With ShortKut as the third box-office disaster I am now wishing the producer-multiplex strike was never resolved. During the strike Hindi movie single screens across Hyderabad brought back blockbusters from the past and you could atleast enjoy these films. Now that the strike is resolved (i am not sure of the terms though) we-the audience are again being subjected to one pathetic film after another; first New York, then Kambaqkkht Ishq and now ShortKut. With big names from the Comedy Sector behind this film, I thought ShortKut might at least provide some good laughs, but every aspect of ShortKut—The Con Is On is pathetic and the proceedings will only irritate you.
Shekar (Akshaye Khanna) is a sincere assistant director (to Neeraj Vohra himself) and wants to make the transition to becoming a director. For some untold reason to the audience he is considered a “genious”. Raju (Arshad Warsi) is a hopeless and useless actor who only wants to become a Star by shortkut and not by hardwork as opposed to Shekar. Mansi (Amrita Rao) is a super star heroine and Shekar’s lover, but Shekar wants to marry her only after making it big. Shekar apparently develops a super-duper-hit script (no, we don’t get to hear any part of this script), but Raju steals it and makes it in to a movie even before Shekar begisn shooting and becomes a star ovenight. Following this, Shekar is totally dejected, Mansi quits the industry and announces her marriage to him in front of the media, Shekar then develops heavy inferiority complex, takes to drinks, shouts at his wife, wife leaves the house and goes back to movies, and Shekar decides to go back to director with Raju as the hero. By this time Raju is the most annoying actor on this planet.
By this time it is interval and you actually strongly begin to consider leaving the theater. But, the moviebuffs that we are the hope that something will happen is there. However, as the second half rolls you are in disbeielf as to how pathetic the story is. Sorry, there is no stroy. On the eve of the shooting commencement Shekar’s producer dies and his basti friends decide to sell their basti to a mall and use that money to produce his film! And thus, all go to Bangkong and the proceedings just get more and more irritating with no end in sight. Even though my brother-in-law and I were enjoying the sofa seat, digital print, dts sound, and AC at Sensation Insomnia, we looked at each other and just got up and left. I don’t know how the film ended and I don’t really care.
This is a remake of a Malyalam film, but still the adaption deverses an award for the worst. Neeraj Vohra (yup, the guy behind most of Priyadarshan’s laugh-riots), the director and Anees Bazmee (yup, the No Entry, Welcome guy), the story and screenplay have done a supremely pathetic job. I wonder how Anil Kapoor, who earlier produced Gandhi My Father accepted this nonsense. Arshad Warsi can retire becaues his typical acting style is now officially irritating. Amrita Rao must have offered Anil Kapoor that she will produce the songs because only then will she be allowed to place lousy songs at odd times in the film to show her new let-me-show-you-my-breasts-and-back avatar. She looks stupid in the new get-up. Why the reference to her as Super Star Mansi?—she doesn’t even look like one and the director totally fails in showing her like one. And why this transformation?—the half-naked avatar only works when the songs are super-hits. The first song with Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt is just idiotic and pops up out of no where. Her face too has lost the beauty she had in some of her earlier films. Akshaye Khanna is the only guy who manages to put up a decent performance in spite of such a bad script. The music is lousy and the comedy is irritating.
Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Two Thumbs Down! If you care for you hard earned money and valuable time, you will avoid this movie. A total flop.
Under any normal or ordinary circumstances I will never watch a film that stars Manchu Manoj or his brother. Add to this what I read in some discussion forum that given the backdrop of an airport this film might be a freemake of Tom Hanks The Terminal; I just couldn’t have got myself to watch Mr. Manchu Manoj do a Tom Hanks. But I still saw the film in it’s 5th week only because my wife saw it while I was in Mumbai and actually didn’t mind coming again—now, this is big. Secondly, the director’s name bodes well for good classy films. And thirdly, given that a Manchu Manoj film is playing in to it’s 5th and 6th week towards 50 days means it must be decent enough. And sure enough, Prayanam is decent enough.
It turns out that Prayanam has nothing do do with The Terminal except that it too is based entirely in an airport, the Malaysian airport. Dhruv and his two friends have come to Malaysia and are on their way to Singapore when they decide to do bizarre things like climb a bridge and get busted by the cops for that. There is no need for such an intro, really. The three are back at the airport to go to Singapore when they meet Harika (Payal Ghosh) and her friend who are going to India for Harika’s pelli-chupullu. It is love at first sight for Dhruv, but has only two hours to know the girl, get her to like him, make her fall for him, and say yes to marry him. Great premise, but unfortunately the journey from here on does not really take off. What could have been a major fun ride is made to continue like a film without much action, fizz, fun, twists, and jhatkas (essential for small films which want to be different from the mainstream). The only highlight of the film is Brahmanandam—-if not for him the film is a total loser on it’s own. The story could have been packed with so much more, but it is only limited to episodes between two highly talentless actors called Manchu Manoj and Payal Ghosh. Again, where are the characters? An airport is a Universe in itself, why would anybody want to make a movie without many characters? it would have been so much fun…the possibilities are limitless.
The analogies between bus stations and rail stations to life are quite natural and common: each train is an opportunity in life, people come and go etc etc. The movie story, however, does not do justice to the title. Instead, the movie is only about showing Manchu Manoj’s (lack of) acting skills and several silly attempts by the hero trying to win over the heroine in those two hours. Not to worry, towards the end the hero and heroine get together! Yes! After all the silly attempts by the hero, one such silly attempt (of writing something at the back of a baggage trolley) makes the heroine 30 minutes before boarding her flight want to test out the hero by giving him a survey. He answers it, submits it through a passenger and lo and behold the heroine and her friend come out of the flight to accept the hero! Yes, to the movie’s credit…it is clean, light, and has it’s share of funny moments. Check out the Tiger-Man episode of Brahmanandam and also the Bomb episode…truly hilarious. However, Manchu Manoj just cannot act for nuts, he struggles hard and he must quit trying to do a Pawan Kalyan from Khushi. The heroine looks okay, but looks dumb at times. Her characterization also is dumb because any decent girl in her place would have slapped the guy one on his cheek.
