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                    Film Name: Rye rye
                             Cast: Srinivas, Aksha, Sravan, Athuti Prasad, Paruchuri Gopalakrishna

 Direction: Sudheer Raju

 Story: Sinu (Srinivas) is a good for nothing village bum who's miffed everyone in town. He falls in love with Lakshmi (Aksha), a good- natured daughter of the village henchman. Her dad learns about their love and is furious. He connives to nip their romance in the bud.

Cast: Sivaji, Ajay, Deepthi, Posani Krishna Murali, Chandu, Anith, Thagubothu Ramesh

Direction: Enuganti Chinna

 Movie Name : 3G Love
Year : 2013
Cast: Siddharth Varma, Debora
Music : Shekar Chandra
Director : Venkata Pati
Producer : Pratap Kologotlo

One did expect a sprightly take on the vagaries/superfluity of new age love (for want of a better word) because the title itself suggested that.  3G Love, it turns out, shakes up all the well-known opinions about teenage love and romance, lacing it with some jocular dialogues here and there.  But there is nothing more than this mild dosage of campy and crazy droll. It is old wine, it is oldish presentation.

It is beautiful of the dialogue writer (the director himself) to have said that much of what goes for love is nothing but 'lifestyle' for the girls who see a financier in the boy, for the boys who see a sex object in the girl.  For a film given to playing to the gallery from the start, the denouement of each love story (there are half a dozen - more or less - such minnow stories) is nothing but happy.  Even a father (Rao Ramesh) who had said that love cannot finance the ever-increasing cost of living gives the nod so easily.  After a whole lot of realistic pontification (most of it done by the youngsters themselves, each presenting their point of view rather forcefully), the way they easily revert back to normalcy gives us a feeling that, just as an alcoholic returns to his old ways in spite of being brainwashed about the injurious effects of alcohol consumption, lovers, who are apparently afflicted by one of the worst lifestyle maladies (going by the good point raised by the film), come back to the fold of their respective beloved characters - forgetting and forgiving the 'biryani'-eaters (those who make love to other girls occasionally), amongst others.

It is praise-worthy that a character sensibly says, "Parents ask their male wards to not cause pain to girls.  The day they ask their female wards not to play with boys, we won't find boys who madly love girls ending up being dumped by her after she finds a better guy".  It is a worthy moral lesson.

There is no story as such, it is all about how one girl is made to think in a particular way by her friends in the hostel, how girls, being congenitally fickle-minded and insecure (not the film's stance), fall in confusion when two guys propose to them.  One character proudly announces that having three boy friends has its advantages, while another advices against having more than one.  An anti-male girl in the same hostel convinces her friends that boys are using  love as a tool to reach their target (sex), because marriage is time-taking and is tied to the feelings of many parties (read elders).  Never the one to take love seriously, the girls themselves are now in a dilemma about the bona fides of their guys.

There is one pair (the girl looks dull, the boy is a match to her looks) that typifies the rare romantic types.  The emotional girl says that her heart does not change after going through a better bio-data (read the match fixed by parents) and the guy learns that it is money that is required to emerge successful in one's love life.

For all the varied lives, 3G Love descends into boys versus girls brouhaha.  One lengthy conversation begins with each sex finding fault in the thinking of the other, only to unnecessarily veer towards Eve's sins, how girls are copying boys' fashion sense, and more nonsense.  The film itself will be remembered (if at all, by a minority) more for how it celebrates promiscuity and vulgarity.  One girl, who had a coitus encounter with her boy friend, vomits in front of her hostel mates.  A guy who wants to graduate to Stage II of Love wants to learn from experienced guys how he has managed to advance to a higher stage in, well, love-making.  One girl speaking of her friend's dress begins saying a word and then, we listen a long beep.

It does depict reality but it is in-your-face.  It is nothing surprising, the film seems to say, that most love stories do not consummate in a marriage for one reason or another.  Relationships are a gloss that both floozies and calculators use to benefit from each other.   After 5 years, approximately, they part ways perhaps without shedding a tear.

A range of characters reflect the thinking of so many youngsters.

The performances are good.  The young and unknown faces pull off the little, deglam roles with confidence.

