One look at the poster and you know what this film will be like. It is not rocket science to figure out that this one will be nothing more than an extension of the MIND IT…yanna rascala…episode from Om Shanthi Om. Financed by a Hollywood brand studio, starring an extremely talented Telugu hero, releasing in four languages, finally in Hyderabad after a delayed regional release and promising to be an out-an-out comedy I had high hopes on this film. Alas, the Quick Gun Murugun is disappointing I say as it does not rise above the labels on its posters.

Yes, there is a concept, but the treatment and story are bad. Murugun is pure vegetarian cowboy from the 70s when Rice Plat Reddy (Naseer) a bad rowdy fellow is ruthlessly converting all vegetarian hotels in to non-veg. Murugun is the only guy who can stand up to him and defeats Gunpowder who is Rice Plate Reddy’s point man.  Oh yes, Murugan is super fast with his guns and thus the name. However, in one such shootout, Murugan is killed and goes to hell where he requests Chitragupt (Vinay Pathak in an insignificant role, which he does great as usual) to be sent again to take revenge. Chitragupt also feels that vegetarianism is the “need of the hour” and transports him back to Earth in to present day Mumbai. Now, Murugan needs to find out about Rice Pate Reddy (RPR). By this time, RPR is a major business  rowdy running a non-veg dosa chain called McDosa. RPR and his gang of rowdies are busy kidnapping all the mummies of Mumbai to get the best receipe for dosa as their scientist has failed to make a perfect machine-made dosa. Meanwhile, Murugun has a locket which has his lover’s photo and he keeps talking to her. In addition, he begins to fall in love with Mango Dolly (Rambha, a Souther-Siren) who takes a liking to Murugan and also happens to be RPR’s mistress or in Murugan’s words “keep”. Mango Dolly helps Murugan in chasing and catching up with RPR and finally after a heavy gun battle everything kids well.

While the concept is fine (veg/non-veg battle, re-birth, south indian backdrop) the story is ultra childish and the treatment is just plain Bad with a capital B. There are no funny or hilarious sequences. The only supposed-to-be funny moments are when the North Indians in the theater laugh at the South Indian accent and choice of words like MIND IT….what is this I say, all you mummies etc.  Some of the dialogues and sequences are best suited for comedy bits in a film, but to make an entire film based on these comedy bits just does not work. There is also excessive display of violence. Rajendra Prasad is a Numero Uno hero when it comes to comedy films and is an extremely talented actor down South, particularly in the Telugu film industry. Perhaps, he accepted this film because of the Hollywood branding associated with this film because the film has nothing other than making fun of South Indians and their accent. Clearly, Shashanka Gosh the director is a childish man who loved the yanna rascala episode from Om Shanthi Om. Heroine Rambha is hot as usual. There is really hot scene to which the audience in the theater cannot but react. Suddenly we are shown  Rajendra Prasad and Ramba sitting side by side and Ramba is wearing only the blouse and langa…this scene in my view is the only highlight scene of the film where you can feel Ramba’s juicy body and her sensousness. Alas, there is no such heroine today.

Although most hindi critics seem to have given favorable reviews to this film, the truth is Quick Gun Murugun is childish, immature, lousy and totally disappoints. The film is a flop. Avoid and do not expect anything creative here.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Two Thumbs Down! A few laughs here and there, but definitely not worth a trip to the theater. Watch it on cable.

PS–it is essentially a Tamil film with lots of Tamil in it and English here and there too. Subtitles present.

One of the silliest interviews I have ever read in recent times is that of hero Ram’s that appeared on idlebrain.com a couple of days prior to the release of the film Ganesh (…just Ganesh). Hero Ram claims that kids in India and USA loved his performance as spider man in Ready and asked him when he would do a full length kids movie ( this is the heights of stupidity). If this is true, then hero Ram and his producer uncle Ravi Kishore have taken this silly appreciation a bit too far. The result: they made Ganesh with the tag line just Ganesh and just about everything about this film is Stupid with a capital S from the tag line to the story to the treatment.

Neither is there any story nor is there anything interesting happening on screen. The movie begins with a chase where Ganesh (Ram) is introduced saving a baby sitting on the back of a vegetable truck (savior of kids kinda message I guess). Ganesh is supposed to be the ideal kinda friend who does anything for friends. His close lady friend is in love with a guy, but that guy’s father has given a word to his dieing father that he will marry his son to his sister. On the other side, the sister too gave the same promise. So what is the issue you ask? apparently, both brother and sister think the other must be the first to ask for marriage and there does not seem to any specific reason why it should be problematic. Fine, we accept that the director has no story in mind and just wants to play out some fun, but where is the fun? The entire movie is dedicated to kids and it really gets annoying. Make no mistake, although all other web reviews are talking about the 26 kids artists this is not by any measure as much fun as Mr. India or JVAS. Now, Ganesh plans to make the sister’s daughter, who happens to be (Divya) Kajol Agarwal, fall in love with him as he pretends his love. The point of all this? to show to the respective parents that both the boy and girl are in love with others so get these two lovers married. If you thought this stupid…then read on. Ganesh then plans to settle down below Divya’s apartment, but he realizes that the entire housing complex is dominated by a set of kids who are notorious. So Ganesh makes them beleive that is Super Man…yes, Super Man, just so that he has their trust and meanwhile he can make Divya fall in love with him.

