Mini - Review: The Businessman

I wanted to do a mini-review of movies that I have watched in 2012, but haven't done a full fledged review on. It will be a shorter version of the actual review with more emphasis on the analysis of the movie.

The combination of Mahesh and Puri has yielded a super blockbuster in the form of pokiri. Naturally the expressions were sky high with this flick. Thaman's music was topping the charts. I watched the movie first day early morning show in Hyderabad and absolutely loved it! I had the privilege to meet Puri and Mahesh Babu on the 14th of January and if you follow my tweets you know how impressed I was with their down-to-earth nature.

Film: The Businessman
Cast: Mahesh Babu, Kajal Agarwal, Nasser, Subba Raju, Prakash Raj, Bramhaji etc.
Music: S.S. Thaman
Director: Puri Jagannath
Producer: R.R. Movie Makers
Release Date: January 13th, 2012
My Rating: 3.75/5

The Story:

Surya (Mahesh) comes to Mumbai to make a living. He cleverly takes advantage of situations and helps a local politician, with whose power he becomes Surya Bhai, a mafia don. The commissioner of Police (Nasser) wants to abolish the don system in Mumbai and tries to stop Surya's growth. Surya wants to make mafia an establishment and crime an institution. He also falls in love with Chitra (Kajal), the commissioner's daughter. Will Surya realize his dreams or will the commissioner win? What happens to his love story with Chitra?; all these threads form the rest of the story.

What's Hot?

Mahesh all the way. The protagonist has shades of grey, he is ruthless, corrupt and cunning. It is not a routine character of heroism that we are  used to in Telugu movies. Dialogues by Puri are as usual creative and at the same time they depict the hero's ideology. Devuda nuvvu bavundali, puli-jinka, andariki families untayi are my favorites. Music by Thaman is good. My picks are Saar Osthara, Amchi Mumbai. The concept of mafia as a system and the methods used are innovative.

What's Not?

Excessive use of foul language especially in Kajal's case. The flashback is not very effective. Climax feels abrupt. The item song is boring and was unnecessary.

Did I Enjoy It?
Absolutely, It really was different.

Dammu

Dammu is Boypati Srinu's 4th movie. All of his movies have been superhits so far. N.T.R has had 2 major upsets last year with Shakthi & Oosaravalli. Both the director and the actor need a hit to reinstate their position in Tollywood. Expections are high. I have just come out of the premiere show in Dallas, here goes my review.

Film: Dammu
Cast: N.T.R, Trisha Krishnan, Karthika, Nasser, Suman, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Venu Tottempudi etc.
Music: M. M. Keeravani
Director: Boyapati Sreenu
Producer: K. S. Rama Rao
Release Date: April 27th, 2012
My Rating: 3/5

What's It About:

Two warring families in Veeradurgam village have killed each other causing the villagers a lot of pain. A local M.L.A suggest that the 2 days before Sankranthi, should be the only days that they fight and no law enforcement officials will interfere in their clashes. The parties agree and Vasireddy family keeps winning every year but loses all their male progeny in the process leaving Suman as the sole male offspring. His wife gives birth to a still-born male child; he keeps this a secret from his wife and village inhabitants and lies to them that the child is alive and he will be brought up far away from the village only to return once he is 25. The following year he loses his life in the battle and the rival family head (Nasser) declares that every male child born in Vasireddy's village will be killed; thus leaving them with no other male child except for Vasireddy's son. Cut to present RamChandra (N.T.R) is an orphan who falls in love with Satya(Trisha), the daughter of a wealthy businessman. She says that Ram's family should be okayed by her father. Ram comes to know that Vasireddy's father-in-law is looking for someone whom he can adopt in Vasireddy's son's place and he gets adopted by him, to get a rich family and impress Satya's dad.  He now enters Veeradurgam as Vijaya Simha Vasireddy. What happens next? Does he help win the war? Will his secret come out? To know more, you must watch the movie. 

Artist Performances: 

N.T.R is back to his mass elements after a gap having experimented in other genres. He excels in expressions, dances and dialogues. His voice has always been his forte and he uses it to his full advantage. Trisha and Karthika don't really have much to do except dance, look pretty and try to entice the hero, which they do with much gusto. Venu has done a movie after a long time and he has arguably, the best character role and he leaves a good impression. Kota is apt for the grandfather's role. Bramhi as Boshanam , Ali have little to do and the comedy is not upto mark. Suman and Bhanupriya are okay.

This & That: 

Songs are average. My picks would be Ruler(great presentation), Vasthu Bagunde & Dammu. Background music by Keeravani needs a special mention. On a side note, the violence is gory and the movie does have an A certificate because of that. The film drags in places especially before the interval bang and the second half. The interval bang is good. The dialogues are good and M. Ratnam needs all the credit.The twist in the second half is different. Climax is cliched but works.

