Tarak's Sweet 16

    There is a plethora of movies coming out in the next few weeks. I am so excited that finally, I will see some more of my favorite Tollywood Heroes in the theater on the big screen. As I mentioned on my South Indian movies watched page, I have only been watching Southies for about a year and have only really gotten into them since March 2010, so while I have seen Prabhas and Bunny in the theater, I have yet to see Mahesh, Siddharth and my favorite of favorites Tarak on the big screen.
      Infact, I am so new to appreciating the awesomeness that is Tarak that I had an opportunity in January to see Adhurs in the theater and I missed it! It was a weekend I had nothing to do and I saw Adhurs was playing but didn't know if it would be worth seeing without subtitles and I didn't know much about Tarak, hadn't seen any of his movies yet, so I passed on it. Ayoo! My shins are still black and blue from kicking myself!
    Tarak's next film, Brindavaanam had its audio release today so now the promotions for the film are kicking into high gear. Here is the first trailer

     Looks great doesn't it? But the big question for me is what will the songs be like and what awesome dancing will the choreographers come up with for Tarak to do? I was excited when Tarak tweeted a couple of weeks ago that choreographer Prem Rakshit was killing him with a tough step. Yay! Tarak is known to not need to rehearse and apparently  gets his dance steps down in one take so anything difficult for him to do should be mindblowing for us to watch.
     I recently achieved Tarak Completeness by locating and watching the last two films of his I had yet to watch. I thought it would be fun to try and pick only one song as a favorite from each film. This task was easy for some films and very, very difficult for others. It is not a "best of"  list,  just my favorites for a variety of reasons.  Some of the songs I chose because I like the music, some it is the way the choreographers had them picturised, some I chose because I just liked the way Tarak looks, but usually, of course, it is because of his amazing dancing.  So here is Tarak's Sweet 16, compiled and chosen by me.


Ninnu Choodalani  (2001) 
I am thwarted already in my list, by the lack of Ninnu Choodalani songs on YouTube.  (That's ok  though because I know I won't be able to only chose one song from Yamadonga). This and Subbu were the last two Tarak movies I had to watch. I couldn't find dvd's of them so ended up watching on torrents sites. This was Tarak's first film and apparently it was a horendous flop.  I remember thinking when I watched it that the Director was evidently completely unaware that Tarak could dance, the song picturisations were uninteresting and unimaginative so it's just as well I couldn't find any links.

Student #1  (2001)
Kuchipudi Kaina - It's catchy and begins to show what Tarak can do. Plus there is a little Kuchipudi fight at the end!


Subbu (2001)
Hari Hara - It starts on a train! That and the sing along chorus makes up for the gori dancers.


Aadi (2002)
Sunnunda Teesuko - Love the set! What's not to love about giant buckets of laddoos!



Allari Ramudu (2002)
Shalibanda Golkanda - I love this one! Tarak and Aarti Agarwal do a great job with this dance and the song makes me want to sing along.


Naaga (2003)
Nayudori Pilla- There are lots of great songs in this movie. I love this item with Rambha. Lawrence shows up at the end so I am assuming he is the choreographer.  I am a total sucker for songs on trains thanks to Chaiya Chaiya.



Simhadri (2003)
Chimma Chimma - Hard to pick one from Simhadri too. Tarak's dancing is amazing.


Andhrawalla (2004)
Nairey Nairey- Another one by Lawrence. Doesn't get any better than this. This song was the first Tarak video I saw. I didn't know who it was but played it obssesively.


Samba (2004)
Luxemborg Lux Sundari -Bhoomika and Tarak totally own this song.


Naa Alludu (2005)
Sayya Sayya - I like this one because "the mom" gets to dance!


Narasimhudu (2005)
Yeluko Nayaka - Maybe it's the song, maybe it's the choreography or maybe its the Tarak and Sameera combination, but this is the first duet that I felt Tarak would actually know what to do if he "got the girl"


Ashok (2006)
Gola Gola - another movie where it was hard to pick. Sameera Reddy is so cute and does a great job of keeping up with Tarak.


Rakhi (2006)
Rangu Rabba Rabba - I love this Holi song. I'ts so creatively done, it's one of my all time favorite Holi songs.


Yamadonga (2007)
Nachorey Nachorey - My favorite of Tarak's dances from this movie. He just looks like he is floating and the back-up dancers are working so hard to keep up. I heard Tarak say in an interview that this song was the first time he rehearsed for a song before filming.

Olammi Tikka Regindha- I love that Tarak and Mamta sing this. It's a remake of a Legend NTR song. It looks like it was very fun to do.


Kantri (2008)
I Go Crazy - LOVE the kuchipudi dancing in this! Please Tarak ask your choreographers to have you do more! Another one choreographed by Prem Rakshit.


Adhurs (2010)
Assalam Vallikum - Tarak dances with himself! So Cool!


I wish I knew who all the choreographers were to these songs. I can't read the credits and IMDB and Wikipedia list the choreographers but don't indicate which chorographer does each song.  I know Tarak would be the first to say he couldn't have done it without them.  If anyone wants to fill me in in the comments section on who the Choreographers are I would really appreciate it.  I hope this list of Tarak's Sweet 16 tides you over untill Brindavaanam releases.

Naaga (2003) dir. D.K. Suresh

My blogging buddies over at Cinema Chaat recently did a fabulous review of my favorite film, Yamadonga. When I read their review I was reminded that Yamadonga was the film that pushed me over into major Jr. NTR fangirlyness.  So now whenever I watch a film of Tarak's I allways find something wonderfull about them, even the flops.  So we have Yama to thank for me loving the film Naaga even though it apparently flopped badly. Flopped so badly infact that all my usual go to sources for film synopsis' like Wikipedia, Telugupedia and IMDB did not include a plot summary at all. So when I put my unsubtitled dvd in to watch I was going to be flying blind. I think I understood it fairly well so any Telugu speakers who have watched it, if I have taken a wrong turn in understanding anywhere please leave a comment and let me know!