I must also mention here that I really liked the background music, although the first song was totally unncessary even if it wanted to showcase Mr. Manoj as a rising hero (i couldn’t get myself to use the word star). Frankly, coming from Chandrashekar Yeliti who earlier gave films with strong scripts like Aithe and Anukokunda Oka Roju, Prayanam’s script is weak. However, given that most films today either give you a heachache or make you curse yourself, Prayanam offers some relief and simple time pass. The dissapointment is more because of the potential that was lost from the concept and of course why Mr. Manchu Manoj in this film?—a better actor would only have helped the film.
Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Only One Thumb Up, and that too for Mr. Brahmanandam becaue of whom most movies are watchable today.
The other day when I was at Sandhya 35mm, after having a deadly plat of Bawarchi Biryani, to watch Current, I asked the guy where Magadheera is releasing hoping that it will be Sandhya 70mm. Nopes, he told me it will most likely be Sudarshan 35mm.
When I went to watch Oye at Sudarshan 70mm, I walked across to see the posters on the walls of and there it was…the mighty poster of Magadheera with the classic movie-lingo poster titled 35mm COMING (35mm on top and COMING at the bottom), which unfortunately I couldn’t get on my 2 megapixal cell phone camera. The film is expected to release on July 22, but I wonder why Sandhya 70mm will choose to run a flop film called Ride. The original bangaru kodipetta played at Sandhya 70mm so I thought it would be nice if the new one too played on the very same silver screen, but Sudarshan 35mm seems to always do a great job in brining home the blockbusters. Oh well, enjoy the poster and lets hope the Sudarshan 35mm sentiment works out for Magadheera as well!
God Bless the RTC X Roads culture…For those of you stuck up on multiplexes, just try these single screens to experience the movies.
Agreed, I am getting repetitive while reviewing movies (particularly Telugu) while stating that designer posters are corresponding to badly designed movies. But what else can I say? When I first saw Oye’s posters with a smart, handsome Siddharth in googles, bag back, with a guitar and a tag line that reads “his first love called him…”, I thought this one would be a Smash Hit! You expect that something different will be dished out: what is his first love: music, life, travel? Add to the expectations, some really cool compositions by Yuvan Shankar Raja. By the time you are reaching the middle of the film you wonder where the coolness is and by the time you hit interval you hit your head in despair: is this is the film? Frankly, Oye dissapoints.
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
Uday (Siddharth) is a cool dude kinda guy with a fat friend Krishnudu (the lead of the sweet film Vinayakudu). For Uday, life is short, rich, and needs to be enjoyed with a party. Wow! such a different characterization for a hero given our Telugu movie standards (sarcasm, by the way). The girl, Sandhya (Shyamili) is the exact opposie with simple tastes, big values, and full of discipline. On a new year eve bash at a pub to which Sandhya is forced to come by her friend who is a mother of three kids, she bumbs in to Uday who is all keen to flirt with her. However, Sandhya gives him her deal of life and the next day when our hero Uday’s father dies with googles and white dress standing near to his father’s body, he decides that he loves Sandhya and wants to pursue her. From this point on till the interval Uday is trying to get friendly with Sandhya by living as her paying guest upstairs and concealing from her his true ultra-rich identity (yes, like Ghajini). Fortunately for the audience this part of the film, although without much characters, is quite funny and provides some decent time pass. There is also a forced and unrelated comedy track of Sunil as an insurance agent. Just before the interval, in her master health check up Sandhya is diagnosed with cancer. For some strange reason the director does not want the heroine to know this.
The second half is all about fulfilling Sandhya’s wishlist, which include a trip a Kasi and also watching the first day first show of Pawan Kalyan, the Power Star, film (the theater erupted in screams upon hearing this reference). The first day scenes in Kolkata for Power Star Pawan Kalyan’s Annavaram film will be a treat for Mega-Power fans! Uday convinces Sandhya to reveal her wishlist by giving a dumb reason that both will die in a week. Thus, they go by ship to Kolkatta and from there to Kasi and back to Hyderabad in a helicopter. Some comedy thrown in here and there. Finally, towards the end Sandhya finds out about her illness. Thankfully, the ending is well shown: they show both together sitting on a bench and the next shot in the next year they show only Uday. The director tried to do a modern Gitanjaali, but the attempt simply falls flat on it’s face. Nothing is in order in the film: the story, characters, or the characterizations. The director, Anand Ranga, needs to know that he cannot just get away by such cheap senti-stunts of showing the heroine with cancer and say that a few of the audience cried so it is sentimental. Much has changed in the field of Caner since the days Prakash and Geethanjali were diagnosed with cancer in 1989 in the classic Geethanjali.There is no need for not telling the patient about the illness, there is advanced medicine now. The saddest part of the film is that it has been so badly developed that you just don’t feel the sadness Uday is feeling and in fact you can hear the audience heckling and predicting.
There is nothing in wrong in making a film about a serious medical condition, but the film must have it’s heart at the right place. Unfortunately, Oye cannot handle the sentiment it wants to potray because it’s story is just that much under developed. My next question: where are the characters? You need characters to make a memorable film. Coming to the performances, Siddharth is his usual self with nothing new to offer except that we know he loves Ray Ban glasses. It’s possible you might think he plays a blind man in his film because on every poster he has black glasses, but he not playing such a role. His face looks too thin and haggard at times. Five out of six who went for this film didn’t like the heroine, Shyamili, but I really liked her. She reminds us of the Jhyandala movie-type heronies: being simple is being beautiful. After I don’t know how long I get to see a heroine in a film who is fully clothed, looks decent, pretty, simple and someone you can relate to. She acts well too, but how I wish she got a better story. The songs are really good with the first two being the highlight: Seheri and Oye…first love. Seheri…simply rocked when I saw it in full dts blast at Sudarshan 70mm.
Hardcore Siddharth fans can watch this film because at least the songs are enjoyable. I was really hoping Siddharth would give something different to Telugu audience, but he offers the same old stuff badly packaged. For those who want some entertainment will be in for a dissapointment. Yes, the songs are the only saving grace.
