Ram Gopal Varma's 'Oka Prema Katha'

Ram Gopal Varma has announced another film to be shot in Telugu and Hindi. The film's title in Telugu is Oka Prema Katha and in Hindi it is titled A Love Story. It is based on the story of aspiring model and actor Maria Susairaj, who is facing trial in a murder case.

He said: "In my life, I have never heard such gruesome murder case as this. Maria and her boyfriend allegedly murdered Neeraj Grover and dismembered his body. I met everyone from relatives of Maria, police officers who investigated the case and came to know some shocking truths. Love instigated the murder. Love provoked them to this. So I am doing this film and titled it as Oka Prema Katha."

Orange - Movie Review

Film: Orange
Cast: Ram Charan, Genelia, Shajan Padamsee, Prabhu, Pavitra Lokesh, Brahmanandam, Manjula, Sanjay Swaroop, Pooja, Gayatri, Madhurima, Nagababu, Vennela Kishore, and others
Dialogue: Tota Prasad, Surendra Krishna
Music: Haaris Jayaraj
Cinematography: Rajashekar and Kiran Reddy
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Action: Peter Hiens
Art: Anand Sai
Executive producer: Manyam Ramesh
Produced by: K Nagababu
Banner: Anajana Productions
Story, screenplay and directed by: Bhaskar
CBFC Rating: U
Release date: November 26, 2010

What's it about!
Love is forever is an absurd thought, believes Ram (Ram Charan), a graffiti artist in Sydney. So he keeps falling with girls and parts ways with them. Quite contrast to his ideology, Jaanu (Genelia) believes in the idea of love and is on the quest for 'right guy' to live for life. Ram meets Jaanu, keeps persuading her to fall in love with him. She falls for his charms but when she learns that he can't love her forever, she gets jolt. Does love fade with the time or it is eternal? They argue on this for rest of the story.

Analysis

Director Bhaskar has peculiar way of writing a film. He tends to put an argument about relationship enrichment through his films. He did beautifully in his maiden film, Bommarillu . It became repetitive in his second film, Parugu . In his third movie, Orange, it turns out to be futile exercise. Both the lead hero and lead heroine constantly argue about whether love is eternal or will it fade with the time. They never 'romance' or 'love each other' in the film instead they constantly quarrel over this silly arguments. Few minutes into the film, we get the feeling that we came to a seminar on this subject than to a theater to watch a supposedly romantic drama.

The film starts off with most idiotic scene and goes on with no aim till the interval. In the second half of the movie, one glues to the proceedings but again it gets tiresome towards climax.

Bright visuals, beautiful locations (Sydney, Mumbai and Malaysia), fantastic music by Haaris Jayaraj and Ram Charan's style are positive side of the movie. Rest of the movie gives is clichéd.

Only two segments in the film are impressive - the romance between Ram Charan and newcomer Shajan Padmsee in Mumbai. And the truth and dare sequence in the second half of the movie.

There is no chemistry between Ram Charan and Genelia, in fact there are no 'true romantic' scenes between them. Blame it on the director's hollow script.

Performances

Ram Charan looks suave with trendy costumes - a big departure from his first two movies. He has transformed into fashionable guy thanks to the costume designer Sabina Khan.

Newcomer Shajan Padmsee remains in her mind with her stunning beauty and innocent face. She also shares great chemistry with Ram Charan. She is the bright aspect about the film and will sure win more chances in Tollywood.

Genelia's histrionics have now become very irritating with her gestures like a mentally challenged girl. She also looks too old and her excessive 'make-up' and over the board performance actually makes us no connection with her character.

Madhurima, Pooja (Nenu Devudni fame) and Gayatri a ppear in cameo roles. There are host of other actors - Prakash Raj, Prabhu, Manjula, Sanjay Swaroop - but none of them have good characters to make an impression. Brahmanandam's so-called comedy is hardly evokes laughter.

The script and scenes are written by the director is so silly that all the characters in the movie behave as if they don't do anything in life but bickering constantly. Ram Charan tells his story to a police officer (Prakash Raj) in Sydney and the police officer forgets his duty and listens to this guy's love story for half day. Looks like cops in Australia don't have much work.

