Banner: Sarvaa Arts
Cast: Sharvanand, Priya Anand, Srihari and others
Editing: Marthand .K.Venkatesh
Cinematography: Erukulla Rakesh & Naveen Yadav
Music: Shakti Kanth
Producer: Sharvanand
Written & Directed by: Anish Yohan Kuruvilla
CBFC Rating: ‘A’
Release Date: 28-12-2012
Story: Vamsi(Sharvanand) is an orphan and grows up as a thief. Vamsi meets Maaya Master(Srihari) in a jail. Vamsi falls in love with Satya(Priya Anand) a classical dance teacher, who teaches to kids and is more interested in playing public awareness dramas in rural areas. Vamsi wants to leave the profession and live happily with Satya. but destiny has other ideas for him and he becomes a part of a robbery. What happens after that is what the movie is about?
Performances: Sharvanand has come up with yet another wonderful performance. He is natural in almost all the scenes be it a romantic number or talkie part. Priya Anand is good. Srihari once again comes up with decent performance needed by the director. The remaining cast are mostly new comers. The plot of the film is good but there are plenty of loop holes in the way it’s narrated. The first half is completely scattered. The second half is better in terms of focus. Art work and Editing are good. Screenplay is weak. The Direction is good in few places.
Analysis: Anish Kuruvilla who earlier directed Avakai Biryani(2008) directed this flick. Sharvanand produced himself under “Sarvaa Arts” banner. Sharvanand and the team raised expectations with the Music, Promos and the publicity much before the movie’s release. The Movie received an ‘A’ certificate for the Violence and Coarse language used.
Sharvanand once again impresses us with his subtle yet strong performance. The romantic thread suited to him aptly as if subtle love tracks are meant for him only. Priya Anand is good. She performed well. She looked cute and homely in those cotton Punjabi suits and Sarees. Srihari is realistic, he just behaved like a thief who lives in the slum and does anything for money. The supporting artists are mostly new and looked raw.
The comedy track(drama) in the flashback episodes is boring and tests your patience. This the worst comedy thread of recent times which failed utterly in evoking laughs and is bit irritating at times. The Dialogues are okay in few places(most of the dialogues are muted which has filthy language). The Music is okay with a couple of slow numbers and the Background score(Ko ante Koti theme) was good but the rest of the BGM is loud and the re-recording overlapped the dialogues at times.
The Director and his team experimented with new screenplay very much similar to Bollywood realistic raw movies(directed by Anurag Kasyap, Vishal Baradwaj). The Director lost grip over the scenes in the first half and concentrated more on the behavior of the characters. Realistic movie directors like Anurag and vishal purely concentrate on the backdrop and nativity of the people and then place the character in extreme circumstances and take out the output. The back robbery was also not up to the mark. Some scenes reminded of Hindi flick Johnny Gaddar (Neil Nitin Mukesh).The director failed in making it a thrilling experience. The introduction of the Characters through Sharvanad’s voice over was good experiment.
The repeated glimpses of the flash back(black & White) love story of the hero is shown ‘n’ number of times for every 15 minutes which is boring. The whole first half- an- hour time is taken to introduce the characters. The movie slows down once the love story begins. The firts half lacks clarity. The second half is better when compared to the first one. The gang(friends) of the robbery team failed in elevating the emotional content and touch the Audience in the second half. Art work is impressive with mostly realistic locations and feel. Cinematography is okay. The songs are well shot. Editing is good. The production values are okay.
The Director and Producer(Sharvanand) should be commended for coming up with an experimental non routine flick but could have tasted success if executed well. We have to wait and watch how the Multiplex(Target) Audience receive this experiment as this movie is not for the masses.
Plus: Sharvanand, Srihari
Minus: Screenplay and Narration
Verdict:Movie disappoints due to bad execution. Keep away if you are looking for a regular commercial flick
Laila Movie Review
February 14, 2025
Gangs of Godavari & Mechanic Rocky, after two back-to-back flop films, Vishwak Sen came back to theatres today with, Laila. He teamed up with debutant director, Ram Narayan, who earlier directed the direct-to-digital release film, Battala Ramaswamy Biopikku. The initial promotional material that has Vishwak Sen in a female getup grabbed the attention of moviegoers instantly. However, the film was in the news for all the wrong reasons due to irrelevant talk by the actor, Prudhviraj, during his speech at the pre-release event. Did Vishwak Sen break his flop streak and score a hit with, Laila? Did the director, Ram Narayan, score a success with his first theatrical outing? Did the production house, Shine Screens, score yet another hit after, Bhagavanth Kesari? Let’s find out with a detailed analysis.
