Kick trailers have started to kick the tickle bone.  Though the first trailer was released less than 45 days of the release, it garnered positive vibes, thanks to catchy tracks and blowing lines by Rajat Arora.  The presence of Huda and Nawazuddin are another attraction in addition to the attitude of Salman. Having seen the Telugu version, I must admit this Hindi outing is a notch ahead in terms of action n drama. The Telugu (2009) hit revived the career of Ravi Teja and made Ileana a lucky mascot for Tollywood. She never looked back since then in Tollywood and even went up to charging a Crore remuneration before coming to Bollywood.

Coming back to Salman’s Kick, the promos are promising with lot of fun n thrill. Jacqueline is looking salty with Salman. Let’s see how Sajid has utilized the dose of salt to make this recipe (chemistry with Salman) sumptuous.  The plot has everything you want to have on a weekend with Salman Movie. In typical modern Bollywood style, this move would earn a place in top grossers.

Finally, Friday will decide whether the movie is capable enough of pulling crowds the same way as Salman skirt pulling act on Zumme ki raat.….

 Venky....

A plot filled with vengeance by the victim against the mighty. This movie gives a feeling that the makers are not even interested to fill the old wine in a new bottle at least. Nothing we have never seen or heard. The trailers are all about the movie and left nothing to be explored in the theater.

The start cast is up to the expectations of the script, which unfortunately is none. First few reels talk about why the heroine is buried live and next few filled with revenge. The tracks are ok except the one remix. A cameo by Sunny (not Deol) is without legitimate permission of the script. I believe Bhatt camp has dumped the thought of good cinema as the hero was dumped in to the lane in this movie. Siddharth Kher is a fresh wave in an inspector role as Sushant Singh in negative shade.  The only positive thing is the level of vulgarity is lesser than the first version.  I watched this movie to kill time and to reach Nizamuddin Rly station in the wee hours (4AM) to receive someone. If you have similar kind of compulsions go for it or else sit back at home and watch any 1990 era Bollywood movie.

Why to watch and Hate….?

Bollywood Moolah

Is Good cinema is defined by collections. If no, then why we have so many platforms (Facebook, blogs, twitter) shouting with the numbers and experts giving minute to minute details of how movies are faring around the world, collection wise. Regional movies are no exception to this. Surprisingly elite crowd is highly depending up on these reports of numbers as they are habituated by the dash boards and flash reports at work. Even, our opinions on the movies are highly influenced by these numbers most of the times. The hurdle/apprehension might be that, how can a movie be categorized as bad one if it raked 70 Crores at Indian box office.

This practice has started with 100 Cr club movies then 200 Cr and with Dhoom 3 & Krrish 3 it went to 500 Cr club. Unfortunately none of these are celluloid delights.  Indian cinema has stopped producing intelligent cinema long back except for few experimental movies by Vikramaditya Motwane, Ritesh Batra, Sujoy Ghosh and few more. Sad part is most of these productions could not grab attention of masses because they have not crossed the mark of collection clubs to be declared as a hit. We forgot the definition of a good cinema rather started praising the hit cinema.

The collection of recent movies gives the pathetic state of Bollywood viewers. Heropanti (50 Cr), Humshakals (55 Cr) and hit movie Ek Villain (88 Cr) were unpleasant outings but still able to attract crowd. The media and production houses are successful in titillating our minds with the projection of numbers, big interviews of star cast and TV shows and we are falling prey to it. So far only producers were worried about the collections but now whole world is curious behind the collections. A thought on below :

Did we forget the taste of good cinema?

Why Bhansali has to cross the limits of sensuality and explore vulgar world in RamLeela?

Why Bollywood is heavily depend upon south remakes?

Why major productions are released on Eid and Diwali?

Answers are obvious but we don’t want to give an ear to them.

…is it because we do not have a face and stand point on good cinema?

…or our viewing preferences are influenced by lot of Non-cinematic elements?

Venky...

Sense and sensibilities of Drishyam…..