He succeeds in making her fall in love, but then she overhears a conversation where she finds out that all this was drama. But of course, by this time our hero is genuinely in love with the heroine. So the second half is all about he proving his sincerity. Oh yes, shouldn’t there be fights for our hero Ram? so there is a villan by name Mahadev who gives loans to middle class. Most of his debtors default upon which Mahadev decends on them to break their hands etc. So our hero also fights with Mahadev, again, to prove to the kids that he is indeed SuperMan. And believe it or not there are sequences in the movie, which actually show the hero in the SuperMan get-up! Gosh….hero Ram has some super-hero fantasy! The movie is maha long. Just when you feel there should be an interval a song pops up and it takes a full one hour and thirty minutes before the interval. The movie is totally insane and boring to the core. The kids do not behave like kids, but are made to behave much older than their age. This is common in most Telugu movies. Up to a point, some sequences with the kids is okay, but it just gets on your nerves as nothing else is going on other than the silly episodes of Ganesh, the kids, and the silly super man thing. Hero Ram is full of overconfidence. He continues to act like Pawan Kalyan whenever he can and he seems to be the same in all his movies. He must understand that Ready was not a hit because of him and thats why Maska was average and now Ganesh will flop for sure. He feels he is full of attitude, but he needs to select good stories and do some variety. His dances are just okay as he tries too hard to do MJ all the time. Fights are total crap. He says in his interview he learnt some japaneese martial art for this film…he needs to stop day dreaming. Kajol Agarwal is just average and it confirms that Magadheera is a flash in the pan for her. Music is okay with one really good song. Brahmanandam comedy is the usual routine fare. He too needs to quit these routine roles where he feels like a hero, but then gets beaten up.

Clearly, M. Saravanam who is credited with story, screenplay and direction has his brains parked in his butt! To even think of making something like this he must be a total idiot. Either that or hero Ram himself must have done everything himself. If that is not true, then the producer has decided not to use his brains at all. Either that or he wants to make sure hero Ram’s career is closed once and for all! My wife and I walked away 15 minutes after the interval as there was simply no point sitting through this really childish and boring movie. It looks like the one point aim of this film is to show Ram as a kids hero, but I have message for Ram: please stop this torture on the public and save yourself the embarassment. Families BEWARE…don’t be lured with the whole kids thing…the film will bore you.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Two Thumbs Down. Hero Ram, can you please re-invent yourself or just quit and get a new job, will you?

A couple of months prior to its release, Salman Khan made a comment that WANTED will be the Ghajini of 2009 in terms of box office collections. It is quite interesting to see how Bollywood’s top heroes are banking on out-an-out South Indian masalla blockbusters to boost (read reinvent) their image. However, what makes a difference is the kind of movie you choose to remake. Expectedly, the Salman Khan starrer has opened well at single screens and not-so-well at multiplexes obviously because of his image and the audience can tell a movie by sniffing at the trailers and posters. Unfortunately, Salman Khan chooses a Telugu film of the lowest standard,  Pokiri in Telugu, and as expected with no change in treatment WANTED looks and feels like a full fledged Telugu film and gives you a headache.

Radhe (Salman Khan) is a Mumbai-based topiri who also engages in cash-for-murder activities. His only loyalty is towards money. So he switches from one gang to another engaging in various action sequences. Meanwhile, he falls for Jhanvi (Ayesha Takia Azmi) who regularly attends aerobics classes and is constantly harassed by a corrupt and perverted police inspector Talpade (Mahesh Manjrekar). Mr. Talpade has no other official work other than dropping by at Jhanvi’s house to verbally harass with perverse talk and to send rowdies to make it appear that they have raped Jhanvi so that he can make the case to marry Jhanvi. Of course, Jhanvi is always walking around the city and bumping in to Radhe and his gang. She loves him and so does he, but he cannot take it further as he is a gangster. Now, poor Jhanvi is torn as her lover is not willing to change career and neither can she change her heart. In this pretext, some really lousy songs are performed. In one such gang wars, a close aide of Ghani Bhai (Prakash Raj) is killed, which brings the Bhai himself to Mumbai. Now, the film moves to eliminate Ghani Bhai, but not without the Bhai’s gang videotaping the rape of the Commissioner’s daughter and the killing of an ex-police officer. In a climax fight, which includes a shirt-less Khan (this is the only one time he takes his shirt off!), all the badies are killed and Jhanvi is maha relieved and impressed that her gooda boyfriend is actually a….(SPOILERS AHEAD….it turns out that Salman Khan is actually an under cover cop!)

The content of WANTED can make you curse yourself for spending so much of money and time. It has only one scene worth mentioning and this is original: the scene where Salman and Ayesha are seen in Mughal dresses and Ayesha as Anarkali swipes her credit card at the electronics store. In fact, Salman Khan looks so ultra handsome in the Salim get-up that I wish he did such a period film. Hmm…other than this I did not really enjoy any other scene. Now, let me make one thing clear about the difference between Bollywood and Tollywood. In Bollywood, if a movie is a sensational hit then it is bound to be really good, but in Tollywood (the Telugu film industry) this law does not necessarily hold true in all cases. Star power is the main force and even an average to below average story is enough to make it a super-hit at the box-office: Pokiri, directed by Puri Jagannath and headlined by Mahesh Babu, is one such film. Even with such a story the film went on to become a sensational hit only because this was the first time the chocolate-baby faced Mahesh Babu was shown in a new avatar along with super-hit songs, a hot and ravishing heroine Illeana and super-comedy. Compared to Salman’s choice, Aamir Khan choose a Tamil film where the director applied more brains to develop the story and the sequences.

