Karunakaran...Nee Kosam

The inclination of cult director’s imagination towards minimum guarantee formula movies is a bad phase for any industry. This is what the cause of concern for Tollywood now days. This is in reference to recent movie by Karunakaran. Novelty is at its lowest amongst all his productions so far. Though none his films were blockbusters (revenue wise) but were trend setters with sensitive elements. He is known for his master stroke of opening frame of heroines and soft story telling. Recent outing of “Chinna Daana nee kosam” was out and out commercial format with regular ingredients of routine movie. The only curiosity keeps you for 120 odd minutes is the search for Karunakaran’s master strokes, else the movie is flat and predictable with a tiny surprise in the lines of Attarintiki Daredi. The first news was that Nithiin (hope I spelt the right way he wanted) will be working with Karunakaran productions under one of his protégés. The movie would have been a decent outcome had it been ventured by a novice director and actors. Though you are forced to find glimpses of magic here and there but the overall the product is not at par to the calibre of Karunakaran.

We have faith and patience for few more magics on the lines of Tholi Prema, Darling n Endukante Premata!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmtDLzJw3Zs

....Venkaat

Telugu Movie Templates

The Template journey has started way back in 2007 with a surprise hit movie ‘Dhee’ from Srinu Vaitla+Kona Venkat+GopiMohan, the trio. Out of no expectations and financial difficulties the movie became a hit owing to good music, imaginary plot and of course performances. Even Vaitla took challenge and released it on his own, betting everything for this movie. That’s interesting information from behind the screen.  However none of us then, ever imagined that we will be punished and humiliated for a decade for applauding the efforts behind this movie.  

Then the streak of ‘Temporal Punishment’ has started with long list of movies from the Template....

Year	Template Name	Emotion	Outcome
2007	Dhee	Happy	Vishnu on Diet
2008	Ready	Exciting	Ram’s memorable
2008	King	Disappointment	King became Nag’s prefix
2010	Namo…	Angry	Oil scene of Venky & Brahmi
2011	Dookudu	Ecstasy	Prince Comic timing
2013	Baadsha	Heights of patience	Ruffled NTR’s hair style
2014	Aagadu	..beep..beep..beep	Prakash Raj Controversy n Vaitla struggle for survival without trio
2015	Mega Power Project	Scary, anxiety ! ?	Re-union of Trio (Vaitla+Kona+Gopi)

Now after the debacle of Aagadu, it is interesting to see whether he relieves (AAguthada) us from Temporal Punishment, yet or not! Freighting thing is the next is Mega Power project (tentatively titled ‘My name is Raju’), who is carving for a quick success rather than a meaningful movie.  Orange was decent from the routine fruit but no one found it to be tasty, so he went on to routine grape fruits Racha n Nayak and Naga Babu stopped harvesting seasonal vitamin C fruits & continued with yearlong crop of TV productions. That’s a different story.

Aagadu was apt title for us to address Vaitla, because the movie was nothing but a piece of plagiarism work not only from his earlier art creations but also from the industry successes. Surprising thing is the helpless situation to come out of the shell of template movies by a talented director who has produced classy Nee Kosam n Jazzy Anandam.

Namo Venkatesa Comedy Clippings

Venkaat...

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....