I never intended to have such a slow start and such a long break from my blog in 2011. But I am hoping things are quieting down and getting back to my version of normal. Anyways..to celebrate my return to more regular blogging here is my first Prabhas post! Oh Young Rebel Star what has taken me sooo long?!
There is a lot to recommend for Prabhas fans in Raghavendra, his second film. Apparently this was never released with subtitles but a wonderful fan of Prabhas' took the time to subtitle and upload it to youtube. In the beginning of the film Prabhas doesn't say much, he just looks tall and imposing, fully bearded and dressed in the Safron robes of a devotee of Lord Raghavendra. His friends from the city come to bring him back to fight the injustice of some murderers who are released unpunished. They seem to think that Raghava is the only one that can bring justice for their murdered friend. But Raghava has taken a vow of nonviolence and refuses to even listen to his friends.
Now you know from his entrance he is clearly a hero because he saved a small boy from an elephant.
And they gave him the toughest jobs at the Temple.
And you can tell from the flashback images that run through his head and the faces he makes that he clearly wants to kick some ass.
But he doesn't! Not even when his cousin Mahalakshmi, played by Swetha Agarwal is continually harrassed by a group of rowdies. It all comes to a head when she files a police complaint against them. Instead of arresting the rowdies the police call their goonda boss Ankineedu, played perfectly by Anand Raj. Ankineedu is so evil he laughs and smiles and declares "I Like it" in English whenever something awfull he has instigated happens.
Well, he decidedly does NOT like that Mahalakshmi filed a report against his men so he has her publically stripped and her parents beaten. Everyone stands around watching, even the police refuse to intervene, so you know Raghava just has to break his vows and come in and open a can of whoop-ass right? Come-on Prabhas kick some butt! But what does he do? He gets beat up and grovels!! And begs for them to stop!
Ok,sSo this is too much really. Everyone yells at him and accuses him of all kinds of cowardliness and all sorts of un-manly behavior. Useless Fellow! Finally the flashback sequence comes where we find out what drove him to be in this situation.
It seems Raghava was a hot headed youth who could not tolerate injustice of anykind. He was constantly beating people up for every offence, from disrespecting elders and the Indian flag, to more obvious forms of rowdiism. I like how the subtitler occaisionally offers his own comments during the action.
His parents were constantly ashamed of his behavior and he argued and had tantrums in front of them. They begged him to let the police and courts handle meteing out justice but he argued the police were useless. His parents warn him that the violence will get his family or friends killed one day.
Enter Brahmanandam. In this film he plays a full charactor not just someone plopped in for comedy relief. Brahmi witnesses Raghava beating one of Ankineedu's men and reports Raghava for beating an "innocent elder". When Raghava follows him to intimidate him into withdrawing the report he spies Brahmi's sister Sirisha, played by Anshu.
They fall in love and unfortunetly for Sirisha, his parents words come back to haunt him.
Sirisha is killed and Ankineedu tells Raghava's parents are to leave town immediately. A grief stricken Raghava comes home to his parents moving truck, they curse him and blame him for everything. In an emotional scene he vows to live how they want him to and to forsake violence in devotion to god.
I actually get the feeling that part of the reason he doesn't respond to Mahalakshmi's distress is because he knows the police won't do anything and he wants to prove his point to his parents, that the world needs people like him to ensure there is justice. There is one scene after Mahalaksmi gets her hair cut by the rowdies that her parents are yelling at him to do something and he just stays silent and wraps his saffron robe around himself and walks past his parents with a small I-told-you-so smile on his face.
After Mahalakshmi is publically stripped his parents beg him to reconsider his vows. It seems they have learned their lesson after all.
So at last Raghava gets to do what he always wanted to do!
And I might add, he looks mighty fine doing it!
The songs by Mani Sharma are only so-so. I liked Nee Style because it made Venice look so pretty.
I also like the Item number Calcutta Paan Vesina. If someone could tell me who the girl is I would appreciate it!
All in all it was a fun flick. And Director Suresh Krishna remembered the golden rule when filming Prabhas: Prabhas +Water = Yum!
With Shakti, reportedly the most expensive Telugu film yet made, Young Tiger Jr. NTR is officially rebranded as A1 Star. Personally I will miss all the Tiger references in his films. I love a lot of the Telugu Heros (see my list of Favorites) but Jr. NTR is definetly at the A1 spot of my favorites so the title for me is apt.
I saw Shakti First Day First show here in Minneapolis, so there wasn't any plot synopsis available for me to peek at to help me out with the lack of subtitles. So once again forgive me for any mistakes I make and please correct me in the comments. I had to watch the movie over 2 days because the theater I saw it in had some major technical difficulties. Right at the interval bang the screen went dark. So other than seeing Tarak dodge a shoulder fired rocket I missed the whole thing the first night. Apparently the Interval bang was too much for the projector to handle because it over heated and went into auto shut down. Alot. Both days. Uff! They finally moved us to a new screen the second night I saw it. See, for Tarak I can do anything, I figure with all the delays from trying to fix the problem it took me about 7 hours to watch the whole movie.
