Souryam

Credits

MovieMirchiClub rating: 3/5
Punchline: sibling senti
Genre: Action/Drama
Type: Straight
Banner: Bhavya Creations

Cast: Gopichand, Anushka, Poonam Kaur, Ajay, Manoj K Jayan, Krishna Bhagawan, Fish Venkat, Ali, Sarth Kumar, Tanikella Bharani, Raghu Babu

Music: Mani Sharma
Cinematography: Vatri
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Dialogues: Ratnam
Stunts: Ram - Lakshman
Producer: Anand Prasad
Stoy - Screenplay – direction: Siva
Release date: 25 September 2008

Review

Story

souryam Vijay (Gopichand) goes to Kolkota to pursue his studies and joins a college out there. He has a gang of goons searching frantically about his whereabouts. There he romances with a student Swetha (Anushka) and saves another student Divya (Poonam Kaur). The rest of the story is all about the purpose of Vijay coming to Kolkota and how he resolves the problem.

Artists Performance
souryamGopichand is pretty good in the male lead role. His punch dialogues in conversations with villain are good. He performed with lots of ease. Anushka is looking good in this film with slim body. She has got very good footage in the first half and she is hardly seen in the second half. Poonam Kaur did a pivotal role in the film and she is satisfactory. The villain role is a tailor-made one for Prakash Raj. A fresh Malayalam import Manoj K Jayan did this role convincingly. Ajay did his typical kind of hot-blooded baddie role. Krishna Bhagawan's comedy is very good in a big episode of the film. Fish Venkat makes his presence felt. Ali does another 6-pack comedy after Salute. The small girl who did the flashback role is impressive.

Technical departments

souryamStory – screenplay – direction: Story of the film is laced with strong sister sentiment and a flashback in Basha and Narasimha Naidu style. The story of the film is prepared in typical commercial film format. Direction of the film is good in parts. But the screenplay and narration needs betterment. The director could come up with good mass situations at regular intervals, but he made the climax of the film in clichéd format. The strategy employed by hero in the second half is entertaining. The heroine has nothing to do with the central point of the film. There are also a few double meaning dialogues and censored audio cuts in the film.

souryamOther departments: The songs in the first half are scored well. The background music by Mani Sharma is good. Cinematography by Vetri is adequate. The shots taken for the hero introduction and first fight deserve a mention. Dialogues by AM Ratnam are mostly good. But a couple of dialogues are too lengthy and over dramatic (interval twist dialogue and climax dialogue between siblings). Fights in the film are good. Editing by Marthand K Venkatesh is alright. Production values are good.

souryamAnalysis: First half of the film is slow though there is a sustained interested about the whereabouts of the hero. Interval twist is good. The second half has the main story. Hero's strategy to offset villain is entertaining. The climax of the film is clichéd. Most of the songs in the film appear as breakers to the narration. The plus points of the film are Gopichand and action episodes. On the flipside, the second half should have been dealt with a gripping screenplay. The voilence in the film is excessive. The film is aimed mainly at the masses and B/C center crowds. The film's commercial success depend on how the crowds embrace the sister sentiment in the film.

Welcome to Sajjanpur

Credits

MovieMirchiClub rating: 3.25/5
Punchline: A simple comedy film
Banner: UTV Spot Boy
Genre: Comedy
Cast: Shreyas Talpade, Amrita Rao, Ravi Kishan, Ila Arun, Divya Dutta & Yashpal Sharma
Music: Shantanu Moitra
Screenplay - Dialogues: Ashok Mishra
direction: Shyam Benegal
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala & Zarina Mehta
Release date: 19 September 2008

Review

Story
Then there is a remote village called Sajjanpur which is full of illiterates who can neither read nor write. Mahadev (Shreyas Talpade) is a graduate and wannabe writer who sees some business potential in writing letters for illiterate village men at a price. He starts his business by sitting under a tree and starts writing letters and reading letters at a price. He is like a God in the city as he gets to read/write all the letters. He knows the secrets of all the village men. The rest of the story is all about how he helps the village out with his knowledge and how he plays mischief with the life of an innocent married childhood lady friend.

