Posting the review I wrote in Forum Keralam.
Theatre: Innovative Multiplex, Bangalore, 24th October, 11:30 AM Show
Status: Balcony - No idea, must be around 80% First Class: 30-40% with 3-4 girls
To be frank, I expected a lot more violence looking at the various reviews. The movie sure has its fair share of it, but nothing revolting. I found it necessary and realistic enough for the topic tackled by the movie. Then again, it depends on the threshold of the viewer. The guy who sat next to often cringed and was hid his face when something gruesome was about to happen.
The film is based on the real life story of Paritala Ravi, a powerful politician in Rayalseema who lived and died by the sword.
Anantpur is place ruled by Narasimha Reddy, a powerful politician. Veer Bhadra is the trusted lieutenant of Reddy, who hails from the lower caste. Naga Reddy, the number two in the party is jealous of Veer Bhadra's relation with Narasimha. Naga Reddy manages to poison Narasimha's mind to turn him against Veer Bhadra which eventually culminates in Veer Bhadra's gruesome murder. This incident triggers of a spate of violence between the two factions led by Veer Bhadra's son Shankar played by Sushant Singh and Naga Reddy's son Bukka Reddy played by Abhimanyu Singh.
Shankar gets murdered and his brother Pratap Ravi played by Vivek Oberoi takes over the helm. The rest of the movie deals with how Pratap Ravi avenges the death of his father and brother, and how he transforms from a guerilla leader to a power politician.
The performances are top notch. You cannot name a single person who has underperformed or hammed in the movie. The best performer by far was Abhimanyu Singh. He plays the brutal Bukka Reddy to perfection. Bukka Reddy enjoys murdering people in the unconventional manner. Bukka kills people for pleasure and kills his own people when he is angry. A rampant womaniser who literally lifts women from the streets and rapes them. Abhimanyu is successful in creating the aura of unpredictability around the character and spite in the minds of the viewers. Vivek Oberoi has performed really well. Probably his best since Company. He is controlled when required and at his smouldering best in certain scenes. The surprise comes in the form of Shatrughan Sinha. Shotgun is left in the cupboard and he acts the smooth Shivaji Rao (probably inspired by NTR) to perfection.
There is a scene which shows how violence is a routine for the people. Bukka Reddy is smashing the pulp out a man's leg with a rifle butt in the front yard of his home. The lady in the house saunters out and asks Bukka whether he wants to come to the temple as if he is sipping tea. Bukka pauses, replies in the negative, and continues his work. The lady without a blink gets into a car and leaves.
The movie is filled with RGV signature shots. The close-up shots, wacky camera work. Fast frames. The director is near top form after a long time. For me, this is one of his better works and the best work in quite some time although the movie is nowhere near Satya or Company. Sound is very loud and felt a bit unnecessary. The BGM is over the top in most places. It felt grating in the beginning, but afterwards it synced with the tempo of the movie. Same holds true for the weird sound of the narrator.
The movie had a satisfactory ending making the viewer crave for more. A short synopsis of what is to be expected in the second part is shown in the end. Surya dominates the section and it sets the tone for the next part. Priyamani is also shown in the montage and probably Sudeep will have a bigger part to play. He was introduced as an intel officer after the first half with no part after that.
TL;DR: Rakhta Charithra is a must watch for the connoisseurs of political-thrillers, provided you can stand the amount of blood and gore.
Rating: 7.5/10
Monday, October 25, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Anwar: Slooow Poison!
Cross-posting from the review I wrote in ForumKeralam.
Theatre: Athulya, Trivandrum, 6 PM show
Status: Full. I was sitting in the box above the balcony.
Amal Neerad has shown once again that he is a one trick pony. Stylish shots with no substance. The problem with Anwar is that the stylish shots does not manage to hold the viewer's attention. Most of the time the movie just meanders along the way in ultra slow motions with nothing much happening. Even if things happen, you just stare at the screen sans emotions. The only time I got excited was the starting of the last sequence were Anwar takes on the bad guys. All the other stunts does not provide much value. Its often left to the viewer's imagination. They should "know" and "feel" the power of Anwar, rather than "see" them on the screen.
Story is threadbare and its difficult to divulge anything without breaking the suspense. The story was something on the lines that I had expected and it was no big surprise at all. Ditto for the 3 who watched the movie with me, one of whom is barely 14 without the burden of having watched countless hollywood flicks. Story is sometimes overrated as Amal once said in an interview. But in those cases, you need a strong script to back you up and great dialogues. Script is absent in Anwar, but dialogues at places are good.
