Kedi

I have been missing in action since the last couple of days and I can go on and give a million reasons for them. I have a week's worth of drafts waiting to get posted as I have been a busy little bee watching many movies. I went to Dallas last weekend and I had to choose between My Name is Khan & Kedi as we had time to watch only one movie. Needless to say, I watched Kedi (Cos that is what the post is about!). What did I think of it?

Here goes.

Film: Kedi

Cast: Nagarjuna, Mamata Mohandas, Ankur Vakil, Kelly Dorjee,Bramhanandam, Sayaji Shinde, Harshavardhan & Others.

Music: Sandeep Chowta
Director: Kiran
Producer: Kamakshi Kala Movies.
Release Date: 12th February, 2010
My Rating: 1.5/5


What's It About:

Ramesh a.k.a Rummy(Nagarjuna) is a gambler who survives by duping people. When he was young he falls in love with Sweety and when their parents know about their affair, he tries to elope with her. Sweety declines his proposal as she wants to enjoy material comforts and needs money for them which Rummy doesn't have. Rummy grows up with a strong affinity for money. He works for a local don Chandra(Ankur) in Goa. An honest cop Shekhar(Sayaji) is after Rummy. Why is the cop after Rummy? What happened to Sweety? Why does Rummy work for Shekhar? All these questions are answered when Shekhar interrogates Rummy.

Artist Performance:

I am baffled as to why Nagarjuna accepted this film. Nagarjuna looks like a 30 something with a classy wardrobe.He is strictly OK in terms of acting, but that is not his fault as his charector is unconvincing. Mamata Mohandas is a miscast in the movie. She does not look the part of a mother to a kid in a completely non glamorous role. Bramhanandam makes you laugh in places, especially the shipyard and the marriage scenes. Harshavardhan is nice as a sidekick. Ankur Vakil's antagonistic act is adequate.Kelly Dorjee seems to be Nag's favorite person, he finds a role for Kelly in all his films after Don. 

This & That:

The film does not work on so many levels because of many loopholes in the story line. There was no justification for the foreign girl thread or the item song Muddante Cheda. The flashback concept is too cliched. Screenplay for Kedi is a joke. Dialogues are not worth a mention. Re-recording and sync for songs and dialogues is bad. Music by Sandeep Chowta leaves a lot to be desired, Kedi gadu & Muddante being the better songs. Anushka does a special appearance for the title song and it could have been so much better, It looks like Nag already knew the fate of this movie as there were no massive promotions or grand scale audio functions.

Did I Enjoy It?

No, I wished I saw My Name is Khan instead.

Yuganiki Okkadu/Aayirathil Oruvan

I have this policy where I don't watch dubbed Tamil movies in Telugu. Part of the reason could be because I can't bring myself to listen to the songs in Telugu, especially if I like the Tamil version. That's why I still haven't watched Ghazini, Cheli and other movies in Telugu. I have been hearing a lot of buzz about Ayirathil Oruvan(AO). People who know me vouch for the fact that I am a sucker for all things thriller/mystery. When I heard that the movie was an adventure thriller, I watched it, regardless of people telling me that its going to be gory.This is what I thought.

Film: Yuganiki Okkadu/Aayirathil Oruvan(In Tamil)
Cast: Karthi Sivakumar, Reema Sen, Andrea Jeremiah, Parthiban(Special Appearance) & Others.
Music: G.V. Prakash
Director: Selvaraghavan
Producer: R. Ravindran
Release Date: 14th January, 2010
My Rating: 3/5


What's It About:

The movie starts in 12th century AD where the Chola Empire is coming to an end. The Pandyas have waged a war with them and in order to save the crown prince, the Cholas send him away with a few trusted men to a secret place, taking with them the Pandya's sacred idol. The Pandyas follow them but they cannot find the hiding place. The films cuts to the present day where expeditions are still going on to trace the secret  location of the empire. Lavanya(Andrea) is an archeologist whose dad is missing after he locates the empire. Anita(Reema) is an army officer who is assigned the task of leading a search party to locate him and Lavanya joins them. The party employs Muthu(Karthi) and a group of porters to help them. The team goes through a series of traps that the Cholas have set to frighten people away from looking for them. Many lives are lost and the trio get separated from everyone. They finally find the Chola civilization and meet their king(Parthiban). What will the Cholas do to them? What happened to the idol? Will they ever get back to normalcy? All these questions form the rest of the story.

Artist Performance:

This is Karthi's second movie and the movie has released 3 years after his first one. It is Karthi's show all the way. He is endearing as a tapori coolie who is a hopeless flirt. He provides the sole source of humor in the whole movie. His facial expressions are too good in his combination scenes with Parthiban. Reema Sen has a meaty role and has a tremendous scope to perform but she is uneven at places, putting in a laudable effort especially in the last 30 minutes of the movie. Andrea does not have much to do or say and I cannot talk about her acting skills when she doesn't have to exhibit them. Parthiban is nice in a extended special appearance and  this acting in the scene where he realizes his mistake is brilliant. 

This & That:

Selvaraghavan has to be appreciated for attempting a film  with such grand attributes. The sets are grand, cinematography is beautiful. The screenplay is slow and editing could have been better. It would help if some screen time is reduced as it is well over 3 hours. Music by G.V. Prakash deserves a special mention. My favorite picks of the album are Oh Eesa & Un Mela Aasadhan, which is well choreographed. The climax of the movie is very hard to digest and too graphic for my taste. The twist in the end and the 7 obstacles that the charectors face are interesting. The movie is a super hit in Tamil and is apparently doing good business in A.P as well.