Cinematographers Kiran and Rajashekar have provided bright visuals. Matching locations of Malaysia with Australia are good. M usic by Haaris Jayaraj is definitely qualitative and is more impressive on hears. Ruba Ruba song is best of the lot. On screen, the songs look same as all of them are rendered through male voice and Ram Charan constantly imitates Ghajini Surya steps.

None of the dialogue is unimpressive. Editor Marthand should have downsized the length of the movie. It is clear that producer Naga Babu has thrown in lot of money to give the grandeur look but most of it is unnecessary.

In Trivikram's films, you find every character in the movie mouths 'punch' dialogues. And in Bhaskar's films, everyone speak 'jeevita satyalu'. Such things become pointless when you don’t have substance to hold them. That is where the director Bhaskar has failed in the movie.

Bottom-line

There is phrase in Hindi - dialogue baaji band karo . We tend to feel the same when we watch the movie. Orange may be the symbol of love but we hardly find any love in the movie. Less love, more arguments about it. Youth audiences may like certain scenes and music but the movie on the whole doesn't appeal. Content wise, it is big let down.

Karma: Movie Review

Cast: Sesh Adivi, Sher Ali, Jade Tailor, Bhanu Yanamandra, Rashmi Rustagi, Ria Cheruvu, Vijay Madabhushi, Sruthi Tiwari, etc.

Cinematography: James Laxton
Digital Intermediate: Amit Shetti
Aerial Cinematography: Tom Miller
Action Consultant: Sean Shah
Stunts: Cheyenne Hambey Background Score: Pete Wonder, Justin R. Darban
Music: Pete Wonder, Leland Thunes
Lyrics: Kavi 'Real'
Choreography: Desi Dreamz, Tatwa Dance Company
Art: Bhavani Adivi, Bhanu Yanamandra
Editing: Arjun Sastry, Harsh Singh
Producers: Bhavani Adivi, Sher Ali, Harsh Singh
Script, Screenplay, and Direction: Sesh Adivi
Date of Theatrical Release: November 26, 2010

Summary:
An off-beat, supernatural thriller set in the United States, with the story woven around the Hindu mythology.

What's it all about?
Padma (Jade Tailor) is an Indian American kid whose dad is killed right in front of the temple, by the temple's priest himself when the former questions the latter about misusing temple donations for drug peddling. Padma's mother (Bhanu Yanamandra) leaves the place, along with Padma, to settle in a remote city of Shamrock. While in her twenties, Padma loses her mother too. Her friend Raj (Sher Ali) expresses his love towards her but she doesn't reciprocate his feelings. Still, he remains a friend that she can turn to in an hour of need. Dev (Sesh Adivi) and Sumati (Rashmi Rustagi) come to visit Padma, as Sumati is a very close friend of Padma's mother. How did they know that Padma's mother passed away despite the fact that Padma lives in isolation and no one relayed the news in India? That's only the first question of surprise to Padma. Dev simply says he just "knows" certain things before they happen. Padma is strangely drawn towards Dev, and as Dev and Padma get closer, Padma learns more and more... Why did Dev come? Does he really have supernatural powers of some kind? Can Raj win over Padma?

Performances
Cast:
Sesh Adivi has a good screen presence and a deeply expressive face that suits the character well. His emotional performance is occasionally overboard, but he has ease in his acting and his diction is good. Jade Tailor (voice dubbed by Lakshmi Katyayani), being an American by birth, does not seem totally out of place in the role of an Indian-American. Her performance too goes overboard in a couple of emotional scenes but she gave a controlled performance for most part. It's a commendable effort for a non-Indian artiste to walk and talk like an Indian, and Jade does it all very well. Sher Ali gets an important role, which he performs with ease. His expressions are good; he vaguely resembles Prabhas in some scenes. Ria Cheruvu as Padma at an age of five has a short role that she does with ease. Bhanu Yanamandra, a classical dancer by profession, has an expressive face and a lively smile. Rashmi Rustagi was adequate in the short role she had. All artistes are new to the Telugu screen but the inexperience is by far limited due to individual efforts by each artiste and possibly also due to the production/direction team. Americans appeared in some roles too but none major.

