கொஞ்ச வருஷத்துக்கு முன்பு செக்ஸ் இயக்குநர் எஸ்.ஜே சூர்யா இயக்கி நடித்து வெளியான   "அ.. ஆ "வுக்கும் இதற்கும் எந்த சம்பந்தமும் இல்லை. இந்த படம் வெளியாகி அதன் கதை சுருக்கம் படித்ததிலிருந்து இந்த படத்தை பார்க்க வேண்டும் என்ற கொள்ளை ஆர்வம். ஒரு டொச்சு கேமிரா பிரிண்டில் முதன் முதலில் இதை பார்த்தபோதே பிடித்திருந்தது. இப்போது ஒரிஜினல் டிவிடி வந்ததும் தெளிவான வசனங்களோடு ரசித்து பார்க்க முடிந்தது. ஏன் இவ்வளவு ஆர்வம்? எனக்கு மிகவும் பிடித்த நாவலான  "முள்பாதை "யின் மறு திரைப்பதிப்பு இது. இந்த நாவலை இந்த வலைமனையின்  "Novels" பகுதியில் படிக்கலாம்.

The things we come across during our mid & late adoloscent age stays with us for long. Whether it is the college friends who stay together for life, which is a proved fact or the dream girls are those whom we come across the late teens, we always hold the things that come in our late teens special. Today when I wanted to hear some Telugu songs, I unconsciously built a playlist in Youtube that had the songs which I heard & loved in my first year of Engineering College. It was one of the best times of Telugu movies, M.M Keeravani was at his peak of the career, Soundarya ruled the roost, Simran was getting popular in Andhra and above all Ram Gopal Varma was in terrific form making Tollywood a known name across the country.

Within 10 minutes from the start, I was about to write off the movie. Plastic performances, cardboardish characters, dejavu feeling of Happy Days, anglicised Telugu accent mouthed by everyone, synthetic music, long drawn running time close to 3 hrs..... despite these Sekar Kamnula weaves a magic that kept me glued throughout. May be I was kind to the movie as it reminded me of the Hyderabad days.... try it!!!!

Click the image to read furtherஆச்சரியமாக இந்த படத்தை பார்த்த பின்பு தான் தெரிந்தது அன்று நடிகர் விஷ்ணுவர்த்தனின் முதலாம் நினைவு அஞ்சலி என்று. ரொம்ப நாட்களாக இந்த படத்தை பார்க்கவேண்டும் என்று ஆசைப்பட்டு நேற்று தான் நிறைவேறியது. ஆனால் படம் பார்த்து முடிந்த பிறகு புதிதாக படம் பார்த்த திருப்தியே இல்லை. வெற்றிப்பெற்ற ஒரு படத்தை அப்படியே நகலெடுத்து சில காட்சிகளை இங்கும் அங்கும் மாற்றிப்போட்டு புதிய படம் என்று “படம் காட்டு”வதற்கு ஒரு தில் வேண்டும், ஒரு கேணையன் தயாரிப்பாளராக வேண்டும். எல்லாமே ஒருங்கிணைந்து அது நடந்தும் விட்டது - ஆப்தரக்‌ஷகாவில்.

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After watching a series of realistic malayalam movies like Kaiyyoppu, Vaasthavam, Thalappavu and Unaroo, they got me emotionally drained. So I wanted to watch some fantasy entertainer. Unfortunately there is no worthwhile release in Tamil right now so I digged into my archives and realised that I had a fairly good print of Ram Charan Teja's "Magadheera (2009)". Not knowing Telugu completely is never a barrier at all to watch this visually spectacular movie. Definitely Ramcharan Teja is a star material who looks great with toned body, dances and fights effortlessly and in flashback sequence his eyes express the raw sexuality but he lacks in the emoting department. Kaajal Agarwal is a surprise package of the movie with a wonderful smile and oozing the sensuality in the previous birth scenes. The main characters are kept minimum with ample support from Srihari and Dev Gill. Since the basic plot itself has no logic, let us better not get into the logic of the scenes. However the scenes of Ram slaying 100 warriors befofre his death and the action scenes of the flashback keeps you spellbound that you forget to think about the logic. Take a look at the "making of the graphic scenes" which will give you an idea about the hard work that had gone into this movie.

