Magadheera Review

C 1600 Aravalli, the kingdom of Udaygarh. Two lovers die; one a warrior and the other a princess, confessing their love for each other. Their love remains unfulfilled. And the person who cremates them -- Sher Khan (Srihari) says aloud that they will be reborn again to unite. Fast forward 400 years, and lo, they are. A reincarnation story is not often seen in Telugu cinema and SS Rajamouli uses this theme for Ram Charan Teja's second film Magadheera . Well, Rajamouli's Magadheera, a fantasy tale should be seen on many grounds- it's a magnum opus production with great technical work. It's a high-budget extravaganza which shows in almost every frame. It's directed by SS Rajamouli, one of the top directors in the Telugu industry. It's got fine music by MM Keeravani, brilliant camera work by Senthil, good art direction by Ravinder, good styling and costumes by Rama Rajamouli and is edited well by Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao. The graphics are excellent for a Telugu movie. Overall, the movie is a mainstream one with good packaging. The tale goes back and forth into the past and the present. The period, the contemporary look and styling of the film is in sync with the depiction. The accomplished and skilled warrior Bhairava (Ram Charan Teja) wants to marry the princess of Udaygarh Mitra (Kajal Agarwal) ) and even wins her in the race against competitor Randev (who is the senapati and the villain, the traitor who allows the enemy Sher Khan into the kingdom) but bows down to the wishes of her father and does not. Bhairava is so consummate a warrior that he even killed 100 warriors of Sher Khan (who has been over riding kingdoms before he eyed Udaygarh) before dying like a true warrior. Bhairava's valour impressed Sher Khan so much that he even cremated him. Cut to modern times where Harsha (Charan) rubs his fingers against a girl in a white churidar and feels a vibration, and realises it's the princess. He remembers his past birth and goes in search of this girl who after a chase reveals her name as Indu (Kajal). Randev is reborn as Raghuvir, Indu's cousin. Raghuvir sees Indu and is smitten by her. Will the lovers reunite in this birth? As far as story is concerned, there's nothing great or new about Magadheera. It's the production and direction which makes up for this. Rajamouli's deft direction plugs the loopholes and knowing the pulse of the audience crafts a mainstream film. In reincarnation stories it's best to forget reason and logic and see the story for one can never question and find answers to them. What's strange is that only the boy remembers and feels the vibrations, and not the girl. There is some kind of similarity to Arundhati in terms of the reincarnation element of the story and the presence of the Aghora. Keeravani's music sounds good on screen. The Bangaru Kodipetta song with Chiru doing a cameo with Mumaith Khan is sure to draw audiences. Keeravani and Kalyani Malik's background score is also in tune and does not overshadow the image. Kim Sharma's item number seemed unwarranted though. Senthil's camera pans a landscape which is 'period' and 'present' in a beautiful way. The sepia tones and the white stark landscapes against a blue sky are stunningly captured. The difference in colour tones mark the periods well. The magnificent sets created by Ravinder especially of Udaygarh are a treat to watch on screen, plus his art direction. Rama's Rajamouli's ensemble's and the styling is rich and elegant and worth a watch. Her effort shows off on screen. Ram Charan seems to be a chip of the old block when it comes to dancing. For, he is very flexible and dances well like his dad. He's got a lot to do in this film from horse riding to sword fighting to singing and dancing. He's done them all pretty well though one felt that he needs to hone his skills of acting further particularly in expressing emotions. Also, one feels he need to have more josh to be a warrior -- at times one felt he was rather subdued. Kajal Agarwal was quite a surprise package. She was sweet and charming and looked like an 'ethereal' princess. She carries off both the roles fairly well. Srihari was at his usual best performing both roles (later he's born as Solomon-the fisherman). The song with all the technicians making their appearance at the end is innovative and Rajamouli should be appreciated for this. Rajamouli has packaged Magadheera well as a mainstream film. Have a look at it for its technical brilliance.