I had no intentions of writing the review of Kambaqkkht Ishq so early or in such haste, but reading initial reports on boxofficeindia.com and indiafm.com about “bumper” openings for film caused a lot of concern in me. Concern because reading these reports other moviegoers might be prompted to actually watch this movie, which is without doubt the shittiest film of 2009 yet. Not only is this film shitty, the marketing of the film is misleading. In fact, Kambaqkkht Ishq is a freemake of a Kamal Hassan starrer (Tamil/Telugu film). To put the record straight,Kambaqkkht Ishq is one of the crappiest films, which should be avoided at all costs in order to save you from a headache.
The film’s posters introduce Akshay Kumar as a stuntman and Kareena Kapoor as a super model. The makers of this film ought to be ashamed of themselves for such cheating. If you see the film you will find that Kareena Kapoor is actually a surgeon/medico! who is in designer model outfits when she is not in her surgeon gown. In one instance, when she needs some money to pay her registration fee she does a model act in Italy. Thats it. Secondly, the film is shamelessly taken from the comedy film Brahmachari (January 15th, 2002 in Telugu) starring Kamal Hasan, Simran, Sneha. Now, coming to Kambaqkkht Ishq–Viraj (Akshay Kumar) is a stuntman for Hollywood action films and is a player who loves to ‘play’ with women. Bebo/Sim (Kareena Kapoor) desists men because she feels they all like to only ‘play’ with women like her father and sister’s husband. Thus, Viraj and Bebo hate each other calling each other “bitch” and “dog” in generous proportions. Bebo goes all out to wreck her friend’s Kamini (Amrita Arora) marriage to Lucky (Aftab). The film tags along with is ridiculous story (if you want to call this a story) when Viraj meets with an accident. This will be Bebo’s first surgery and by the end of it she drops her musical watch inside Viraj’s stomach and stitches it up! Thus, every hour Viraj and those around him get to her mangalam song and Bebo is in a fix as if this incident comes out in the open it will affect her career. Now, she plans to get close to Viraj, act as though she loves him, get him to the operation table and remove the watch. After soem drona dhona and idiotic sentiment, Bebo realizes that she was wrong and that Viraj is a good guy at heart. They both get married.
The film’s humor is in really bad taste—homosexuality, gender bashing etc including a scene which shows a big fat black woman wearing gloves and putting it deep in to Akshay Kumar’s ass to search for drugs! In terms of Star image, this film will badly hurt Akshay Kumar; this is one of this worst films and is in poor taste. Kareena Kapoor is her usual self…thin and sick looking with no acting talent. Rest of the cast is idiotic. There are a few Hollywood actors who make an appearence, but it made me wonder how useless they must be do accept such roles in a such a film. And does Akshay Kumar really need to show off with foreign models just becuaes his producer buddy decided to treat him to them and foot the bill? There is really no need for the film to be based in the USA and no need for Hollywood actors. Music is stale.
The film’s posters are misleading and the film is bound to tank as the days go by. The only reason why the film got big openings is because after such a long gap audience thought they can laugh away, but instead have been ill-treated with such a bad film. I am shocked how Taran Adarsh supports such films. With this film, Akshay Kumar is a much reduced star.
Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Two Thumbs Way Down!…..Please Avoid.
PS–i could have written a lot more, but did not want to waste my time and energy on this film. Hope I did my service by informing you about not watch this film.
A few hours before the petrol prices were being hiked, I pulled in to the Srinagar Colony petrol pump to fill up the tank feverishly punching through the FM tuner hoping to hear the Golden Kodi Peta song (I left the CD at home by mistake). Just as my car’s turn came up, 98.3 played up The Bangaru Kodipetta song from Magadheera and I was flooded with requests from the petrol pump guys to pump my volume (my car features a high voltage system with a 1000 watt woofer and amp)! Back in 1992, when the song first released, and even now in 2009 the number is creating a mass hysteria. Ok, I just realized that this is not a write up on Bangaru Kodipett, but a review of the film’s music. So here goes—
Magadheera’s audio disappoints and to put it even bluntly it SUCKS! When you first see the posters you are bound to expect that the music will be royal, but the songs have no ‘dum’. None of the five original songs composed by MM Keeravani are impressive. Add to this list the remix of MegaStar Chiranjeevi’s mega blockbuster song Bangaru Kodipetta. So a total of six songs, but one of them is a rolling titles music, which means a majority of the audience will miss this song because our single screens don’t beleive in playing through the rolling credits after the first day or two. In fact, I am so dissapointed with the songs of this film that I will not waste my time and energy on writing about them, but I guess I can mention them: Dheera Dheera Dheera…slow and boring, Panchadhara Bomma.…another below average song, Jorsey...pls skip this, Nakosam Nuvu…kindly skip, Rolling Titles Music…sounds like a left over from Simhadri. Given Ram Charan Tej’s dancing abilities and SS Rajamouli’s grand scale of mounting the film, the songs are most likely to look good on screen, but not beyond that.
The album begins with Bangaru Kodipetta sung confidently by Ranjit. While the new version retains several elements of the original song, a few dumb changes have been made–like adding some fast paced African jungle beats (for the first 60 seconds and at a point in the middle). Lets be clear on one thing…the new version is nowhere near the original, but having said that lets be easy on the young duo of Ranjith and Ram Charan; afterall, this is their tribute an iconic Telugu song. Whatever may be the case, just enjoy the rivival of this truly beautiful song because there is no semblence of such gradeur in the movies we are seeing in this day and age and neither will there ever be a song like the 1992 original Bangaru Kodipetta, even visually.
Ok, the music review of Magadheera is done—it is bad, but lets talk a little more about Bangaru Kodipetta. Even till today I remember the oil paint posters of Gharana Mogudu at Sandhya 70mm, RTC X Roads, the spectacular video of the song at the Vizag shipyard with Chiru at the peak of his heroism with a sleeveless purple shirt and white pant teasing the buxom beauty of Disco Shanti. Thank you so much Mr. K Raghavendra Rao (KRR)—you really knew how to entertain the masses. Apart from the song, tune, and dance what really makes the song special is Disco Shanthi—she really is saucy and sexy. What I like best about the song is the way Chiru pulls off parts of her dress as the song progresses and she is left with two pieces! Add to that the way Mr. KRR shows her…pacca mass masala! Just do what I did before writing up this piece—watch the original Bangaru Kodipetta on You Tube, relive and revive yourself. Such events have stopped coming by in Tollywood and with Mega Star Chiranjeevi gone a different way, such events will never happen ever again. This one reason is enough to watch this film to catch glipme of The Mega Star in the new version of the song along with his son. May Time stand still at that moment when Chiru is rivived and made to relive in this song.
