Manam Movie Review

Much awaited movie of the season, last film of the TFI Legend Akkinneni Nageswara Rao, Manam is out in theaters now. This movie has many specialties about it apart from being ANR’s last film. All the Akkineni heroes including soon to be launched Akhil are in this movie directed by Ishq fame Vikram Kumar.

What is it about?

Nageswara Rao alias Bittu (Nagarjuna) parents (Naga Chaitanya, Samantha) dies in a car crash. After becoming successful as businessman, Nageswara Rao bumps into Nagarjuna (Naga Chaitanya) and comes to know that his father is born again. He goes in search of his mother and Priya (Samantha) befriends Nageswara Rao. Now Nageswara Rao is on a mission to unite his parents in their rebirth. Meanwhile Chaitanya (ANR) is shocked to see his dead parents Nageswara Rao and Anjali (Shriya) alive. Then comes the story of Nageswara Rao and Anjali’s past life.

Performances: 

ANR: Akkineni Nageswara Rao has very less screen time compared to others. He has some lively moments with his son and grandson. Scenes between ANR and Chaitanya are a treat to watch.

Nagarjuna: Nagarjuna is the central character of the film and has lion share of the running time. He has done fabulous job as Nageswara Rao and Sitha Ram. He gave a comic touch to Nageswara Rao character and his performance as Sitha Ram will bring back the memories of vintage romantic Nag.

Chaitanya: Chaitanya surprises with a matured performance. He is at ease in portraying the role of Nagarjuna. This is by far the best performance of his.

Samantha: Samantha steals the show yet again in a bubbly character. Her scenes with Nagarjuna are the best part in this film.

Shriya: Shriya is lucky to bag this film at the fag end of her career. She did a pretty decent job and looked gorgeous in the doctor character.

Others: Brahmanandam, Ali, Posani, MS made cameo appearances in the film. Saptagiri excelled in the role of Chaitanya’s friend.

Technicalities:   

Direction: Vikram Kumar took a very complex point and executed it so well that the premise appears so simple. There are many scenes where we admire the work of the director. He should be lauded for coming up with something that is so different from run of the mill films. Vikram Kumar is here to stay and surely will rule Telugu film industry in the coming days.

Music: Music by Anup Rubens is simply superb. All the songs are very good. Background score is the major asset of the movie.

Others: PS Vinod’s cinematography stands out. Harshavardhan dialogues are simple and sweet. Editing is neatly done. Producers deserves a pat on the back for backing this idea and making such a lavish film solely believing in the capabilities of the director.

Thumbs Up:

ANR-Nagarjuna-Chaitanya combination
Story idea
Screenplay
Music
Akhil’s special appearance

Thumbs Down:

Hurried pre climax sequences
Slow pace at times

Analysis: Manam is entirely different film from the movies our Telugu audience gets to see. It is hard to imagine such a plot and visualize it to the perfection. Director Vikram Kumar surely made one of the best movies of this era. Manam has some magical moments throughout the film that will make you cheer the characters and their emotions.

Romance is too cute and the chemistry between all the lead characters is impeccable. Director Vikram Kumar made sure that all the actors get into the skin of the characters and gave some genius touches to them so that viewers will be entertained throughout the movie. This is actually an emotional film, but the director dealt it in lighter vein and never missed the fun.

Once you get connected to the characters and their emotions it is a roller coaster ride. Manam leaves you wanting for more and that is the sign of a true classic. Down the line this film will surely remembered as one of the best films of Modern Telugu cinema. Akkineni fans will have a blast and all others will definitely watch it more than once. Go watch it.

Verdict: Manam – A Rare Gem!

Your Rating : [ratings]

Amrutham – Chandamamalo Movie Review

Critically acclaimed director Gunnam Gangaraju who was the creative mind behind popular sitcom Amrutham made a feature film ‘Amrutham-Chandamamalo’ based on the characters of sitcom. This was promoted as the first space comedy ever on Telugu Screen. Let’s see how impressive it is..

What is it about?

Amrutha Rao (Avasarala) and Anjaneyulu (Harish) plans to expand their business to moon after they become highly successful as hoteliers in India. They get tricked by a rocket company agent and lose all their money and dragged on to the roads. Did they get back all their lost money? What happened to their dream of establishing business on Moon?

Performances:     

Avasarala Srinivas: He didn’t bring any significant changes to the stock character of Amrutha Rao. His casual acting and free flowing dialog delivery are nice. Avasarala should stick to supporting roles to make the best use of his talent.

Harish: Harish is alright as Anjaneyulu. He couldn’t outclass Gundu Hanumantha Rao who has excelled in this character in Amrutham.

Others: Dhanya Balakrishnan goes overboard in comedy scenes. She suited well to the character though. Sivannarayana is good as the greedy house owner. Rao Ramesh is neat. Vasu is okay. The young pair has come up with pretty average performance.

