Vedam Movie

rating: 3.5/5 Punchline: laws (loss) of life Genre: Romance/Action Type: Straight Banner: Arka Mediaworks Cast: Allu Arjun, Manoj Manchu (guest), Anushka, Nagayya, Manoj Bajpai, Deeksha Seth, Lekha Washington, Siya Gowtam, Satyam Rajesh, Brahmanandam, Saranya, Ravi Prakash, Pruthvi, Posani Krishna Murali, Krish (guest) etc Music: MM Keeravani Cinematography: VS Gnana Sekhar Editing: Sravan Fights: Ram - Lakshman Art: Rajiv Nayyar Story - screenplay - dialogues - direction: Radha Krishna (Krish) Producer: Prasad Devineni & Shobu Yarlagadda Release date: 4 June 2010 Theater watched: Screen 4, Prasads

Review

Story Story 1: Chakravarthy (Manoj Manchu) is an aspiring rock star. His mother wants him to serve army just like his deceased father. Chakravarthy wants to follow his heart to become a rock star. He starts from Bangalore to Hyderabad to give his first live performance. Story 2: Ramulu (Nagayya) is a weaver from Sirisilla. His grandson is a bright student. Ramulu owes 50000 rupees to a financier and the financier takes Ramulu's son as a daily labour. Ramulu desperately needs money to get his kid back and put him in school. He finds a way of procuring the money and visits Hyderabad along with his daughter-in-law for that purpose. Story 3: Saroja (Anushka) is a prostitute in Amalapuram. She works for a brothel company and she gets a cut of 20% as the pimp takes away rest of it. Her dream is to go to Hyderabad and start her own brothel company. She dupes her employer and flees to Hyderabad overnight with her hijda assistant. Story 4: Raheemulla Khureshi (Manoj Bajpai) gets discrimnated in Hyderabad for being a muslim and he wants to leave for Dubai to make a living out there. He gets his visa and was about to fly to Dubai from Hyderabad. But his past catches up with him. Story 5: Cable Raju (Allu Arjun) is a cable operator in the slums of film nagar. He gets hold of a rich girlfriend (Deeksha Seth). He dupes her saying that he is rich kid and spends lot of money on her. She asks him to take her to New Year party eve for which the entry ticket costs rs. 40000 per couple. He is in search of that money. Artists Performance When certain directors make movie, they make sure that each and every character is impactful and well-etched. Krish is one of those very few directors in Telugu cinema. Allu Arjun comes up with an awesome performance as cable Raju who pretends as a rich guy to his girlfriend. His performance in realization scenes towards climax is his best in his career. He has also entertained as a brat. Manoj Manchu comes up with another honest performance as an aspiring rock star. His performance in the hospital scenes and the scene with his mother is excellent. He performed the live action in the scene where he breaks the glass of car. Anushka titillates as the prostitute Amalapuram Saroja. She oozed sexiness and effused the vulnerability/innocence needed for the character. Nagayya is authentic for a first-timer. However, a better dubbing would have helped his character as his voice is little feminine. Manoj Bajpai comes up with power-packed performance as a righteous Muslim who is troubled by the cop. Deeksha Seth is sexy with nice smile and dimples. She has done well. The voice dubbed to her is excellent and that voice suited the Telugu we hear from the upmarket Hyderabad girls. Lekha Washingon is good as a companion of Manoj Manchu. Satyam Rajesh is excellent as side kick of hero. The person who has done the hijra role is the personal makeup man of Anushka and that person did an excellent job. Ravi Prakash comes up with his finest performance as a cop who hates Muslims. Brahmanandam is entertaining in a small role. Raghu Babu, Pruthvi and Posani Krishna Murali are entertaining in their brief roles. Giri is good in the noticeable character of a pimp. Director Krish who appeared in Che Guevara get-up as a naxalite in Gamyam appears again in Vedam as an entertaining Baba. Technical departments Story - screenplay - direction: It is a multiple story film where all the stories converge into the climax of the movie. It is extremely difficult task to narrate five different stories in one film in a gripping style. Krish who is just one film old comes up with terrific work in his second movie. He connected all the stories with brilliant screenplay. Each and every character in this movie has human element in it. Screenplay of the movie is authentic though similar pattern is being followed since Ameros Perros (2000) and was popularized by the Oscar winning Crash (2004) movie. Krish has shown how he sticks to the core human elements without losing the undercurrent commercial elements with his debut film Gamyam. He maintains the same philosophy in this multi-storied film as well. First half of the movie looks little disjointed because, the director has to establish and narrate five different stories. He connects all the stories well and gave a gripping narration in the second half. He would have started the movie with the accident episode (pre-climax scene). If he had started the movie with that (like he did for Gamyam movie), then the audiences would have got connected to the first half more intently. He probably avoided it because there will be a direct comparison with Crash movie. The transformation of characters from having selfish goal to do selfless service might appear similar to crash where all positive characters turn negative and vice versa. The climax scene reminds us of 26/11 Mumbai episode. Other departments: Music by Keeravani is good. Songs are nicely integrated into story line except for Allu Arjun’s party song. Background music is very good and very apt for the movie. Dialogues by Krish are an asset for the movie. He penned entertaining dialogues and humanity-oriented ones extremely well. Cinematography of the film is of top-notch quality. Action sequences by Ram – Lakshman are well-choreographed. Editing by Sravan is excellent. Art direction by Rajeev Nair is nice. Producers Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni should be appreciated for producing sensible/coming-of-age film like Vedam (more so because they come from the family of K Raghavendra Rao who is known for commercial cinema). Analysis: First half of the movie gets interesting towards the interval. Second half is good. It is a big experiment to do such a sensible movie with commercial actors like Allu Arjun, Manoj Manchu and Anushka. Three of these actors should be complimented for coming forward to act in this movie. Such big names help in taking this movie into masses. Vedam also shows the finest taste of producers. The success of Vedam will propel sensible producers to encourage new subjects and different screenplays in Telugu film industry. Krish proves himself with Vedam that he is a director who can take Telugu sensible films beyond regional borders. This film will be liked by classes and A center audiences. If masses and B/C centers patronages Vedam, it will not only do good to the film, but to the entire Telugu film industry. On a whole, Vedam is a good film. Please watch it and encourage good/meaningful cinema. Disclaimer: I got a lot of criticism for my 4 rating for Ye Maya Chesave in the past as it was not lapped up by all kinds of audiences. That’s because the visitors expect the movie to be a huge commercial hit when it’s rated above 3.5. I would like to declare here that Vedam is not an entertainment oriented film. It is a film on humanity and is narrated in new format. And there are under-current commercial elements. I loved this movie and it doesn’t mean that it will be liked the same way by everybody else. If you are purely an entertainment seeker, you may seek other sources of feedback without solely depending on my review.