Technically, it is a bland and off-colour movie.  The songs look so lengthy that they hamper the pace.  The length could have been chopped by at least 15 minutes.

Verdict: It is in-your-face teenage love film, yet again.  There is nothing novel about it, only the dialogues make sense here and there.

Released on: 15th March, 2013

Movie Name :Back Bench Student
Year : 2013
Cast :   Mahat Raghavendra, Piaa Bajpai, Archana Kaviare
Music Director: Sunil Kashyap
Director: Madhura Sreedhar
Lyrics : Sira Sri, Lakshmi Bhupal
Producer: MVK Reddy

Release Date : 2013-03-15

Director Madhura Sridhar's latest offering Back Bench Student has caught the attention of few eyeballs due to its packaging and promotion. The director was immensely confident over his product that he conducted a huge Premiere show for this film. However the results haven't turned up as expected.

What is it about?

Karthik (Mahat) is a poor student who doesn't take his future seriously. As a result he fails in studies as well as loses his girlfriend Priyanka (Archana). But he has few skills that would help him find a good job. Chaitra (Pia) helps him to find job and gives him hope. Now Priyanka returns into Karthik's life but he is already in love with Chaitra. How this triangle ends up is the rest of the story.

Performances:
                                                                                                                            
Mahat is a poor choice to portray this role. He is weak in expressions and the awkward dubbing didn't do much good either. He tries too hard to impress but unfortunately he doesn't have it in him. Archana is alright. Should have taken care about her lip sync. Pia Bajpai's poor expressions failed to get the desired impact. Her character was supposed to be damsel in distress, but she lacks talent to pull it off. Brahmanandam and Ali are wasted. Rest of the star cast did okay in their respective roles.

Technicalities:
                                                                                                                            
Madhura Sridhar targeted young audience yet again. But his imaginative skills and narrative skills are pretty limited. He has noble ideas but couldn't convert them into a good film. He has failed as a writer and director and also is an utter disaster in getting the desired output from his team. Music by Sunil Kashyap is a pain. None of the songs are good and the background score is sheer torture. Cinematography is inconsistent, but never goes up beyond below average mark. Editing is very poor. Production values are okay.

Analysis:

Back Bench Student is like a film made with a team of back benchers. None of the team have put up their hand to pull this off. Story starts off an alright note and treads along in an okay manner for few minutes. But the director is left clueless after sometime. Meaningless scenes and aimless direction makes things worse for Back Bench Student. The film's fate is evident by interval point.

Any hopes of a better second half dies down immediately as the film heads in a predicable path with mediocre scenes. Anybody could guess the climaxand director made valiant efforts to make it watchable but in vain. Ali and Brahmanandam are thrown in to lift the hopes up, but neither of them could help the ship from sinking. Few dialogues are good and that is the only bright side in this film.

Attractive title might help the film to get some collections in the opening weekend, but it doesn't possess anything worthy to stand tall at the box office. Back Bench Student is Madhura Sridhar's weakest film till date.

Verdict: Back Bench Student fails in all aspects!

  Movie Name :  Gundello Godari
Year : 2012
Cast : Aadhi , Tapsee , Manchu lakshami
Music Director : Ilaya raja
Director : Kumar Nagendra
Producer : Lakshmi Manchu

For all the allegorical import of the title and the furious backdrop in which the story takes place in the present, Gundelo Godari, as it wraps up, tastes like a slice-of-life human story full of a small range of characters inhabiting rural Andhra.  But whether the story has in it to be effectively converted to a full-fledged feature film is a question the answer to which depends on whether the director is a Bala, a Samuthirikaran.  To be fair to Kumar Nagendra, he shows adeptness as a director  in execution.  The script, though, could have been more nuanced and layered to distinctly bring out the inherent pathos.

With even a child having the ability to tell why a poor youth, who (reluctantly) hanged out with the daughter of a rich man, must have been implicated by the police on flimsy charges, even the element of suspense goes amiss.  The pattern continues even in the second half.

There is something heart-rending and modestly intriguing about the story.  However, the plain narration and simplistic scenes fail to measure up to the story's rare strength.  The story of Bejoy Nambiar's David too had this quality and since the screenplay was imaginative (at least in bits and pieces), the characters threw up surprises with their whimsical behavior, and the execution itself was snazzy, it made a unique movie-watching experience.

