Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Tollywood shining!
2 movies. 2 fantastic efforts. And 2 movies that demand your ‘critic’ sensibilities to be left behind. Which I duly did. The result is this: I present to you an analysis of these two movies, not reviews per se.
1. Gudumba Shankar
An out and out Pawan Kalyan movie. One that sees the arrogant younger brother of Chiranjeevi at his absolute best in comedy. Pawan Kalyan carries the entire movie on his shoulders and unsurprisingly pulls it off. The story (if at all, it has one...) is very simple. The protagonist Shankar is a small time crook with a golden heart. The heroine falls for him left, right and center, when they go on an adventure together but has to marry the villain to save her family. The rest of the movie is about the protagonist donning the role of a wedding planner and playing tricks by the dozen to make the villain actually fear the heroine! That’s it. As simple as that. But between the starting and the ending of the movie are sandwiched numerous hilarious scenes, 2 superb fight sequences, 6 great songs and the eccentricities of Pawan Kalyan in his dialogue delivery and screen presence.
Being an unabashed, proud fan of this guy, I have embraced the movie for all its plus points and negative points. Even though he is regularly panned in the media for his arrogant attitude, I would urge them to look at his flair for composing fight and song sequences. In the top class “Khushi” movie, he took responsibility for these two departments and excelled in it. In “Gudumba Shankar” too, he dons the mantle again and once again demonstrates to the world that when it comes to conceptualizing fight or song sequences, he is second to none.
The remaining 500 odd (shouting, cheering, whistling) people in the theater with whom I watched this movie will gladly agree with me on this. And am very sure that a large majority of telugu people too will agree with me on this. All in all, a must watch for his fans and for anybody who is looking forward to non stop entertainment!!
2. Sye
Sye means challenge. I went to the movie hall purely on the strength of the trailers. (Go to this link http://www.idlebrain.com/movietape/index.html and download sye’s trailer I and trailer IV. You will understand.). The trailers are an absolute rocker. Very few trailers have that knack of raising your expectations about the movie by having arresting visuals with cool music. These trailers had both the qualities and I was absolutely captivated by them. Would have seen at least 25 – 30 times before I finally took my seat in Jayaprada theater and waited for the movie to start with tremendous expectation. And boy! Was I not treated to a 170 odd min spectacle?? Before we proceed, let me warn you that this movie is only for the young, especially the college going youth. Now, with that firmly set in our mind, let me take you through the wafer thin storyline.
Two gangs in college. Love to slug it out with each other through a game of rugby. A rowdy sheeter gang grabs their college land legally and throws a challenge. A challenge to play a game of rugby with them. If the college wins, they get back their land. If not, they will have to forgo the same. Sounds similar? Does it remind you of lagaan? Yep, the spirit of the story is the same, but that’s not the point here.
The point is that hell lot of credit should go to the director Rajamouli for taking a huge risk by weaving the entire story around the machoism of a totally alien game - rugby. And he weaves it brilliantly. By taking the common elements of “desire to win” and “courage” and interspersing them within the dynamics of a rough, alien game like rugby, he creates an engaging drama (liberally helped by awesome photography) that is bound to delight the audiences. My gut feel is that this will become one of the biggest hits of the season!
2 movies. 2 fantastic efforts. And 2 movies that demand your ‘critic’ sensibilities to be left behind. Which I duly did. The result is this: I present to you an analysis of these two movies, not reviews per se.
1. Gudumba Shankar
An out and out Pawan Kalyan movie. One that sees the arrogant younger brother of Chiranjeevi at his absolute best in comedy. Pawan Kalyan carries the entire movie on his shoulders and unsurprisingly pulls it off. The story (if at all, it has one...) is very simple. The protagonist Shankar is a small time crook with a golden heart. The heroine falls for him left, right and center, when they go on an adventure together but has to marry the villain to save her family. The rest of the movie is about the protagonist donning the role of a wedding planner and playing tricks by the dozen to make the villain actually fear the heroine! That’s it. As simple as that. But between the starting and the ending of the movie are sandwiched numerous hilarious scenes, 2 superb fight sequences, 6 great songs and the eccentricities of Pawan Kalyan in his dialogue delivery and screen presence.
Being an unabashed, proud fan of this guy, I have embraced the movie for all its plus points and negative points. Even though he is regularly panned in the media for his arrogant attitude, I would urge them to look at his flair for composing fight and song sequences. In the top class “Khushi” movie, he took responsibility for these two departments and excelled in it. In “Gudumba Shankar” too, he dons the mantle again and once again demonstrates to the world that when it comes to conceptualizing fight or song sequences, he is second to none.
The remaining 500 odd (shouting, cheering, whistling) people in the theater with whom I watched this movie will gladly agree with me on this. And am very sure that a large majority of telugu people too will agree with me on this. All in all, a must watch for his fans and for anybody who is looking forward to non stop entertainment!!
2. Sye
Sye means challenge. I went to the movie hall purely on the strength of the trailers. (Go to this link http://www.idlebrain.com/movietape/index.html and download sye’s trailer I and trailer IV. You will understand.). The trailers are an absolute rocker. Very few trailers have that knack of raising your expectations about the movie by having arresting visuals with cool music. These trailers had both the qualities and I was absolutely captivated by them. Would have seen at least 25 – 30 times before I finally took my seat in Jayaprada theater and waited for the movie to start with tremendous expectation. And boy! Was I not treated to a 170 odd min spectacle?? Before we proceed, let me warn you that this movie is only for the young, especially the college going youth. Now, with that firmly set in our mind, let me take you through the wafer thin storyline.