Did I Enjoy It?

Yes, the movie is entertaining. Steel your stomach for the graphic scenes.

Revisiting - Shalimar

This post has been sitting in my drafts page since the last 5 days. A busy weekend and a busier social scene deprived me of my blogging time. Nonetheless, the post.Watching Khamosh yesterday reminded me how much I enjoy old movies. Especially movies that are not pucca commercial masala movies. I was reminiscing the good old days when my parents would sit together on a Sunday afternoon, drinking their coffee and having animated discussions about movies and songs. I vividly remember, I was 12-13 years old when we watched Shalimar together. The movie was stuck in my head for many days, especially the title song. I have been looking for the movie from the past 3 years and I finally found it. I wasted no time in watching it and 2 hours later I had a big satisfied grin on my face!

Film: Shalimar

Cast: Dharmendra, Zeenat Aman, Rex Harrinson, Shammi Kapoor & Others.

Music: R.D. Burman
Director: Krishna Shah


*Spoiler Alert* Plot revealed after Jump.

Revisiting - Khamosh

I came across an interview of Vidhu Vinod Chopra recently and being me; I had to google him up. I landed on his wikipedia page and laid my eyes upon Khamosh. This movie was made in 1985 and boasted of a huge star cast. I remembered watching this whodunit when i was a kid. I knew I would not be at peace till I see the movie so I happily gave up working out in favor of watching Khamosh. I must say I am not the least disappointed. This is a mystery so if you are planning to watch the movie please don't read further as I will be revealing the plot. Do watch the movie and come back to read this as it is definitely worth watching.

Film: Khamosh
Cast: Amol Palekar, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapoor, Soni Razdan, Deepak Qazir & Others.
Music: Vanraj Bhatia
Director: Vidhu Vinod Chopra


*Spoiler Alert* Story Revealed after Jump.

Revisiting - Sundarakanda

Last night I was planning to watch Om Shanti & I did. Halfway into the movie I needed a break. So I ended up watching Sundarakanda on a whim. I wanted to post my thoughts about this movie and it will be my first Revisiting Movies post! Since it is not a traditional review, the format of these posts will be a tad different. Why don't I just go ahead and post it and you can see what I am talking about.

Film: Sundarakanda

Cast: Venkatesh, Meena, Aparna Sen, Bramhanandam, Gollapudi Maruti Rao, Kota Srinivasa Rao & Others.

Music: M.M. Keeravani

Director: K. Raghavendra Rao

*Spoiler Alert* Story Revealed After Jump.

Revisiting Movies.

One of the main reasons I started this blog was to talk about older movies that people might have seen many times. I won't be rating the movie but I will be talking about the plots, twists, songs, climax and the whole shebang. I will be revealing the story so it will be a spoiler alert post with a jump. Happy memories!

Seeta Ramula Kalyanam .... Lankalo

Nitin & Hansika team up for this movie. Nitin is hoping for a success after 13 consecutive flops. Hansika's last movie Jayeebhava was a flop. Let's see if this movie does anything for them. Here's what I thought of the movie.

Film: Seeta Ramula Kalyanam .... Lankalo

Cast: Nitin, Hansika, Suman, Jayaprakash Reddy, Salim Panda, Subba Raju, Bramhanandam, Ali, M.S. Narayana & Others.

Music: Anoop Rubens

Producer: Malla Vijaya Prasad

Director: Eshwar Reddy

Release Date: January 22nd, 2010

My Rating: 2/5

What's It About?

Chandu(Nitin) is a college student who falls in love with Nandini(Hansika) after she lectures him about the injurious effects of smoking. He puffs and pants, fights and rants and wins her over. Nandini's dad Peddi Reddy(Suman) is a factionist(but of course!) and his rival factionist Jayaprakash Reddy's son Veera Pratap(Salim Panda) falls in love with Nandini when he comes across her at a function. Veera Pratap kidnaps Nandini and wants to get married to her(Duh!). Chandu goes to Veera Pratap's house and plots to save his love. The marriage of Chandu & Nandini forms the climax. Now, the analysis.

Artist Performance:

I admire the audacity of the producers and directors who come forward to make movies with Nitin time and again.How he gets to work with top actresses like Illeana, Hansika, Kajal etc. beats me. Coming to his performance, Nitin has a lot to improve in terms of acting, emoting and dialogue  delivery. Hansika has nothing major to do except pout and look pretty and she does her job well. Salim Panda plays the villain, who has to shout, beat his lungs and tear his clothes in every scene and that he does fantastically. Suman is unconvincing as a factionist and thankfully he does not have a lot of screen presence.  Bramhanandam, Ali and Subba Raju are entertaining. Jayaprakash Reddy plays a factionist for the nth time and he does it with gusto.

This & That:

As you can see, there is no novelty in the plot. Same old story served the same old way. First half of the movie is dragging and moves at a snail's pace. The second half is better with the nice comedy track between Bramhanandam, Ali and Subba Raju. M.S. Narayana's principal act was tawdry. Music by Anoop Rubens is strictly ok; with kiss me and  cheetiki maatiki being the better picks of the lot. Choreography is good and Nitin does a commendable job in dances. The Sri Lanka devullu  concept is funny. If it wasn't for the post interval part of the movie; my rating would have been 1/5 only for the effort that went into making this movie. Nitin should stop concentrating on his 6 pack abs and start taking acting classes.

Did I Enjoy It?

No, except for the second half. When compared to the other releases, this movie's performance at the box office will be absymal.