Technicalities:  

Direction: Gunnam Gangaraju’s previous films as director didn’t do well at the box office. But he got a very good name for dealing with different concepts. Little Soldiers and Amma Cheppindi are class apart. Amrutham is the brainchild of Gangaraju and he has made it very successful on TV. Transforming it on to silver screen is a huge task and Gangaraju failed big time with ACL. Fun episodes looked forced and seemed like he was trying too hard to make them work. One who admires Gangaraju wouldn’t appreciate this film at all.

Others: Gangaraju had an experienced team on board, but sadly none of them could deliver. Cinematography was bland and made the product design look cheap all the way. Music didn’t impress at all. The parody songs couldn’t pack the punch. Dialogues written by Gangaraju were good in parts.

Thumbs Up:
Hard to find the plus points

Thumbs Down:
Second half is a big letdown
Direction and screenplay were awful
Film making of Television standards

Analysis:
Amrutham fans and Gunnam Gangaraju admirers might have expected this film to be a laughing riot. But the film failed on every level and ends up as a huge disappointment. Chandamamalo Amrutham had some good moments here and there, but they are just not enough to make audiences sit through the film.

First half is alright with subtle humor barring the episodes of ‘silent wedding’ and the other scenes that involve factionists. The film goes downhill post interval and it wouldn’t pick up after that. It just goes down and down leaving audiences in plain disgust. Scenes shot in ‘space’ were awful at the best. One would wonder what happened to the creative brain of Gangaraju to write such a bland comedy.

Other thing that lets down big time is the production design of the film. It looks like a film that was made for TV. It is advisable to watch Amrutham old episodes on Youtube for free rather paying money for this pathetic comedy. This wouldn’t take too long to make an appearance on TV and who knows it may click there too. After all Amrutham is a brand on TV no?

Verdict:
Poisonous Comedy!

1. Few comedy scenes

Movie Drawbacks :

Analysis :

Dillunnodu has superb padding with top comedians such as Sapthagiri, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam, MS Narayana, Satyam Rajesh, Brahmanandam etc on board. All of them were wasted totally though Sapthagiri was good at places. With logic less story, pathetic screenplay and immature direction Jaya Ravindra made it as an awful movie.

Pyar Mein Padipoyane Movie Review

Aadi, Shanvi who were earlier seen in Lovely have paired again for yet another romantic entertainer Pyar Mein Padipoyane. Ravi Chavali directed this film.

What is it about?

Chandra (Aadi) is a music composer who wants to make his own album. He falls in love with chorus singer Yuktha (Shanvi) in first sight and takes her as the lead singer in his band. After some time Yuktha too falls in love with Chandra. But he couldn’t be normal with her as he knows he has done big mistake in his childhood that left a Yuktha in distress. He tries his best to hide the fact that he is the one who had hurt her.

Performances:

Aadi: Aadi played the role of a casual youth that doesn’t demand great acting skills. He kept it simple and did a decent job. He is not very impressive in comedy scenes. Needs to work on his expressions in emotional scenes. He has done a good job with dances.

Shanvi: Shanvi looked pretty and that’s it. She is a very bad actress and didn’t improve a bit even after doing couple of films.

Others: All the hero’s friends have lengthy roles, but none of them made an impact. Saptagiri steals thunder in his cameo appearance. Thagubothu Ramesh is okay and Vennela Kishore tried his best to make his character work. The actor who played the character of Shanvi’s silent lover was horrible.

Technicalities:

Direction: Ravi Chavali has done some mediocre films post Samanyudu. This may be slightly better than those films, but it will hardly entertain. Poor script and bad direction are the main drawbacks of this film. Ravi Chavali’s idea of romance is old fashioned and will not appeal to current generation.

Music: Being a film with a musical drop PMP demands a good soundtrack. Anup’s music is a huge disappointment. None of the songs make a lasting impression. Bakcground score is alright.

Others: Editing is not up to the mark. The film drags unnecessarily in some parts. Cinematography is fine. Production values are nice for a low budget film.

Thumbs Up:

• Nothing worth mentioning

Thumbs Down:

• Screenplay
• Heroine’s performance
• Direction

Analysis:

Pyar Mein Padipoyane is basically a romantic entertainer that is targeted at young audience. It starts on a dull note and gets boring right from the first scene. Romance between the lead pair is uninteresting. All the scenes are stale and seem outdated. Dialogues are pretty bad to make things worse.

There is an attempt to make us laugh, but those scenes hardly tickles due to bad writing. Shanvi bluntly reject Aadi when he says I love you to her and fall in love with the same person without any reason. There comes a twist in the tale which is childish on any level.

Sadly second half of the film is completely based on that twist and the film gets unbearable and yawn inducing at a moment. Anybody with minimum knowledge of Telugu films can predict what happens towards the end and the director didn’t try to make it any interesting. Pyar Mein Padipoyane goes from bad to worse making it a painful watch.

Only people who have stuck in eighties can relish this romance that never allows the viewers to connect with the lead characters emotions. Lovely was a far better film than this one and if you want to watch this pair on screen better rent a DVD of Lovely than sitting through this romantic torture.

Verdict: Painful Pyar!