In Gundello.., two people, who come with an unpleasant past, cross paths when they are married and struck in an engulfing flood.  The life of Lakshmi Manchu (as Chitra, a village belle with no other aim in life other than marrying her childhood sweetheart) is more scarred and pathetic than the past of Adi Pinishetty (as Mallesh, who comes with the humble dream of owning a boat of his own).  In a story revolving around two main characters, when the emotional baggage of one character is more than that of the other one, the end result won't quite touch the hearts.

More than the story and the scenes, what catches our attention are the characters portrayed, most of whom smack of everything from profanity to egomaniac mentality to lecherous behavior to promiscuity.  And unlike the films which were made during the period in which the film is set (i.e., 1980s), there is a dose of reality that shocks none but the puritans.  The Telugu films skillfully glossed over the lasciviousness of India's dark rustic world, as depicting it in mainstream cinema would have been seen as sacramental in a conservative society.  Kumar Nagendra, it might seem, wanted to tell us that our society, even then, was not without some unmarried girls promiscuous enough to gaily lose their virginity.

Thanks to Maestro Illayaraja's BG score, the proceedings come with a ring of simplicity.  The flawless art work (by Murali Kondeti) is a cool throwback to that era.  However, the regular characters do not come with dimensions that truly reflect less-known (there must be many of them) dimensions of people who lived in that age.  The slang (for example, 'gokudu' and other cuss words with sexual connotations) may or may not be true to the slang used in that age, but it would have done the film immense good if the director gave us a more informed peep into the little lives.

There are satisfying moments that are few and far between.  Adi stands out for his superb performance, followed by Lakshmi, who emotes better than she did in UKUP.  But her pairing with Sundeep is outrageous.  Illayaraja is best when he rehashes his old classics.  Adi's vocals for the first song do not gel with his persona.  Instead of two pedestrian item numbers with buxom dolls, the story needed a soothing, situational melody involving Sundeep Kishan and Lakshmi, and Adi and Lakshmi (minutes before the climax).

The dialogues (by Kumar himself) are simple and true-to-life (but, again, not imaginative).  The novelty in one beloved character saying 'I fear death' minutes after another beloved character says 'I want to live longer', should have been brought out evocatively.

When we watched the promos, we certainly did not go to the film expecting nothing more than one heroine angling for a manly hero in a jatara, only to routinely blackmail him later.  Nor would anybody want to watch two actors with no star image dancing while falling behind elusive hens.

The CG work is fine, even though the floods do not look furious enough.

For all her mischievous mien, Tapsee Pannu doesn't have it in her to look appealing in a naughty role (she is best when it comes to sobbing).  Sundeep looks too urbane to don a bucolic avatar. Ravi Babu's mannerisms are no different from what he is wont to do.

Verdict:  With tragedy piled up on inhumanity, Gundello Godari is a well-executed and ordinarily written film.  Watch it for the technical values, realistic characters and the simplicity writ that is write large.

Released on: 8th March, 2013

A widely-acclaimed film like '3 Idiots' should be remade only if a director has something new to add.  A regular film like 'Tanu Weds Manu' doesn't lend itself to be remade because many South Indian films had surpassed films of its kind in style and content.  At a time even when mediocre films like 'Avunu' are sought after in Bollywood, it is a double tragedy that someone thought the Madhavan-starrer will make a good film.  One Bollywood, with its share of inventive and insipid, and imaginative and idiosyncratic cinema, is enough.

If Mr. Pellikoduku is old wine in new bottle in the first half, being a breezy watch with good comedy (buffeted only by unsteady performances and a narcissistic Sunil all through), the second half tastes like hooch.  The only relief is Isha Chawla, who has a knack for portraying her changing mindset as convincingly as the script (thanks to the original) gives a solid expression to her fleeting heart.  As for Sunil, who has a palpitating heart, he tries hard to exude a seriousness through his body language he is not capable of.  Clearly, a role which requires him to spout heavy-dose dialogues (for an actor like him) is not for him.  Maybe, the brilliant comedian should stick to the kind of roles that bring out his talent in each scene (read Poola Rangadu, easily one of the year 2012's cool hits).