As for Ram Charan Tej, he needs to find his own Bangaru Kodipetta. Ok, this time is fine, but next time around he really needs a song that will make an icon just like his father and uncle, the Power Star. It remains to be seen how the new version has been shot: who is the Disco Shanthi, will be it as naughty and sweet, will it have real dance steps or just fast camera edits? lets see. However, it could have really really helped had Mr. Keeravani come up with better tunes and grand music. To my surprise there are hardly any posts about the music review on Tollywoodinfo.com’s disscussion board (the best place, btw, to feel the pulse of a movie). Anyways, the posters look great, the trailor aired during the audio function was power-packed, the rumored story based on rebirth seems interesting and will most likely work given Indian cinema history, and given that the industry is going some sort of a Great Movie Depression, Magadheera is all set to set the box office on fire.
Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Thumbs Down! (the verdict is not meant for the Bangaru Kodipetta remix)
Mr. Inkenti’s Pick:Bangaru Kodipetta (the original, if possible)
I’ve been in Mumbai over the last two weeks and have seen 5 movies so far, including New York last night, but it hardly feels like I am watching movies in the so-called Capital of Indian Movie Industry. An average day is characterized by almost-zero crowd at the plexes, hight ticket prices (you seriously begin to think if it is worth spending such money on such hopeless movies) and a total absence of any excitement because you probably will get your tickets even if you land five minutes before the show time. True, you might say this is probably because of the multiplex-producers strike and lack of any new Hindi films, but anecdotal evidence suggests that that might not exactly be the case. What is interesting to note is that it is because of these multiplexes that we have movies like New York and vice-versa. The outcome: Hindi movies today don’t even understand the pulse of the masses (read the majority), a chain of corporate multiplexes with exorbitantly high ticket prices that has brought Bollywood to its knees. So producers make movies for the multiplex audiences and NRI audience (supposedly), but they end up falling flat on their faces just like New York.
Alight, enough of my multiplex-bashing and lets get to the point of Yash Raj’s first film of 2009. Honestly, this film could have sparked up the box office as it is coming from Yash Raj Films (YRF) and at a time when moviegoers are starved for entertainment. However, once again producer Aditya Chopra has it all wrong and adds one more crappy film to YRF’s library catalog. At a time when audience would have lapped up candy floss romance, comedy, songs etc…we are shown YRF sponspored dissertation of America’s Homeland Security policies post-9/11 directed by Kabir Khan. Unlike what Taran Adarsh has to say, this film is about 9/11 and borrows heavily from Khuda Kay Liye. Samir/Sam (John Abraham), Maya (Katrina Kaif) and Omar (Neil Nitin Mukesh) are good friends who are shown only playing rugby, visiting pubs by which time they have finished two years of graduate school at New York State University without even opening their books even once! (the direction is really dumb) Trust me, going through graduate school will not be so easy. Sam and Maya are Indian Americans, Omar comes to pursue graduate school form India and they all become good friends. Yes, it is a triangle so Omar begins to like-like Maya, but later realizes that Maya loves Sam. In fact, so intense is his love for Maya that even as the entire college community is shocked with the 9/11 events, our man Omar walks away from that scene as he is more disturbed looking at Maya resting her head on Sam’s shoulder and crying. Seven years later, Omar is set-up by the FBI, detain him, threaten him and Irfan Khan as the FBI man convinces him that actually his former best-friend Sam is running a sleeper cell in New York City (NYC) and Omar needs to use his previous friendship network to break in to that network.
Omar does not believe it first, but later agrees only to prove the FBI guy wrong. Wow! watte friendship! So after 7 years of disappearing from his love (like how Kajol did in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai…) he re-appears, but now Maya and Sam are a family with a kid. Omar now has to win Sam’s trust and see if he really is what the FBI is saying he is. It turns out that he is, but the system made him one. He too was detained as a suspect and to take revenge he wants to give it back to the system that treated him like an animal. Anyways, our man Omar then finds out that even Maya is aware of Sam’s activities, but is hoping that he will come back to normal life. Omar, who know enjoys FBI status, negotiates to arrange amnesty for his girl friend’s husband, but it is too late as Sam is busy planting cell-phone bombs all over the FBI headquarters at a time when his wife is negotiating with the gora FBI boss. The end?—Sam and May have their last talk on the terrace a few minutes before snipers in FBI black copters come and shoot them down. Please don’t ask why Katrina also was shot, but she is. So Omar is left the kid and his FBI friend.
The movie is crappy with several nonsensical direction moments, which I cannot list as it is beyond the scope of this review. To the film’s credit, it starts bang-on and the first couple of revelations do catch your interest, but after that point the film hits a plateau in terms of story and all counts that qualify for a film that entertains or engages. Coming to the performances: John Abraham is his usual wooden-expression self, Katrina Kaif is average and to make it appear that she is acting the director decided that they will not apply any make-up (the climax scenes), Neil Nitin Mukesh is good, but he is too white to succeed as a Bollywood hero. In fact, Neil has more role to play. Irfan Khan is the only good actor in the film. Can I please request Mr. Kabir Khan to stop making movies on American foreign policy or homeland security policies? Kabir Khan wasted YRF’s money and tortured the audience with Kabul Express and now again with New York. The worst part of the film is that it does a major disservice to the cause of Human Rights—the audience are found mocking and laughing at the characters instead of feeling for them, their condition, and the entire issue of Human Rights in the backdrop of fighting terrorism in all nations of the world today.
It simply beats my imagination how Aditya Chopra accepts to produce such scripts. How can you make a good film on a sensitive issue by casting a set of models (John, Katrina, and Neil)? don’t you need actors like Irfan Khan? and why is the title of the film named “New York”—is it for the NRI audience who will flock to the theaters furing the first three days? and a very basic question: why do we make such films which are far removed from what concerns our masses? I am sure by the end of the preview show, Papa Chopra must have put his hand on his head in despair wondering why on Earth his son continues to produce such idiotic films—why can’t he just sign up the top stars, have good songs, romance, entertain and just get done with it.
Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Thumbs Down! Don’t waste your money on this one, wait for it to come on TV.
PS: By the way, we are requested to stand up in respect for the National Anthem, and everybody actually stands; thats something amazing about Mumbaikars. Apparently, this is the practice in Mumabi. I highly doubt if anybody will be as civil in Hyderabad.
Ok, so now all hopes of having a real ‘kick’ at the movies are dashed! With the global meltdown, multiplex-producers strike, and uncertain political scenario you would at least expect to enjoy the movies, but none of them are good. Period. Balakrishna’s Mithrudu was simply pathetic, Veedokkade was nothing special, and looking at posters of Kick I really thought this would be the one–alas, Tollywood directors simply seem to have lost touch of content. Again, Kick is a case of good designer posters—a pretty and juicy Illeana in goya posters and nice thighs—quick camera movements, loud music, mandatory/mechanical comedy scenes, but no story worth telling.
Kalyan (Ravi Teja) is a cool dude who wants to do things in life that give him a kick. This kick could be sadistic too like putting your friend in trouble and just being silly and mischievous. Kalyan changes jobs every few days if he feels there is no ‘kick’ in it. So basically our hero is like a seeker of ‘kick’. Meet Naina (Illeana) for whom Kalyan falls in love with, but Naina is not willing to love Mr. Kick because he is idiotic. The entire first half just goes on aimlessly with Kalyan and Naina figuring out who gives whom a kick and some silly comedy from Brahmanandam. This really silly love story between Kalyan and Naina is being narrated by Naina to her soon-to-be engaged top cop of AP, Kalyan Krishna (Syaam, introducing). Apparently, the couple break up because Mr. Kick loses kick in the software job he got for his girl friend, left it in 4 days, but has been lieing to her about it. So they break up because in this heated conversation, Mr. Kick refers to their love as “thokalo” love. This cop too has come to Malaysia looking for a thief who happens to be Mr. Kick. Apparently, Mr. Kick realizes the job that gives him the most kick—charity. Yes, he determines that the smile on a kid is what gives him a kick so he begins looting all the ill-gotten wealth of the city’s big shots and donates to orphanages (remember Shankar’s Gentleman). The second half is again full of senseless and silly sceines between Ravi Teja, Illeana, Brahmanandam, Ali etc and parallely there are chases between Mr. Kick and the Cop. Finally, it all ends well with the Cop being transferred because he couldn’t catch this thief and Mr. Kick comes in as the new Cop; again, he has written and passed the IPS only because his girl friend wants him to also be an IPS, in addtion to Doctor, Software, Engineer etc.
Even with all the emphasis on ‘kick’ in the movie, there is absolutely nothing kickworthy in this film. The comedy is stale and flat. Brahmanandam’s act (as Halwa Raj) is now becoming repetitive and stale. Ali’s act is useless. Ravi Teja, as usual, puts in his best effort thought it is highly repetitive, but the story itself has no ‘kick’. Ravi Teja fans and fans of comedy in general will be sorely dissapointed with the quality of comedy in this film. It must be mentioned here that Ravi Teja is looking aged, haggard, and unhealthy. Illeana is the only sweet thing about this film and it is only because she is on the posters that you would want to watch this film. The film opens with Illeana doing yoga in tight tops with the camera moving close to her chest and so on. Illeana seems to have put on some weight and she looks juicy, but the babe just cannot act. New boy Syaam is deadly and looks macho. The cop-thief thread is similar to Dhoom.
The songs are good with Gore…song being the highlight although the taking is just so-so. The biggest problem with the film is there is no story; the first half is just plain and whatever senseless story exists begins in the second half. The motivating scene/theme that makes Ravi Teja realize his kick is just not convincing and it is not something one expects from a Ravi Teja summer starrer with a funky title like Kick. Ravi Teja’s politically flavored dialogue about why politicians don’t have any welfare schemes for kids (because they can’t vote) is plain silly— the parents will vote if their kids have welfare schemes. The director, Surender Reddy, dissapoints and there is no nativity in this film. I am not sure why the film has to be based in Malaysia (Billa, Mithrudu and now Kick all are shot in Malaysia, whats with that!).
Phew…this is turning out to a boring summer at the Movies. When the film begins you are determined to enjoy this one as you want a summer entertainer, but as the film rolls you have to force yourself to laugh at this stale script. Just stay at home, put on an old DVD, and enjoy those good times of Movies.
Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Thumbs Down. There really no kick in this one.
I know, I shouldn’t be doing this. So what if work gets busy, does that mean I must stop making blog posts? There was a time when I was blogging away, but now I don’t get the time and more importantly space to blog. The good thing about this is that it means now I have work at office and, more importantly, I am doing it! Even now, I am in office and there is work, but there is a sense of uneasiness in me that I am not blogging. So, here I go.
Although my last post was on April 10th following a disasterous film I watched, I have been seeing movies regularly (I am able to squeeze time for that, but not for writing the reviews), watching the news, and following the affairs. So take it one by one:
1. I voted! Yes, for the first time as a Citizen of India. Even as many I knew were struggling to register to vote, my voting card was ready for me by the time I came back from the US. When the Govt folks came home to register, my dad found a passport sized photograph of mine from the late 1990s when I was in High School—big busy curly hair, even thicker eyebrows, side locks, lean face and depressed cheeks. I still look more or less the same, but—the curls are a little less thicker, eyebrows more diciplined, not side burns, and the face is not that lean anymore and you can feel the cheeks. Oh yes, the photograph is in my high school uniform.
2. I voted for the guy to whose tunes I’ve danced to and for whose movies I’ve screamed, whistled, became hysterical, and threw papers for in theaters (even in the U.S.). Needless to say, the biggest blockbuster event rolling on in the State of Andhra Pradesh are the Elections. Who Will Be the CM?—-that is the big question. The chase seems quite close, lets jsut wait and see who wins.
3. Yes, I’ve been watching movies. Firstly, there are nothing worthy playing right now. Bollywood and the Multiplexes are in a stand off, and Telugu films as usual are making B-grade, C-grade material. Single screens at Hyderabad are bringing back the good old classics.