Technical Departments:
The story is said to have been inspired by a personal experience of the male lead/writer-director, Sesh Adivi. While his near-death car accident in 2007 may have stirred the thoughts about the plot, the film is not really about the accident or the experience itself - it's just a trigger of thoughts, apparently. The film's story stems out of Hindu mythology (which incidentally resembles a part of the Revelations in the Bible, too), and philosophy. While such an attempt should be commended, the actual details seem to be rushed into the story's climax and the rest of the film has a relaxed pace until it gets to the climax. While appreciating the writer-director for coming up with an offbeat theme of this sort, one cannot but have several questions about logic and justification. Not presenting any direct spoilers, for instance, why is Dev's purpose of life centered so much on Padma? Shouldn't the climax action sequences be much large-scale according to the theme? - these are some questions that definitely come into the mind of the audience. A justification to the film's title as well as the theme also suffered due to a screenplay that centers around the characters of Dev and Padma alone. (When a film is a supernatural thriller, how much does karma really come into play?)

There are a lot of commendable aspects with this film, nonetheless! First and foremost comes the cinematography (with a Red One system, using it the second time for an entire film in Telugu - after Kamal-Venkatesh's Eenadu) - beautiful locales were chosen and the cinematography really brings them out appreciably; it seems like there are too many closeup shots but good lighting scheme and color grading make the film pleasant to watch. The production team's complete faith in the project is reflected in the fact that this film is the first Telugu film to be shot completely in the USA and even have its songs recorded outside India. Yet, there's no compromise in Telugu. If not for the moviemakers' passion, one cannot expect a totally chaste Telugu dialogues (at a level that's definitely not seen in Telugu films of today) in such a film! This film is also the first in Telugu to have "naturally translated" English subtitles all through the film; a few scenes had English dialogues, but only one such scene had Telugu subtitles. Still, the care taken is apparent in showing even numbers in both English and Telugu! Such a purely Telugu dialogue might make some feel artificial but that's only an indication of how much we corrupted our own language in daily life with liberal usage of English. The background score and the songs ( lyrics included) were all done by non-Indians, probably for the first time in a Telugu film, but thanks to all the care taken, the audience get a novel feeling but not feel foreign about the music. The art department should be commended for its contribution to the good feel of the film. Editing could have been crispier; a tighter screenplay with good editing could have unveiled the theme much better.

Bottom Line:
Karma, which is clearly an off-beat film in its cast, crew, making style, and theme, could disappoint a regular commercial audience. Even for an off-beat audience, it may feel like a plot that's not completely developed. However, if off-beat films made with decent performances and good technical crew is something you can take, watch it anyway and you might even like the boldness and sincerity of the team.

Rakta Charitra 2 - Movie Review

Film: Raktha Charitra – 2
Cast: Suriya, Vivek Oberoi, Priyamani, Radhika Apte, Sudeep, Subhalekha Sudhakar and others
Dialogue: Nageshwara Rao
Background music: Dharam - Sandeep
Lyrics: Kaluva Sai
Cinematography: Amol Rathod
Editing: Nipun Ashok Gupta and Bhanodaya
Action: Tarun Eizaj, Satya Srinivas
Producers: Madhu Vantena, Sheetal Talwar and others
Story, screenplay, and direction: Ramgopal Varma
CBFC Rating : A
Release date: December 3, 2010

What's it about

The film is about the rival war between Pratap Ravi (Vivek Oberai) and Surya (Surya). Surya wants to take vengeance on Pratap Ravi as the latter killed some of his men. After several futile attempts to kill Pratap Ravi, Surya lands in jail. From the jail, he enacts the cold-blooded murder of Pratap Ravi. How does he do forms the rest of the story.

Analysis

Ram Gopal Varma's Raktha Charitra - 1 won accolades from the masses, and now he brings to us its second part Raktha Charitra 2. This is the first time that a film (shot at one time) is released in two parts in India. While the first part focused on the life and rise of Pratap Ravi (based on the real life character of Paritala Ravi) played by Vivek Oberai, this second part is given importance to Pratap's rival Surya Bhanu Reddy played by Surya.