The biggest problem with WANTED is that it is imported just like a Telugu film without any changes and to top it off the songs are simply bad and the comedy makes you not want to laugh. The only saving grace of the film is Salman Khan who has really put in his heart and soul in to every scene of this film.  Prabhudeva has made him dance although the struggle is visible when Salman Khan is made to do typical Telugu dance steps (in Jalwa song especially). Nothing wrong in remaking Telugu/Tamil films, but you have got to add your brains too to it; remember David Dhawan’s movies? Producer Boney Kapoor continues his fascination for South Indian remakes. Ayesha Takia looks cute, juicy, and sexy, but unfortunately she gets a raw deal in the film. The pairing of Salman and Ayesha also is good. Mahesh Manjrekar is good as usual and so is Prakash Raj. As already repeated at several places in this review the music is a letdown.

Salman Khan has super craze amongst the masses. The other day when I visited Charminar the only hero’s postcard cut outs I saw at the stalls were that of Salman Khan. So surely, the masses will be in for a treat, but the treat would have been grander had changes been made to the treatment of the story, better songs and comedy. The box office stamina of this film will be limited. However, I wonder why this film was named WANTED? Perhaps it sounds stylish so that with stylishly desinged posters it can attract multiplex audience, but it is not going that way. In fact, they should simply have named the film Tapori, which is the closest it gets to Pokiri.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Thumbs Down. Yes, only hard core Salman Khan fans who have his pics of him without a shirt on your pencil box or table top can watch this film. The rest can safely avoid this headache.

PS—I drove all the way to Santosh 70mm in Abids, Hyderabad, to watch this film to watch it with the masses and dragged my dad along for the 9 p.m show and by the end of it we both are half fried. Yes, Salman Khan’s poster was garlended and there were plently of whistles for him through out. We need more such movies, which excite the masses, but not with crappy content like WANTED. As an aside, going back in time there was a time when I closed my ears for Piya Piya song from Har Dil Jo Pyaar Karega film at Santosh 70mm, but now the sound system is not that strong at all at this landmark single screen theater of Hyderabad. Such a beautiful and massively spacious structure. Although, it is a welcome surprise to see the theater complex, Santosh 70-Sapna 35, on a revival.

It is that time of the movies at the box office when a Yash Raj Film arrives and falls flat on its face. I saw the first trailer of Dil Bole Hadippa! (DBH) in a Cinemax at Mumbai when I had gone to watch New York. My first reaction when I saw it: over-action, pakka flop. My reaction after watching the film last night at Ramakrishna Glitterati, which by the way was not House Full on its first day: over-action, pakka flop, no story. The review can end right here, but I will have to present at least a decent write up about how Yash Raj Films continues to finance, produce, and distribute silly movies with no head or tail like Dil Bole Hadippa!

The film has all the usual suspects of a YRF film: punjab, over-the-top punjabiness, two jokers who talk and practice India-Pakistan peace, cheesy messages, and actors delivering over-action in order to convey the energy. Now, if the story is in place then these elements are not irritating, but in DBH it is only these elements. Based in pind or somewhere in Punjab close the border everybody is always energetic and happy as though they are a deranged lot. Veera (Rani Mukherjee) is a cricket fanatic and is a fan of Sachin pajji. However, she cannot enter the male dominated world of cricket. Meanwhile, there are two totally deranged jokers on either side of the border–Dilip Tahil from Pakistan and Anupam Kher in India—who meet once a year at the Wagah border with their teams to talk about peace and connecton between the two rival countries. For the past 9 years the Indian team has been losing. To win the next match Anupam decides to call his son Rohan (Shahid ‘Kamina’ Kapoor) who is also is a star cricket player in England and lives with his separated wife. When the team announces for selection Veera decides to transform as Veer (yes, you’ve seen the posters) to pass off as a male to enter the cricket team. During this process, just before the Intermission of the film Rohan sees Veera naked/in-a-towel in the male dressing room when he goes searching for Veer and he falls for her! Wow, whatte a twist! He begins to confide in Veer about Veera. Meanwhile, Veera begins to change Rohan and gets him to fall for India (yes, the typical i-love-my-India kinda song). Towards the end of the final match Rohan realizes that Veer is actually Veera (in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi style) and totally flips out and almost derails their chances of victory. Anyways, they finally win the watch because our Veer hits, hits and hits.

It honestly takes guts to produce such a movie and I admire Aditya Chopra for funding such scripts. It also takes infinite imagination for a director, Aashish Singh, to make a film with no story and make it last for close to 2 and 1/2 hours. There is absolutely no story and 30 minutes in to the film you can feel how empty this film is and how it is being dragged. What is it about?—India/Pak, gender, love, cricket? What is even more daring is that the director borrows from all the latest flop films of Yash Raj…you can see and smell these scenes sprinkled all over the film; from Aaje Nachale to Rab Ne to DDLJ. The number of times the prayer, Ik Onkar, is repeated gets you irritated. The heights of silliness of the film is the India-Pakistan peace talks and messages and ofcourse the gender discourse. According to this film, even women who are as good if not better than our present players should be allowed to be part of the Indian cricket team. Shahid Kapoor is a total idiot in this film. What is the need for him to act like Kabir Khan of Chak De! India? His hair style is awful and he is basically made in to Rani’s side artist. Rakhi Sawant and Sherlyn Chopra are wasted, but good for these two D-grade models who are not part of a YRF production however idiotic it might be. Rani Mukherjee must have seen the potential of doing a dual role and decided to make this her comeback film, but with no story to bat for what is she going to do? As Veer, Rani Mukherjee packs in so much of incredible energy! Quite often we see this in Telugu films, where without a story a film runs entirely based on a Star-hero powered with fights, songs, and comedy—this is exactly what Rani Mukherjee tries to do in this film. Her dance steps are superb and energy infectious, but there is no matter in the film. All that the film has is loads and loads of typical YRF elements that simply get on your nerves.There is no chemistry between Rani and Shahid. Typically, in South Indian films we have an old hero with a young heroine to make the old guy look young…it is the opposite case here.