Actors:
Shreyas Talpade is excellent as the letter writer who drives the entire story. This is probably his best performance after Iqbal and 'Dor' films. He did the role of intelligent, mischievous yet good hearted youngster. Amrita Rao shows her acting prowess in the role of village belle who eagerly awaits the arrival of her husband from Mumbai. Yashpal Sharma is good as the evil guy who wants to make his wife a sarpanch. Ravi Jhankal steals the show as hizda who runs for sarpanch elections. Kunal Kapoor did the guest appearance as Bansi, but he did not suit the role.

Technical departments:

Story - Screenplay - direction: Story of the film is nice. The characters in the film are well defined and the entire story is narrated from the letter writer point of view. The innocence of village is portrayed in a sensitive way. It is a different humor entertainer from Shyam Benegal who is generally known for serious art cinema. At the same time, he emphasized on humanity aspect towards the climax of the film. There are four drawbacks in the film – slowness in narration, unnecessary songs that obstruct the flow, hypothetical scenes and problematic language in the beginning of the film. The following scenes are worth a mention

1. When somebody asks Mahadev who Kamala is. He said 'behan' and after a brief gap he says 'kisi aur ka'.
2. The scene in which Hizda comes to the place of Mahadev and tells her/his problems.
3. The last letter from Kamala's husband in which he explains how he is going to raise 50k.

Other technical departments: The music of the film is pretty good. Songs are well picturized though they come as speed breakers for the narration. Cinematography of the film is superb. The village and lush green surroundings is beautifully captured on the celluloid. Dialogues are witty. Production values and packaging of the product is good by UTV Spotboy.

Analysis: UTV seem to be doing really well when it come to making small yet meaningful cinema like Aamir, Mumbai Meri Jaan, A Wednesday and Welcome to Sajjanpur. This film is a simple film with genuine comedy and some heart touching scenes. The plus points are the comedy and the village set-up. The negative points are slow-paced narration, unnecessary songs, and loose ends towards climax. On a whole, Welcome to Sajjanpur might not be a good entertainer, but certainly worth a watch if you want to see a different film with simple comedy.

Saroja

Credits

MovieMirchiClub rating: 3/5
Punchline: Kidnap drama
Genre: Thriller
Type: Bilingual
Banner: Amma Creations

Cast: Prakash Raj, Srihari, Vaibhav, SP Charan, Sampat, Nikita, Kajal Agarwal, Vega, Brahmanandam

Music: Yuan Shnkar Raja
Cinematography: Sakti Saravnan
Dialogues: Vennelakanti
Producer: T Siva
Stoy - Screenplay – direction: Venkat Prabhu
Release date: 5 September 2008

Review

Story

saroja Viswanatham (Prakash Raj) is a billionaire in Hyderabad. His teen daughter Saroja (Vega) is kidnapped and he is asked to pay up a ransom of Rs.20 crores. He takes help of his cop friend (Srihari). Meanwhile a group of four friends in Chennai take up a road trip to Hyderabad to attend cricket match. They are forced to take a remote route as the national highway is jammed due to a big accident. They enter a remote village in which they encounter with a gang of cold-blooded goons. The rest of the story is about how these four youngsters get connected with the kidnap of Saroja and what happens next.

Artists Performance

ashta chemmaWe see Prakash Raj in Telugu films after a couple of months. He is good as usual. Srihari did the vital role of the cop. Vaibhav has improved a lot compared to his debut film and he is pretty good in the character of a youngster. SPB Charan (Balu's son) is cool. Vega is impressive as the kidnapped Saroja. Sampat is competent as the villain. Nikita did the role of villain's lady. Kajal Agarwal's character in this film is limited without any connection to the main story.