Devi Prasad pens witty dialogues at places, but the sentimentality is way too hackneyed and even looks artificial when the hero is at the centre of melodrama.  As for the story, it is almost easy to predict what is going to happen, for we all know that when the story is about how, ultimately, the heroine's mind changes, the hero is a no-nonsense, high-minded, kind-hearted (in short, an epitome of selflessness) fellow while the groom is a person who is invariably egotic, abrasive, possessive, bad-tempered and violent.  (In other such stories, the anti-hero comes with one or more of the traits in these two sets: A. Buffoonic, nonsensical, short-sighted.  B.  Philosophical, light-veined, emotionally intelligent, goal-oriented.

The film begins with Bujji Babu (Sunil) dreaming about his Miss Perfect Girl (his expressions in the song convey no romantic feel.  Well, in song after song, his energies are squandered away in perfecting the technique, as though he is taking part in a dance competition).  Once he sees Isha in a bride-seeing ceremony, he instantly falls for her.  To his dismay, Isha reveals herself as a cigarette-smoking, brandy-guzzling lady in love in someone else.  What follows is a series of bride-seeing ceremonies, in the company of Dharmavarapu, as his father, his mother and a sidekick, played by Ali.  There comes a moment when he expresses to the brother of a girl his deep feelings for Isha with whom he is in love.

The twist unravels when Sunil meets that brother in a train, days after spending time with Isha and falling in love with her all over again.

As the film progresses, as Isha occupies the pride of place in the story, it is easy to see that Sunil is playing a second fiddle to a superior actress (with reference to only this film).  So much for a film titled after the hero's character.  In his body language and expressions, he does not come across as the well-to-do owner of a boutique in America.  His comedy looks like an aberration and his Venkatesh-like melancholy is too much for him.  He is reduced to a character who speaks morals to everyone in sight.

At least three areas deserve to be damned:  The cinematography is second-grade; the background music is inappropriate; Sunil's modish costumes (barring in a few scenes and songs) are so unsuitable that they seem to have been tailor-made to insult him.

The songs seem to come too often (though the number of duets is as it should be) that one wonders if one is watching one-troupe dance show on television.  The running song in the second half (for which the tempo is not built with care) is testimony to the director's lack of experience in making cinema in a touching way.  The brief sad song should have come after Sunil says 'Tanu vellipoyindi' and not after the scene where Ali talks over the phone.

The last fight is utterly absurd, despite two well-built bodies, one doesn't even feel the punches.

The Sunil-Isha chemistry works fine, yet again.  The duets are spoiled by heavy steps and bad cinematography.  The actor who played the important role of Isha's lover is good-looking but he has no maturity in him to pull off a pivotal role.  The marriage registrar's role should have gone to Venu Madhav.

The ensemble cast, including Ahuthi Prasad, Ali, Dharmavarapu, do their parts well.

Verdict:  With a hackneyed story and inferior performance by the male lead, Mr. Pellikoduku is a remake that could have been avoided for obvious reasons.

Released on: 1st March, 2013

Movie Name : Jabardasth
Year : 2013
Cast : Siddharth, Samantha, Nithya Menen, Sunil
Music : SS. Thaman
Director : Nandini Reddy
Producer : Bellamkonda Suresh

Movie Name : Chammak Challo
Year : 2012
Cast :  Varun Sandesh, Sanchita Padukone, Catherine
Music Director :  Kiran Varanasi
Director : Neelakanta
Producer : Master Bujji Babu

 Movie Name :Pizza
Year : 2013
Cast : Vijay Sethupathi, Ramya Nambeesan
Music : Santhosh Narayanan
Lyrics : Sahithi
Director : Karthik Subbaraj
Producer : Suresh Kondeti

Released amidst low expectations in Telugu, this Karthick Subbaraj directorial is a must-watch (almost) film.  With right toppings in the form of a neat screenplay, deft camera work, eerie sound effects and nice background score, the movie manages to leave a mark.

The curious thing about this thrilling horror-romance with unfamiliar faces is that it offers goosebumps more after the bad spirit takes a retreat after scaring the day lights out of the hero.  As a shaken and stirred Michael searches for Anu, who may be either real or a mere hallucination, it becomes an edge-of-the-seat thriller.