It does not the matter if the film resembles other films as long as it entertains. Given the theme and idea of Dil Bole Hadippa! the potential to churn out a laugh-riot is immence, but it has been totally wasted. It is unfortunate that producer Aditya Chopra is systematically de-valuing the Yash Raj Films brand with one stupid film after another silly film. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was equally stupid, but only Shah Rukh Khan and the songs saved the film. YRF is probably the only full fledged India-based production and entertainment studio, but the rate at which it is presenting the silliest possible films without a head or tail will soon bury the brand. In my view, it is already burried.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Thumbs Down. Families, you might be tempted to watch this film, but you will disappointed. Watch it on cable.

A few minutes after the show ended in Prasads, we bumped in to my wife’s cousin and she asked us how the film was. “Below average” came the answer from my wife. It turns out that even her cousin was rooting for Nara Rohit just like how I have been as I see his posters everyday on my way to the Jubilee check-post. However, 123telugu.com’s live commentary indicated that the film is “serious”, not entertaining, but meaningful and I knew the movie will fall short. Next sign was at Prasads when the theaterwala called it “average”. Yet, in spite of all these signs I still hoped that the film will turn out a pleasant surprise, but alas the film tries to be a lot and ends up being neither here nor there. Baanam is neither engaging or entertaining.

The film begins in the mid70’s with Bhagat (Nara Rohit) as a kid and his dad (Shivaju Shinde) leaving his kid behind and jumping in to the river to escape police firing. He is a naxal. Years later, in 1989, he surrenders and comes home to see his son all grown up, preparing for UPSC exams and aiming for IPS. Meanwhile, a retarded thread dedicated to a young and ruthless goon called Sakthi Patnaik runs parallel. He kills his own father, banishes his uncle to take over the throne. The third thread is a love story. Subalakshmi is married, but is asked orphaned when her father dies and in-laws ask her to get out of the house. Bhagat decides to be her “guardian” and brings her home. The story goes forward only because of a silly development: Subalakshmi’s ex-husband (she pulls of her mangal-sutram to throw away the marriage) in a drunk state brings one of Sakthi’s mean along who eventually gets beaten up and later dies. Sakthi is upset and wants to finish off Bhagat, but little does he know that our hero is all-powerful and is able to bash-up all the goons set for him. Yes, Bhagat is selected for IPS, but he is too big for his shoes even before the training so he requests his the training officer to give him four trainees from the bottom. He trains them to begin eliminating Sakhti’s gang. All ends well, except that Bhagat’s father dies while trying to kill Sakhti. And by the way, it never really struck me as a period film set in the late 1980s.

I am not exactly sure what the director wanted the film to be: (i) to highlight a clash of ideology between a naxal father and a son who is choosing the system? (ii) the power of police? (iii) or, an art-kinda film or an art-commerical fusion? The answer to all the questions above is: unsatisfactory. There is no plot to keep you engaged. The best part of the film is its running time of 2 hours. You can see elements of good direction here and there. For example, the first scene where Bhagat sees a girl at the station sitting under a tree with baggage and head down in the morning and sees her in the same position in the evening with all her flowers faded is my favorite scene. However, a few elements of good direction (and a few wannabe intellectural dialgoues) here and there cannot save a film that just does not have an engaging script, which is critical for the success of such films. Beyond this, the characterization of the leading actress is weak and is made to cry most of the time or ask really silly questions to show her innocence.  Rest of the cast is fine. Nara Rohit looks great in some shots and somehwere you cannot help but feel he inherits the awkwardness of Mr. Naidu! At this stage of this career, it looks like Mr. Nara Rohit cannot act–he can only do one thing at a time—but is able to do the action scenes with ease. At times he looks like an earlier version of Pawan Kalyan. Overall, I feel this guy can really make it if he works on his acting and also chooses the right scripts after deciding what sort of a hero he wants to be. Vedika as Subalakshmi looks good in close-ups, but otherwise she looks like a patient. Shivaji Shinde delivers his usual self.

The director has everything for him: a prestigious banner (Vyjayanthi/Three Angels Studio; what sort of a nonsensical name is Three Angels? why be so Hollywood-ish?), a blockbuster distributor (Geetha Arts), and a new hero with whom a variety subject can be experimented with without the burdern of a star-burden (he is only the nephew of a former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh). Why choose such a dark and pale subject of naxals, police, system vs out-of-system theme, and of course the mandatory goonda in every telugu film (perhaps having such a goonda and showing a few killings makes this film a commerical one). The film lacks the intellectual elements to qualify as an off-beat or artsy film and neither does it have any entertaining elements to qualify as a commerical film. Although the film is earning praises from virtually all other telugu film websites (“honest” “sensible” “path breaking”—-it is none of the above), in my view the film does not deliver or rather the film does not know what to deliver. Music is good, I just liked the first song (btw, too much of jogging is shown in this song).  It will be unfair to Gamyam to compare Baanam with Gamyam. Sure, Baanam feels like Gamyam wannabe. Anyways, I cant understand why our filmmakers cannot choose good stories with variety instead always seem to making the same things a little differently with the mandatory evil-than-evil goonda.

However, I wish Nara Rohit all the success in the future. Among all the new star-sons, this guy looks like a hero. We do not have to convince ourselves that he is a hero like how we are having to do with Ram Charan Tej and Naga Chaitanya. For a debut, Nara Rohit should have choosen a livilier project.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Thumbs Down. I had high hopes on this one. The film just does not seem to take off; it just sits and does not do anything.