4. The heat is crazy, but where are the mangoes?
Ok, this was a warm up post,will do more, I am sure.
Another one of those instances in life when the individual is deceived. Saucy posters, juicy Item-Star Mummaith Khan, and a director who is well known for those good-old blockbusters* make Punnami Nagu a perfect outing for single men on a Friday afternoon at a single screen. The outcome: we walk out in one hour when the letters BREAK were displayed on screen. My friend and I sat on the sofa seats of Sensation after a tea at Cafe Yadgar well expecting a high-quality B grade film, but began rolling on the screen was a premium quality D grade film! Twenty minutes in to the film and my friend whispered in to my ear: I don’t think you will be able to review this film!
Hmm…I don’t quite know what to write. Feels strange. I vaguely remember the film begining with a conversation up in heaven between two celestial beings about humans, their atrocities on Nature and how they will eventually pay for it. Hmm…wow! I thought; a Mummaith Khan film with potential for adult entertainment along with a story to do with global issues. The celestial being then narrates on how the humans can appease Lord Shiva for their redemption; apparently, this will hapen when two snakes will dance, combine their energies, and blah…blah…The female snake is Mummaith Khan. Even as these two celestial snakes are dancing, a local lady-tantric and three snake-skin traders have teamed to capture power of the world by some means. The three villians are facinated by the snake skin and shoot one down and are chided for their foolish act. Now, the chase is catch a woman who has a snake symbol or something like that on her back. This woman is again Mummaith Khan who is first shown dancing away in Malayasai. She is also the daughter of a police officer who is killed by these villains when he is investigating in to the case of the missing girls (the girls from the hostel these villians are kidnapping, opening their blouses to see if any one is the snake-lady). Mumaith then vows to take revenge on these guys. Meanwhile, there is a gang of good-for-nothing petty theives are going on about their daily lives. Describing their petty lives is beyond the mandate of this blog. Anyways, one of the gang members is Rajiv Kanakala who save Mammaith and admit her in the hospital in an incident when she is beaten black and blue by the goons. The goons find out from their tantric guru that Mummaith is the girl they need so they force the doctor to implant the celestial jewel in to her (they do it on her thigh; me thinks they should have done it on her chest).
Even though the duty doctor has told the goons that she will be in coma for six months, she walks out and enters the house of Rajiv Kanakala. She is now the celestial snake and the movie takes a break. My friend and I decided that although we came prepared to see crap, this was much worse than crap. It is simply unwatchable! Given the movie lover I am, I am still wonder as I write this blog how the film will proceed towards it’s logical conclusion. I am sure the lady snake will find it’s male partner and they will dance finally to appease Lord Shiva or whatever. It is impossible to believe that A Kodandarami Reddy* has directed this film. This director played a vital role in shaping up and directing some of Chiranjeevi’s biggest blockbusters. In fact, Chiru-Kodandarami were the blockbuster combo. And now, this same director has come up with this shameless product. I mean, what is this? It is not a horror film, not a scary film, not even a sleazy film. It is absolutely bad with pathetic direction, awful screenplay and an idiotic story.
I am even surprised I have been able to write so much of a review for this film. My dear male counterparts, do not make the mistake of watching this film with your family for it may be the end of your relationship with them or it may be the last movie together. Mummaith Khan is totally useless in her acting here. Nope, there is no exposing either; its the same Mummaith style pelvic gyration dance steps. As for the single guys whose mouths are watering for Mummaith, just forget about this crap and watch that item song from Pokiri that Mummaith is all about.
Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Two Thumbs Way Way Way…..Way Down…Down…Down!!!
*I stand corrected about the director for this film. I first wrote that the director is Kodi Ramakrishna. In fact, the reason why I ventured in to this film on it’s first day is thinking it is a Kodi-Mummaith Combo. Thanks to hello for posting the comment and correcting me.
Mr.Inkenti is an academician, social researcher, observer, blogger, and a fan, who studies entertainment media and related affects off/on human behavior and society. The views expressed on this blog are entirely Mr.Inkenti's and do not in any way possible represent anybody or anything. Mr.Inkenti blogs about the public affairs from RTC X Roads, Hyderabad to Oslo, Norway. Welcome, aboard.
With ShortKut as the third box-office disaster I am now wishing the producer-multiplex strike was never resolved. During the strike Hindi movie single screens across Hyderabad brought back blockbusters from the past and you could atleast enjoy these films. Now that the strike is resolved (i am not sure of the terms though) we-the audience are again being subjected to one pathetic film after another; first New York, then Kambaqkkht Ishq and now ShortKut. With big names from the Comedy Sector behind this film, I thought ShortKut might at least provide some good laughs, but every aspect of ShortKut—The Con Is On is pathetic and the proceedings will only irritate you.
r who only wants to become a Star by shortkut and not by hardwork as opposed to Shekar. Mansi (Amrita Rao) is a super star heroine and Shekar’s lover, but Shekar wants to marry her only after making it big. Shekar apparently develops a super-duper-hit script (no, we don’t get to hear any part of this script), but Raju steals it and makes it in to a movie even before Shekar begisn shooting and becomes a star ovenight. Following this, Shekar is totally dejected, Mansi quits the industry and announces her marriage to him in front of the media, Shekar then develops heavy inferiority complex, takes to drinks, shouts at his wife, wife leaves the house and goes back to movies, and Shekar decides to go back to director with Raju as the hero. By this time Raju is the most annoying actor on this planet. 
Under any normal or ordinary circumstances I will never watch a film that stars Manchu Manoj or his brother. Add to this what I read in some discussion forum that given the backdrop of an airport this film might be a freemake of Tom Hanks The Terminal; I just couldn’t have got myself to watch Mr. Manchu Manoj do a Tom Hanks. But I still saw the film in it’s 5th week only because my wife saw it while I was in Mumbai and actually didn’t mind coming again—now, this is big. Secondly, the director’s name bodes well for good classy films. And thirdly, given that a Manchu Manoj film is playing in to it’s 5th and 6th week towards 50 days means it must be decent enough. And sure enough, Prayanam is decent enough.
