MAGADHEERA : Racy Entertainer : Old wine in new bottle

MAGADHEERA

After the debut flop Chirutha, Chiranjeevi's son Ram Charan Teja is back with another movie which is written and directed by S.S.Rajamouli.

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STORY
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The storyline of the movie is not a great one. The very old commercial formula one only. Hero and heroine who were seperated by the villain rebirths after years and this time villain is killed and lovers unite.

The story begins in 1609 in which Kaala Bhairava(Ram Charan) was shown in a situation after a war scene and princess Mithra(Kajal Agarwal) asks him to touch her hand if he loves her. She falls down from a cliff of  great height followed by Kaala Bhairava to catch her hand. But fails. Then story begins at 2009. Harsha(Ram Charan) gets the images of his previous birth once his hand gets in touch with Indu(Kajal Agarwal) accidently. This makes him meet that girl once again. As he's telling Indu(without knowing she's the girl whose hand had touched) that he and that girl were in love, Indu decides to fool him. She tells him that she knows that girl very well and helps him to meet her. By the time Raghuveer(Dev Gill), the villain comes to kill Indu's father as he had filed a case to get his ancestral properties which is now with Raghuveer's father. Raghuveer falls in love with Indu at first sight itself. He kills his father and becomes Indu's family friend. By the time Raghuveer also gets some previous birth images of Kaala Bhairava(Ram Charan)  when he enters Indu's room. He meets an aghori who tells him the whole past. Now Raghuveer is in search of reborn Kaala Bhairava and finds him but unable to kill him. By the time Harsha realises that Indu is the girl he was looking for. Now Raghuveer kills Indu's father and tells her that Harsha did that. Raghuveer takes her in a helicopter and Harsha follows her to tell the truth. Her hand again touches his hand and he falls from a great height. He fells into a small lake. From there the story in 1609 unfolds. Kaala Bhairava is the chief gaurd of Udayagar kingdom. Mithra is the only princess and she's in love with Kaalabhairava. But Randhev Billa(Dev Gill) wants to become king by marrying Mithra. So one competition was held and Randhev fails. Randhev joins with SherKhan(Sreehari) who wants to conquer kingdoms. When KaalaBhairava and Mithra goes to Bhairava Kona to do some yagas for the welfare of the kingdom, Randhev and SherKhan comes along with their army. There a war between Kaalabhairava and the army happens and kills evryone. Randhev kills Mithra and gets killed by Kaalabhairava. Then the opening scene again shown as both falls from the cliff. Sher Khan was very much impressed by their love then. Then in 2009, Harsha is rescued by Solomon(Sher Khan). The rest of the story is how he makes her believe and how he kills Raghuveer.


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PERFORMANCES
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Ram Charan Teja was good as Kaalabhairava and OK as Harsha. There is no special scenes for him to perform as an actor rather than fighting and dancing and normal lover boy stuffs. Kajal Agarwal never looked so beautiful in any of the movies before. She was so convincing as Princess Mithra and Indu. She has got immense screen presence. Dialogue delivery and expressions in first half too was good especially the dialogue "Thana peru Rani kaathe.....Indu". This movie is going to be a milestone and turning point in her career.  Dev Gill as villain was not upto the mark as he's not having that much screen presence to make the audience feel like a dangerous one. Sreehari was good as Sher Khan and Solomon. Especially as Solomon, his dialogue delivery was good. Sharath Babu as King looks convinving. Rest of the cast includes Bhramandam and Sunil who did their part well.

Interestingly Chiranjeevi makes a cameo appearance after Bangaru Kodi Petta song and repeats the very same dance steps(effects only).


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TECHNICAL
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Here comes the real hero of the movie, the Visual effects team. This is the best animation and Visual effects I have seen till date in Indian cinema9especially South Indian). The kingdom in 1609 was beautifully recreated by the special effects team. Cinematography and Editing was superb. Art direction too, but many are effects only.


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SONGS
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Keeravani has given superb music for this. Chiranjeevi's Gharana Mogudu movie song "Bangaram Kodi Petta" is remixed well. An item song Jorsey was the only one which I felt like not upto the mark. Rest all was superb. My pick is "Dheera Dheera...." which was superbly picturised and superb instrumentation. Don't miss this album.


Altogether S S Rajamouli has come with a cliched subject with interesting screenplay and superb special effects which makes it a largely entertaining one.


Verdict
An average movie in every sense with same 80-90's bollywood formula, but the 1609 episode with visual effects takes it somewhere above an Above Average rating. As a movie it's a racy entertainer.


Chila Dialogues onnum valuthaayittu manasilaayilla, but most were some kind of Tamil + Malayalam mix.

Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru : Just Average

Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru (T4)

Theatre : Theyagaraja
Showtime : 2.45pm
Status   : 20%

Another director woman, J.S.Nandhini enters the tinsel town with the movie Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru (T4) produced by Sathyam cinemas and Real Image.

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Story
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Arjun(Ajmal), a lazy, crazy easy going guy & Archana(debutant Roopa Manjari) a strict, serious, punctual girl are working in an ad agency run by Srinivasan(Mouli) who is having problem in remembering the names of persons. Ad agency is running in loss as no big projects are there.  Finally they get one project which will help them to survive from all financial problems, a baby product. The company was not able to get the child model in time. Arjun finally got one child in a particular situation. Arjun and Archana takes care of the child in Arjun's flat and they are in search of the parents of the child and also they want that child to be the model of their ad and they need parents' NOC. Towards the interval, they come to know that the so called mother of the child whom Arjun saw was a fraud who kidnaps kids from hospital. The second half is how they trace the so called mother to get the details of the child and whether they were able to find child's real parents and get NOC from them and whether the lead characters identify themselves that they are in love.