Posted in movienomics Tagged: baanam, baanam climax, baanam movie review, baanam story, banam, banam climax, banam movie review, banam review, banam story, nara rohit, nara rohit acting ]]> http://mrinkenti.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/baanam-review-oh-why-did-this-film-dissapoint/feed/ 0 mrinkenti mr-inkenti banam_poster1 banam_poster2 http://mrinkenti.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/josh-review-this-josh-really-suckzzzz/ http://mrinkenti.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/josh-review-this-josh-really-suckzzzz/#comments Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:58:25 +0000 mrinkenti http://mrinkenti.wordpress.com/?p=959 ]]>

Just the other day I was in a discussion how about unfortunate Telugu audience are that they are having to watch all the bekar bacchas of Tollywood’s old heroes. To this list, kindly add the name of another incompetent, joshless, hopeless, useless, and untalented baccha by the name of Naga Chaitanya. My worst fears have come true. The initial promos of the and posters eerily suggested that neither the film or the debutant will carry any josh. The possibility of coming up with an out-an-out entertainer when you have a college backdrop is limitless, but hats of for Vasu Varma’s story, screenplay, dialgoues, and direction the film Josh is not only stupid, but also is totally useless.

Lets get one fact clear right at the beginning: it is not that there is no story worth mentioning, but it is a case of no story at all. After struggling to sit through the first half you wonder what is the point of this film. All we see in the first half is Satya (Naga Chaitanya) decides to quit college in Vizag and decides to move to Hyderabad to work and stay. God alone knows what work he did, but all we are shown is him sitting in an irani cafe and documenting the goondagiri of MGM college students. As ususal there are two warring gangs and one college alum JD (JD Chakravarthy) who is their role model–a former goonda of the college and now in politics wanting to become a youth wing president or something like that. Slowly, our hero begins to get involved in college fights. You wonder why. Then in a flashback it is revealed that Satya himself was a full-time goonda in college at Vizag. In spite of being a goonda, smoking, smashing and burning cars, his principal, Prakash Raj, will call him aside and tell him that he has talent (what did he see? oh perhaps because he is Nag’s son and the film’s hero) and requests him to reform. However, Satya is against the education system and those who educate. He gives a major speech on how the teaching methodology is outdated, syllasbus is never updated, no practical applicability, pressure on students leading to suicides and calls for a change in the system and the students will themselves change. Phew…big words for chutku, clearly he is capaigning for Kapil Sibal’s education reforms. Unable to bear this intellectual outburst he insists on going back to his foolish ways and in one such bike ride his friend dies. Then…and only then does Satya come up with another weird discovery—that it does not matter who or what changes, it is important for the student individual to realize their mistake and change (Oh God…somebody please help me!).Unable to bear the guilt he decides to move to Hyderabad and guess what…he finds that students here too are as distracted!—what did he think? he and his bunch of friends in Vizag were the only crackheads?

So this means that all along Satya wants to bring about reforms among all the distracted students of MGM College. Of course, there is no link or convincing story connecting this message to the story of the film. Anyways, towards the end Satya unites the two warring camps and exposes JD as a man who is exploiting the students. Movie ends with the college system functioning in full dicipline and perfectly. Oh yes, there is a heroine…yesteryear heroine Radha’s daugther. The heroine looks like Naga Chaitanya’s elder sister and so there is nothing much to write about it. She is 17 years in the film and is a teacher for an elementary school and is obviously embarassed about it. This is her first and most likely last film.  I just cannot beleive that Nagarjuna invested in such an idiotic Dil Raju production. As a father, Nagarjuna has done a major disservice to his son by financing a close to 3 hours film so that Naga Chaitanya can make a major fool of himself in front of millions of moviegoers. Debut hero Naga Chaitanya has no talent and is most uncomfortable acting. It is almost as though somebody was putting a gun to his head to act. He just cannot act—-he is fine only when he is silent, the moment he opens his mouth you feel like covering your head with your hands. He cannot dance and he tries so hard to dance that he can’t get the lip sync correctly. His diction is awful. His get up and body language in the flash back also is least convincing. My advice to him would be to keep off the film industry as there are several other occupatioins available for youngsters. I have a question for his father and the producer: didn’t you do a screen test? couldn’t any of you make out that Naga Chaitanya, however decent he may look, is not gelling well with acting? couldn’t any one see that when the hero and heroine are standing next to each other the hero is looking like a younger brother? did anyone read the script or just got swayed by the heavily loaded education reform message that the director narrated? The end result: the film has no josh and is a total let down. I also fail to understand why show the hero like a super hero? and what is the need for the scene which shows college students sandwhiching a girl on a bike? for what is the scene which shows the college guy checking out adult websites? they have nothing to do with the story.

I have never seen as many college students at Sensation Sunshine as I did today for the first day first show of Josh. The crowd was highly excited: screams and whisltes even as the prayer for Lord Venkateswara began, whistles for the titles and then slowly there only mute silence. No fights, only build-ups in the first half. The opening sequence is poor and there is no reason for the first song to come. Rest of the songs are useless. During intermission you could hear audience wondering what the story is and and towards the end you could hear words like bekar. The second half of the second half offers some drama, but alas by the time the film’s highlight song comes the entire theater watches it in mute silence. There are no sequences in the film that worthy of screams or whistles and nothing in the film to excite the youth. Comedy is a total let down. JD and Brahmanadam fail to create any impact. Come to think of there cannot be any impact because the director seems to have decided to make a lousy film. It is so sad to see how movies are being made without any story. Every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to make a 3 three hour film with just a 3 minute message in their mind.

Nagarjuna ought to be ashamed for making such a pathetic movie and for not being able to recognize that Naga Chaitanya just cannot act.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Two Thumbs Down. The film is by design bad and unfortunately for him and us Naga Chaitanya looks too much like a kid and just does not have the josh in him that is needed to set the silver screen on fire.

