Dongata Telugu Movie review

Dongata has finally hit screens with a perfect release. Lakshmi Manchu is producing the film and her daughter Vidya Niravana is presenting the film for the first time. Let's see if the baby doll has brought in any luck to this 'Santoor mommy'.  Dongata Story: It tracks the story of an actress, Shruti, played by Lakshmi Manchu, who gets kidnapped. Who planned the abduction and why? What made the kidnappers take that drastic step and what exactly happened between Lakshmi Manchu and the kidnappers post kidnap forms the crux of the story.  

Performances: Lakshmi Manchu is quite a revelation in film. Along with her acting prowess, she attempted to prove many other skills she posses. She plays an action heroine in the film and her fight scenes appear pretty natural since she has taken a special training in stunts and kick boxing prior to the film. Lakshmi earned some brownie points with her comic timing though she has to improve a lot on her Telugu diction. Apparently, Lakshmi Manchu proved that she is blessed with multiple talents by crooning a song. Adivi Sesh, Madhu Nandan and Prabhakar were apt enough for their roles. One to mention here is Brahmanandam since he stole the entire show undeniably. Every scene he appeared was laugh riot.  Jaya Prakash Reddy, Madhu, 30 years Prithvi, Pragathi and many more seasoned comedians and actors made Dongata a hilarious watch with their antics.  

Technical Aspects: Director Vamsi Krishna seems to have concentrated more on the extra elements of the film rather than the main ingredients that are required. Dongata lacks interesting screen play though it has few twists in the tale. Hence falls flat after a point and It gets too predictable in the second half. But interesting first half, few funny scenes and good dialogues kept it going. Music by Sai Karthik, Satya Mahaveer and Raghu Kunche is quite impressive. Yendiro song in the first half and Pub Mix song with all the stars in the second half, fetched in some whistles from the masses. Cinematography of the film takes the pedestal.  Overview: With a tinge of sentiment and drama and tons of comedy content, Dongata passes off the litmus test. Finally, Lakshmi Manchu scored an impressive comedy entertainer in her kitty. Go give it a watch.

Movie Review Jhummandi Naadam

Banner: Sri Lakshmi Prasanna Pictures
Casting: Mohan Babu, Manchu Lakshmi Prasanna, Manchu Manoj Kumar, Tapsi
Direction: K. Raghavendra Rao
Music: M.M.Keeravani
Producer: Lakshmi Manchu

Manchu Manoj’s ‘Jhummandi Naadam’ movie has garnered great expectations and director K Raghavendra Rao is back again in the thick of the action for his art work. Let’s check out ‘Jhummandi Naadam’ movie review to find out whether this combo works or not!

Story

Balu (Manchu Manoj Kumar) comes to the city challenging in his village that he would again visit his motherland only after becoming a singer. He resides opposite Captain Rao’s (Mohan Babu), who is a retired principal. Captain Rao has a friend Suman, who stays in US with his daughter Shravya (Taapsee). One day, Shravya visits India aspiring to make a documentary on Telugu music traditions and Balu assists her in this assignment, and both fall in love after sometime. But when Shravya proposes Balu, he rejects her. Why did Balu reject her proposal? This plot unveils in the later stage as Balu eventually turns singer.

Analysis

Director K Raghavendra Rao once again throws his weight behind the tested formula of love stories amidst family drama. And ‘Jhummandi Naadam’ is yet another film from Raghavendra Rao’s dugout from the same genre. ‘Jhummandi Naadam’ is a musical love story with songs and art work, Manchu Manoj’s performance and Taapsee flaunting her body. Director Raghavendra Rao’s plot is pretty interesting, but the execution is erroneous. He should have made this movie 10 years back.

Manchu Manoj Kumar comes up with a decent performance in ‘Jhummandi Naadam’. However, I’m pretty sure he would not be playing some such roles in the near future. Raghavendra Rao once again is showing the tried and tested passé story and fails miserably. If the style of movie making should be changed, then people who are making movies must change their approach and mindset towards filmmaking.

The entire Manchu clan was neck and crop busy promoting ‘Jhummandi Naadam’, but I have to say their efforts will go in vain as the film has bit the dust once again. Significantly, just for a second it gave the impression that Mohan Babu was the hero and not Manchu Manoj.