Milenge Milenge Movie

Milenge Milenge Average Critic Rating: 1 Critic Review(s) Read All Reviews Genre: Romance Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Aarti Chhabria, Satish Shah, Delnaz Paul,Kirron Kher,Himani Shivpuri,Satish Kaushik,Sarfaraz Khan Director: Satish Kaushik

Rate Milenge Milenge

In Milenge Milenge, What we have is a paper-thin, sometimes cute at times annoying rom-com where Destiny plays a pivotal part.
By Subhash K. Jha

Red Alert - The War Within

Red Alert - The War Within Average Critic Rating: 1 Critic Review(s) Read All Reviews Genre: Action, Drama Cast: Sunil Shetty,Sameera Reddy,Ayesha Dharker,Gulshan Grover,Seema Biswas,Bhagyashree,Aashish Vidyarthi,Murli Sharma,Ehsaan Khan,Naseruddin Shah,Vinod Khanna,Makrand,Deshpande Sunil Sinha Director: Anant Mahadevan

Rate Red Alert - The War Within

'Red Alert' - a believable Maoist story
By Raveendhra

Awara Movie

rating: 3/5 Punchline: road movie Genre: Romance/Action Type: Dubbed (Paiyya in Tamil) Banner: Thirupathi Brothers Cast: Karthi, Tamanna & Milind Soman Music: Yuan Shankar Raja Cinematography: Mathi Editing: Anthony Story - screenplay - direction: Linguswamy Producer: Subhash Chandra Bose Release date: 21 May 2010 Theater watched: Audi 1, PVR cinemas