I saw the trailer of Daddy Cool during the intermission when I went to watch Anjaneyulu at Sapna 35mm.  In this day and age of super-hype for even the silliest of films, you can imagine how surprised I was to see the trailer of what looked like a potent crazy comedy film. The film has no actor worth the mention who can pull audience to the theaters except for maybe Rajpal Yadav and the crazy trailer. I went because it is from is from Indra Kumar (the makers of Masti and Dhamaal). The film’s tagline is come…join the fun-eral. I never thought of the word that way, but 20 minutues in to the film you wish the film is burried in the same funeral . The film totally dissapoints.

It will be criminal on my part to waste time and energy to write the story of this film. I just fail to understand why and how this film was made. There is absolutely no story, no plot, no comedy, and there were hardly any laughs in the theater. The film begins with a coffin arriving at a big mansion and Sunil Shetty identifies that the dead body is not his father—this scene is plain and this was shown in the trailers as one of the highlights. One by one family members arrive for the funeral and as expected each of them is crazy in their own way. The wife of one wants to buy a new apartment and leave the house as she can’t stay with mother-in-law, younger brother is a writer (15 hit novels apparently), one of the cousins is hitting on the other, Kim Sharma is always doubting her husband Javeed Jaffery, one model mistakes Javeed as Carlos and thinks he is the one who wants to sleep with her, Chunky Pandey mixes drugs in a tablet called Relax-O, which is consumed by mistake by Aftaab who behaves like a crazy nut through out. Meanwhile, Rajpal Yadav blackmails the two sons of the dead father by showing photos that prove their father and he were lovers! Yes, there is also Prem Chopra on a wheel chair and he always abusing. It includes one scene where Javeed Jaffery has to carry him and put him on a toilet seat, but his hand gets stuck and is soiled with shit.

This film could have been one really whacky crazy comedy with loads of adult comedy as well, but alas our film makers are proving to be totally incompetant. The absense of a story and plot also can be excused if the film has hilarious and laugh-out-loud sequences. The atmosphere at Ramakrishna Gliterrati 35mm was without any fizz. Nobody was even laughing. The way the film begins itself is on a dead-pan note and 15 minutes in to the film you know it is a dead film. Not only is there no comedy even the actors involved belong to the highest class of incompetance.  The film is 12 reels, but I walked away after around 8 or 9 reels. I know, Kaminey is no fun and you might be tempted to go for Daddy Cool as it looks like one of those crazy comedies….but no…Daddy Cool has no comedy. I wish we can bury this film in Bollywood’s graveyard so that no DVDs or CDs are made for this film and it leaves Bollywood without any trace.

hmm…come to think of it…this Bollywood Graveyard is a fine concept. Several movies can qualify to get burried here so that there are no traces of it for posterity.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Two Thumbs Way….Down! I really thought this one would be a total mass comedy with loads of crazy comedy, but there is none.

A long time back, I mean a really long time back and I don’t even know how long back I saw a trailer of Mallana on YouTube. I remember remarking to my colleauge how disgusting, wierd, and irritating the promo was. Interestingly, even the promo was ridiculously long. Mallanna has all the elements in it to make it a blockbuster disaster: (i) it took way long to make it to theaters (ii) absolutely irritating songs (iii) and the film has been released in over 50 theaters in Hyderabad alone (a clear indication that the distributor wants to make as much in the first two days). Everything  (trust me, I mean everything!) about this film is irritating and Mallanna, at least in Telugu, is sure headed for blockbuster disaster.

You need to understand that there are several threads running parallelly and at a fast pace. In fact, the director wants us to really feel the pace so the camera moments and editing is that for TV serials—childish, zooming in and out on the faces, and other chillar stunts. Unfortunately, Mallana has a really meaningless story. Mallana IPS (Vikram) is a CBI officer, he along with his boss (none other than Super (Joker) Star Krishna; Mahesh Babu’s father) are raiding unethical business rascals with the frequency of a local SP locking up local pick-pockets. You really do not know what happens next because the camera moves so fast and the editing is so strenous on your eye, but you are given to see that huge chuncks of this money is being managed by a group of young guys, including Mallana, in an underground hi-tech cellar. Next, the money thus collected is delivered to those poor people who have been submitting wish-lists at the local temple of Lord Mallana. Yes, you got it—-poor people pray to Lord Mallana, write their wishes and stick it to a tree, Mallana has a collaboration with the temple priests to collect these wishes, and the re-loots the raid money to give back to the poor. Yes, there is also an elephant sized police officer played by Prabhu who is investigating the case as he beleives the person behind answering the prayers is a human not God. Meanwhile, one such business man that Malllanna messes with is PPP; no it’s not Public Private Parternship it is Pallur Paramajyoti Ponnusamy (Ashish Vidyarti). PPP and his daughter Shreya vow vengence. Shreya pretends to be fall in love with Mallana and towards the end of the first half Mallanna’s identity is revealed!

With the film all but over in the first half, you can imagine the torture one has to go through for the rest of the second half. Yes, the second half is total bullshit. Mallanna agrees to partner with PPP. On this pretext, he and Shreya go to Mexico (trust me, there is no reason for them to go to Mexico, but for adding some publicity to the film) to transfer some money or some crazy scheme involving drugs, money trafficing and Indian business men. He swipes off all wealth from PPP’s Mexican bank account and now he is on to the next villian. Anyways, I will not torture you anymore with details, but I hope you understand that this film is not easy to sit through—there is no entertainment. Although the concept of the film is fine, the execution and story is pathetic. True, we have seen plenty such hit films, but the audience does’t mind another one provided it is clear, cohorent, stable, and entertaining. For a National Award winning actor, Vikram acts like an idiot in this film. I wonder what is wrong with him—he only seemed to be talking in whispers without even making any expressions like some sort of a machine. The film seems to be made just so that Vikram can show off his talents, but alas with a poor script it is more like a fancy dress show—a Hen-Man get up, the lady get up, the old brahmin get up, the mexican get ups. Total nonsense.