Well, there is more than this.  A superb twist minutes before the climax is stunning, to say the least.

The film begins with a live-in couple (Michael and Anu) watching on television a spooky serial.  The scene wraps up with Anu, a witchcraft enthusiast and aspiring writer, narrating a real-life experience of a dead person coming back alive and appearing before her very eyes many times in the past.  True to her novelist self, she raises the quotient by saying to a astounded boy friend, who now seems to be ambivalent about the existence of devil, "Your moment is waiting."

Moments after they marry in a closed-door ceremony (with only God as the witness), we see a petrified Michael, with stains of blood on his face, repeating Anu's name with terror on his face, as if to indicate that she may be dead.  He starts narrating what happened moments back.

In a nocturnal twist of sorts, Michael ended up being caught in a terrifying situation when he went to a building to deliver pizzas.  This elaborate episode has the film's spookiest frames in store (not very excellent but definitely watchable for the suspense element underpinning it all).  Two murders, a Standard V girl pointing to the pictures of her dead parents, calls to a disconnected land phone, Anu herself unavailable on the mobile, so on, so forth.

The mystery is unraveled in a well-narrated and well-executed second half.  The novelty lies in the twist and how the devil itself, in an intriguing manner, seeks to deliver poetic justice.

Pizza, to be sure, is not a groundbreaking film.  But it is immensely watchable for the story and the simplicity.

Watch the clever conversations of the couple.  When Michael says to his spirits-aficionado wife about her boss's daughter, who has been possessed with spirit, she repeats that his moment has come.  This is immediately followed by a song where we see the couple trying to scare each other, on again and off again.  The pizza is a leitmotif in the long episode, wherein one part goes missing after one murder.

Vijay Sethupathy, who did a comical role in 'Naduvula Konjam Pakkathai Kanom', a role with negative shades in 'Sundarapandian', now he plays a role that combines all in one.  Ramya Nambeesan (seen in Nuvvila) plays her part well. She gives right expressions and adds pep to the proceedings. Also in the cast are Naren, Pooja, Jaykumar and Veera Sethuraman.

A couple of songs in the form of mobile ring tones are situation-based, which don't affect the flow of the movie.

Verdict:  With all the right ingredients and a narration that keeps one glued throughout, Pizza is entertaining and immensely watchable.

David
Year : 2013
Cast : Vikram, Jiiva, Tabu, Lara Dutta, Isha Sharvani
Music : Gaurav Godkhindi, Modern Mafia, Anirudh Ravichander,
 Mikey McCleary, Prashant Pillai, Saurabh Roy
Lyrics : Krishna Chaitanya
Director : Bejoy Nambiar
Producer : Bejoy Nambiar, Sharada Trilok

Movie Name : Okkadine
Year : 2012
Cast : Nara Rohit,Nithya Menon
Music Director :  Karthik
Director : Srinivasa Raga
Producer : C V Reddy

The only interesting episode in Okkadine is the interval bang, which unveils the trappings of a psychological thriller.  Those of you who watched Katha (which is one of the best films of both Genelia and Just Yellow) are sure to hope, for all the unskilled execution and writing so far, the film could present at least a thriller-like facade in the second half.  Srinivas Raga, however, cheats you by telling a ridiculously done-to-death revenge story, completely seeming the last director of the past.

The way the director confers Nithya Menen prominence in the first half, it starts feeling like the narration is throwing up subtle hints about her lion's share in the story.  It is reinforced by the bystander-like role for Nara Rohit.  If the heroine has a solo song moments after a brief intro for the hero, Rohit himself fails to make an impact, with him neither having much lines to speak nor doing acts that befit a hero's role in the scenes.  As the story unfolds in the later half, you see Rohit emerging a bit stronger than his heroine, but only faintly, because he doesn't show an actor's knack when it comes to emoting in crucial scenes.  He shows the subdued gusto (as he did in Banam) in the action scenes, but woefully falls short in showing pain and shock, behaving as if he is acting in another Solo.

As for the director, he does a shoddy job of dishing out a revenge story that bears resemblance to umpteen similar stories, with the only exception of misleading the audience just before the interval.  It is no distinction, considering the fact that the narration is entirely plain, with even the villain's role etched too badly.