Did I Enjoy It?

Yes, It's a little too violent for my taste but nevertheless I enjoyed it.

The Final Word:

Dammu dummu lepesthundi :)

Revisiting - Gupt

What does one look for while choosing to watch a movie? For me the first is genre, followed by music and then the cast. In the case of Gupt, its a murder mystery with chartbusters from Viju Shah and Bobby Deol as the leading man accompanied by Kajol and Manisha Koirala. For me it was a win-win combination. Gupt was the 4th biggest hit of 1997. It does feel weird to mention movies that I have grown up watching in this column, shows me that I am getting older :)

Film: Gupt
Cast: Bobby Deol, Kajol, Manisha Koirala, Paresh Rawal, Raj Babbar, Om Puri, Priya Tendulkar etc.
Music: Viju Shah
Director: Rajiv Rai

** Spoiler Alert** Plot revealed after jump.

Revisiting - Rajinigandha

I love watching old movies. There is no jarring humor, unnecessary fights, no item songs and the stories are so simple yet different. My favorite movies are usually comedy, mystery/thriller/adventure. When you ask people their favorite comedy movies of all times, 6/10 people will mention Basu Chatterjee & Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Rajinigandha is Basu da's movie. It is the first movie for both Vidya Sinha & Amol Palekar(who went on to do more films with him). The movie is based on a short story called Yahi Sach Hain by Manu Bhandari.

Film: Rajinigandha
Cast: Amol Palekar, Vidya Sinha, Dinesh Thakur
Music: Salili Choudary
Director: Basu Chatterjee

**Spoiler Alert** Plot revealed after jump.

Tunes On Tuesday.

This tuesday a faulty internet connection left me playing with my 8 GB Itunes library.

Have you ever downloaded a song and never played it once? I have and apparently quite a few, so I chose to show those songs some love and played them. Here's the list.

• Chahiye Thoda Pyar, Movie: Lahoo Ke Do Rang, Language: Hindi
• Dekha Na, Socha Na, Movie: Bombay To Goa, Language: Hindi
• Hai Hai Yeh Majboori, Movie: Roti Kapda Aur Makaan, Language: Hindi
• Tareef Karu Kya Uski, Movie: Kashmir Ki Kali, Language: Hindi
• Saahasam Na Padam, Movie: Maharshi, Language: Telugu
• Andamga Lena, Movie: Godavari, Language: Telugu
• Malli Malli, Movie: Rakshashudu, Language: Telugu
• Illamai, Movie: Godfather, Language: Tamil (Thala Ajith + A.R.R How'd I miss It?)
• Sudamani, Movie: Arul, Language: Tamil
• En Anbe, Movie: Satyam, Language: Tamil (Bombay Jayasree's song - always a winner!)

Some forgotten songs, now a few new favorites. Until next Tuesday, happy listening!

Raccha

Sampath Nandi has been in the news for his second directive venture Raccha, which stars Mega-Power Star Ram Charan and Tamannah. Charan has been in a slump lately with Orange and Tamannah has given two flops Oosaravelli and Badrinath. All of them need a hit with this movie. The verdict?

Film: Raccha
Cast: Ram Charan Teja, Tamannah, M. S. Narayana, Sudha, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, Mukesh Rishi, Venu Madhav etc
Music: Mani Sharma
Director: Sampath Nandi
Producer: Super Good Movies
Release Date: April 5th, 2012
My Rating: 1/5


What's It About:

Betting Raju (RCT) as the name says is a middle class boy who survives on bets. In one such bet he defeats James (Ajmal). His adoptive father (M.S.) suffers from a liver problem and he needs money to be operated. James challenges Raju to make Chaitra (Tamannah) fall in love with him in 30 days, following which he will get the money for his dad's operation. Raju agrees and how he goes about winning the bet and what happens next is the crux of the story.

Artist Performances:

Ram Charan imitates his dad which irritates the audience. He is good in dances and that's about it. I have heard that he went to China to learn some martial fights which was shown in the movie. Total waste of time and money. Tamannah is just there to ooze glamour. Ajmal is wasted. M.S. had a serious role. Bramhi has a small role which brings a few laughs. Mukesh Rishi has a routine villian role. Parthiban as the hero's father is good.

This & That:

Music by Mani Sharma is average. I liked the title song and Dillaku. RCT is good at his dances. The much hyped Vaana Vaana song is ruined. One word - Older version is better. Story is of the 80's. Nothing new. The screenplay is choppy. There is no sync between two scenes. Dialogues are of the 90's. Hum bahar se accha, hum tere liye idhar vaccha, hum tum mile to Raccha...really Paruchuri Brothers? Climax gives you a deja-vu feeling.

Did I Enjoy It? No, I was playing Fruit Ninja on my Iphone.

The Final Word: Ee cinema chusi nenu Chaccha :)