The movie starts in Egypt labeled as 1984 but with everyone inexplicably costumed up like from the Pharoah's time. Strange, but I decided to go with it. I thought maybe they belonged to some weird, evil, pharoah obssessed cult intent on taking over the world.
Pooja Bedi plays the scenery chewing evil Egyptian queen, Fakhtooni. She has her own secret lair right in one of the Pyramids at Giza. She starts off screaming in rage when the head of her husband is returned to her and she never stopped screaming after that. She is so evil that she plucks the eyes out of the head and puts them into a jar to transplant them later into her son, who she turns into an evil behemoth of a killing machine by plucking out his eyes as a small boy and then dipping him in a magic firey pit ala Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, to toughen him up for the revenge she so clearly is screaming for.
Besides revenge she wants to get her hands on a magical diamond that the Home Minister, played by Prabhu is keeping under lock and key. He meets frequently with a mystical yogi played by a heavily made up Nasser where they discuss the diamond. Prabhu has a a daughter Aishwarya, played by Ileana. Aishwarya is tired of always having security guards so she sneaks out of the house and meets up with some friends and decides to go on a cross country trip with them to enjoy her new found freedom. Unbeknownst to her she accidently ended up in possession of the magical diamond and is unaware the Egyptians and Jackie Shroff, who plays an underworld Don, are after her. Whew! All of that in the first 15 minutes! This set up the premise well as near as I could tell.
Ok so what I need now is a kick ass Hero Entrance! I think coming in riding an elephant and then leaping off it in that gravity defying Telugu super hero way was A1-ji. Tarak plays a tour guide named Shakti. The first fight has Tarak beating up some goondas that were trying to rip off Aishwarya and Ali (playing her friend) over some movie tickets. He gets the tickets but then charges them for the fight. Much to Aishwarya's chagrin, he ends up getting hired as their guide as they continue their travels around Jaipur, Kashmir and Haridwar. Every time Aishwarya gets in trouble, (usually because of some trick that backfires on her) Shakthi charges her for rescuing her.
He keeps everything in a trunk that he drags around. I really wanted to know what all was in that trunk! He seemed to have all kinds of handy things in there and the couple of glimpses we got of the inside made it more mysterious. The trunk is a key element in the twist that comes with the interval bang.
I thought the first half was great. The cinematography of Jaipur and the desert, Kashmir and the Mountains and Haridwar were beautiful. I LOOOOVED the first song Thaliya Thaliya. The choreography was so fun to watch and it was so colorful and vibrant. Just what I needed after this long, cold, colorless winter we've had. When it was over I was disapointed I couldn't rewind and watch it again! The other songs were well done too. Prema Desam was lovely and maybe it was just Tarak's Cowboy outfit but I especially liked the choreography and picturization of Mathileka Pichiga.
Ileana was lovely as were her hips which the choreographers focused on alot. I wish they had her do more than just those belly dance steps, but what she did she did well. There was a glimpse in this movie of how well she can do comedy, I hope she has more opportunities to showoff her comedy skills in the future.
Initially, the second half was very confusing to me but when I read some synopsis it made more sense on the second viewing. Apparently the Egyptians and Jackie wanted control of the Shakti Peethams, which are places of mystical power at Temples around India. Prabhu and the Yogi were caretakers of a secret one that you needed the the diamond, a trident and a little book thingy in order to enter the temple and be sure everything is working and balance in the universe is maintained. Prabhu has the diamond, Jackie has the trident and Fakhtooni has the book. So the second half is all about how all three ended up with one of the items (told in the flashback) and about Shakti's connection to them. The movie goes into fantasy mode which somehow seems so different than the first half. There just wasn't enough of a build up between the straitforward and "real" nature of the first half and the magical second half. At least from what I could tell, maybe it was conveyed through the dialogue.
The highlight of the flashback sequence was Tarak in the Rudra charactor. I thought Tarak looked cool in the Rudra get up. The wig wasn't that bad and it was fun watching him swinging those swords around. He kind of reminded me of Inigo Montoya from the Princess Bride. The Rudra theme music is awesome but I wish they hadn't had so many too fast edits on Tarak during it.
Sonu Sood as Fakhtooni's husband in the flashback is completely wasted. It's really a short appearance and all he does is alot of hollering. And riding back and forth between Egypt and India on horseback in a rage. Really.
The final showdown between Shakti and the Egyptians could have been done much better. There was lots of flying around and wire work that was somehow too slow. And the sword fighting he did was both too fast and in slow-mo almost simultaneously. It would have been so much better if they had spent some time and money on doing that right.