    The movie centers around a College where NTR plays a law student named Naaga.  Sunil and Venu play students at the college who I think urge Naaga into getting involved in the Student Union. His father played by Raghuvaran is a Bailiff in a courthouse who pushes his son to focus on becomming a lawyer and doesn't seem to want his son to divert his attention from studying to student politics.

 NTR's love interest is played by Sadha. She lives with her Dad and has a sister that is married to a  shady, disloyal guy who works for a politician played by Nasser. It turns out her Dad and Naaga's Dad are old friends, so there is ample opportunity for all kinds of flirty irritation. I love the first song although I am somewhat irritated it is stuck in my head right now.

Naaga's school holds a Jubilee celebration that has politician Nasser as the keynote speaker.  Naaga is clearly moved and inspired by whatever it is that Nasser says.

There is also some entertainment. My least favorite of the songs that for some reason features CGI knockoffs of Pixar animations. I don't know why.

Now comes the conflict. Supporters of Nasser and his rival clash in the streets in front of Naaga's home.  One of his sisters and his Mom and Dad get roughed up by the rowdies. NTR takes them all on and badly beats one of the leaders with a hand pump. This fight was choreographed more like a real brawl than the usual super hero fights.

There is just enough time for father and son to have an argument over Naaga's rowdy behavior before Dad has to face the humiliation of seeing his son arrested and taken to court.  His court.

But being the good law student Naaga makes a fairly long speech that impresses everybody and gets him off the hook.

See how happy Dad is now? Now Naaga has the attention of the leaders of Student Unions from other colleges. He gets appointed Union president (I think) And gets the positive attention of Nasser and the emnity of Nasser's rival.

 

I love the next song, very catchy and the lyrics mention Aishwarya, Kajol and Preity Zinta.

After another fight, some more student union type business and rescuing car crash victims, Naaga gets in trouble from Mom because he missed an important family event.  (I think it might have been his own engagement ceremony- Dude! that is so not done!) But you know Mom's, they don't yell, they just lay on the guilt through layers of tears. (Love that Momma drama!)

Dad? Well Dad is just plain hurt and disapointed.

But everyone else thinks Naaga is great!

Now Nasser's rival doesn't like all the positive attention Naaga is getting for Nasser, so he arranges to give the student unions and Naaga some very bad press and hopefully get them out of the way.

He uses the husband of Sadha's sister to tell Naaga (I'm just guessing here!) some reason why the student unions have to protest and shut down the trains from moving. Meanwhile some rowdies posing as students wreak havoc in the city while Naaga and his followers lay down infront of a train. After some scuffling involving the police, Naaga then  inexplicably pours petrol all over himself and threatens to emoliate himself. (Why? Why?)

His dad comes to stop him and threatens to do the same with requisite pouring of petrol.  As a horrified Naaga is carried away by the police, Sadha's Brother in Law, who had been getting ready to throw a match on Naaga, throws one on Dad instead. So now Naaga is back in jail, mourning his father as the funeral procession he cannot attend goes by.

I know what you're thinking. Pefect time for a romantic song right?

Naaga manages to give another heartfelt speech, that gets him released in time for some tears and hopefully forgiveness from Mom.

Now he's on a mission to  find out how his Dad died and presumably to end the other injustices that threaten the political system. He finds out that there are some rowdies stuffing ballot boxes  during the election that is finally being held. In the chase and fight that ensues it appears Naaga is arrested again, but this time he isn't in any of the jails his friends search for him in.

Gosh1 It wouldn't take much of an accident to get the water jugs to fall off that truck!

In the meantime, Sadha and her father find out that their relative is the one who killed Naaga's Dad. In the ensueing scuffle over a tape, Sadha's father is killed and now Sadha and her sister need rescueing.  But where is Naaga? Seems he is being beaten and tortured by Nasser's political rivals.

Thankfully Naaga spits a well aimed ice cube at one of his tormentors and manages to escape!(Yes that is really all it took.)

But during his escape he falls into a vat of paint or plaster and then runs around looking like a scary creature that keeps popping up out of nowhere, to the sound of a lions roar. How'd ya like to look up and see that staring at you!

He makes it to Sadha's, where she cleans him up. They hatch a plan to get the bad guys and have time for another song.

While Naaga and Sadha and her sister are driving around, they stop for gas, and guess who is filling up right next to them? Yep, justice is about to be served!

Next Naaga gets a phone call that somehow causes him to end up on a train. 

 

I don't know why he was on the train, but who cares! Now there is time for this awesome item number with Rambha, choreographed by Lawrence. Woot!

One of the rowdies makes it to the train in time to apparently plant several bombs.  Now we have not only a dance on a train, but all the great things that go on when  there is a fight on a train!

Fighting in the train.

Fighting on the train.

Falling off then running to get back on.

Koyla fans will note he is NOT on fire however.

And of course risking yourself to save others.

It all ends happily enough considering how many times Naaga got thrown in jail and of course his and Sadha's Dads were killed, and his Mom and future sister in law are widows.  Nasser sure is proud of him though!

All in all I thought Naaga was a good vehicle for what Tarak does best.  It had many opportunities for the delivery of empassioned and hopefully moving dialogs, some really great song picturizations with the usual awesome dancing from Tarak. It also had ample opportunity for heroics and action.  What more could you want in an NTR film?