Prithviraj's performance is the only salvageable aspect from the movie apart from the songs. He has matured as an actor with a very controlled performance required from the character. His role did bring back the memory of Stop Violence, where is brooding look worked and not his sound. But in Anwar he has come a full circle where his looks and expressions were great along with perfect sound modulation. Comparison could be because of them the fact that I watched Stop Violence first day in the same place!
Mamtha had nothing much to do. Lal was good as usual. Prakash Raj was good, but didn't have the meaty role the man deserves.
Some people would call the movie technically brilliant. I would disagree and call it rubbish. Using the latest techniques won't make a movie any good. Ultra slo-mos should complement story telling, not take over the entire movie.
Crowd reaction. Cheers for Prithviraj. Majority booing for Mammootty. Lots of boos in some sequences and the loudest boos were reserved after the movie when the outro song ends. Even I booed!
Loudest cheers were for this dialogue.
: Ivinentha kuzhappam? Nalla payyanalle? Pinne kure ahankaram undu.
Prithvi should be careful at this juncture of his career. Couple of bombs could set him back a lot. I am afraid Anwar is one of those.
Rating: 4/10 (I am being very generous here, a brownie point exclusively for Prithvi for improving as an actor.)
Theatre: Athulya, Trivandrum, 6 PM show
Status: Full. I was sitting in the box above the balcony.
Amal Neerad has shown once again that he is a one trick pony. Stylish shots with no substance. The problem with Anwar is that the stylish shots does not manage to hold the viewer's attention. Most of the time the movie just meanders along the way in ultra slow motions with nothing much happening. Even if things happen, you just stare at the screen sans emotions. The only time I got excited was the starting of the last sequence were Anwar takes on the bad guys. All the other stunts does not provide much value. Its often left to the viewer's imagination. They should "know" and "feel" the power of Anwar, rather than "see" them on the screen.
Story is threadbare and its difficult to divulge anything without breaking the suspense. The story was something on the lines that I had expected and it was no big surprise at all. Ditto for the 3 who watched the movie with me, one of whom is barely 14 without the burden of having watched countless hollywood flicks. Story is sometimes overrated as Amal once said in an interview. But in those cases, you need a strong script to back you up and great dialogues. Script is absent in Anwar, but dialogues at places are good.
Prithviraj's performance is the only salvageable aspect from the movie apart from the songs. He has matured as an actor with a very controlled performance required from the character. His role did bring back the memory of Stop Violence, where is brooding look worked and not his sound. But in Anwar he has come a full circle where his looks and expressions were great along with perfect sound modulation. Comparison could be because of them the fact that I watched Stop Violence first day in the same place!
Mamtha had nothing much to do. Lal was good as usual. Prakash Raj was good, but didn't have the meaty role the man deserves.
Some people would call the movie technically brilliant. I would disagree and call it rubbish. Using the latest techniques won't make a movie any good. Ultra slo-mos should complement story telling, not take over the entire movie.
Crowd reaction. Cheers for Prithviraj. Majority booing for Mammootty. Lots of boos in some sequences and the loudest boos were reserved after the movie when the outro song ends. Even I booed!
Loudest cheers were for this dialogue.
: Ivinentha kuzhappam?
Prithvi should be careful at this juncture of his career. Couple of bombs could set him back a lot. I am afraid Anwar is one of those.
Rating: 4/10 (I am being very generous here, a brownie point exclusively for Prithvi for improving as an actor.)
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Total "Enthira"tainment!
Cross-posting the review I wrote in ForumKeralam.
Theatre: Fame Lido, Forum Value Mall, Bangalore
Show: 2nd October, 4:40 PM
Status: House Full
First things first. I am not a fan of Rajnikanth and seldom hides my disdain for the brand of "style" the man is known for over the years. For me, Rajni films are either tolerable or a pain to watch. I had my apprehensions with the movie and had a constant dread after spending Rs 400 for a ticket. By the end of 15 minutes, my fears started evaporating. Endhiran is the Rajni film I absolutely loved. Hats off to the man himself and Shankar.
The plot is wafer thin as is the case with all Shankar films. Quite welcome that Shankar has made no attempt to steal the story from somewhere. Rajnikanth, a robotics scientist, makes an android capable of superhuman feats and models the look after himself. Things go wrong after the doctor introduces emotion to make the robot better. The robot falls in love with his girlfriend and threatens the world with a little help from the doctor's jealous mentor.
