Current Telugu Movie Review

current review

Annapurna Studios Presents
Sri Nag Corporation

CURRENT  (2009)

Cast: Sushanth, Sneha Ullal, Tanikella Bharani, Brahmanandam, Charan Raj, Raghubabu, Shafi, Melkote, Sudha, Reshmi, Jhansi, Shakeela, etc.

Story: Surya Prathap
Story Development: Chintalapudi Sreenivasa Rao
Camera: Vijay C. Kumar
Fights: Kanal Kannan
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Editing: Marthand K. Venkatesh
Costumes: A. Naga Susheela
Producer: A. Naga Susheela, Chintalapudi Sreenivasa Rao
Story, Screenplay, Direction: Surya Prathap (debut)

What’s it all about?
Sushanth (Sushanth) is a carefree youth who doesn’t worry about yesterdays and tomorrows and lives in the “current” moment. He loves Sneha (Sneha Ullal) at first sight, and finally makes her accept his love. Sneha’s dad (Charan Raj) notes that Sushanth is totally irresponsible, and Sneha asks Sushanth to change his attitude for their love but Sushanth says he’d not. This leads to their separation. Sneha comes back to him and admits he created love in her mind and thus he should take it off too. What happens next forms the rest of the story.

Neninthe

Cast: Ravi Teja, Siya, Mumaith Khan, Krishna Bhagawan, Brahmanandam, MS Narayana, Supreet, Sayaji Shinde, Subbaraju, Sairam Shankar, Raja Ravindra, Uttej, Rama Prabha, Surekha Vani, Satyam Rajesh, Venu Madhav, Kovai Sarala, Melkote etc.

Music: Chakri
Cinematography: Shyam K Naidu
Editing: Varma
Art: Chinna
Fights: Ram - Lakshman
Story - dialogues - screenplay - direction: Puri Jagan
Producer: DVV Danayya
Release date: 18 December 2008

Story

Ravi (Ravi Teja) is a struggling assistant director who works for a mediocre director ‘Idly’ Viswanadh (modeled after self-deprecating ‘Puri’ Jagannadh). Ravi lives with his mother (Rama Prabha) who is suffering from cancer. Sandhya (Siya) is a struggling side dancer who aspires to become a heroine. She is harassed by her brother-in-law (Krishna Bhagawan) who acts more like a broker. Yaadu (Supreet) is a goon who harasses Sandhya. The rest of the story is all about how Ravi and Sandhya realize their dreams.

Artists Performance

Ravi Teja: Ravi Teja, who is known for his hyperactive energy with lots of attitude, gave a subdued performance in this film. There is lot of honesty and intensity in certain scenes enacted by him. His dialogue delivery is also slow compared to his earlier films; that’s why dialogues like ‘tuduchukunte pothundanukunte…’ and ‘road meda penta…’ are clearly audible in this film compared to Ravi Teja’s earlier films.

Others: Actress Siya is appropriate for the role of a side actress who becomes heroine at a later point of time. Subbaraju stands out with excellent performance though he imitated Mahesh Babu at times. Mumaith Khan enacted herself as a heroine in this film. She is adequate. Supreet excels in the role of the main villain. Sayaji Shinde is very good as the hapless Telugu movie producer. Brahmanandam is hilarious as a mediocre director and he provides some entertainment. Krishna Bhagawan is good as the nasty guy. Venu Madhav is hilarious in ‘Tamil director’ get up and in the ‘deep shit’ episode. Sairam Shankar is nice as the fans president. MS Narayana, Satyam Rajesh and Rama Prabha are fair. VV Vinayak donned the guest role of himself. Ali – the aasthana comedian of Puri Jagan’s movies – is conspicuously absent in this movie.

King Movie Review

Nagarjuna’s Telugu Movie King Review

Cast: Nagarjuna, Trisha Krishnan, Mamta Mohandas, Madhu Shalini, Srihari, Sunil, M S Narayana, Venu Madhav, Brahmanandam, Krishna Bhagavaan, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam

Special appearances by actress during a Special song: Anushka Shetty, Charmy Kaur, Genelia D’Souza, Kamna Jethmalani, Priyamani, Sneha Ullal

Director: Sreenu Vaitla
Story: Kona Venkat Gopimohan
Screenplay: Sreenu Vaitla
Dialogues: B.V.S.Ravi
Music Director: Devi Sri Prasad

King aka Raja Chandrapratap Varma (Nagarjuna), heir apparent to late Raja Varma, takes over the business of his father after his death and works hard to live up to his father’s name. He has kid brother (Deepak) too and lives with large family consisting of his mom (Geeta) and uncles and their family members. On his business trip to Uttaranchal, he is killed by Swapna (Mamta Mohandas) aided by King’s archrival. Enters Bottu Seenu, a street rowdy, a look-alike of King. Bottu Seenu falls in love with Sravani (Trisha) an aspiring singer who is also sister to don Jnaneshwar (Srihari). To impress Sravani, Bottu Seenu gets introduced himself to her as a software engineer called Sharat. The rest of the movie unravels the mystery behind the killing of King, and the identity of Bottu Seenu.

