Swati excels in histrionics, chivalry

The Telugu audiences who watched films like “Sankarabharanam, Sagara Sangamam, Shruti Layalu” few years ago had got an opportunity to watch one such movie, though not at such a great level but as far as the theme of the film is concerned, ‘Kalavaramaye Madilo’ had a similar storyline. It is the story of a singer, who had a life ambition to give an audition to the music maestro and Oscar awardee AR Rahman. How she achieved this goal is the crux of the movie. After a long time, the Telugu film industry witnessed a good subject with family subject and lots of emotions.

A Vamsi-mark love story on the banks of Godavari

Kamalini Mukherjee made her debut through ‘Anand’ from Sekhar Kammula. Though had a glamorous face and physique, she failed to get adequate break after her debut film. Venu Thottempudi also played hero in many films but none of them prove on par with ‘Swayamvaram’, his debut. For the first time, these two played together for Vamsi, who is known for bringing out comedy flicks and screen marvels like, ‘Sitara, Anveshana, Manchu Pallaki, Ladies’ Tailor, and Avunu Valliddaru Ishtapaddaru’. However this director too is facing a bad time with almost all his films like ‘Donga Ramudu and Party, Koncham Touchlo Vunte Chebutanu and Anumanaspadam’ proving duds at Box Office. He maintained a very low profile these days and kept his film and himself away from publicity during the shooting. GGG is a Vamsi-mark love story that runs in the backdrop of River Godavari.

TANA was held in Chicago this year at Rosemont Center. This review is based on one day that is 3rd of July. According to their advertisement stars like Jr NTR, Anushka, Colors Swathi etc. were supposed to be at the event. The biggest celebrity at the event was Murali Mohan and the remaining were only small comedians. Even the skit they played was just average. Apart from the stars the other highlight on the 3rd is MAA TV Super Singers competition. Due to the bad organization by TANA the star singers from India could perform only for a short period of time.

A futile move to prove it a ‘horror’ movie

After the success of a horror/thriller like ‘Mantra’ and ‘Arundhati’, some producers and directors tried to cash in on the trend by making films with thriller as the subject. However, producer Kirankumar chose to bring out the film in a different manner with the help of director Challa Bhanukiran, by keeping Sayaji Shinde in the lead role and debutant heroine Preeti Mehra as female lead, with little known artiste Sameer as another lead artiste. The director tried to infuse an idea that the audiences are watching a horror by putting a caption in the beginning of the film with a suggestion that heart patients should avoid watching the movie. However, there were no much horror scenes when compared to the ones that are being screened in several television serials that are being aired these days.

Siddharth excels in expressions and played perfect emotions

Siddharth, who played hero in films like ‘Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana, Bommarillu and Koncham Ishtam Koncham Kashtam’. Almost all the movies are family-oriented subjects. But ‘Oy’ is different from such love stories with a pure classic love story. Sidharth, so far had a lover boy image with all youthful films to his credit. For the first time, he played a serious lover with lots of attachment towards the heroine. With the film coming from a big banner like Universal Media, which had brought out a blockbuster like ‘Desamuduru’ there were lots of expectations. Let us see how far it reached the expectations of the audiences. Once again, Siddharth played hero with another debutant director called Anand Ranga.

Old wine in new bottle

A hero who acts a crusader to benefit a group of orphans, with himself an orphan and thrashes the villain for the sake of his people — These kind of stories are not new to the Telugu audiences. The popular writer duo, who penned hundreds of stories for several heroes, failed to give a gripping story, especially, when they were promoting one of their family members as hero. Paruchuri Ravindranath, son of Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, made his debut as hero with this film. Though he had a well-built body and has the zeal to show his prowess as an artiste, the absence of a gripping story, especially that could keep him on a high pedestal, turned a curse for him.

A love story with a different twist

Some of the Telugu heroes who make their debut prove themselves success with first film. There are some heroes like Udaykiran achieved hat trick hits and some like Nithin suffice with two hits in a row. Varun Sandesh, who played hero in ‘Happy Days’, bagged a hit with Sekhar Kammula’s abilities. He was able to continue his winning streak in ‘Kotha Bangaru Lokam’ but got a critical remark that he was imitating Siddhartha in some scenes. Whatever be the comment, he got a chance to play in a prestigious banner like AVM Productions and worked hard to complete the hattrick. Though not a hit, ‘Evaraina… Epudaina…’ would remain an above average flick due to the debutant director’s ability in penning a good screenplay and good narration with little twists here and there.

More ‘Current’ needed for a good break to Sushant

Sri Nag Corporation banner entered the Tollywood to promote Sushant, nephew of Nagarjuna, as hero. His debut film on the banner is ‘Kalidasu’ where he played a mass hero and it remained an average grosser. However, the debutant hero earned recognition with his ease in dances. The same producers and banner decide to promote him further and brought out ‘Current’ (Connecting Heartbeat) as their second project. Surya Pratap, who worked for many films in Suresh Productions and a protégé of Sukumar and ‘Bommarillu’ Bhaskar, was introduced as director and it was said that Devisri Prasad, who was impressed with the storyline, volunteered to score music.

Mohanbabu, after a long time realized that his heroism is getting faded and time has come to give way to fresh faces for the hero roles. He made a right choice by doing a nice character as an elder brother’s role by maintaining an identity of his own and at the same time made way for an young pair to do the routine commercial formula dances to suit the taste of the youth and mass audiences. His formula worked out perfectly and the film came out as ‘Raju Maharaju’, a complete family, sentimental drama which was interlaced with a triangular love and revenge story.

Director’s immaturity turns a bane for producer

Boni suffered several drawbacks. The producer, director and the heroine were debutants. Though the storyline chosen for the subject is a little off-beat and different from routine love stories with action in its backdrop, the immaturity of the director proved a bane and cost heavily for the first-time producer Ramana Gogula. Especially the haphazard screenplay and imperfect presentation of the story on the celluloid tested the patience of the audiences completely.