It turns out that Prayanam has nothing do do with The Terminal except that it too is based entirely in an airport, the Malaysian airport. Dhruv and his two friends have come to Malaysia and are on their way to Singapore when they decide to do bizarre things like climb a bridge and get busted by the cops for that. There is no need for such an intro, really. The three are back at the airport to go to Singapore when they meet Harika (Payal Ghosh) and her friend who are going to India for Harika’s pelli-chupullu. It is love at first sight for Dhruv, but has only two hours to know the girl, get her to like him, make her fall for him, and say yes to marry him. Great premise, but unfortunately the journey from here on does not really take off. What could have been a major fun ride is made to continue like a film without much action, fizz, fun, twists, and jhatkas (essential for small films which want to be different from the mainstream). The only highlight of the film is Brahmanandam—-if not for him the film is a total loser on it’s own. The story could have been packed with so much more, but it is only limited to episodes between two highly talentless actors called Manchu Manoj and Payal Ghosh. Again, where are the characters? An airport is a Universe in itself, why would anybody want to make a movie without many characters? it would have been so much fun…the possibilities are limitless.
in life, people come and go etc etc. The movie story, however, does not do justice to the title. Instead, the movie is only about showing Manchu Manoj’s (lack of) acting skills and several silly attempts by the hero trying to win over the heroine in those two hours. Not to worry, towards the end the hero and heroine get together! Yes! After all the silly attempts by the hero, one such silly attempt (of writing something at the back of a baggage trolley) makes the heroine 30 minutes before boarding her flight want to test out the hero by giving him a survey. He answers it, submits it through a passenger and lo and behold the heroine and her friend come out of the flight to accept the hero! Yes, to the movie’s credit…it is clean, light, and has it’s share of funny moments. Check out the Tiger-Man episode of Brahmanandam and also the Bomb episode…truly hilarious. However, Manchu Manoj just cannot act for nuts, he struggles hard and he must quit trying to do a Pawan Kalyan from Khushi. The heroine looks okay, but looks dumb at times. Her characterization also is dumb because any decent girl in her place would have slapped the guy one on his cheek. 
Agreed, I am getting repetitive while reviewing movies (particularly Telugu) while stating that designer posters are corresponding to badly designed movies. But what else can I say? When I first saw Oye’s posters with a smart, handsome Siddharth in googles, bag back, with a guitar and a tag line that reads “his first love called him…”, I thought this one would be a Smash Hit! You expect that something different will be dished out: what is his first love: music, life, travel? Add to the expectations, some really cool compositions by Yuvan Shankar Raja. By the time you are reaching the middle of the film you wonder where the coolness is and by the time you hit interval you hit your head in despair: is this is the film? Frankly, Oye dissapoints.
Uday (Siddharth) is a cool dude kinda guy with a fat friend Krishnudu (the lead of the sweet film Vinayakudu). For Uday, life is short, rich, and needs to be enjoyed with a party. Wow! such a different characterization for a hero given our Telugu movie standards (sarcasm, by the way). The girl, Sandhya (Shyamili) is the exact opposie with simple tastes, big values, and full of discipline. On a new year eve bash at a pub to which Sandhya is forced to come by her friend who is a mother of three kids, she bumbs in to Uday who is all keen to flirt with her. However, Sandhya gives him her deal of life and the next day when our hero Uday’s father dies with googles and white dress standing near to his father’s body, he decides that he loves Sandhya and wants to pursue her. From this point on till the interval Uday is trying to get friendly with Sandhya by living as her paying guest upstairs and concealing from her his true ultra-rich identity (yes, like Ghajini). Fortunately for the audience this part of the film, although without much characters, is quite funny and provides some decent time pass. There is also a forced and unrelated comedy track of Sunil as an insurance agent. Just before the interval, in her master health check up Sandhya is diagnosed with cancer. For some strange reason the director does not want the heroine to know this.
right place. Unfortunately, Oye cannot handle the sentiment it wants to potray because it’s story is just that much under developed. My next question: where are the characters? You need characters to make a memorable film. Coming to the performances, Siddharth is his usual self with nothing new to offer except that we know he loves Ray Ban glasses. It’s possible you might think he plays a blind man in his film because on every poster he has black glasses, but he not playing such a role. His face looks too thin and haggard at times. Five out of six who went for this film didn’t like the heroine, Shyamili, but I really liked her. She reminds us of the Jhyandala movie-type heronies: being simple is being beautiful. After I don’t know how long I get to see a heroine in a film who is fully clothed, looks decent, pretty, simple and someone you can relate to. She acts well too, but how I wish she got a better story. The songs are really good with the first two being the highlight: Seheri and Oye…first love. Seheri…simply rocked when I saw it in full dts blast at Sudarshan 70mm.
I had no intentions of writing the review of Kambaqkkht Ishq so early or in such haste, but reading initial reports on boxofficeindia.com and indiafm.com about “bumper” openings for film caused a lot of concern in me. Concern because reading these reports other moviegoers might be prompted to actually watch this movie, which is without doubt the shittiest film of 2009 yet. Not only is this film shitty, the marketing of the film is misleading. In fact, Kambaqkkht Ishq is a freemake of a Kamal Hassan starrer (Tamil/Telugu film). To put the record straight, Kambaqkkht Ishq is one of the crappiest films, which should be avoided at all costs in order to save you from a headache.
The film’s posters introduce Akshay Kumar as a stuntman and Kareena Kapoor as a super model. The makers of this film ought to be ashamed of themselves for such cheating. If you see the film you will find that Kareena Kapoor is actually a surgeon/medico! who is in designer model outfits when she is not in her surgeon gown. In one instance, when she needs some money to pay her registration fee she does a model act in Italy. Thats it. Secondly, the film is shamelessly taken from the comedy film Brahmachari (January 15th, 2002 in Telugu) starring Kamal Hasan, Simran, Sneha. Now, coming to Kambaqkkht Ishq–Viraj (Akshay Kumar) is a stuntman for Hollywood action films and is a player who loves to ‘play’ with women. Bebo/Sim (Kareena Kapoor) desists men because she feels they all like to only ‘play’ with women like her father and sister’s husband. Thus, Viraj and Bebo hate each other calling each other “bitch” and “dog” in generous proportions. Bebo goes all out to wreck her friend’s Kamini (Amrita Arora) marriage to Lucky (Aftab). The film tags along with is ridiculous story (if you want to call this a story) when Viraj meets with an accident. This will be Bebo’s first surgery and by the end of it she drops her musical watch inside Viraj’s stomach and stitches it up! Thus, every hour Viraj and those around him get to her mangalam song and Bebo is in a fix as if this incident comes out in the open it will affect her career. Now, she plans to get close to Viraj, act as though she loves him, get him to the operation table and remove the watch. After soem drona dhona and idiotic sentiment, Bebo realizes that she was wrong and that Viraj is a good guy at heart. They both get married.