Analysis

With three hit movies under his belt – Dhee, Dubai Seenu and Ready, director Sreenu Vytla has garnered the image of a good entertainer. He dishes out another masala entertainer this time with ‘Manmadhudu’ Nagarjuna. King is a pucca commercial formula movie designed to cater to the entertainment seeking audiences. It succeeds tickling your funny bone in most scenes. The first half is breezy and has funny moments with a spoof on music director Chakri (Brahmananadam’s character).

The best part are some hilarious situations, romantic drama between Trisha and Nag, and Srihari’s characterization.

Kotha Bangaru Lokam

Cast: Varun Sandesh, Sweta Basu Prasad, Prakash Raj, Jayasudha, Ahuti Prasad, Brahmanandam, Rao Ramesh

Music: Micky J Meyer
Cinematography: Chota K Naidu
Art: AS Prakash
Choreography: Sobhi Paulraj, Pradeep Antony, Baba Bhaskar
Lyrics: Sirivennela Seetarama Sastry, Anant Sriram, Srikanth Addala
Fights: Sayeed
Editing: Marthand K. Venkatesh
Story - Screenplay - Dialogues - Producer: Srikanth Addala
Producer: Dil Raju
Release date: 9 October 2008

Story

Balu (Varun Sandesh) is son of lovable middleclass couple (Prakash Raj & Jayasudha). Swapna (Sweta Basu Prasad) is the daughter of a strict and rich father. Both of them study in a residential college located at a small town of Godavari district. Balu and Swapna fall in love. Swapna is withdrawn from the residential school because her father comes to know about her love. The rest of the story is all about how Balu and Swapna try to get back to each other.

Artists Performance

Main leads: Varun Sandesh shows improvement in this film compared to his debut in Happy Days. He suited the character of the film very well and he needs to work strongly on getting diction right. His boyish charm wins you over. Sweta Basu Prasad (award winning child actress from Iqbal film) is very good and she perfects her role with her childlike innocent look. However, there is a bit of inconsistency in the dubbing in the initial part of the film.

Other actors: Jayasudha and Prakash Raj play a perfect couple like they did in Bommarillu film. However, Jayasudha's role is more meaningful and vital in this film. Ahuti Prasad is good as the father of heroine. Rao Ramesh who impressed everybody in his radical portrayal in Gamyam did the key character of a lecturer in the film. He is very good though he appears to have gone little over board in the class room scenes. This film has lots of fresh faces as friends of hero and heroine. And all of them are natural and add some value to the film. Brahmanandam character offers variety.

Prayanam Movie Review

Prayanam Movie Starcast

Starcast: Manchu Manoj Kumar, Harika, Bramhanandam
Director: Chandrasekhar Yeleti
Producer: Naresh Murari
Music Director: Mahesh Shankar

Prayanam Movie Review

Boy meets girl in an airport and it’s love at first sight. He has just two hours to woo her. One may think this is implausible but director Chandrasekhar Yeleti makes it possible in the Telugu movie Prayanam.

The journey the boy traverses in making the girl fall in love in a nutshell forms the story of the film. In a sense, it’s the journey of life too for both of then.

Dhruv (Manoj), a MBA graduate, lands in Malaysia with his two friends on a holiday enroute to Singapore. He runs into Harika (Payal Ghosh who is rechristened as Harika) at the airport while he’s trying to win a bet with his friend as he’s trying to blow a feather without it falling down. He is smitten by her and then decides to strike a friendship with her. He overhears her talking — that she has to meet a prospective groom in Hyderabad and decide about marriage. Realising that he has just over two hours to court her (as her flight to Hyderabad is delayed) he tries various ways and means, hatching plans with the help of his friends. Harika initially is polite and later gets irritated at the sight of him. She even says she hates him. Does hate at first sight lead to love at second sight?

Chandrasekhar Yeleti works on a thin premise but builds up the story pretty well. There are moments of humour, despair, frustration woven into the narrative. The story may seem run-of-the mill in terms of a love story but he infuses some interest by setting it against a single backdrop — namely the Malaysia International Airport, Kuala Lumpur, by having songs in the background (thankfully there are no running around trees), and a slightly different approach towards romance.
There are moments when the pace does slacken but it picks up eventually. Known for his slightly different and hatke approach to cinema, Chandrasekhar Yeleti comes up with a commercial venture in a slightly refreshing vein. The character of Brahmanandam, albeit distracting at times, is humourous particularly in the scenes where he’s caught by the airport authorities and when he is chased by the African gentleman.