sarojaStory – screenplay – direction: Venkat Prabhu has taken a thriller subject and narrated it in a powerful, yet entertaining way. He also made sure that the film is technically sound. He made sure that there is bit of humor to make us feel at ease amidst terrorizing moments. The screenplay of the film is good. The director who narrated an interesting story has spoiled the show at the climax by showing a lame excuse for the kidnappers.

ashta chemmaOther departments: Music by Yuan Shankar Raja is good. Background music is also nice. Cinematography supported by digital intermediate is impressive. The design of time stamp in the film is cool. The locations used as villain's adda are pretty good. Dialogues by Vennelakanti are good.

sarojaAnalysis: Venkat Prabhu has taken an unconventional point and narrated it in an entertaining and interesting way. But by keeping an unconvincing excuse for the motive behind kidnap, he lets the audiences down in the climax. The way he molded the Premji Amaran character (the guy who falls in love with Saroja) in the second half is hilarious. But the climax of the film appears contrived and dragged with 9 people fighting simultaneously. Even with a couple of pitfalls, 'Saroja' film makes an interesting watching.

Ashta Chemma

Credits

MovieMirchiClub: 3.25/5
Punchline: Mahesh Mania
Genre: Comedy
Type: Straight
Banner: Art Beat Capital Ltd

Cast: Colors Swati, Nani, Srinivas Avasarala, Bhargavi, Jhansi, Tanikella Bharani, Hema etc

Music: Kalyani Malik
Cinematography: PG Vinda
Lyrics: Sirivennela
Producer: Ram Mohan
Stoy - dialogues - Screenplay – direction: Mohana Krishna Indraganti
Release date: 5 September 2008

Review

Story

ashtachemma Lavanya (Colors Swati) is a hardcore fan of hero Mahesh Babu. And her ambition is to marry hero Mahesh. But her heart is broken when Mahesh married Namrata Sirodkar. She lowers her expectations and decided to marry somebody who has ‘Mahesh’ in his name. Anand (Srinivas Avasarala) is a lanky neighbor of Lavanya and he is bugged with ‘Pokiri’ songs played in loud volume by Lavanya. He decides that the only way to get rid of noise from her house is to hook her up with a good looking boy with the name Mahesh. And he finds a handsome guy called Mahesh (Nani). The rest of the story is all about the comedy of errors originated due to the Mahesh obsession of Lavanya.

Artists Performance

ashta chemmaSrinivas Avasarala: A real actor is the one who adds more to the table than what it is with his performance. Srinivas Avasarala is a born actor and he added 25% to the output of the film with his performance. Be it dialogue delivery, comedy timing, minute expressions or body language. He should seriously consider packing his bags and finding the next available flight to Hyderabad as Telugu film industry is desperately looking for such fine actors. He is a complete delight to watch. Srinivas Avasarala is selected for this film through a talent hunt conducted by Mohana Krishna Indraganti in idlebrain.com.

ashtachemmaColors Swathi: Her character in this film as an obsessed fan of Mahesh Babu is like a natural extension to her hilarious portrayal of girl in love with Venky in AMAV. She is completely natural and is herself while doing the role of Lavanya. She brought out lot of mischief and child-like stupidity that is needed for the character which her histrionics. But fans of Swathi will get little disappointed in the second half because her footage is relatively less compared to the first half.

ashta chemmaNani: Nani has sharp features, nice Telugu diction and amazing confidence levels. Doing a role that requires the attributes of Mahesh Babu is a challenge for a newcomer. And Nani comes up with a fabulous performance. He has a promising future if he selects the roles carefully.

ashtachemmaOthers: Bhargavi is good as the traditional village girl. Jhansi has done a variety role that reminds us of the harmless and witty mother-in-law character in ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’. Tanikella Bharani and Hema are adequate. The guy who played the server character in ‘Amrutam’ TV serial is fun to watch in this film.