 

A 4^th Std pass common man and his 10^th Fail wife with two children and their confrontation with police department is weaved in to fine layers of cinematic experience. The hero is a movie buff and he learning world is movies and society. He always gets into sweet fights with his wife on Sense and sensibilities to learn from nature, society and the vacuum around.

Mohanlal has portrayed his role at par excellence in emoting the sensibilities of a loving family man engulfed with unprecedented events of life. The rest of the cast including kids were at their best balance. The pace of the movie is slow in the beginning but the grip tightens as you proceed through the GOD’s own country with Mohanlal on a bicycle. Subconsciously the back ground score creates layers of excitement in our minds as protagonist creates unreal Drishyams in witnesses mind.  There was moments of joy, struggle and shades of life, which are neither right nor wrong, which the climax justifies. We are right in our own perception which might be wrong in other’s perception. The question here is judgment of perceptions.  This movie touches up on few positive attitudes of life i.e, patience, attitude to confront an adverse situation and confidence even when stuck up in the lanes of wrong doing.

Let’s see how multiple layers of this Malayali paratha hits taste buds of Andhra Pesarattu lovers….

Venky...

Ek se zyaada maza Baby Doll 2 Me hai !!!

Ek se zyaada maza do me hai! True because,  you get everything you expect. A new genre called “Horexxx” is introduced in to Indian cinema by Ekta Madam.  Please mind the 2x. She is the only Indian film maker to bring “öoooh aaahh” in to living room, so proudly. Ofcourse organisers of Big Boss should be praised for searching international talent. We should not be surprised next year, if Sunny gets an National award for her act this year, as Vidya got a national award by Honourable President of India post her Ooohing act in Dirty Picture.

During the whole movie Sunny was at her home turf, very comfortable. She has been asked to repeat every expression of erstwhile profession, for the “A” category of audience of this movie.  Surprisingly movie goers are enjoying these acts as if they haven’t seen her performance before. Evidence is the wooing collections across globe.

Rest of the characters are used to weave the thin story line with stringent budget. Because nothing much spent on either locations or costumes.  On thrill part, the movie is a notch above the rest of the gangs (Varma, Bhatt’s).  Sounds and visuals have been used to the best to give you goosebumps at times in addition to chart busting audio tracks. Baby Doll is already into our lives through Pubs, Disks, Sangeet ceremonies, festivals…what not.  Enjoy….no other option. Lekin...Akele hee Jaana.

Venky....

It’s all about…..Film Fortune

Long ago a promising actor arrived in Tollywood with a cult movie “Gulabi”. Overnight he became a lover boy in Tollywood and grabbed attention of (of course more of female fans) including Ram Gopal Varma. No prizes for guessing, he is JD Chakravarthi. The movie “Gulabi” was director by Krishna Vamsi, protégé of Varma.

JD took the Bollywood lanes on invite from Varma, leaving a dozen Tollywood offers and a fortune, which he realized in hindsight. He spent almost two years time for an Bollywood movie. By the time he came to his senses, Tollywood has already forgotten him and Srikanths and Jagapathi babus started sharing his fortune. One of the films he rejected was a movie by director Bala, who is know for his authentic concepts. This movie eventually landed in the hands of a struggling actor on a suggestion from JD. This movie "Sethu" became a mile stone in the career of this struggling actor, Vikram. This movie eventually remade in Telugu (Sivaiah), Hindi (Tere Naam). Then he grabbed the eye balls of super director Shankar, who gave him a new lease of life with movie “Aniyan (Tamil)/Aparachitudu Telugu)/Aparichit (Hindi).

The Varma Factory, on one side kept on delivering promising directors and on the other, damaged careers of tons of actors. Though this bunch of actors tasted success at first step but failed consistently there after. The list is huge…Urmila, Anthara Mali, Nisha Kothari, Randeep Singh Hooda, Rajpal Yadav, Manoj Bajpai, JD Chakravarthi and Sharvanand. Some of them (Manoj & Hooda) have tasted success post departure from factory, surprisingly.

They say, “Luck is what, when preparation meets the opportunity”. 

But who knows, Sala that is opportunity or something else?