Tarak doesn't disapoint in his performance, the fights and the dancing are excellent. Mani Sharma's soundtrack is wonderful. But the editing and the story fall apart in the second half. If you can't suspend disbelief enough (like me) to find an evil Pharoah obssessed cult plausable then Shakti becomes a bit too outlandish. Really I don't know why they had to have the villains be Egyptians, unless Meher Ramesh just wanted to spend the money on the trip. It would have been better if they had the villains be raging Rajputs instead of screaming Pharoahs. It would have made a little bit more chronological and geographical sense.
I will leave you with a little glimpse of Thaliya Thaliya and Prema Desam.
At long last I have had the chance to see one of my most favorite Heroes on the big screen! Mahesh Babu is one of my first Tollywood crushes. There is so much to love about Mahesh. He is dorky-cool and so tall and handsome. I just love his smile and the way he delivers his lines. My favorite movies of his are Athadu, Arjun, Murari and I love Takkari Donga too. I haven't had to wait as long as other Mahesh fans for his long awaited release Khaleja. It's been three years since Athidhi released, but only 4 months since I watched my most recent Mahesh movie. It was Vamsi and before you all feel sorry for me I have to say that movie falls into the so bad it's good category. What's not to love about sliding across a CGI alligator's back?
I saw Khaleja first day first show with a very enthusiastic, full theater.
What a treat to finally see Mahesh on the big screen! Seriously it was thrilling. The writer and director of Khaleja is Trivikram Srinivas, he also teamed with Mahesh on Athadu and was the writer and director for Pawan Kalyan's hit Jalsa. Khaleja is Mahesh's first turn in an out and out comedic role. Judging by the crowd reaction in the theater I would say he succeeded greatly. The audience was in splits for 3/4's of the film. As a non Telugu speaker I missed out on much of the comedy, but was able to follow the plot and enjoy Mahesh completely. Apologies ahead of time if I am way off base in what happens, please set me right in the comments section.
The film begins in a village in Rajasthan where people are mysteriously dying. The village elder sends a holy man of sorts, played wonderfully by Shafi, to search for a savior for the village. Then comes the Hero Introduction which is a slo-mo fight sequence of Mahesh fighting to get water in the Rajasthan desert. My favorite part is when he runs on top of a wall and you think he is going to jump on to a horse and ride away a la Takarri Donga, (seriously my heart was a flutter over that!) and instead he uncovers a motorbike and speeds off. It was a very funny bait and switch.
While he is in Rajasthan he runs into Sunil who is a reporter of sorts. I assume he is explaining to Sunil how he happened to be there and begins a flashback of him as a Taxi driver in Hyderabad. Here we find out how he meets Anoushka.
Anoushka creates havoc for Mahesh when ever she runs into him. I think 3 taxis get destroyed altogether and Mahesh ends up in the hospital after one encounter. Mahesh has excellent comedic timing and his dialog delivery is similar to Athadu and Pokiri but in a much more open and friendly way, if that makes sense. He still mutters and mumbles but with a happier smiley persona than the other films. After recounting all his bad luck brought to him by Anoushka, Sunil and Mahesh coincidently run into her in the Rajasthan desert. She had been brought to Rajasthan by helocoptor on a date and fearing for her honor, had run away from the guy. (These are the kind of plot points I have learned to just smile and enjoy and not question in Telugu movies, I am after all just along for the ride!) Now there are more hilarious mishaps as Anoushka, Mahesh and Sunil travel throught the desert.
The interval fight is really cool. I loved how it is choreographed, Mahesh is attacked and injured but manages to fight back in that over the top Tollywood super hero way. It's pretty bloody and awesome! The injured Mahesh is found by the holy man Shafi and he is taken to the stricken village and nursed backed to health. Now he is mistaken for a god by the villagers who beg him for help. He tries to convince them he is not a god but every time he tries to talk them out of it something happens that makes him seem like he is performing miracles. Now we find out too that Evil Business man Prakash Raj is behind the poisonings in the village and the rest of the movie has Mahesh and Prakash Bad locking horns. Prakash really isn't in the movie enough and the final confrontation between him and Mahesh makes you wish he had more to do. He is awesome as usual.
The music by Mani Sharma is just ok, he has had better soundtracks in my opinion. I didn't like the first song Taxi Taxi at all. But the song Sada Siva is unforgettable. I just love that song. It's picturised mostly on Shafi and he does a great job with it. Here is the song promo, full songs not available yet.
I also enjoyed the picturizations of Bhoom Shakanaka and Makathika. I think Makathika is my favorite. Mahesh looks fabulous and it is fun to watch him dance. I think Makathika is choreographed by Prem Rakshit if I'm not mistaken.
All in all I enjoyed my first Mahesh experience in the theater. Because much of the comedy was dialog based I missed lots of the humor. I was envious of the rest of the audience throwing their heads back in laughter but now I feel like I have a whole new movie to experience and look forward to when the dvd comes out. I am also hoping for the day when subtitles are as routine for Tollywood movies as they are for Bollywood.