The story begins with Nithya, Sai Kumar's pampered daughter, arriving in Hyderabad.  After sharing some affectionate moments, the Mother Theresa-like father says that he is leaving to US for an important meeting with his future political comrades, and the daughter wants to go on a picnic with her new-found cyber friend (Snigdha).  (Yes, the fun-starved millionaire's daughter is utterly friendless, that she appears to have no option but have a stranger as a companion).

In a forested village a 120 kms away from Vizag, there lives Rohit along with his marvelously affectionate family.  Nithya bumps into Rohit, who takes her home and the family soon showers warmth and friendship on her.  After two unmusical songs (a family song, which sounds like a silent romance song, and an outdoor duet, which would have been touching had expressions on the face outpaced the steps and had the song been shot indoors), the good hero proposes to her.

Minutes after Nithya talks about the family and the hero to her father, it is interval time.

The director should have kept the narration surreal and nuanced in the first half.  In the second half, the macabre scene involving one entire family doesn't instill terror, nor does the hero show angst and trauma in his eyes.  There is a short intense ditty, which comes after a comedy scene, 5 minutes into the second half, revealing Srinivas' lack of experience.

The second half ceases to hold our attention after a point.  (Even the little attention it gets is because it makes us to hope for something that doesn't exist in the story).  The villain fails to evoke fear, with him having nothing to do other than reeling off the number of murders he committed in the past.  Gosh!

After Nandini Reddy and Vikram Kumar, everybody seems to think that Nithya should always be indulged in (which explains the solo song for her) regardless of the genre.  The remix song (Puttintollu tarimesaru..) is wasted.  The music director does a good job, but his songs do not fit well in the film.  There is nothing much to talk about the BG score.

It is outrageous to see Brahmi's assistant (a woman) talk seductively about how her boss is adept at covering rape incidents in graphic detail.  The director has not got in him to deal with ace comedians (or with comedy for that matter) like Brahmi and Ali.

Sai Kumar, who is sans moustache here, has a meaty role, but even he is not used to his fullest potential.  Having relegated the hero to the sidetracks one too often, the director has a Pawanism-like moment for Naga Babu in store.  Phew!

The dialogues (by Chintapalli Ramana) are plain and uninteresting.  Like the story and the screenplay.

Verdict: A predictable revenge story littered with two action scenes and a lousy climax.  Don't know what Raga was thinking while he made the film.

 Movie Name : Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu
Year :2012
Cast : Venkatesh, Mahesh Babu, Anjali, Samantha
Music Director :  Mickey J Mayer
Director :  Sreekanth Addala
Producer :Dil Raju

If Mahesh Babu seems to be the most important star, be it in terms of the screen time or the number of lines he gets to speak, it is Venkatesh who takes a lion's share in SVSC's story.  It is around Peddodu that Srikanth Addala weaves a drama full of modest emotional highs and lilting moments.  Do not even expect a story, or even regular cinematic characters, for you will be badly disappointed.  It is neither a Karan Johar family entertainer where a marriage or love affair creates a rift between two emotionally mature members of the family nor a Krishna Vamsi film where the family members wear their hearts on their sleeves and they habitually huddle around the elder, letting the cameraman to leisurely capture their over-indulgent moments.  The film follows a format of its own, without its share of episodes  of  anti-climactic and climactic nature that are believed to be so mandatory for any movie.

While watching SVSC, one may need to pay special notice to Prakash Raj's honest character and Venkatesh's unsocialising behavior to better take the threads of the eventless narration (even the defining moment, involving the father and his two sons minutes before the climax, is a logical culmination of this element).  Prakash Raj, the father of Peddodu and Chinnodu, believes in being a good human being first.  His elder son's immaturity and obstinacy do not affect him even a bit, because this ordinary old man is sanguine about the future of his sons.  To his harmless mind, savouring the good Pandit's sermons on Bhakti TV and thoroughly but internally believing that leaving everything to Lord Ramachandra's divine care is the only best thing we can do.