ashta chemmaStory – screenplay – direction: Story of the film is simple, yet complicated. This story is based on a play written by Oscar Wilde. Most of the film revolves around name confusion. A film like this needs an interesting screenplay to sustain the attention of he viewers. Mohan Krishna Indraganti succeeds in giving us a film that sustains the interest levels throughout by injecting the necessary twists at the right time. Direction of the film is good. The narrative style using which he introduced characters is brilliant. The director is supposed to take the comedy in the film to the next level during the last half-an-hour of the film where pieces fall into the place. Though the twists were well-placed in the last half an hour, the director could not get more laughs towards the climax.

ashtachemmaOther departments: Music by Kalyani Malik is nice. The visuals and situations in the film add more to the music. Dialogues written in the film are witty and most of the time impromptu (except for the last half an hour where the dialogues are lengthy). Cinematography by PG Vinda is nice. The vintage song should have been done in black and white. Editing is nice. The product looks superior in terms of visuals and sound. Producer Ram Mohan should be commended for keeping faith on the director and on this genre.

ashta chemmaAnalysis: First half of the film is really good. The narration is little slow in the second half. The climax is interesting, but a better handled one would have added lot of the value to the film. The plus points of the film are casting and comedy quotient. The director and the producer’s decision for choosing a particular genre and sticking to it without diluting with formula commercial ingredients deserve applause. Probably Ashta Chemma is the first Telugu film where the entire story revolves around a real film hero. And it shows the kind of craze Mahesh Babu has in the hearts of people (especially girls). On a whole, Ashta Chemma makes a good viewing for multiplexes and A center crowds.

Rock On

Credits

MovieMirchiClub rating: 3.5/5
Punchline: Rock on Rocks!
Banner: Excel Films
Genre: Music
Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Prachi Desai, Arjun Rampal, Purab Kohli, Luke Kenny, Shahana Goswami & Koel Puri
Music: Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Cinematography: Jason West
Dialogues : Farhan Akhtar
Screenplay - direction: Abhishek Kapoor
Producer: Farhan Akhtar & Ritesh Sidhwani
Release date: 29 August 2008

Review

Story
Aditya (Farhan Akthar), Joe (Arjun Rampal), KD (Purab Kohli) and Rob (Luke Kenny) are four friends in college and form a rock band called 'Magik'. A slight misunderstanding shatters their entire future in music when they are about cut their maiden music album. Wife of Aditya happens to see their nostalgic photographs 10 years after the incident. The rest of the story is all about how they reunite and perform on the stage.

Actors:
The nobility of this film is such that you don't need glamorous guys for the roles of rock stars. Hence the director has chosen the right actors. Farhan Akthar surprises you with his honest performance. Arjun Rampal who has shown his other side as villain in Om Shanti Om film reveals the complete actor him. He is a revelation in this film. Purab Kohli helps in getting some light moments. Luke Kenny is amazing. Shahana Goswamy gave amazing performance. Koel Puri is sweet. Prachi Desai is good.

Technical departments:

Story - Screenplay - direction: The story of the film is simple. It is about four friends who separated due to a misunderstanding during college going for reunion after a gap of 10 years. What makes this story work is screenplay and narrative style. The director juxtaposed the current story with spaced flashbacks. And music is just a part of the film and the director concentrated more on the relationship aspects in a matured way. The director tried to be hip without losing the honesty in the story. The director conveniently avoided the bad aspects (drugs, sex and alcohol) of rock bands in order to make this film appear very noble. However the following scenes impress you the most -

1. When Debbie comes and explains her husband situation to Aditya.
2. When KD sings and dances to it in a party.
3. When Aditya sings the song written by Joe in the finale

Technical departments: The music by Shankar – Ehsaan – Loy is excellent and it's their kind of film. Cinematography by Jason West is superb. Editing is crisp. Dialogues by Farhan Aktar are good.

Analysis: It takes lot of guts to make a film like Rock On. It is a well made flick that explores the strained relationship of four passionate music lovers who formed a rock band. The director dealt the film with lot of honesty and realistic approach. All the characters in this film behave in a natural way exhibiting their strengths and weaknesses (no filmy heroism). On the flip side, there are a few moments in the film where the tempo falls down. On a whole, Rock On rocks and every learned audience must watch it to explore the sheer honesty in the film.