Review

Story Shiva (Karthi) is a carefree guy who no goal in life. He falls in love with a girl called Charu Latha (Tamanna) at first sight. He acts as a cab driver in order to get to know her. She is in trouble and he needs to save her from the goons sent by her bad father who wants to forcibly marry her off. Shiva likes the idea of spending some time with her in cab while saving her from goons. She asks him to take her to Mumbai and and his past in that city catches up with him as he reaches Mumbai. The rest of the story is all about how Shiva attracts the attention of Charu and wins her love in the middle of chases and fights. Artists Performance Karthi shed some weight compared to his debut film Yuganiki Okkadu. He has unique sweetness and innocence his face though he looks rough. He should be appreciated more because he has taken pains to learn Telugu and dub his own voice. For a first timer he has done reasonably good job with dubbing and he will improve his diction and flow as he do more movies. He is a decent actor. Tamanna is endearing as a girl in trouble. Sonia (Happy Days fame) did the role of one of friends of hero and she is good (she didn’t dub her voice). Milind Soman is alright as the villain. All other actors are of non-Telugu origin. Technical departments Story - screenplay - direction: Basically it is a road movie where hero who is in love with heroine goes to any extent to be in presence of her. He does everything to protect her from all evil forces and there by winning her love. Films of this nature are extremely difficult to narrate because they have single thread and they don’t afford the luxuries of typical Telugu/Tamil commercial paddings. Director Linguswamy comes up with an engaging first half, but runs out of ideas in second half where he had to fill it up with continuous fights. Screenplay of the movie is very good except for the latter portion of the movie. Other departments: Music by Yuan Shankar Raja is nice. Most of the songs in this film are situational with montage shots. Cinematography by Mathi is good. Dialogues are laced with humor. Editing by Anthony is adequate. Fights are well choreographed. Analysis: First half of the movie is entertaining. Second half is little heavy with continuous fights. The plus points of the movie are engaging storytelling and the lead pair. On the flip side, the story line might prove to be too thin for a film of 2 and half hours of runtime. On a whole, Awara is a decent road movie with adequate entertainment.

I Hate Luv Storys

I Hate Luv Storys Average Critic Rating: 1 Critic Review(s) Read All Reviews Genre: Comedy, Romance Cast: Imran Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Sammir Dattani, Samir Soni, Kavin Dave, Director: Punit Malhotra

Rate I Hate Luv Storys

You may not be a great fan of candy floss cinema, but do watch "I Hate Luv Storys"... it's refreshing.
By Arpana

Raavan

Raavan Average Critic Rating: 2 Critic Review(s) Read All Reviews Genre: Action, Drama Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram, Govinda, Ravi Kishan, Priyamani Director: Mani Ratnam Rate Raavan Having watched and admired Mani Ratnam's work over the last several decades, I have to say, Raavan, his most ambitious film to date, is very sadly his weakest. Frankly, nothing works. Very Disappointing. By Raveendhra

Andari Bandhuvaya

rating: 3/5 Punchline: noble intent Genre: Social Type: Straight Banner: Filmostav & Utopia Cast: Sharwanand, Padma Lakshmi, Aryan, Naresh, Aryan, Pragati, RK, Jeeva, Vjay Sai etc Music: Anoop Rubens Story - Dialogues: alabhadrapatruni Ramani Cinematography: JK Gummadi Editing: Nandamuri Hari Screenplay - direction: Chandra Siddhartha Producer: Chandra Siddhartha & RK Release date: 14 May 2010 Theater watched: Screen 3, Cinemax