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Performances
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Ajmal & Roopa Manjari was supposed to play characters with great onscreen chemistry, sadly its missing. Ajmal was OK as Arjun, other than some comic expressions, he does the same what we have seen in his other movies. Debutant Roopa was good as Archana, but her make-up makes her look different in different parts of the film. The biggest plus point of the movie is Mouli's character. He did it with such an ease. He's the perfect cast in the movie. Rest of the characters has nothing much to do other than routine stuffs.


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Songs
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Music by ManiSharma is a big letdown. Melody number "Jillenu Veesum." is the pick of the lot. A disappointing album from ManiSharma. BGM was OK only except "Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru" one.

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Technical
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Cinematography in song Jillenu Veesum was good, nothing special, editing too. Art direction was good.

Script is by director debutant J.S.Nandhini. She miserably failed in creating the chemistry between characters. She seems to be inspired from Priya.V's Kanda Naal Muthal and a set of English movies. Dialogues are good at parts, especially Mouli's. Some sequences end as CHALUS. Director tries hard to make us laugh but sadly fails though the basic plot and scenes had the element for that. Lead characters also makes the attempt fail at  times. Director tried to make an interesting fast movie which has humour in every scene, but.........Then too movie is watchable for its plot and Mouli.


Verdict : JUST Average

Nandhini, director Venkat Prabhu(Chennai 600028, SA-RO-JA fame) aakaan nokkiyathaa. Pakshe Venkat Prabhuvine pole Venkat Prabhu maathram.

Loud Speaker : A Jayaraj movie

LOUD SPEAKER 


Theatre : TVM Dhanya(October 2nd)
Showtime : 6.00pm(film started at 6.10 only)
Status : Balcony Full, First Class Oru 50 per

Jayaraj, the man behind a set of good movies and almost same number of bad movies, could make his latest offering "LOUD SPEAKER" an engaging movie. After a set of bad movies(except Aanandabhairavi), Jayaraj is finally back in track. 

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STORY
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Sasikumar plays the role of a kidney patient who is in wait for a person to donate him a kidney. Agents played by Cochin Haneefa & Salimkumar brings Mike(Mammootty) for this purpose. Mike agrees to this as he wants some money to get back his land which is now with Appachan(Johny) who is a money lender. Sasikumar brings Mike to his flat. Though the activities of Mike are not accepted by people there in the beginning, slowly they become friends of Mike. Sasikumar tells him his tragic teenage lovestory too. Mike takes him to his village and to his relatives. Then comes operation day and what next is the story.

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PERFORMANCES
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Mike played by Mammootty and Sasikumar are the lead characters in the story. Mammootty played his role of Mike who talks very loudly and tells whoever he meets the stroy of his father's adventure and listens to RADIO very well. His dialogue modulation needs special mention. Sasikumar was apt for his role as the person on screen gave some freshness. Jagathy's role as Flat Secretary was a big letdown. Suraj was just OK. Bheeman Raghu, Kalpana, KPAC Lalitha, Vavachan were there in the movie in not much developed characters and in limited screen time. Annie, a nurse played by Gracy Singh also joins the above said league. Valsala Menon's character reminded Sheela of Manasinakkare. Janardhanan's character was good. His small sound modulations in the scene during fever time after having a cup of tea needs to be mentioned. Srijith Ravi and friends appeared to be a cliched one which we have scene in several movies. Augustine played his flat security role well. Baby Nayanthara was OK only.Anoop Menon was again wasted in a role of a doctor which he played in Kayyoppu. Harisree Ashokan was good in his 2 scenes.Undapakru(Ajayan) was good.

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TECHNICAL
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Technically the film excels by using SYNC SOUND Technology. Recordist Harikumar did his job well. Cinematography was impressive in many shots like opening scene, in the village boat scenes...Art direction was OK only. Music by Bijipal was good. Kaattarinu was the one which suits to the mood of the movie with Jayachandran's voice. Editing was good.

The film's story is a wafer thin one, friendship between a patient and an organ donor. Story by P.Y.Jose and Jayaraj together has been developed into a full 2hr 1 min movie by Jayaraj. Jayaraj's screenplay was above average, but a predictable one only. First half has got a scenes of problems created by Mike. Interval sequence was not upto the mark. Jayaraj spoiled the first half with unwanted set of comedy scenes to make it more commercial. Many characters and incidents were introduced into the small world of this story. All the child characters were unwanted and a big minus to the realitic mood of the movie. Though the Christmas song was OK, the first song was an unwanted one which resembled Kazhcha song in picturisation. Post Interval makes the movie more interesting with good village visuals and dialogues. Though the screenplay of the movie by Jayaraj has got a great plot to make it a movie with a big heart, the director Jayaraj miserably fails in delivering what he wrote to the screen with full essence. The film seems to be made in a hurry. Even the climax scenes were not that good which lacks something like a sentimental feel like in "Kadha Parayumbol" climax. Still the movie works because of the basic plot & scenes in second half. Hats off to Jayaraj who produced this movie.

Verdict : A tad below GOOD

Once in a while box-office-il accept cheyyappedunna type of movie aanu ithu. Keralathilum Multiplex audience / Sadharana audience ennathu varikayaanu ennu thonnunnu. Too poor FC attendance in a public holiday weekend.  Also the current trend of movies  greatly affected this. Hope they will watch this movie in theatres itself.