The most irritating aspect of this film is the leading lady Shreya. Poor girl, she tries her best to expose, but the story, direction, and editing is so bad that every time Shreya comes on screen it just gets on your nerves. In fact, all the Vikram-Shreya sequences are just irritating. Whats with the mind talk?—they think aloud first and then talk. Next, the music. Devi Sri Prasad delivers his most irritating compositions ever. Period. The entire pora-pove sequence makes you feel like flying in to the screen and damaging it and add to that Mamata Mohandas’s irritating voice. There are too many songs in this film and all them just get to your nerves. Mumaith Khan delivers, in my opinion, her career’s worst, most disgusting item number ever. Just some time back she said in her interview she wants to do more family-type movies; then whats this? In the film she plays a dancing escort @ Rs 30 lakh and her dance is absolutely repulsive for the song Pacha gadi koseti…

The movie falters because of bad direction, idiotic editing (it looked like a cheap film), Vikram’s styling, and a nonsencial story. In fact, the film is over by the first half. Susi Ganesan tries to draw from all Shankar movies and perhaps Vikram has interfered and the end result is that the film will give a headache at the end of it’s really long run of 3 hours and over. At times, you just cannot understand the sequences/episodes as to why they happened and what happened. I wonder what was the need for Vikram to pick up this film considering that his last big hit, Aparichitudu, was more or less on the same lines. Of course, towards the end, the hero who gave money to the poor is acquitted because all those who received the money say that it was the Lord who gave them the money and not this Mallana IPS. Yes, there is also the big dialogue about the amount of black money in our system and how it can and should be used for the poor.

Although I am a strong supporter of single screens and of RTC X Roads, Hyderabad, in particular, I strongly advice you to not watch this film in Sandhya 70mm—the sound system is really bad and it will surely give you a headache in addition to the headache of the film. There is not even a single sequence or dialogue in the film that is worth a whistle or a scream. Come to think of it, a couple of them showed their excitement during the Mexico blindflood fight sequence, but thats about it. On the second day in it’s main theater in Hyderabad, I couldn’t seel an extra ticket I had (the car park guy finally sold the Rs. 50 balcony ticket for Rs. 35!). The film is bound to collapse and no wonder Dil Raju, the distributer, gave it out in so many theaters (including two in opposite theaters of RTC X Roads (Sandhya and Devi, but latter is only till release of  Josh) and one in Shanthi 70mm).

The film is a bad case of Tamil overaction. Sify.com has given rave reviews for Kandasamy, so may the Lord Mallanna help those who go by that review. All Telugu web-reviews have given a violent thumbs down for this disaster of blockbuster proportion! Do not get fooled by all the fancy get ups on Mallanna posters! The Hammer?—thats what Mallanna IPS uses when he goes to raid—uses the hammer to smash through walls to take out the money!

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Two Thumbs Down! Vikram, please do not show off. Just stick to a good director and a sensible script. Kindly keep away from this film as it is bound to give you a headache.

It’s been a while since I was last all hyped up about a Hindi film. I didn’t know about the much hyped dhan-te-nan till about two weeks ago. Anyways, on hearing the plot, I decided to get all hyped-up about this film. Then came the glorious reviews (I should have known when Raja Sen gave a glowing review). With a popular background score, a pumped up Shahid, and a cool mass title, I really thought this one will deliver a power punch. My advice to you—do not get swayed by Bollywood’s hype machine…this film tries too hard to be a Hollywood-wannabe gangsta film and in the process forgets the basics of Bollywood entertainment.

Charlie (Shahid Kapoor) can’t pronounce ’s’ and all words with ’s’ begin with ‘f’ for him. He is in to horse racing and wants to earn big bucks and dreams of having his own booking agency of some sort. In this process he is shown getting in to and of trouble, knocking folks down, getting knocked down and just before the interval he discovers a guitar case in a Police van which is full of drugs worth 10 crores. However, he wants only 10 lakhs. How Dumb. Meanwhile, Guddu (the second Shahid Kapoor) stutters/stampers, is in love with Sweety (Priyanka Chopra), she gets pregnant, wants him to marry her, but is also the sister of one Mr. Bhope—a local rowdy or something like that (Amol Gupta, Taare Zameen Par’s original director). Post interval, the police are after Guddu for Charlie and Bhope is after Charlie for Guddu. In the meantime, there is a drug warlord and a couple of gentlemen from the African continent–business associates, of course. Towards the end, the two twin brothers who hate each other suddenly start showing affections and all ends well with all the bad guys dead in a massive shoot out. Flashback? yes, there is. The twins dote on their father, a railway guard man, but one day he is accused of stealing a watch and there is need of money to save his life. By the time Charlie returns with money, father is dead and thus from that day on the two brothers never speak to each other and this makes Charlie always want money. I know, makes no sense to me.