Two gangs in college. Love to slug it out with each other through a game of rugby. A rowdy sheeter gang grabs their college land legally and throws a challenge. A challenge to play a game of rugby with them. If the college wins, they get back their land. If not, they will have to forgo the same. Sounds similar? Does it remind you of lagaan? Yep, the spirit of the story is the same, but that’s not the point here.
The point is that hell lot of credit should go to the director Rajamouli for taking a huge risk by weaving the entire story around the machoism of a totally alien game - rugby. And he weaves it brilliantly. By taking the common elements of “desire to win” and “courage” and interspersing them within the dynamics of a rough, alien game like rugby, he creates an engaging drama (liberally helped by awesome photography) that is bound to delight the audiences. My gut feel is that this will become one of the biggest hits of the season!
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Barren Bollywood, "Gudumba Shankar" & powerful images……..
After the release of “Lakshya”, I have been waiting for a movie from Bollywood that deserves to be seen in a theater and my search is still continuing….The outlook for the future does not look to be promising either. Even though my browsing has taken a hit of late, I can’t think of any movie that I am looking forward to, except for “Naach”. This Ramgopal Varma movie is the only one that might make me go the distance, but its expected to be released only in November. Where have all the talented people gone?
However, things are much rosier in Tollywood. After “Arjun”, the next big movie that is slated to release this weekend is “Gudumba Shankar”. Starring Pawan Kalyan, one of the three heirs to the legacy of Chiranjeevi ( the other two being NTR jr and Maheshbabu a.k.a. Mahesh), this movie is widely expected by the telugu audiences. Coming after the huge debacle of his earlier movie “Johnny”, Pawan will be keen to prove a point and I have a gut feel that he will get it right this time. I plan to catch the movie this weekend.
Talking about “Arjun,” two images from that movie that speaks volumes of the director Gunashekhar’s talent still linger in my memory. Right in the beginning of the movie, when the two main characters Mahesh and Keerti Reddy are having a small fight between themselves, their mom intervenes to separate them. Till that time, the audience does have an inkling that they are siblings but don’t know that they are twins. Gunashekhar drives this point brilliantly with a single shot that captures a childhood photo that is hung on the wall and has these three people talking beneath it. So even before their mom starts off a dialogue explicitly mentioning that they are twins, the audience has already been nudged to think on the same lines! Awesome use of a photograph to drive home a point!
The second image is even more powerful. Towards the end of the movie, there is a night time fight sequence on the temple road between Mahesh and Kalabhavan Mani’s men. In one particular shot, Mani falls down on the ground after getting a vicious kick from Mahesh and looks back to see him approaching. At that precise time, a car zooms in between them. The headlights of the car magnify the shadow of the approaching Mahesh and the villain a.k.a Mani quivers in fear looking at the shadow that looms large over him.
Boy! This was an image that spoke a million words. Nothing else can possibly signify the fear of the villain who is getting thrashed by the protagonist than this scene. Nothing else can portray the extent of the domination of the hero over the villain. I am simply not able to forget this awesome image. Indeed, he is one among the very few directors that the telugu film industry can be proud of. Leaving these apart, the movie was strictly OK fare, except for Mahesh’s riveting performance that includes his awesome voice modulation. You can read the detailed review of the movie here.
After the release of “Lakshya”, I have been waiting for a movie from Bollywood that deserves to be seen in a theater and my search is still continuing….The outlook for the future does not look to be promising either. Even though my browsing has taken a hit of late, I can’t think of any movie that I am looking forward to, except for “Naach”. This Ramgopal Varma movie is the only one that might make me go the distance, but its expected to be released only in November. Where have all the talented people gone?
However, things are much rosier in Tollywood. After “Arjun”, the next big movie that is slated to release this weekend is “Gudumba Shankar”. Starring Pawan Kalyan, one of the three heirs to the legacy of Chiranjeevi ( the other two being NTR jr and Maheshbabu a.k.a. Mahesh), this movie is widely expected by the telugu audiences. Coming after the huge debacle of his earlier movie “Johnny”, Pawan will be keen to prove a point and I have a gut feel that he will get it right this time. I plan to catch the movie this weekend.
Talking about “Arjun,” two images from that movie that speaks volumes of the director Gunashekhar’s talent still linger in my memory. Right in the beginning of the movie, when the two main characters Mahesh and Keerti Reddy are having a small fight between themselves, their mom intervenes to separate them. Till that time, the audience does have an inkling that they are siblings but don’t know that they are twins. Gunashekhar drives this point brilliantly with a single shot that captures a childhood photo that is hung on the wall and has these three people talking beneath it. So even before their mom starts off a dialogue explicitly mentioning that they are twins, the audience has already been nudged to think on the same lines! Awesome use of a photograph to drive home a point!
The second image is even more powerful. Towards the end of the movie, there is a night time fight sequence on the temple road between Mahesh and Kalabhavan Mani’s men. In one particular shot, Mani falls down on the ground after getting a vicious kick from Mahesh and looks back to see him approaching. At that precise time, a car zooms in between them. The headlights of the car magnify the shadow of the approaching Mahesh and the villain a.k.a Mani quivers in fear looking at the shadow that looms large over him.
Boy! This was an image that spoke a million words. Nothing else can possibly signify the fear of the villain who is getting thrashed by the protagonist than this scene. Nothing else can portray the extent of the domination of the hero over the villain. I am simply not able to forget this awesome image. Indeed, he is one among the very few directors that the telugu film industry can be proud of. Leaving these apart, the movie was strictly OK fare, except for Mahesh’s riveting performance that includes his awesome voice modulation. You can read the detailed review of the movie here.