So naturally the subject of the film in the second part has not much scope to run it over 2 hours. So the pace has become sluggish, giving a documentary feel to it, there by putting audiences in restlessness. Yes, this second part too has RGV's trademark quirky angles, extreme close up shots, and superlative performances from the actors but what lacks is the majaa.

Moreover, those who know the Rayalaseema bloody faction history and politics, feel cheated, as RGV and his scriptwriters have twisted the real life facts to suit their narration. That is excusable as the movie is not documenting anyone's life but the editing is too jerky to feel it.

The film's major strengths are some key dramatic scenes and Tamil superstar Suriya's performance.

RGV has injected the element of human pathos in its strong sense, rather than merely treating the subject from the point of view of entertainment. This sequel is dominated more by the conspiracy theories, which prevailed in real life circumstances between the two families.

Performances

Performances are consistently of a towering quality. Vivek Oberoi finished his role with extraordinary perfection, delivering an equally powerful presence in the sequel. But, definitely, the cynosure here is the Tamil superstar Surya. He turned into a powerhouse of aggressive and forceful performances, which the Indian cinema in the recent years has ever to feel it. Shatrughan Sinha (the screen NTR) is relegated to a jiffy. Priyamani (as Bhawani, Surya's wife) performed neatly, but rather deglamorised in tune with the demand for reality on the screen. Radhika Apte (playing Pratap Ravi’s wife) makes the audience glue to their seats when she confronts. Subhalekha Sudhakar is a surprise, playing one of the vital roles. Sudeep delivers some fine moments of acting.

The story is more or less based on the real life incidents between Paritala Ravi and Maddelacheruvu Suri families. As expected, RGV did not miss the infamous Jubilee Hills bomb blast episode, but the climax – the murder of Pratap Ravi - would rather be unconvincing to the hardcore watchers of the Rayalaseema facton cult. The background score is the lifeline of the film, with the climax song – Kathulatho Sahavasam (sung by RGV himself) – reverberating in the ears of the audience as they leave the theatres. A mol Rathod' s cinematography is impressive. The action sequences look real, but blood and gore as the gross output. Being the sage of vengeance with violence, dialogues are laced with the required punches. Editing is very jerky.

As a director, Ram Gopal Varma , off late, has been focusing more on closeups of the actors and emotional drama than the cohesive script. He does the same thing in here too. But his style is increasingly becoming routine.

Bottom-line

Rakta Charitra 2 is not as riveting as its first part but Suriya's powerhouse performance leaves you spellbound. More than the maverick director's narration, it is Surya's acting that makes a lasting impression. On the whole, it is an okay movie, that is if you like loud sounds and intensive drama.

Katti Kantarao - Movie Review

Film: Katti Kantha Rao
Cast: Allari Naresh, Kamna Jethmalani, Kota, Dharmavarapu, Chalapathi Rao, Jeeva, Kondavalasa, Ahuti Prasad, Venu Madhav, Raghu Babu, Krishna Bhagawan, Srinivas Reddy, Ali, L B Sriram etc
Dialogues: Prasad Varma
Music: Mallikarjun
Cinematography: Adusumilli Vijay
Editing: Gautham Raju
Produced by: Eedara Srinivasa Rao, Eedara Ravikumar
Story, screenplay, direction: E V V Satyanarayana
Release date: 10/12/2010
CBFC Rating: U

What's it about

Katti Kanta Rao (Allari Naresh) is a police constable who is burdened by family responsibilities – to constantly feed the money to his two sister’s husbands, and has to marry off two more younger sisters and give money daily to his alcoholic father. On the other hand he falls for the charms of a girl called Ratnam (Kamna) but he can’t marry her. Because his father made a legal agreement with Kantarao that unless he marries off his sisters, he should not marry. How Kantarao comes out of this entanglement is all about the movie.