Peddodu comes with a typical attitudinal problem.  His uncle (Kota Srinivasa Rao in a brief role) has just retrenched him from his little white-collar job due to recession.  Now jobless, he is whiling away his time, letting whoever advices him to think about his future know that he is not willing to change his attitude.  He seems to be deceiving himself, but thinks that people around him are actors.  Yet, he is loved and respected by his family members and he shares a special emotional rapport with his brother, the ever-so-friendly Chinnodu.  Seethamma (Anjali), who has been brought up by his parents, has been in love with him for long.

Chinnodu is jobless like his bro, but he is emotionally alright and unlike his moody brother, has fun with his friends and the new girl in his life (Samantha as Geetha).  He is the kind of person who sits on a moving elevator and says to his friends that even he is 'coming up' (a metaphor for rising in life).  Even though he is seemingly disappointed with his bro's stubbornness and self-delusion, his love for him has always kept him from chiding Peddodu.

The good father, very self-contented and always wearing a smile on his face, never advices his sons.  Good things just happen to him, as he is a rare human being who doesn't think twice to sacrifice his life to save a life in danger.  Jayasudha, his wife, is a good wife and mother, who shares with her husband with glee her auspicious dream in which God Himself gifted her two pious objects which symbolize the good future that her sons are going to enjoy.  But she can't muster the courage to remind Peddodu of his responsibilities.

Seethamma is a child at heart.  She loves Peddodu and says to his aunt, Jayasudha that she will marry her son the day he calls her by her name.  She enjoys the Ram-Lakshman type relationship between the two brothers.

The story has place for one (only one) arrogant, self-priding, jealous character - played by Rao Ramesh.  He is the estranged and angry brother-in-law of Prakash Raj.  He has a disdainful attitude towards Raj and his family, as he thinks that they do not know 'loukhyam'.  He insults Peddodu once, he admonishes Chinnodu to ask his bro to mend his ways, but they pay him back in same kind.  His daughter, Samantha, is in love with Chinnodu.

There is a conflict in the story and Peddodu is at its centre.  Every time he wallows in anger or dejection, Chinnodu is there to share his emotions with.  At times he shouts at Chinnodu, but there comes a point when Chinnodu talks at him, thereby triggering a change in Peddodu.

The first one hour is a treat to watch.  Srikanth's treatment of the story is definitely refined and classy.  Be it the characterizations or the situations, they are new.  The dialogues, minimal, heart-felt and witty at once, are its biggest strength.  However, after a point of time, the film seems to drag, and picks up only towards the last 15 minutes.  The scenes involving Venky and Mahesh in the second half are a let down.  Venky's uni-dimensional character starts to bore now.  The director has relied on two or three emotional highs in the second half to redeem his film.  For a massive multi-starrer like this, the indispensability of the two stars must be greater than that of any other character (the father in this case).  For example, while Amitabh Bacchan's decision to banish his elder son from the household is the turning point of K3G, it is Hrithik Roshan's attempt to woo SRK back into the fold of the parivar that is the most exciting point.  We know comparisons are not always right, but this is what even an audience who gives two hoots to who the actors are, would expect from a promising multi-starrer.  Towards the end we find Chinnodu's contribution is not very substantial (though absolutely meaningful and important).

The conversations between the two brothers are refreshingly natural.  Venky and Mahesh being very mature actors, they convey emotions through their eyes and expressions.  They exude an understated affection that is real cool to watch.   The director doesn't over-indulge them and it betrays his intelligence.  The first scene of the two actors comes 40 minutes into the film.

The fun element for the mass audience is, undoubtedly, Mahesh's accent and dialogues.  Every young girl swoons in his presence, and he enjoys it.  His ripostes to Samantha are rib-tickling.

The performances are neat and enjoyable.  Mahesh and Venky's slice-of-life acts apart (there is no element of larger-than-life-ness to them), the ensemble cast are entertaining.  Anjali as a lovable Seethamma is cute.  Samantha chips in with some dose of glamour.  Prakash Raj and Jayasudha are at their usual best.  Rao Ramesh slips into his character with ease and plays the role of a rich man with aplomb.  Tanikella, Ravi Babu, Kota make an impression.

All the songs are interesting, except for the Mahesh-Samanatha duet and the Venky-Anjali song (which is old-fashioned).    A song for Samantha was not needed.