....Venky

Jana Sena for Prashninche Janam

The story of break up between Chiru and Power is true or a strategic step? Let’s leave this question to vacuum. It seems the wise men behind mega family took a strategic step to conserve the Power brand by detaching it from Mega Brand. It’s kind of Demerger in accounting terms, where an entity is floated to take care of itself, without impacting the financials of the Demerged entity. Though the Resultant Company is an individual person in itself on paper, it does not come out of its original presence. Same way all the “Distance within Mega family” is purely created in media to save the “Power” brand. It helped immensely helped Pawanism to have its rebirth, after a decade. He is now “The Man” of the industry at this moment. The hatred of Senior Mega brand is came out of endless love of decades.

All the above is my mind.

The below is my heart.

He made us all to read about Fidel Castro & Che Guevara and feel the ideology of RED. His silence is as dangerous as his outburst. Every Telugu speaking heart felt the pain of separation helplessly. They desperately need a “Maseeha” to listen and feel the pain and punish misanthropists. His arrogance is his style statement, his attitude is inspiration for the masses. Let’s his ideology be the Bible for all Telugu people, for a better Andhra Pradesh and a better society. I pray GOD to give “Power Star”, more power to sustain long enough to bring the “Change” he is anticipating.

We all are with you Pawan.

Gaganapu veedhi veedi valasa vellipoyina neeli mabbu kosam

tharalindi thanaku thane aakasam paradesam
shikarapu anchu nunchi nela jaari poyina neeti chukka kosam
vidichindi chudu naghame thana vasam vanavasam

veedu aaradugula bullettu
veedu dhiaryam visirina rocket,....

thana modale vadulukoni paikedigina kommalaki
chigurinchina chotuni chupisthadu
thana dishane marchukoni prabhavinche suryudiki
thana thurpu parichayame chesthadu

Let’s Pawanism be the trigger of change, the way we think and the way we live in this society.

Venky...

Yevadu 1

 

                                          

“Yevadu” and  “1” augers a new change in the Tollywood story telling and movie format.  Irrespective the results of both the movies let’s welcome new streak of fresh wave in to tollywood.  We have been appreciating the taking/lighting/technique of Hollywood movies and (even) Kollywood for so long. Here when we get a movie close to these parameters we quickly let it down for lack of stereo type entertainment consists of one introduction n one item track with bunch of action sequences and few comic lines. 

I sincerely appreciate the guts of Mahesh, Sukumar n team for such an offbeat product for Sankranti. True, Pizza disappoints you when you are expecting Masala Onion Ravva.  There is a disconnect of expectations with “1”  which resulted in mixed reviews.  If you detach it with Sankranti celebration mood it’s great celluloid venture. The onshore results are the witness for the success of the movie format. The tempo of movie keeps your interest till the last shot. The interval bang leaves you with fine laughter and thrill, which continues till 180^th minute. Help of conventional commercial fiction is very low in each take. If you get a second chance, try to focus on light angles/frames and background score in the movie. Kriti Sanon got a golden break of her career and did a decent job. Glamour, Guitar and Goa are complimentary you get in addition to Gautam’s imaginary and real spaces.

On the other hand “Yevadu” catered to the conventional audience with all the commercial ingredients. However the change of order of tracks, sequences n action is worth mentioning. You get a painful song at the door step and an intro track at the second half. The way action sequences are weaved into story line is much appreciated. The number of action sequences doesn’t bother you though they are in plenty to the standards of tollywood drama. DSP scoring at the back ground elevates few scenes and reminds me of good old days of Manisharma’s back ground score. Charan is showing signs of maturity in every department with each movie and coming out of Megastar image, though team had imbibed few images of Chiru to establish the link. Dil Raju working style of picking ideas and working on stories is different to other production houses. A team of writers work upon a thin story line and shape it up to full length movie. I heard that each member from this team gets his first brake in two to three years after contributing in various ventures. Team contribution is quite evident from title credits.

This Tollywood Sankranti brought us Shadruchula movie “Ugadi” pachadi.

Venky...