Magadheera’s audio disappoints and to put it even bluntly it SUCKS! When you first see the posters you are bound to expect that the music will be royal, but the songs have no ‘dum’. None of the five original songs composed by MM Keeravani are impressive. Add to this list the remix of MegaStar Chiranjeevi’s mega blockbuster song Bangaru Kodipetta. So a total of six songs, but one of them is a rolling titles music, which means a majority of the audience will miss this song because our single screens don’t beleive in playing through the rolling credits after the first day or two. In fact, I am so dissapointed with the songs of this film that I will not waste my time and energy on writing about them, but I guess I can mention them: Dheera Dheera Dheera…slow and boring, Panchadhara Bomma.…another below average song, Jorsey...pls skip this, Nakosam Nuvu…kindly skip, Rolling Titles Music…sounds like a left over from Simhadri. Given Ram Charan Tej’s dancing abilities and SS Rajamouli’s grand scale of mounting the film, the songs are most likely to look good on screen, but not beyond that.
Ok, so now all hopes of having a real ‘kick’ at the movies are dashed! With the global meltdown, multiplex-producers strike, and uncertain political scenario you would at least expect to enjoy the movies, but none of them are good. Period. Balakrishna’s Mithrudu was simply pathetic, Veedokkade was nothing special, and looking at posters of Kick I really thought this would be the one–alas, Tollywood directors simply seem to have lost touch of content. Again, Kick is a case of good designer posters—a pretty and juicy Illeana in goya posters and nice thighs—quick camera movements, loud music, mandatory/mechanical comedy scenes, but no story worth telling. 
Kalyan (Ravi Teja) is a cool dude who wants to do things in life that give him a kick. This kick could be sadistic too like putting your friend in trouble and just being silly and mischievous. Kalyan changes jobs every few days if he feels there is no ‘kick’ in it. So basically our hero is like a seeker of ‘kick’. Meet Naina (Illeana) for whom Kalyan falls in love with, but Naina is not willing to love Mr. Kick because he is idiotic. The entire first half just goes on aimlessly with Kalyan and Naina figuring out who gives whom a kick and some silly comedy from Brahmanandam. This really silly love story between Kalyan and Naina is being narrated by Naina to her soon-to-be engaged top cop of AP, Kalyan Krishna (Syaam, introducing). Apparently, the couple break up because Mr. Kick loses kick in the software job he got for his girl friend, left it in 4 days, but has been lieing to her about it. So they break up because in this heated conversation, Mr. Kick refers to their love as “thokalo” love. This cop too has come to Malaysia looking for a thief who happens to be Mr. Kick. Apparently, Mr. Kick realizes the job that gives him the most kick—charity. Yes, he determines that the smile on a kid is what gives him a kick so he begins looting all the ill-gotten wealth of the city’s big shots and donates to orphanages (remember Shankar’s Gentleman). The second half is again full of senseless and silly sceines between Ravi Teja, Illeana, Brahmanandam, Ali etc and parallely there are chases between Mr. Kick and the Cop. Finally, it all ends well with the Cop being transferred because he couldn’t catch this thief and Mr. Kick comes in as the new Cop; again, he has written and passed the IPS only because his girl friend wants him to also be an IPS, in addtion to Doctor, Software, Engineer etc.
comedy is stale and flat. Brahmanandam’s act (as Halwa Raj) is now becoming repetitive and stale. Ali’s act is useless. Ravi Teja, as usual, puts in his best effort thought it is highly repetitive, but the story itself has no ‘kick’. Ravi Teja fans and fans of comedy in general will be sorely dissapointed with the quality of comedy in this film. It must be mentioned here that Ravi Teja is looking aged, haggard, and unhealthy. Illeana is the only sweet thing about this film and it is only because she is on the posters that you would want to watch this film. The film opens with Illeana doing yoga in tight tops with the camera moving close to her chest and so on. Illeana seems to have put on some weight and she looks juicy, but the babe just cannot act. New boy Syaam is deadly and looks macho. The cop-thief thread is similar to Dhoom. 
Hmm…I don’t quite know what to write. Feels strange. I vaguely remember the film begining with a conversation up in heaven between two celestial beings about humans, their atrocities on Nature and how they will eventually pay for it. Hmm…wow! I thought; a Mummaith Khan film with potential for adult entertainment along with a story to do with global issues. The celestial being then narrates on how the humans can appease Lord Shiva for their redemption; apparently, this will hapen when two snakes will dance, combine their energies, and blah…blah…The female snake is Mummaith Khan. Even as these two celestial snakes are dancing, a local lady-tantric and three snake-skin traders have teamed to capture power of the world by some means. The three villians are facinated by the snake skin and shoot one down and are chided for their foolish act. Now, the chase is catch a woman who has a snake symbol or something like that on her back. This woman is again Mummaith Khan who is first shown dancing away in Malayasai. She is also the daughter of a police officer who is killed by these villains when he is investigating in to the case of the missing girls (the girls from the hostel these villians are kidnapping, opening their blouses to see if any one is the snake-lady). Mumaith then vows to take revenge on these guys. Meanwhile, there is a gang of good-for-nothing petty theives are going on about their daily lives. Describing their petty lives is beyond the mandate of this blog. Anyways, one of the gang members is Rajiv Kanakala who save Mammaith and admit her in the hospital in an incident when she is beaten black and blue by the goons. The goons find out from their tantric guru that Mummaith is the girl they need so they force the doctor to implant the celestial jewel in to her (they do it on her thigh; me thinks they should have done it on her chest).