Coming to the way Raghavendra handled Taapsee, it appears just for the sake of glamour and nothing else. There’s a lot of flaunting from Taapsee, which typically a character does not need. May be Raghavendra Rao roped him only her skin show.
The first of the movie is alright, but the second half has done awfully wrong. And the climax looks very cinematic. The screenplay is very simple without any variations as the movie becomes very predictable. Barring couple of songs and art work, watching ‘Jhummandi Naadam’ is the last thing you need.

Performances

Manchu Manoj has done justice to his character and he is surely getting better by films. However, such roles will only add to his career dimensions and not box-office collections. And surely ‘Jhummandi Naadam’ is such movie where he thinks that the role and glamour is just not enough to draw people to the theaters.

Taapsee looks hefty and glamorous and can fit any commercial Telugu movie. But there’s too much skin show, which is totally unnecessary. Her performance is just alright.
Mohan Babu – He plays more than a significant role and even dominated Manu Manoj’s character. I guess he should have taken less emphasis.

MS Narayana, Brahmanandam, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam, Authi Prasad are adequate.

Technical Departments

Music is pretty good by Keeravani, who understands Raghavendra Rao well. The tunes are very good and the background score is decent as well. Raghu Kulakarni’s art is commendable. But the costumes are pretty poor for the entire casting. Editing could have been better, but what Marthand Venkatesh do when he gets a rotten tomato?

Taken as a whole, Jhummandi Naadam’ is like an old wine in the new bottle where you could see typical Raghavendra Rao in 1990’s in action. But unfortunately this is 2010 and its tough for people to accept such films.

http://www.supergoodmovies.com/6500/tollywood/Jhummandi-Naadam-Review-Movie-Review-Details

Awara Movie Review

Cast: Karthi, Tamannah, Milind Soman, Jagan, Sonia Deepti and Others.
Banner: Studio Green.
Cinematography: Madhie.
Editing: Anthony.
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja.
Presenter: KE Gnanavelraja.
Producer: N. Subash Chandra Bose.
Director: Lingusamy.
Release Date: May 21, 2010

Behind the Movie Awara: Hero Karthi fresh from the success of ‘Yuganiki Okkadu’ is a killer performer joined hands with action director Lingusamy known for movies like Run and Pandem Kodi in Telugu. Milk babe Tamanna riding too high in Tamil sky is the awesome beauty of this ‘Awara’ package with music from Yuvan Shankar Raja. Let us see, what did this ‘Awara’ the Tamil dubbed ‘Paiyaa’ did in Telugu?

Awara is a romantic and a sweet love story that develops on a journey in a car. Siva (Karthi) is struck by Charu (Tammanah's) beauty at first sight and he follows her. A chance meeting leads to serendipity, he is delighted at having her on the journey and thereon the plot moves fast.

The first half of the film is very engaging, with most of the conversations in the car and between the hero and his friends on the phone. The long drive doesn't look tedious, with characters being introduced, history being revealed and brawls, big fights, a lot of chasing, etc. One noticeable part of the story is that there are too many fights interrupting and the focus shifts from the hero wanting to disclose his love to him getting engaged in fighting the baddies.

The latter half of the film continues with two warring groups baying for the lead pair's love and blood. Once that has been settled, it's love matter again. The beauty of any love story is how and when a person expresses his love to the lady, but here after all the arduous moments the lead pair go through one would want to see how the reticent hero breaks ice, but the fun is lost with the friends doing the job for him.

Songs are sweet, good writing, cinematography makes the movie interesting. Slender beauty Tamannah with her wash board abs and tiny waists makes her presence felt, she doesn't have too many dialogues but despite that she gives in the required anxious expressions. Karthi's biggest plus point is that he looks so ordinary, like a guy next door, he lends an element of self assuredness to his character and steers the wheels confidently, becomes Tamannah's knight in shining armour with élan and ease, there is no high drama out there from his side, exhibits his personal style. He has his light-hearted one liners and is supported by a group of friends.

But the Telugu dialogues seem unsettling, it is laced with a slight Tamil accent. Milind Soman's appearance as one of the villain wipes out any monotony onscreen. FYI Awara is a cool entertainer, a nice drive recommended this summer.



