thus adventure and fun unleashes the colorful landscapes of Brazil and gives way to a cute love story of little birds.

What to look for: The movie is true delight for kids. The plush landscapes of Brazil and the carnival event are well captured. Voice over given by Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg (Social Network) makes the romance appealing to adults as well. Lot of characters including fat Chicken, mischievous monkeys etc keep us engaged throughout.

Fast Five

 This fifth installment of Fast and Furious series reunites the veterans from all the first four films of the series. They are headed by Dom (Vin-Diesel), the car-crazy thief.  Special attraction to this flick is the addition of “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson who plays the undeterred cop Luke Hobbs.  They had to accomplish their last job of looting the corrupt business man of Rio de Janerio in Brazil.

What to look for: This chick-flick which is absolutely story-less, but yet survives big with its breath-taking action sequences. This fifth installment gives you high-octane pleasures with more number of chases, fun filled races and leaves no dull moment.  Adventure starts with nail-biting Train sequence and ends with a lengthy car chase that involves two cars pulling the bank locker tied to them. Action lovers should not afford to miss this one…

All three movies cater to three different sets of audience…and yet again have universal appeal…All three are good watch…Catch them for sure in nearest theatres!!

100% Love Review

Sukumar, one thing that strikes our mind whenever we hear this name is ”Aarya”, a truly different “one-sided love” story. Although he is 3 films old, Sukumar still shines in its glory. And now he comes back with “100% Love”. The movie stars young Yuvasamrat Akkineni Nagachaitanya and milky beauty Tamanna in the leads. Let’s check out how much percentage this mathematical love story scores?

Plot= (Balu +MahaLakshmi): Balu(Nagachaitanya) is highly intelligent and extraordinarily studious guy, who always scores first. But for the first time, he is beaten by his ‘maradalu’ MahaLakshmi, an equally confident and competent.

And movie is all about this couple who fight like Tom and Jerry every second…and who wins over whom is all about.

Actors –Mark List :

“Josh” boy Nagachaitanya grabbed the attention with Ye Maaya chesaave. His role in 100% Love is we can say a tailor made one, where his boyish looks and personality suits to the best. He is pretty good in lighter vein scenes, has good comedy timing…makes his mark in romantic scenes, of course, he is heir to the god of romance…Hmmm might need some more effort in dances. But ….but he still needs to go miles in emotional scenes, specially as he hails from akkineni family, he should take some classes from his grandpa. Overall scores first class.

White beauty Tamanna has come back to tinsel town after a long hiatus. Her role has the transformation from an innocent village girl to energetic gutsy lady, who challenges her “Baava”. She plays her role with much ease and confidence…But with that skin tone, she never looked as transformed as she always looks the same. She scores in distinction…

Tara Alisha has very small role to play and so is the guy who played Tamanna’s fiancé for a while. Naresh plays NC’s father. KR vijaya and Vijaykumar play prominent roles. All of them scores pass marks.

Dharmavarapu infuses some laughs…he just fails by 1 mark, due to his silly white wig.

Forgot to say..There are bunch of lovely kids…who contribute loads to film…let us give 100/100 to those cuties. MS Narayana and all the friends’ gang too score first class.

Sukumar ‘s Algebra

Sukumar can be called as trend-breaker rather than trend-setter. He no doubt thinks out of box and that’s why we look forward for his film even after his recent debacles. In 100% love, he focuses on childish egos of boy and girl carried in their college life. He brings out lot of fun that comes naturally out of silly tricks played by the lead pair.  So the fun part that covers most of the film is dealt good enough. Sukumar, who is originally a math’s teacher comes up with lot of  calculations this time comparing height,salary etc. But he misses the emotional feel towards the end…and his calculations divert the depth of the movie in climax.

First half and songs are big ++!!

First half is fun to watch…thanks to the cute kids…who make us laugh every minute. Silly fights by the lead pair to win over each other will entertain us.

Other striking thing of the movie is the songs. DeviSriprasad scores in rocking way for Sukumar, and this time he is equally supported by lyricists, Chandrabose(Infatuation & Dooram) and Shrimani(aho baalu). Lyrics are conceptual and good. Good graphic work in “aho baalu song” and of course how can one forget item song in Sukumar-Devi’s combination right from “aa ante amalapuram” to “Ringa Ringa”. This time it’s "Diyyala Diyyala" that gets big whistles from the crowd.

What’s minus!!

 Second half takes a big break from the fun with ego-clashes and with entry of new girl and boy in both their lives. So there’s bit of dragging and confusion and thus less fun. Especially the last half an hour should have been dealt in serious way. It’s surprising to see very few well known actors.

Final score = (Nagachaitanya+Tamanna)2 * (Sukumar+DSP)2

The Love story that is based on a concept of “competition” between the lead pair is something fresh. Cute chemistry between the lead pair supported well by Sukumar’s trendy direction and DSP’s lovable music will make it a onetime watch. But movie strictly caters to a set of audience for it goes completely in mindset of college going youngsters.

Rating

(8/3)+((0.5+0.5)/3) + 25/100 ---Why so much of math’s??…You should watch the flick to get that answer!!