Analysis
EVV Satyanarayana, who made some great entertainers in the past, just rehashes his old formula this time too with Katti Kantarao. But he succeeds to some extent in creating some funny moments and slap-stack comedy scene. Like in the recent EVV movies, this movie too suffers with inconsistent screenplay. He comes to the point, only after beating around the bush (read as non-related comedy scenes and jokes) for most part of the movie. The other problem is that the director projects the heroine as prostitute till the end, and gives a twist in the end but you get convinced with that half-baked reason. While it starts off funnily, the movie falters further as the run time progresses. Overall, Allari Naresh’s comic act, Dharmavarapu’s mimic of later actor Jaggayya and some other scenes evoke laughter.

Performances

Allari Naresh is good at delivering entertainment with his flawless acting. Kamna has not much role except providing glam. The usual gang of comedy actors in EVV’s films all are present and they have done tried to provide some funny moments. Of them, Dharmavarapu steals the show.

Dialogues by Prasad Varma at times are hilarious. Cinematography, editing and other technical persons have done neat job. Music is mediocre. Senior director EVV Satynarayana has ably managed to make the movie amusing although he has no sound script.

Bottom-line!

Don’t expect rib-tickling comedy, then you won’t be disappointed much. Katti Kantarao is typical of EVV's recent movies but provides some timepass entertainment.

Nagavalli - Movie Review

Film: Nagavalli
Cast: Venkatesh, Anushka, Kamalinee Mukharjee, Richa Gangapodhyay, Shraddha Das, Sharat Babu, Prabha, Brahmanandam, Dharmavarapu, Raksha, and others
Dialogue: Parachuri Brothers
Music: Guru Kiran
Cinematography: Shaam K Naidu
Art: Chinna
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Produced by: Bellamkonda Suresh
Story, screenplay and directed by : P Vasu
Release date: December 16, 2010
CBFC Rating: U

What's it about!
Two deaths occur in a rich businessman's (Sharat Babu) house and he approaches a Siddhanti for dosha nivarana. The Siddhanti comes to belief that these strange things happened in the house after the businessman's elder daughter (Kamalinee) brought in a painting of a ghost called Chandramukhi. The ghost might be possessed in one of the bodies of the businessman's daughters (Sraddha Das, Richa and Poonam Kaur). To find which girl possesses Chandramukhi, he calls on physiatrist Vijay (Venkatesh) to come down to the house. Upon the doctor's arrival, he finds that there is connection between the erstwhile King Nagabhairava (Venkatesh) and the aatma of Chandramukhi (Anushka). How the doctor unravels the mystery of Chandramukhi aka Nagavalli forms the rest of the story.

Analysis
When you plan to make a sequel to one of the biggest blockbusters in South India - Rajnikant starrer Chandramukhi - you ought to be extra cautious and make it better than the original or comparisons with original would kill the movie. As it has been proved many times, this one also establishes that original movies are better on any day. In the case of Nagavalli, sequel to Chandramukhi and remake of Kannada film, Apta Rakshaka, the result is even the worse because the first 45 minutes of Nagavalli are just reenactment of what we have seen in Chandramukhi. The real drama starts in the interval with Venkatesh portraying an evil king but those scenes fail to make an impact as they are just copy of Arundhati. Repetitiveness of scenes, sluggish screenplay, and lack of suspense elements, the movie turns out to be an uninteresting fare. So in nutshell, it is just mix of Chandramukhi and Arundhati. Moreover bad performances have killed the interest further. Humor is in bad taste too.


Performances

Venkatesh does the role of a psychiatrist and as well as a King's role. In a role of evil king, Venky has tried to bring novelty but in another surprising role, his performance is nothing but a sham. One wonders how could Venky deliver such a bad performance, especially at his 25th year of acting career.

Anushka's role is not lengthy but she has the physique to bring authenticity to the role of a courtesan Chandramukhi aka Nagavalli. Kamalinee Mukharjee does justice to her role and Richa is very convincing. Shraddha Das does the role of Kamalinee's sister. Poonam Kaur is relegated to a junior artiste. The comedy done by Brahamanandam and Dharamavarapu hardly evoke laughter.

