Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Gamyam - Movie Review

Film: Gamyam
Cast: Sharwanand, 'Allari' Naresh, Kamlinee Mukherjee, Vijay Chander, and others
Dialogues: Nagaraju Gandham
Music: E S Murthy - Anil
Lyrics: Seetharamama Shasthry, E S Murthy
Cinematography: Hari Anumolu
Fights: Ram Lakshman
Banner: First Frame Entertainment
Directed by: Radhakrishna (Krish)

gamyam

Story

Gamyam the movie starts with the story of a rich Guy Abhiram (Sarvanand). He is the younger sibling in the house and has grown up as a spoilt brat in the house. He is a son of a rich industrialist who has innumerable Riches and properties. As is the case with many rich people, Abhiram has also a bug in his mind that poor and middle classed people are ill mannered and are bad natured.

gamyam2

So Abhiram never mingles with people who are not up to his mark in the riches. At this time, he comes across a beautiful a doctor named Janaki (Kamalinee) . Janaki is an orphan who comes up in life the hard way. She is a doctor by profession and she serves the poor and the less privileged.
The two become close and mingle closely. However, Abhiram doesn’t like Janaki’s modest background and her social services. In the same way Janaki also hates Abhiram’s attitude of hating the poor and loving the richer class.

gamyam3

She likes him but is not sure of how he honest he is about love and his responsibility towards society.On his birthday party, the differences between them come out in the open with his attitude leaves him and goes away. Abhiram is now desperately in look out for Janaki.

In search of his lover, Abhiram takes a journey on his motorcycle. During the course of journey, he meets a petty thief Gaali Sreenu (Allari Naresh). Abhiram due to some incidents comes in contact with Seenu and with his help tries to trace out Janaki. The two search for Janaki on Seenu’s bike. Abhiram finally manages to trace Janaki at a small village where she is serving the poor. It is here that Abhiram learns the true meaning of life, while his long journey with Seenu makes him understand the lessons of human nature and also the realities inside the lives of the rich and the poor.
Finally, Abhiram changes in the climax and all ends in a happy note.

Analysis
Gamyam is good cinema. A new director Radhakrishna comes up with an entertaining and thought provoking film. This is perfect example of a director 'inspiring' by a World Cinema classic and telling the story completely different and unique style. The director is inspired by it (a genuine case of inspiration, not copying).

A spoiled rich brat realizes the social responsibility by taking an unusual journey. A petty thief realizes the meaning of life after an accidental meeting with this guy on the road. And there is love story to the basis for them. The director's intricately crafted script laced with comedy and rawness makes the film a treat to watch. Superb dialogues and sensible handling (in spite of naivety in some scenes) have helped the film.

The writing is multi-layered. Despite the serious theme, the director and its scriptwriter have never left an opportunity to include comic situations and add commercial elements such as show by recording dance troupe. A debutant director handling such subject is commendable feature. He proves that offbeat themes can be told entertainingly.

Performances

Sharwanand

Sharwanand is good in the role of the main lead. But it is Allari Naresh who hogs the limelight. The character of ’Gaali Seenu’ is probably the best in the career of Allari Naresh.

Kamlinee Mukherjee

There are similarities between Gaali Seenu character in Gamyam and Jagapati Babu's role in Anthahpuram. Kamalinee Mukherjee’s role is little passive though the entire story revolves around her. She did well. It has become customary for the hero to beg for Kamalinee’s love during the climax in most of the films she worked. The guy who did the role of naxalite helping heroes is very competent.

Bottom-line!

Gamyam is good cinema with touch of artistic values. The film's strength are writing and direction. New director Radhakrishna shows that offbeat movies can be made entertainingly. He deserves praise for his honest effort and superb writing. Despite some flaws (like slow pace in the second half, not so lilting music) and irrespective of its commercial viability, the film is a treat to watch.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

kotha bangaru lokam movie review

Like Bommarillu, this film too deals with the problem of parents and children. In that film, they tried to balance between parents and kids, this film takes some bias towards parents as the kids in this film are doing intermediate unlike the graduates in Bommarillu.

Kotta bangaru lokam

Story:

Balu (Varun Sandesh) is the only son of his parents (Prakash Raj and Jayasudha). Incidentally, Balu's parents had a love marriage. Balu's father never treated him as his son but like a friend. He gave him complete freedom in all respects. After completion of his SSC, Balu got admission in a junior college and stays in the hostel. Swapna (Swetha) is the daughter of a landlord (Ahuti Prasad). Like many teenage boys and girls, they too get attracted to each other. However, they cannot decide whether theirs is an attraction or love. When there are holidays, both Swapna and Balu decide to note down as to how many times they remembered each other and to their surprise they realise that each of them times they remember one another. They finally confirm that they are in love. Once, the girls go on an outing from hostel and Balu jumps the boundary wall and join Swapna. Incidentally, some person clicks their photograph and get it published in the newspaper. The principal sends away Balu and directs him to bring his father to obtain hall ticket for the exam. Swapna's father who sees the photographs takes away his daughter. Now the struggle between the souls start. Balu makes several efforts to find out Swapna's address but cannot trace it. However, Swapna gets the address of Balu and writes down a letter to him. Somehow, both of them again meet during the exam time. Pulling courage, Balu meets Swapna's father and boldly explains his love towards Swapna. Later, Swapna's father decides to marry her to someone. Noticing the change in Balu, his mother tries to find out the problem but fails to know anything. Accidentally, Balu's friend Raga Sudha (Sushma) reveals his love story to Balu's father. At that time Swapna decides to elope with Balu. However, the latter could not meet her as Balu's father died in an accident. His father's death makes Balu make a commitment that he would groom himself the way his father had dreamt of. He completes his engineering course. When he is about to take his degree, Swapna's father accidentally meets Balu in a railway station. Then Balu realises that Swapna is not with either of them. In the climax, Balu's mother reveals that she had kept Swapna in their lecturer's custody and had made her to complete her engineering too. The film ends on a happy note with the union of Balu and Swapna.

Performance:

Main leads:
Varun Sandesh

Varun Sandesh got a very good opportunity to prove his performance in this movie. The character had different shades, like a chivalrous boy, a father’s son, a lover, a depressed lover and a student. Varun Sandesh though performed well in all the scenes, he still needs to improve his diction. Especially the voice needs some depth in emotional scenes

Swetha Prasad

Swetha Prasad, who made her debut as heroine is perfect fit in the role. She also did a nice job all through the movie. This girl too needs to improve her facial expressions, though she is okay in her debut appearance. She has glamour and also had some capability to perform.

Other actors:
Once again Ahuti Prasad got a very good character. His performance in angry scenes and frustration scenes is worth watching. As usual Prakash Raj outsmarted everyone in the film with his casual performance. Jayasudha and Prakash Raj play a perfect couple like they did in Bommarillu film. However, the sudden closure of his character shocks the audiences. Rao Ramesh got one more good chance to prove his capability in the role of a lecturer. As a whole all the artistes did complete justice to their respective roles, including Brahmanandam with his own style of comedy.

TECHNICAL:
Kotha bangaru lokam telugu movie
The director of the film, Srikant Addala, who made his debut with the film needs kudos as he brought out a delicate love story with utmost precision. Though the storyline is very thin and delicate, the gripping screenplay, marvellous taking made the film very interesting. The entire first half was devoted to explain the teenage love, the second half explains how forbearance would bear fruit in the end. Especially, Srikant proved that direction is not just moulding the film but to extract the talents from the artistes. Dil Raju’s decision in choosing a senior cinematographer like Chota K Naidu proved right as he was able to capture the feelings of the director and mould it on the celluloid with his camera. Especially his seniority helped in capturing the beauty of the Konaseema and its greenery. Marthand K Venkatesh’s editing is perfect and one can’t find any scene which is not worth it. Dialogues penned by the director himself are also good with occasional satires. Music by Mickey J Meyer is another asset for the film. Almost all the songs are melodious and at the same time their choreography was also worth watching.

Final Analysis:
Kotha bangaru lokam telugu film
First of the film is decent and the second half is excellent. Like Bommarillu, this film too deals with the problem of parents and kids. In that film, they tried to balance between parents and kids, this film takes some bias towards parents as the kids in this film are doing intermediate unlike the graduates in Bommarillu. If Happy Days makes you feel nostalgic about your engineering college days, KBL will make you feel nostalgic about your intermediate days in a residential college. This film sends good message out to the society. The only thing I did not like in the entire film is that the filmmaker has shown Ahuti Prasad (father of the girl) as a bakra. Though the director has brought out the love story in an excellent manner, he might have forgotten that the boys and girls hostels will generally be separate and there won't be a chance for their union. At the same time though the character of Rao Ramesh helps in the nice movement of the story, he gives a wrong picture that lecturers encourage love between teenagers. Of course, there might be some such instances where the lecturers encourage the talented students in all respects. The director has appeared to have lost grip on the subject after the interval with some long scenes, they are unavoidable as to show how the lovers feel the separation. But for few lapses here and there, the minus points in the film are minimal. Coming to my rating statistics, my last 4 rated film was Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana (January 2005), my last 4.5 rated film was Bommarillu (August 2006) and my last 3.5 rated film was Happy Days (September 2007). Kotha Bangaru Lokam film deserves a rating of 4. Go, watch the film and pamper yourself.

Cast: Varun Sandesh, Swetha Basu Prasad, Brahmanandam, Ahuti Prasad, Rao Ramesh Rao, Vinay Prasad, Praveen, Chinnikrishna, Gauthamraju, Phani, Rajita, Sushma and others
Credits:
Cinematography: Chota K Naidu
Music: Mickey J Meyer
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Lyrics: Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry, Anant Sriram, Srikanth Addala
Art: Prakash
Presents: Anitha
Producer: Dil Raju
Story, dialogues, screenplay and direction: Srikanth Addala.
Banner: Sri Venkateswara Creations.