Story Nandu (Sharwanand) is a youngster who moves to city to join his job. Padma, a soul bread winner in the family of all four women (she stays with her mother and two sisters) is his neighbour. Nandu and Padma work in the same office. While Nandu is a large-hearted fellow who believes in rendering unconditional help for others, Padma is a mean-minded lady who only cares for her family. The rest of the story is all about how Nandu influences Padma and how they resolve further issues. Artists Performance Sharwanand is proving to be an excellent actor and his films seem to be quite reliable. Except for Raju Maharaju, he has been choosing scripts very carefully since Gamyam. His intention to go for different subjects is appreciable. His performance in the scene after spending one-day with father is natural (you can observe his squeaking/choking voice and broken dialogues). Padma Priya is a good actress though her looks might not of the regular commercial heroine material. In certain close-ups she reminds us of Tabu. Her performance is clean. Sunita’s dubbing is very good, as usual. Aryan (one of the main leads in Housefull) is excellent as an NRI. His dialogue delivery and expressions are really good. Naresh is very good as father of hero. He got an acting role that suited him after many years. I had never seen actress Pragati so natural in any of her earlier movies. She is just like a beautiful and caring mother in our households. RK is neat as a moneylender. Vijay Sai is good. The girl who acted as a younger sister of heroine is spontaneous as a mischevious girl . She looks to be modelling herself after Colors Swati. Technical departments Story - screenplay - direction: Story of the movie is idealistic and noble. The character of Nandu appears more like younger version of Raghuram (Aa Naluguru). If the story of Aa Naluguru is heavy and melodramatic, the story of Andari Bandhuvaya is in lighter-vein. Screenplay of the movie is natural in the first half and appears little forced in the second half. Direction is good in parts. Director Chandra Siddhartha came up with natural characterizations and cast the right actors to carry the job. However, the NRI groom thread appears artificial and forced in the second half. It also cheap for a noble character like Nandu to behave that way. Director Chandra Siddhartha should be commended for attempting a film that says no to regular commercial stuff. Other departments: Music by Anoob Rubens is good. However the last song is forced when compared to other songs. Cinematography by JK Gummadi is pretty good. Dialogues by Balabhadrapatruni Ramani are mostly natural. Editing is alright. This movie doesn’t use much of technology as it’s a story based movie. Analysis: First half of the movie is smooth. Screenplay in the second half appear forced (especially NRI groom episode) in order to increase the runtime. The plus points in the movie are noble intentions, nice characterizations and right casting. On the flip side, this movie doesn’t show the negative side of free donations. The entire movie has mostly positive characters which don’t exist in real life. There is a dialogue in a Bapu’s film – samajamlo manchi vallu chedda vallu ani vere veruga vundaru. Avasaralani batti machi vallaga chedda vallaga tayaravutaru. Though the movie is made with noble intent, it is far away from reality. We have to wait and see how the movie is received by the movie lovers

Rama Rama Krishna Krishna

Jeevi rating: 3/5 Punchline: - Genre: Action Type: Straight Banner: Sri Venkateswara Creations Cast: Ram, Arjun, Priya Anand, Bindu Madhavi, Nassir, Brahmanandam, Benerjee, Sayaji Shinde, Srinivas Reddy, Pragathi, Bharath, Pruthvi, Shankar, Sekhar, Gracy Singh etc Music: MM Keeravani Dialogues: M Ratnam Cinematography: Sekhar V Joseph Editing: Gowtam Raju Art: AS Prakash Story - screenplay - direction: Srivas Producer: Dil Raju Release date: 12 May 2010 Theater watched: Screen 1, Prasads