I loved Aishwarya Rai in the movie. Basically, she does her job as an ornament (a delectable one at that!) and does not have anything to act ala Raavanan. After a long time it was refreshing to see a normal intro for a hero, that too from somebody who has a stamp on the intro scenes as Rajnikanth. Director has succeeded in making the scientist Rajnikanth as human as possible. A terrible workaholic, prone to mistakes, jealous...the feelings which are unknown to the "normal" Rajnikanth. Rajni does his part decently to his credit. The robot Rajnikanth was simply mindblowing. I always thought Rajnikanth would make a great villain and he proves it. The Robot in the first half is an emotion less being which reminded me of Arnold in Terminator. In the second half, he turns into an evil monster. Rajni steals the show as the scheming, snarling supervillain. Other actors did not have much to do. Danny Denozgpa is upto the mark as the mentor jealous of his protege's success.
Music from Rahman is pretty average. The only song I really liked was the Endhiran song towards the end. The songs are shot extremely well. Songs oscillate between shot in exotic locales and imaginary locales. Lavish and stylishly shot. Choreography left much to be intended in my opinion. At some places it was really good and in most places it was just average.
Now to the best part. Graphics. I have never seen such perfection and polish regarding graphics in India. In fact, Endhiran would easily match a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster in the graphics part. One aspect I would like to mention is that, you would never see some of these graphics in Hollywood movies specifically because they don't have a compulsion towards songs. Almost all the graphics work in the movie are brilliant or close enough to being brilliant to allude most of the prying eyes.
My reaction to the movie was Holy S**t! My friend, a Rajni fan's reaction was Meh! According to him, the movie does not have anything that a Rajni fan would expect. No punch dialogues, no introduction, nothing to make his pulse race. May be this could work in the favour of the movie since the movie could have an universal appeal beyond Rajni fans.
TL;DR: Endhiran is a landmark movie in Indian cinema. Watch it for the jaw dropping graphics. Entertainment guaranteed!
Rating: 7.5/10
Theatre: Fame Lido, Forum Value Mall, Bangalore
Show: 2nd October, 4:40 PM
Status: House Full
First things first. I am not a fan of Rajnikanth and seldom hides my disdain for the brand of "style" the man is known for over the years. For me, Rajni films are either tolerable or a pain to watch. I had my apprehensions with the movie and had a constant dread after spending Rs 400 for a ticket. By the end of 15 minutes, my fears started evaporating. Endhiran is the Rajni film I absolutely loved. Hats off to the man himself and Shankar.
The plot is wafer thin as is the case with all Shankar films. Quite welcome that Shankar has made no attempt to steal the story from somewhere. Rajnikanth, a robotics scientist, makes an android capable of superhuman feats and models the look after himself. Things go wrong after the doctor introduces emotion to make the robot better. The robot falls in love with his girlfriend and threatens the world with a little help from the doctor's jealous mentor.
I loved Aishwarya Rai in the movie. Basically, she does her job as an ornament (a delectable one at that!) and does not have anything to act ala Raavanan. After a long time it was refreshing to see a normal intro for a hero, that too from somebody who has a stamp on the intro scenes as Rajnikanth. Director has succeeded in making the scientist Rajnikanth as human as possible. A terrible workaholic, prone to mistakes, jealous...the feelings which are unknown to the "normal" Rajnikanth. Rajni does his part decently to his credit. The robot Rajnikanth was simply mindblowing. I always thought Rajnikanth would make a great villain and he proves it. The Robot in the first half is an emotion less being which reminded me of Arnold in Terminator. In the second half, he turns into an evil monster. Rajni steals the show as the scheming, snarling supervillain. Other actors did not have much to do. Danny Denozgpa is upto the mark as the mentor jealous of his protege's success.
Music from Rahman is pretty average. The only song I really liked was the Endhiran song towards the end. The songs are shot extremely well. Songs oscillate between shot in exotic locales and imaginary locales. Lavish and stylishly shot. Choreography left much to be intended in my opinion. At some places it was really good and in most places it was just average.
Now to the best part. Graphics. I have never seen such perfection and polish regarding graphics in India. In fact, Endhiran would easily match a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster in the graphics part. One aspect I would like to mention is that, you would never see some of these graphics in Hollywood movies specifically because they don't have a compulsion towards songs. Almost all the graphics work in the movie are brilliant or close enough to being brilliant to allude most of the prying eyes.
My reaction to the movie was Holy S**t! My friend, a Rajni fan's reaction was Meh! According to him, the movie does not have anything that a Rajni fan would expect. No punch dialogues, no introduction, nothing to make his pulse race. May be this could work in the favour of the movie since the movie could have an universal appeal beyond Rajni fans.
TL;DR: Endhiran is a landmark movie in Indian cinema. Watch it for the jaw dropping graphics. Entertainment guaranteed!
Rating: 7.5/10
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