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It is too late to write a review for Telugu superhit 'Arundathi', so just jotting down my opinions of the movie. This Kodi Ramakrishna directed Anushka Shetty starrer is very rich in production values (Producer MS Reddy), some high quality graphics (Vaishak Nambiar) but gives a sense of deja-vu through out. Kodi rehashes many scenes from his old hit 'Ammoru' and updated with new visuals. The first half was good whereas the second half makes you restless in seat - when this movie will come to an end. Anushka was good in the royal look displaying her hourglass figure but looks jaded in the modern scenes. May be the ambience is highly exaggarated that sometimes you feel like she had performed well. Sonu Sood is menacing as womaniser Pasupathi while Arjan Bajwa is a gap filler. Best comedy is the rape scenes of the movie... the rapist and the victims are cladded to the toes, moaning and shouting during the action. They just evoke laughter, no sympathy or scary feeling. If you have watched "Ammoru (Amman in Tamil), give Arundathi a skip. Atleast 'Ammoru' had a high sentiment quotient. If you still want to see 'Arundathi', it can be done for its SFX. - {oshits} reads

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I liked this all girls album by MM Keeravani when I happened to hear it a couple of years ago. Then I looked for the movie reviews and found the plot intresting. Since then I wanted to see this movie but couldn't due to nonavailability of VCD. Lately I came to know that AOR had been remade in Hindi as "Sunday". I avoided all the reviews and interviews about "Sunday" as I feared it might give away the basic plot and I wanted to see the Telugu version ONLY first. Atlast I happened to see the movie a couple of weeks ago and the wait was worth. I enjoyed the movie thoroughly even though I couldn't follow the dialogues completely. It was so different from a regular Telugu potboiler - experimental, daring and (cliched to say) refreshing. Also I became the fan of Charmee Kaur after seeing this movie.

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Post K. Vishwanath, there is a huge vaccum in Telugu cinema to create some natural characters, situations and melodious music on screen. To certain extent that gap is filled by Shekar Kamnula. First I saw his 'Anand' and when I recently catched up with his 'Happy Days', it reaffirmed that some good movies are going to come in Tollywood, through Shekar's way. Happy Days is stylish, sensitive, rollicking, soothing and above all so natural that we all college goers might have faced with whatever the lead protagonists - Chandu, Madhu, Tyson, Shravanmthi, Shankar, Sangeeta, Rajesh and Aparna undergo in the movie. Shekar succeeds in making an autobiography sort of movie covering the day one to final day of Engineering college students, their trials, escapades, smiles, tears and emotions, in a commercial format. The movie is beautifully shot by DOP Radhakrishna, characters wear trendy / normal clothes thanks to Pantaloons and a soothing score by debutante Mickey Meyer. Madhu (Thamanna) and Chandu (Varun) stands apart from the crowd, followed by Tyson (Sandesh), Rajesh (Nikhil). Kamalinee Mukherjee breezes in a lovely cameo. A lovely movie that made me gasp - "Wish my college life was bit more like this..."

{mosimage}What I am hearing these days? Bollywood and Kollywood had taken a back seat with this Tollywood musical hit 'Happy Days'. This album broke all the myths about the Telugu music sound that was typically trademarked by MM Keeravani - K Raghavendra Rao combinations. Happy Days is daringly different, refreshing, universal, youthful at the same time soulful. Just give it a try, you'll understand what I mean. Debutante musician J Meyer had given this camps flick a new sound. My Tamil friends who saw this Shekar Kamnula's movie recommended me to watch it, which I haven't done still. Infact I have DVDs of Shekar's earlier ventures - Anand & Godavari, but yet to catch up.

{mosimage}I always go crazy about the very mention of the 1960's classic - "Missiamma" starring Gemini Ganesan and Savitri, and even have a VCD of it in my library. I happened to see the another Telugu movie of the same name that came after many decades in 2003, starring Bhumika and Sivaji. I liked the song "Ney paadithey lokame padadha.." that was telecast in SS Music at that time more often. I managed to collect the DVD of the movie after 3 years and I liked it instantly. Since it was a subtitled DVD, I was able to understand the movie completely. Another thing that goes favour of this movie is that is very much tender, refreshing and unconventional from a regular Telugu fare. I liked what I saw thats why I am writing few words about it here.

{mosimage}A Vidyasagar - Dharani combination is always special with a proven track record in "Ethirum Puthirum, Dil, Dhool & Gilli". When they come together again, but this time in a new territory - Telugu, I had high expectations. Vidyasagar as usual didn't disappoint this time as they are unapologetic and unabashed about the fact that theirs is a mass product with commercial tunes unleashing tonnes of fun & zing. Out of five tracks easily the pick is "Egire Chirugamma.." rendered by Udit Narayan & Anuradha Sriram, which transports you to the black & white era with hero riding on the charats. The orchestration is modern retaining the nostalgic feel.

{mosimage}Ninne Pelladtha - One of the highest grossers in the annals of telugu cinema and walked away with all the awards in 1996. This movie consolidated Nagarjuna as the romantic icon of Telugu cinema and catapulted its director Krishna Vamsi to the top league. I love this movie immensely and has so much of sweet memories associated with it. I was at my Engg first year's vacation while this movie was released. Since I was very friendly with the Andhra guys at that time, I had an affinity for Telugu movies. So whenever I think of them I think of Ninne Pelladtha and vice versa. Thats why I have to break my resolution of not writing about movies anymore.