Story Rama Krishna (Ram) is the son of a Gandhipuram village president (Nassar). His father is a strict disciplinarian and wants Rama Krishna to be perfect. Rama Krishna is a funny youngster who pretends to be good in the presence of his father but does a lot of mischief on his back. Ashok (Arjun) is a mafia don in Mumbai and he goes into a sabbatical after the death of his his wife. Ashok along with his two sisters settles in Gandhipuram. Rama Krishna unfortunately gets in to the bad books of Ashok. Meanwhile,. Ashok’s past catches up. The rest of the story is all about how Rama Krishna uses his intelligence and muscle power to achieve the good will of both his father and Ashok. Artists Performance Ram comes up with yet another energetic performance. His dialogue delivery in Godavari dialect is nice. NTR gave the voiceover to the introducing of hero character.Arjun suited the role well and he dubbed his own voice. Priya Anand is alright as female lead. Bindu Madhavi’s role is pretty much limited. Naseer is extremely good. Brahmanandam’s character doesn’t offer required level of comedy. Pruthvi and Bharat are entertaining. Srinivas Reddy is one of the most promising comedians who can generate laughter with his dialogues like Ali and Krishna Bhagawan. He is good in this movie. Gracy Singh did a small role as Arjun’s wife. Sekhar’s (Chatrapati fame) performance is odd in the first half. Technical departments Story - screenplay - direction: Story of the movie is little formulaic with inspirations from films like Basha (Arjun’s character) and Bangaru Bullodu (villains searching for hero in villages). Unlike earlier movies, the director preferred straight narration where the mafia don’s role is revealed in the first scene of the movie. Srivas penned a commercially viable screenplay by mixing sentiment and action. The aspect of interval where the thread of hero converges with the thread of Arjun is the best point of the movie. Direction of the movie is okay in parts. Other departments: I liked title song and Sankranthi song (2nd song) in this movie. Tugo Jilla comes at the right time. All other songs are not effective. The song bits (mostly rap style) are interesting. Cinematography by Sekhar V Joseph is just okay. But the producer didn’t seem to have taken proper care in post-production of the movie. There is no DI (color grading). Most of the CG work is okay (chase sequences and blasting of vehicles), but it’s hazy in some of the vital parts (especially hero’s intro scene). Dialogues by M Ratnam are good in parts. Production values are good by Dil Raju. Analysis: First half of the movie is alright. Interval episode is good. Second half becomes predictable. Climax should have been better. The plus points of this movie are Ram, Arjun and commercial elements. This movie suffers from predictability and lack of freshness in second half. On a whole, RRKK is a commercial film that is intended to cater to families and masses. We have to wait and see if this movie clicks with the target audiences or not.

simha movie

Rating: 3/5
Punchline: feast for fans
Genre: Action
Type: Straight
Banner: United Pictures

Cast: Bala Krishna, Nayana Tara, Sneha Ullal, Namitha, KR Vijaya, Saikumar (Malayalam), Hemanth, Shravan, GV, Kinnera, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Brahmanandam, Rehman, Ali, Krishna Bhagawan, Venu Madhav, LB Sriram

Music: Chakri
Background music: Chinna
Cinematography: Arthur Wilson
Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Fights: Ram - Laxman
Art: AS Prakash
Story - screenplay - dialogues - direction: Boyapati Seenu
Producer: Paruchuri Kiriti
Release date: 30 April 2010
Theater watched: Screen 2, Prasads

Review

Story Srimannarayana (Bala Krishna) is a professor at a college. He is a hot-blooded guy and cannot any kind of injustice in the society. He often takes law into his hands and punishes the wrong-doers. Janaki (Sneha Ullal) is a student in the college and she has a mysterious past. A group of goons keeps chasing her and her flashback unfolds one day after Srimannarayana confronts them. The rest of the story is all about another character Simha and how Simha is related to Srimannarayana. Artists Performance Bala Krishna: Bala Krishna is terrific as Simha in the flashback episode. His dialogue delivery is controlled and is extremely effective. His get-up as Simha is highly respectable and dignified. After a long gap, Bala Krishna fans are going to cherish the looks and performance of Bala Krishna as he plays it to the galleries. His other character of Srimannarayana is also good. Others: Nayana Tara is very good in the flashback episode with jewellery and traditional wear belonging to lineage of kings. The voice given by Sunitha helps in some key episodes of the movie. Sneha Ullal is improving from film to film and she is good too. Namitha should watch her weight. Kota comes up with another fine performance. There are four other villains. Among the comedians, Krishna Bhagawan's role is entertaining. Venu Madhav and Brahmanandam are clichéd. Jhansi did well with Seekakulam dialect. KR Vijaya did a lengthy role and she is adequate. Technical departments Story - screenplay - direction: Story of the movie is not new, but follows a time-tested formula. Boyapati Seenu who mastered mass treatment to his movies like Bhadra and Tulasi made sure that there are ample commercial elements that satisfy the thrust of masses and fans. He projected Bala Krishna in the right way and extracted powerful mass performance. Screenplay of the movie is predictable. Direction is good in parts. Though masses might like it, the violence in the movie is very excessive. He should have softened blood-shed and tamed the commercial elements to make this movie a universally appealing one. Other departments: Music by Chakri is okay. Bangaru Konda is my personal favourite and it is picturized well. Cinematography is nice. Dialogues by Boyapati Seenu deserve a special mention. He wrote powerful dialogues to Bala Krishna and made sure that Bala Krishna delivers them to the maximum effect. Editing is alright. Producer has spent a lot of money on the movie and it is shown on screen. Analysis: First half of the movie is adequate. The flashback episode is established well. The climax should have been more effective. The plus points of the movie are Bala Krishna performance (and dialogues) and mass elements. On the flip side, there is excessive violence/fights in the movie. Simha movie generated tremendous pre-release positive buzz and it resulted in humongous openings. It is the masses who make any movie blockbuster and this movie has ample mass elements. Simha is going to be a feast for the fans of Bala Krishna. We have to wait and see how Simha is going to capitalize summer advantage.