What is it about?
Sonu Model(Vishwak Sen) runs a beauty parlour in the Old City, Hyderabad. The women in the neighbourhood like his skills as a makeup artist and make him and his beauty parlour very famous for their area. In an attempt to help one of his customers and her family, Sonu asks her to use his name as a brand ambassador for the cooking oil business that her husband is doing. How did Sonu get himself into trouble while trying the help his customer? Why did ‘Sonu’, a man, turn into, ‘Laila’, a woman? What happened when ‘Sonu’ turned into ‘Laila’? Forms the rest of the story.
Performances:
Vishwak Sen deserves appreciation for agreeing to appear in a female getup throughout the second half. He did a decent job within his limits but there is not much he can do as an actor in a poorly written role. Akanksha Sharma in the lead actress role did a lot of skin show but her performance is below par. Just like all other actors in the film, she too appeared clueless.
Abhimanyu Singh got a lengthy role & he was decent. He managed to generate a few laughs in a couple of sequences. Both Babloo Prithiveeraj & Vineet Kumar in the role of a die-hard fan of Megastar Chiranjeevi, were loud and annoying most of the time when they appeared on screen.
Kamakshi Bhaskarla as the wife of Abhimanyu Singh got a crucial role and her performance was decent. The social media sensation, Sunishith, did his real-life role. The director tried to generate comedy using Sunishith’s character but unfortunately, it did not work. Usually, ‘30-Years’ Prudhvi instantly generate comedy with his dialogue delivery. But in, Laila, none of his scenes worked.
Technicalities:
Vishwak Sen movies usually have at least one or more good songs. He along with music director, Leon James, delivered a few good songs in the past but in Laila, none of the songs worked. The ‘Icchukundam Baby’ song is a bit better compared to the other songs though. There’s nothing much to talk about background score. The cinematography by Richard Prasad and editing by Sagar Dadi is strictly decent.
The main culprits here are the writer, Vasudeva Murthy and the director, Ram Narayan. Both the writing and direction were clueless throughout the film with many beaten-to-death sequences. Production values by Shine Screens are good. The producer, Sahu Garapati, seems to have spent enough money on building an old city set and the money spent was visible on screen.
Positives:
1. A Couple of Comedy Sequences
2. Production Values
Negatives:
1. Outdated Writing & Execution
2. Below-the-belt Comedy
3. Pointless Storyline
4. Liberal Usage of Double Entenders
5. Lead Actress Characterization
6. Poor Songs
Analysis:
Vishwak Sen started his film career as a solo lead and appeared to be a promising hero and actor with films like Falaknuma Das, HIT: The First Case, Ashoka Vanamlo Arjuna Kalyanam & Ori Devuda. But, in an attempt to give himself an image makeover as a ‘Mass Hero’, he lost track completely with his last two films, Gangs of Godavari & Mechanic Rocky. Laila, to say the least, is an extension of his ongoing poor judgement of the scripts.
Right from the word go, what we get to see in Laila is over-the-top and outdated scenes one after the other in the name of comedy. The lack of creative ideas from Vishwak Sen and his writing department was very evident throughout the film. The entire romantic track between Vishwak Sen and the lead actress, Aakanksha Sharma, in the first half, was poorly written and executed with liberal doses of Aakanksha Sharma’s skin show.
The film had many experienced actors but none of them were able to create any impact. Almost every character in the film was written with poor taste and there is nothing much actors can do with those farcical roles. Only a couple of sequences in the first half involving Abhimanyu Singh and his family managed to generate a few laughs.
One can easily understand how clueless the team was when a two-hour and sixteen-odd-minute movie has five to six lengthy fights and four songs. It appears the team ran out of ideas and filled the film with random sequences along with unnecessary fights and songs. The Hyderabad Old City humour too failed miserably. It seems Vishwak Sen and the team intend to generate comedy using the Hyderabad Old City slang but what we get to see are over-the-top double-entendres that annoy after a point.
Vishwak Sen is a good actor. He has it in him to carry an author-backed script but sadly, he seems to believe an overdose of cuss words and below-the-belt comedy is the only way to pull young audiences into the theatres. Almost all the scenes involving the character ‘Laila’ in the second half were written and executed to generate below-the-belt comedy and it backfired big time.
Overall, A bad first half followed by a pretty bad second half made the film a forgettable outing for Vishwak Sen and the team. You may safely give the film a miss in theatres and give it a try when you have nothing else to do after it releases on a digital platform.
Bottomline: Laila – Terribl(aila)e..