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Bhargava Moview Review

Music – Srikant Deva

Action – Dalapati Dinesh

Editing – Naani

Camera – Vijay Milton

Presents – Smt Padma and Master Pandu

Producer – G Bharath Kumar and Mutyala Ramdasu

Screenplay and direction – Perarasu

Banner: Nikhilesh Art Productions and Venkata Sivasai Films Released on: March 8, 2008

Cast: Bharath, Kajal Agarwal, Kushboo, Aishwarya, Biju Menon, P Vasu, Rajkapoor, M.S. Bhaskar, Chittibabu, Sujitha Naidu, Ravi Mariya and others

A successful Tamil film Pazhani was dubbed into Telugu as Bharath as the heroine of the film Kaajal was shot into fame with her recent hit film Chandamama and the hero of the film became well-known among the Telugu audiences with Premiste. Besides, the film also has some more well-known artists like Khushboo and Biju Menon. However, the film doesn't have any interesting subject and it is a routine commercial entertainer on the lines of films that hit the Telugu screen in 80s and 90s. The present generation may not welcome such a mass commercial entertainers as there is nothing novel either in the story or in its presentation.

The film opens with the release of Yerrodu @ Bhargava (Bharath) from prison after serving 14 years jail term for murdering a woman. He vigorously tries to find a job in the house of Jeevanandam @ Jeeva (Biju Menon) and finally achieves it. Jeeva's wife Lakshmi (Khushboo) is a kind-hearted woman. Yerrodu tries to impress Lakshmi with her acts. In this backdrop, he unintentionally spoils the marriage of a girl (Kaajal) and the girl first demands Bhargava to bring another alliance but the latter fails. As time goes by, she loses her heart to Bhargava and Lakshmi too accepts their love. At this juncture, Bhargava finds that Jeeva is not that gentleman and is an anti-social element and he earns property with the help of goons and planning murders and other such illegal activities by helping another local goon Vaikuntam (Rajkapoor). Bhargava also finds that Jeeva is naming after his factories and other business after Durga (Aiswarya), who was his concubine. Durga asks Jeeva to eliminate his wife so that they could remain together.

Bhargava gives her a warning and in the process reveals that he is none other than Lakshmi's brother. Learning that his presence would make his task of killing Lakshmi tough, Jeeva hatches a plan and makes Lakshmi to lodge a complaint with the police and get him arrested. But Lakshmi realises that her brother is innocent and he murdered a woman as he could not digest the fact that their father has an illicit contact with that woman causing agony to their mother. Her father discloses the secret to Lakshmi and she goes to police station and withdraws her complaint. When Jeeva tries to kill Lakshmi, Bhargava rescues her. In order to get rid of Lakshmi, Jeeva takes the help of Vaikuntam and succeeds in that attempt, but in the process loses his property. As he looses the property, Durga changes her colours and joins Vaikuntam leaving Jeeva. Unable to digest the change of stance, Jeeva attempts to kill Durga and he himself falls in trouble from Vaikuntam. In the climax, Bhargava teaches a lesson and kills Vaikuntam and Durga. The film ends on a happy note with the union of Bhargava and his ladylove.

PLUS: But for a couple of action scenes and the glamour of Kajal, there is nothing much to talk about plus points in the film. Like several other heroes, Bharath has tried his best to gain a mass and action hero. He has showed good ease in dance and action scenes. The role played by Kajal has no scope for performance but to shake legs with the hero in a couple of songs. Khushboo has played the role of Bharath's sister and did justice to her character. Biju Menon, Raj Kapoor and P Vasu are okay in their respective roles. The action scenes choreographed by Dalapati Dinesh are good and will attract the mass audiences.

MINUS: The story of the film is very old and it reminds the old commercial formula films of 80s and 90s. The narration of the film has no novelty and several scenes are beyond logic. It is not known how the hero's sister grew up and how she married. It is also not known how the hero found his sister's address as he goes to jail at a very tender age of 10 years. It is also beyond logic that a girl who has Rs 5 lakhs bank balance, 30 sovereigns of gold and a house that costs Rs 50 lakhs loses her heart to an ordinary driver and at a later scene she appears as a sales girl in a cloth shop. There are no answers for many more such questions.

REMARKS: Music by Srikant Deva has also failed to impress the audiences with his tunes and all of them are full of Tamil scent. The director made attempts to woo the mass audiences by putting the clippings of Indra of Chiranjeevi, Samba of NTR and Okkadu of Maheshbabu. There is nothing to talk much about cinematography and other technical aspects in a film as the director has concentrated on boosting the image of the hero and prove him an action hero. The sentiment scenes in the film also failed to work.