Darling Movie

Jeevi rating: 3/5 Punchline: patchy entertainment Genre: Romance/Family Drama Type: Straight Banner: Sri Venkateswara Cine Chitra Cast: Prabhas, Kajal Agarwal, Shraddha Das, Prabhu, Ahuti Prasad, Kota, Srinivasa Reddy, Raja Sridhar, MS Narayana, Mukesh Rushi, Chandra Mohan, Sivannarayana, Tulasi etc. Music: GV Prakash Cinematography: Andrews Dialogues: Swamy Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao Story - screenplay - direction: Karunakaran Producer: Bhogavally Prasad Release date: 23 April 2010 Theater watched: Screen 3, Cinemax

Review

Story Prabhas (Prabhas) has a childhood sweetheart named Nandini (Kajal Agarwal) and they are separated during their childhood. Nandini migrates to Swiss along with her father. Meanwhile Prabhas rejects love proposals from other girls as his heart belongs to Nandini. Prabhas gets a chance to meet Nandini for the first time after the separation during the reunion of their respective parents who have studied together. The rest of the story is all about how Prabhas wins the love of Nandini. Artists Performance Prabhas: Prabhas is growing as an entertaining actor with each new movie. His comedy timing is impressive in this movie. His costumes and styling deserves a mention. Since there is no strength in the story line of the movie, the director had to put lot of burden on Prabhas, who delivers with elegance and flair. Others: Kajal Agarwal’s characterization in the first half of the movie is quite dumb and is passive in the second half. Shradda Das, who plays the character of a girl chasing the hero relentlessly, does a good job. Mukesh Rushi’s work is more like a special appearance as a villain. Prabhu is adequate as hero’s father. Ahuti Prasad doesn’t look natural in his role. MS Narayana, Sivannarayana and Srinivasa Reddy are ok. The kid who played the role of heroine’s kid brother is pretty good. Technical departments Story - screenplay - direction: Story of the movie is clichéd one. The difference between the director’s earlier movies and this one is the screenplay twist is given during the interval. Directing a screenplay based movie like this one is a tricky task. The entire Swiss episode holds the key to this screenplay. The actual story takes place only in the second half. Hence it becomes extremely important to make sure that the Swiss episode is well written. Unfortunately, the Swiss episode is dull resulting in the entire first half appear disengaged. Since the entire story takes place in the second half, the latter part appears more interesting than the first half. The concept of second half where the hero has to impress the heroine and her father despite of having another guy vying for his girl is a time-tested one as we had seen such situations in countless movies. Karunakaran, who is known for poetic thoughts, sensible humor and nice montages, leaves his strengths aside to make a movie that revolves around the characterization of hero. Hence the entire movie turned out to be a series of comedy episodes written around the hero. Other departments: Dialogues written by Swamy are good in parts. Music by GV Prakash is average. The background score should have been better. Cinematography by Andrew is very good. He explored Swiss locales well. Action episodes by Peter Heins (mostly inspired by Korean Movies) are good though look forced in the movie. Editing is adequate. Visual effects in songs (3rd song and the snow effect in Hyderabad) are commendable. Analysis: First half of the film is not interesting. Second half gets better. The movie is good towards the last half-an-hour. Karunakaran didn’t stick to his strengths and tried to make an entertainment oriented film with a hero-centric approach. The plus points of the movie are Prabhas and a few comedy episodes in the second half. On the flip side, the Swiss episode and lack of regard for story mars the movie. We go to Karunakaran movies to watch his kind of work, not the kind of work the routine commercial directors dish out! We have to wait and see how Darling fares at box office this summer.