Technically, Mickey J Meyer's music is on expected lines.  Mani Sharma's BG score is snazzy at some places.   KV Guhan's cinematography contributes to make the ambience look more beautiful.

The dialogues, co-written by Ganesh Patro and Srikanth himself, are quite impressive.  They tug the heart at a few places.

  Movie Name : Ongolu Gittha
Year : 2013
Cast : Ram Pothineni, Kriti Kharbanda
Music : G.V.Prakash Kumar, Manisharma
Director : Bommarillu Bhaskar
Producer : B.V.S.N. Prasad

Ongolu Gittha Review

Ongolu Gittha is a kind of film which should have been made for the Tamil audience, and dubbed later into Telugu after it did modest business in the state of TN (but even then, it would not have connected to us).  To be fair to Bhaskar, he does leave his mark at places, but overall, the film is a letdown.  Bhaskar is one of the few directors who is a dab hand at portraying the main characters with a tinge of peculiarity that are mainly found in novels.  Here he does seem to disguise an oldish story in the garb of unique narration, but he fails miserably in making it a fascinating journey, and it is difficult to find a Telugu audience who would find the film a worthy watch.

The story, on the face of it, has the usual tit-for-tat angle.  There is a flashback, there is the hero whose street-smartness is dealt with in a disinteresting fashion, his heroine does nothing but show either embarrassment or her navel or both.  Above all, GV Prakash Kumar's tacky tunes do not give impetus to songs, most of which come unwelcomed.

The opening scene proves that the director had not done his home work properly (surprising, especially because he had handled more ambitious sequences in Parugu well deftly).  As a child, Ram arrives at the Ongolu michi yard, calmly and confidently making money big time in a jiffy.  He grows up to be someone who is looked up to for his honesty, guts and business sense.

The yard's beloved chairman, played by Prakash Raj (he is the one and only lovable actor of OG), is the other most important character.  The two scenes that raise the pitch in first half are those in which Ram and PR's other side is revealed.  The scene in the center of the yard, involving Ram, PR, Ahuthi Prasad (is an MLA)and the farmers, is another well-written scene.

After PR's true character is revealed, the story has no more twists and turns.  It is not bad in itself, and if you have an able dialogue writer and good actors, the director should justifiably make it a mature drama (with action thrown in here and there) to keep the audience glued.  Unfortunately, the scenes - be it those between the hero and the villain, the hero and his father (Prabhu gets good screen time), the hero and his girl - weaved in the second half fall flat.  For heaven's sake, there should have been a defining moment involving the heroine and her villainous father.

Despite its unexciting plot, OG presents some elements which stand testimony to Bhaskar's directorial touch.  The pre-interval fight-song interlude (shot in lush greenery), which has Ram bashing up the baddies and a drunken Prabhu singing his song oblivious of who is saving him from death, deserves kudos.  In a Tamil Nadu theatre, it would have been received with cheers.  PR wearing a fake smile to camouflage his menacing nature, and he beautifying his face by applying fairness cream and powder after every episode of villainy, is splendid.

Though it is anyone's guess as to who will win the battle finally, the screenplay leading up to the denouement is below par.

With comedy failing to enthuse, there is no redeeming element in sight.  Kishore Das (famous for anchoring adult programmes on tv) gets to play the hero's sidekick, and one wonders what he is doing here when he suits best to be Maruthi's actor.  Ali never looked worse when he wore a women's attire.  He could have been totally avoided.

Ram was definitely better in Kandireega and Endukante Premanta.  While Karunakaran helped him show a new side in his last film, Bhaskar, who has extracted three good performances from Sid, Arjun and Cherry, fails to live up to expectations.  A creative performance from Prakash Raj deserves appreciation, for it comes at a time when the versatile actor has been seen to be playing routine characters.  Krithi Karbanda looks attractive but she has nothing much to do.

Ahuthi Prasad, Abhimanyu Singh and JP fit the bill.

The BG score by Mani Sharma is alright.  One feels that he disappoints with his songs, always and almost.  The cinematographer shows flashes of brilliance at places.

Verdict: Blighted by an oldish story and a narration and a nativity that don't gel with our tastes, Ongolu Gittha rather looks like a failed experiment.

Oldish story