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Pourudu Review Sumanth

Film: Pourudu

Cast: Sumant, Kaajal, Suman, Nazar, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Subbaraju, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Raghubabu, MS Narayana, Ali, Sunil, Srinivasa Reddy, Chitram Sreenu, Ahuti Prasad

Dialogues: Marudhuri Raja

Music: Manisharma

Cinematography: Sudhakar Yekkanti

Choreography: Prem Rakshit

Art: RavinderAction: Selva

Produced by: D Supriya

Banner: S S Creations

Presented by: Annapoorna Studios

Story, screenplay and directed by: Raaj Aditya

Release Date: January 13, 2008

Story:

Ajay (Sumanth) aspires to be a civil servant and tops in UPSC exams. He finds love in another student Samyukta (Kajal). His father Paandu (Suman) is right hand man to a local don Zaheer (Nassar). While son believes in the legal system, father works under the other parallel power system. Their ideological clashes put son and father fitting against each other. One day, Zaheer cheats Paandu and kills him. Now it is the turn of Ajay to rise against that power system.

Pourudu is a sensitive, but hard hitting portrayal of a father, son conflict and the conflict of gangs and gangsters. Ajay (Sumnath) is a top ranker in civil service exams. He is eagerly waiting for a call from Delhi for an interview. Pandu (Suman) is his father and Ajay hates his father from the core of his heart for his violent thinking. Pandu, is a right hand of Ali Bhai ,a big mafia gangster, who is seen as doing some good to the society ,and that too which the police could not do.

Ajay falls in love with Samyukta (Kajal) who is the daughter of Dharmavarapu. Meanwhile Ajay pleads his father to leave the gang of the gangster and to lead a honest and law abiding life. Ajay believes that it is the duty of the police department and the law to punish the evil doers to the society and common people have no right to take the law into their own hands and punish the wrong doers. Whereas Ali bhai does the opposite of what Ajay thinks and also makes Ajay’s father to do so.

Meanwhile, Ajay gets an interview call from Delhi and while leaving for the interview he gets into a brawl with a gangster. Pandu gets killed in the action by Ali bhai, but after he has served his purpose.The question before Ajay is to go to Delhi and pursue his dreams to become a IAS officer, or take revenge on his father’s killers. And this suspense is a must to watch climax on the big silver screen.

PLUS: Sumanth as an angry man and as a lover gives his best and is in a dilemma of Love –Hate Relationship with his father and his gangster Job. But does the Fight scenes well and steals the limelight. Suman on the other hand is a highlight in the film as he does the character of sumanth’s father with great ease and perfection with liveliness as its tag. His character of a loyal server to his gangster boss I s appraisable.

Kajal adds the glamour quotient to the film with a slim figure and her costumes. She is portrayed as a beautiful and charming actress through out the film, especially in the song ‘Andalu Neekandhista”. Nazar, Kota and others play their roles well.

There is the line of comedians in the film, and brahmanandham is applaud able for his rib tickling acting and makes the audience giggles at least. The film is an honest attempt to look at the havoc of the gangs and the gangster leaders as they evade the law and make merry out of it, by torturing innocent citizens. and the title is well justified as Pourudu as this film on the whole deals with the day to day problems faced by the citizens from the law evading gangsters.

The violence in this film seems overly portrayed as some of the scenes look unnecessary and overboard with violent behavior. Necks are twisted as if like a burst of a balloon. And hands and legs are chopped for no reason. All this are portrayed in a horrifying manner.

MINUS: The film is only average and can be watched only once, as there is nothing more to be seen except violence and a message at the end ,which has been repeated from many years in the film stories.Sumanth may not get a big success with this film and may be this film will only last for 2-3 weeks on the whole.Better luck next time Sumanth !Music is done by Mani sharma, but is average.

Though a couple of songs are melodious and good to watch, it is really not up to the mark as far as re-recording. The poor storyline failed to impress the audience at all. Comedy by Ali and MS Narayana is boring, while Brahmanandam once again excells in giving good comedy. The director has failed to convince the audience by converting him into a goon in the second half, though in the name of revenge, as it is not his wont right from the beginning. In the first half, the hero continues to say that he is against violence and one should not take law into hands and in the second half does something against it.

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