Prasthanam Movie

Jeevi rating: 3/5 Punchline: step-siblings rivalry Genre: Political Type: Straight Banner: VRC Media & Ent Cast: Sai Kumar, Sharwanand, Sundeep Kishan, Ruby Parihar, Jeeva, Jayaprakash Reddy, Vennela Kishore, Surekha Vani, Reshma, Balayya, Pruthvi etc Music: Mahesh Shankar Cinematography: Shamdat Story - screenplay dialogues - direction: Deva Katta Producer: Ravi Vallabhaneni Release date: 16 April 2010 Theater watched: Screen 3, Cinemax

Review

Story Loknath (Sai Kumar) takes over the reins of power from a dying man (Balayya). His step son is Mitra (Sharwanand) and own son is Chinna (Sudeep Kishan). Loknath wants to see Mitra as his heir because Mitra is a thinking man where as Chinna is hot-blooded guy with bad habits. The rest of the story is all about what happens when Chinna rebels uncontrollably. Artists Performance This movie is about characters and each and every small character makes an impact. This movie belongs to Sai Kumar. He has the most powerful voice in Telugu film industry and it is used for the maximum effect in this movie. Dramatized dialogues are delivered with utmost authority by Sai Kumar for this movie. Sharwanand surprises everybody with his portrayal of serious character. He looks like ‘ramudu manchi baludu’. But in this film he came up with terrific and serious performance. His dialogue delivery with serious tone too deserves applause. Debutant actor Sundeep Kishan comes up with an impressive act for a role that has negative shades. His voice and modulation is good. Actress Ruby Parihar doesn’t have much role to play in this movie and she is alright. Jeeva is good as a contractor. Jaya Prakash and his assistant Prithvi provide ample comedy. Surekha Vani is good. I am impressive with the guy who did the role of cop and his voice is very good. Deva Katta who gave birth to Vennela Kishore as an actor with Vennela has wasted him in this movie. Technical departments Story - screenplay - direction: Deva Katta is a serious filmmaker and Prasthanam is probably his kind of movie. There are quite a few good moments in this film which showcases his intensity in filmmaking. Direction of the movie is good. Screenplay should have been better. The narration of the movie is not smooth (little jerky). His writing is strong and some of the scenes are of top class. However, the pace of the film is too slow and it affects more adversely because it is a serious movie devoid of entertainment. Other departments: Cinematography by Shamdat is excellent. Background music by Mahesh Shankar is good. But I observed that there are no highs/lows in the background music (probably theatre sound system fault). Songs are like speed-breakers to the story. Full credit should go to the dialogue writer Deva Katta. He has written some fine serious dialogues and a few hilarious dialogues too (alpanandamtho naaluka paresukoku, chepputho kottinaa chintamane dikku..., antha black.. aayana rangu chooste ardham kavadam leda, papisti sareeranni kanna gaani paapanni kanaledu etc). Editing should have been better. Analysis: Prasthanam is a political thriller about complex human relations between three main characters (Sai Kumar, Sharwanand and Sundeep Kishan). It also shows that there are no good men or bad men. It is all about war between good and bad within our mind. The plus points of this movie are strong writing and powerful performances. The negative points are not-so-gripping screenplay, slow narration and serious nature of the movie. This film is sure to win handful of awards. The commercial success of the movie will depend on how common movie lover embraces this serious and focussed political drama.