Values of the Movie Awara: Lingusamy never takes up laborious stories, he believes in strong and action narration. May it be ‘Run or Pandem Kodi,’ you feel an incredible punch in the movie which is totally missed in ‘Awara.’ His story is thinner than wafer and script was very weak. Direction wise, there are few interesting action episodes and two well picturized songs but nothing more. Dialogues by Shashank Vennalakanti are just okay. Music by Yuvan Shankar Raja was good for two songs and background score. Madi’s Cinematography was wonderful in songs and some intelligent and new camera angles were seen in action episodes. Editing by Antony was sharp only in second half.

Performance wise Karthi was versatile but there were few raw facial expressions. Stunts wise he was mindblowing and dances wise he was uncomfortable. Best part of the movie is Karthi’s self dubbing which gave new feel to character. Tamanna was again gorgeous looking in traditional and trendy costumes. In one of the song sequences, the way she swings her hip with hot navel sending down the vibrations, you fell flat for her. Hope she repeats it with Allu Arjun in ‘Badrinath’ for Telugu audience too. Milind Soman has a very short role while Sonia of ‘Happy Days’ fame is not worth mentioning. Remaining few artists are from Tamil land whom we doesn’t recognise much.

Out of the Movie Awara: Lingusamy’s typical racy script with action touch was missing in this 'Action mixed love story' Awara. Movie runs very slow in first half as audience leave the hall for interval with nothing in their minds. Second half was considerably dealt well with action episodes. Other than Tamanna and Karthi, none will have importance and none will impress you. Karthi needs to get developed in dances as his uneasy attitude was visible on screen. Tamanna will steal your heart and guys…she is hot. Action episodes are overtly dealt with wires which may not be liked by Telugu audience. Overall if Tamanna, Karthi, two songs, good cinematography are positives; weak script, no story line, exhaustive first half will drain the movie. Better part is that, length of ‘Awara’ was just two hours.

Movie Review Anjaneyulu

Film: Anjaneyulu

Cast: Ravi Teja, Nayanatara, Sonu Sood, Kota Srinivas Rao, Nasser, Brahmaji, Brahmanandam, Srinivas Reddy and others

Music: S Thaman

Cinematography: K Ravindra Babu

Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh

Art: Chinna

Fights: Ram Lakshman

Produced by: Ganesh Babu

Story, screenplay, dialogues and directed by: Parusaram

Release date: August 12, 2009

What’s it about!

Anjaneyulu works as a journalist in a TV channel and leads life carelessly. He is more attached to his father Murthy (Nasser) and shares everything with him. One day, a girl Anjali (Nayanatara) and asks him to rescue her from rowdies. He saves her and also falls in love with her at first sight. On the other hand, a minister seeks help of a mafia leader Bada (Sonu Sood) to kill an officer who has prepared a report of all the illegal activities of the minister. Bada hatches a plan to kill the officer and plants a bomb in a bus in which he is traveling. On the same bus, Anjaneyulu parents are leaving to their hometown after making visit to Hyderabad and they get killed in the blast. Rest of the movie is how Anjaneyulu takes revenge.

Analysis

As Ravi Teja’s recent films like Krishna and Kick became big hits for their entertainment value, it has now become a routine for directors to throw some comedy scenes to run a Ravi Teja film rather than having a sound script. Director Parasuram who made his debut with Yuvata seems to have taken this for granted and made a film without a proper script. He has just thrown some comedy scenes in the first half and tried to run the film. Sorry, it hasn’t worked out. Till the first half, it is okay and bearable but after that he totally misses the bus.

Director seems to have no knowledge of how a journalist behaves or works or how a news channel runs. What Ravi Teja has been doing in every other film does the same here except that he has tag of journalist here. Parasuram’s dialogues and his characterization of the protaganist is almost similar to Puri Jagannadh. There is no novelty in the movie except some gags here and there. And that too the dialogues and gestures are laced with full of double entendres.

Anjaneyulu has nothing new to offer nor has full entertainment. It is just a run of the mill story.

Performances

Ravi Teja has taken the onus to carry the movie on his shoulders, as there is no solid script. He has done it effortlessly. Nayanatara looks tired and has lost charm. Brahmanandam’s comedy (a satire on ETV Prabhakar?) evokes laughter in the beginning but after some point it becomes repetitive. There is no substance to her role. Sonu Sood is okay. Nasser plays the affection father role very well. Kota and others are also okay.

Music is big minus. None of the songs are catchy. Cinematography by Ravindra Babu is okay. Director Parasuram has flair for comedy but he is letdown by his own story and screenplay.