The royal sets designed by art director Chinna are eye-catching. Sham K Naidu's visuals are equally cool. Music by Guru Kiran lacks punch. Visual graphics are nice. Rama Rajamouli styling to the character of king and Anushka are aesthetically appreciable. Costumes Krishna should also be commended for his effort.

Dialogues by Parachuri Brothers are theatrical. P Vasu, who belongs to old school of film making, as writer and director has not shown any creativity nor his screenplay holds the audience's interest.

Bottom-line

Nagavalli lacks the thrilling moments like Chandramukhi had . It is more like re-enactment of the original movie with new set of actors and adding Arundhati elements to the drama. Some episodes in the second half are the only saving grace. Rest is pretty ordinary.

Ragada - Movie Review

Film: Ragada
Cast: Nagarjuna, Anushka, Priyamani, Brahmanandam, Pradeep Rawat, Kota Srinivas Rao and others
Music: Taman
Cinematography: Sarvesh Murari
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Action: Vijay
Art: A S Prakash
Produced by: D Shiva Prasad Reddy
Story, screenplay and directed by: Veeru Potla
Release date: December 24, 2010
CBFC Rating: A

What’s it about!
Satya (Nagarjuna) comes to Hyderabad from Cuddapah, and joins in a rowdy gang. There he meets a lady rowdy (Anushka). Few months later, Astalakshmi (Priyamani) comes into his life. He provides shelter and protection to Astalakshmi and her family and romances with the two beauties. Then he declares a war on the city’s don Peddanna. What prompts him to indulge in direct fight with the ‘don’ is narrated in a flash back episode. A doctor (Venniradai Nirmala) runs a hospital in Cuddapah and wins the hearts of local people there. She also adopts an orphan boy who turns out to be Satya. One day, she is killed. So, Satya comes to Hyderabad to take revenge on her killers.

Analysis

Of late, Nagarjuna has more interested in signing ‘mass’ entertainers. Ever since, his Mass became a huge grocer, he has been moving into that genre frequently. After the disastrous result of Kedi , he attempts at this genre again with Ragada. Writer turned director Veeru Potla who made debut with Bindaas as director has also tried to rehash the old mass action entertainers. But he has inserted several twists in the screenplay at regular interval to keep the audiences glued to this movie that has no proper script. The director has succeeded only in creating twists but rest of the movie runs on predictable manner.

Plenty of action scenes are also thrown in – some of the fights defy the logic too. To elevate the heroism, the action director has designed fights in a high-voltage manner –for every punch of the hero, the villains jump into air.

Nagarjuna looking handsomely, the rich production values, and the plenty of glamour show by the heroines are plus side of the movie.

Performances
Seeing Nagarjuna in the movie, you don’t believe that he has crossed 50 years. He looks so dashing in the movie. In the role of a rowdy, he cakewalks through the character. He has used Rayalaseema diction in the movie. Anushka is gorgeous and her chemistry with Nagarjuna is hot. Priyamani is okay. Charmee also provides glamour quotient in a song.

Brahmanandam provides some laughs in the beginning of the movie but the movie lacks comedy on the whole. Pradeep Rawat does justice to his role. Venniradai Nirmala, Kota, Supreet, Tanikella, and master Bharat have not much role but they have done their job well.

Taman’s songs are not that foot-tapping but they are shot beautifully and richly. Sets are fantastic in the songs. Cinematography by Sarvesh Murari is eye-catching.

Director Veeu Potla takes credit to story, screenplay and direction but he has not shown sparkle any of his departments. His dialogues are pretty ordinary. There is hardly any story as it is amalgam of several past masala movies. As director too he doesn’t succeed much as narration lacks consistency. Producer D Shiva Prasad Reddy has put in lot of money to give the movie a rich look. Probably the movie is highest budgeted flick in Nagarjuna's career.

Bottom-line
On the whole, Ragada is predictable entertainer that follows the age old formula, which might appeal to viewers who finds comfort in mass masala movies that hinge completely on star power and glamour than the content. Watch it only for some action episodes, Nagarjuna and Anushka’s sexposing.