This is the story that most critics are raving about and honoring it with lines like QT meets Guy Ritchie. There is absolutely no sense in the story. Just because the movie movies fast, without sense, and is taken like a Hollywood artsy gangster-drug movie the movie is honored as Bollywood’s coming of age? In my opinion, Vishal Bhardwaj has written a nonsensical story and tried really hard to make it look like a Hollywood film: dark, rainy, confusing, in whispers etc. The end result: KAMINEY fails to entertain. Ram Gopal Varma’s earlier films on the underworld were better as they were more native in their grounding. KAMINEY tries too hard to be the modern version of Satya. The next basic question to Vishal Bhardwaj: what is the reason for making the lead characters lisp and stutter? Other than hype and curiosity, it adds nothing to the story. There are times when they talk just fine and their handicaps do not seem to hinder their communication. I realize Shahid Kapoor has always tried to ape Shah Rukh Khan, but to even follow the k-k-k-k-kiran style of talking in a film for a mass following is not done. In any case, the stammering just doesn’t help. If the lisping and stuttering were removed from the film, I wonder what is there in the film to attract the audience? Next, what is the big deal about the Dhan-te-nan? agreed, the music is great, but unfortunately Dhan-Te-Nan just could not be used effectively. It comes now and then in the first half, but I don’t recall it coming much in the second half. How can it be used well when the story itself is all screwed up! Shahid Kapoor as usual delivers a sincere performance. I still do not understand why Priyanka Chopra is offered films. The songs suck and the comedy is bad. You just can’t identify with any character in the film and the world that the director wants you to enter is just idiotically unconvincing.

I saw the film at Ramakrishna Glitterati and there was so much of distracted heckling going on suggestive that the film is just not getting in to the skin of the audience. Of course, there were whistles too. Film makers should not forget that the essential purpose of commercial cinema is to entertain and for that it has to be well-grounded in nativity. Sure, the film has opened a big response because of all the hype, but this film will last only as long as the curiosity lasts. This is not Shahid’s passport to stardom and neither does it have cult written all over it. Just because a film is shot in a confusing Hollywood style does not mean the director is top-notch or the film is superb. Alas, with a really catchy background music, a determined hero, a cool massy title, a double-action hero wala plot—a golden opportunity to make a full fledged mass entertainer has been lost.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Thumbs Down. Watch it on DVD or when it comes on cable. This is not the kind of film you would want to go with friends and family to have fun at the cinemas.

When I first saw the posters of Anjaneyulu, I was excited to see that Crazy Mass Hero Ravi Teja actually implement the trick of the trade: release films at least with a gap of 100 days. Even as Kick is a couple of days shy of it’s 100th day at Odeon, Ravi Teja headlines Anjaneyulu, which releases in the same theater complex today! Kudos to you Ravi Teja for pumping in energy in to this sagging industry (no, just one Magadheera is not enough). Secondly, I was excited to see the somewhat zanny wallpapers/posters and of course the beauty called Nayantara. Enough…these reasons are enough to wanna make you watch this film on the first day. What you expect from Ravi Teja’s film is not an innovative story, but just the common minimum elements, yet Anjaneulu is a let down as the the story and it’s components and too common and too minimum.

Anjaneyulu (Ravi Teja, Anji from hereon) works for a TV channel (hmtv, to be specific) and comes with his usual package of over the top confidence and whackiness. The same deal—should you raise your hand against him, Anji’s hand will not even listen to him or it is as good as being dead. The first half moves on with comedy between Ravi Teja-Brahmanandam, love story/songs with Nayan, and an idiotic villan track involving the usual really ugly looking MLA, goons, etc. One dude has prepared a file to be submitted to the CM, but the Home Minister has hired Baada (our Mr. Bommali Sonu Sood) to get him killed. Baada plants a bomb in the bus this dude is travelling in and in that bus are also travelling Anji’s parents. Thus, Anji decides to join Baada’s gang and submits investigative reports to hmtv-live. Of course, at the end he ends up kill all and the police even shake their hands with him for doing their work. The film is totally mundane, routine, and offers no freshness at all. The songs dissapoint—there is not even a single song you can hum at the end of the show. Nayantara looks jaded at places, but overall I just can’t understand why she would sign up for this film?—is she that out of work in Tamil and I even hear that she missed out on a Mani Ratnam film! Oh boy, can’t imagine her missing Mr. Ratnam’s film for this film! Ravi Teja is his usual self—Full of energy and in this film he also looks a shade trimmer compared to his previous flick Kick. As such there is no characterization for him in this film and there is not much comedy either. Again, if not for Brahmanandam this film is a total wash out. Brahmanandam is the creative genious Prabhakar who is brought in to pump up the TRP of the channel. The sequences between Ravi Teja, Brahmanandam, and Ravi Teja’s side kick are quite funny. Although, most of the humor generated is through second-setup and prostitute-type jokes. The film focusses too much on the villiany and the treatment is routine. Even the story is routine. Nayantara is reduced only to songs and no role. At times I even wondered if this film is totally financed by hmtv in order to potray themselves as a channel committed to investigative journalism as opposed to other gossip hungry channels.

I thought Kick just about managed to entertain and has nothing different, but Anjaneyulu is a let down in all respects, even for a Ravi Teja film—it doesn’t entertain. There is nothing wrong in doing a formuliac film, but it has got to at least entertain with a decent story. Although Ravi Teja is churning out movies, all his movies seem to be part of a Common Minimum type of production and they are so predictable: songs, brahmi-comedy, slaps, some physical humor, villians, and fights like that of a super hero. This will not take him long any further unless he selects stories that are different, entertaining while at the same time having the Common Minimum.   However, the film might just end up doing well in B and C centers anyway, but even there it is but a less then or equal to 50 days sort of film. Ravi Teja has all it takes to be the super hero of the industry–he is self made and everybody wants to watch his movies at least once. I sincerely wish he stops selecting such routine movies and makes films that offer a little more in the form of an interesting plot in addition all that one must get in a Ravi Teja film. Bottom line: Anjaneyulu does not entertain although you can see Ravi Teja puts in his best effort.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Thumbs Down. However, if you are the compulsive Ravi Teja movie watcher then you can go for it, else relax.