Bottom-line

The film is okay till the interval but after it loses the steam as nothing happens in the second half except that Ravi Teja goes into villain gang like Mahesh did in Pokiri. How many times you wanna see the same routine? Anjaneyulu is formulaic film with no logic - First Half Anjaneyulu, Second Half Engine Oil. The film is okay for its comedy and everything else is bad.

Chintakayala Ravi - Movie Review

 Film: Chintakayala Ravi

Cast: Venkatesh, Anushka, Mamta Mohandas, Venu, Lakshmi, Chandramohan, Nikita, Ali, Brahmanandam, Sunil, Venumadhav, and others

Story: Kona Venkat

Music: Vishal - Sekhar

Background score: Manisharma

Lyrics: Chandrabose

Cinematography: K Ravindra Babu

Editing: Srikara Prasad

Choreography: Raju Sundaram

Banner: Lakshmi Narasinha Productions

Produced by: Nallamalupu Srinivas (Bujji)

Screenplay and directed by: Yogesh

Release date: October 2, 2008

CBFC Rating: U

Seshamamba (Lakshmi) is in belief that his son Chintakayala Ravi (Venkatesh) is working as software engineer in USA and she boasts it in her village but actually Ravi is works in a local bar there. His mother arranges a match for him with a rich village belle Lavanya (Mamata Mohandas) who okays the alliance as Ravi is software engineer. Meanwhile, Lavanya asks her New York buddy Sunita (Anushka) to find out the conduct of Chintakayala Ravi. Sunita and Ravi accidentally meet once and she gets bad impression on him for his mischievous acts. She also finds that he is actually bartender and informs her friend that causes rift between Ravi and Lavanya’s families. The rest of the movie is triangle drama between Ravi, Lavanya and Sunita.

Analysis

Like all recent Venkatesh’s films, Chintakayala Ravi has high on entertainment but low on content. Story of the flick is kitchidi of various Hindi movies (mostly Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon and Hum Tum) but the backdrop of USA, Venkatesh’s performance, and comedy makes the film watchable. Adding mother sentiment to the predictable storyline made the movie more interesting, otherwise, it could have been very dull. Kona Venkat’s dialogues also are major asset. Other than that the movie treads on predictable pattern. First half of the movie is smooth and interesting but post the interval the narration is too slow and lengthy too. On the whole, the movie is just an okay.

Performances

Venkatesh gives good performance and shows his panache in comedy and sentiment scenes. After Venky, it is senior actress Lakshmi whose work is better. Her restrained performance adds strength to the sentiment scenes. Anushka’s performance is okay. Finally, Mamata Mohandass has got good role in Tollywood and also she comes with convincing act. Of the comedy gang, Sunil shines while Ali’s act as Nachami (an extension of his role in Chiruta), other toilet humor and some suggestive double meaning dialogues by Venky are in bad taste. Venu is apt for his brief role. So is Nikita. NTR’s guest appearance in the song 'Shava Shava' has no link and logic to the main storyline. Prakash Raj’s narrates the film with his voice over but it also can be done away with.

Of the technical cast, Kona Venkat (dialogues are good), Vishal- Sekhar (two songs – Bagunde..Bagunde and Enduko..Enduko are lilting) and cinematographer Ravindra Babu have come up with better work. Manisharma has just ‘copied’ the tunes from some of Yash Raj movies to provide background score. Chandrabose has penned all the songs and the lyrics in Enduko..Enduko are fantastic. He is giving best lyrics thesedays.

The scene where Venkatesh and Anushka act as husband and wife is just copy of Hum Tum (Rani and Saif do the same act in an apartment in Mumbai), like Saif arranges boys for Rani in Hum Tum, Venky does the same here. And in the climax, when Venky and Anushka perform as lovers in a game is Xerox copy of Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon. Indeed, the basic plot of Chintakayala Ravi is similar to Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon minus Abhishek’s role.

One appreciable aspect of the movie is the scenes shot in USA are rich and gives the movie very bright look. Producer Nallamapulu Bujji should be appreciated for this. Director Yogesh handles the movie okay but he has used all the old tricks for narration, not shown any novelty here.

Bottom-line

Chintakayala Ravi is just an okay. Mix of several Bollywood movies, the movie can be watchable for its comedy (in parts), good music and Venky’s performance.