Shakti (2011) Dir. Meher Ramesh

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.

Anaganaga O Dheerudu (2011) dir. Prakash Kovelamudi

I am not a huge Disney fan, but when Disney issued a subtitled trailer for Siddharth's new movie Anaganaga O Dheerudu I couldn't ressist. Check this out!



I was so hopefull that I would see subtitles at last on a Telugu film. I even waited for  the 21st when the international subtitled release was supposed to happen. But no such luck, Minneapolis didn't get the subbed version. (Did anyone?) The movie is a visual treat so I found it well worth the price of the ticket.
     In most ways it was a very typical Disney type film. There was a superbly wicked evil queen named Irendri played by Lakshmi Manchu. She had the best evil sounding dialog delivery and they saved the best effects for her awesome moving snake hair. I was so enthralled by her hair. I kept wishing I had hair like that. (Not scary snake hair but really cool soft and silky independently moving hair) It would be such a cool effect when I'm trying to get my students attention, to have my hair suddenly move on it's own.

The movie had a Hero named Yodha, played by Siddharth, tasked so save the people from the evil queen's spells. It was great to see Siddharth in an action role. He had a lot of cool sword fights and I loved the long hair, although sometimes it looked too much like a wig.

Yodha is a blind warrior sent to escort a little girlwith special healing powers, named Moksha, played by Harshita, to a village that had all the children stricken by Irendri's poison. During a flashback we find out how Yodha loses his sight. This is where he meets Priya, played by Shruti Hassan. She is a gypsy who he falls for and in the process beats up and humiliates a bad guy who had come to disrupt the gypsie fair. The bad guy returns to burn the fair and catches Yodha and blinds him. The last thing he sees is Priya surrounded by fire. I'm guessing he assumes she is dead at this point.

    Meanwhile we find out Irendri needs the blood of a prisoner she is keeping in order to stay powerfull. It's not hard to guess the Priya is the prisoner. In a series of shorter flashbacks we discover the connection between Priya and Irendri and the role Yodha and Priya played in Irendri's rise to power.
    There are several fights scenes as Yodha escorts Harshita to the stricken village. Some of them were awesome. I really liked the Crowmen and the effect of the crows attacking. Other times I was abit let down. Once  the suspense built up as Yodha and Moksha's pursuers were closing in. They were amongst the ruins of an ancient town and you could imagine the fight that was going to take place as they drew nearer. But then no fight, the bad guys just ran past, didn't even see them even though they weren't hidden very well and it was broad daylight. I really wanted there tobe a fight in that scene. The end fight was fabulous with Yodha  flying through the air (I bet Siddharth had fun doing all that wire work for a change) and eventually Irendri's true self is revealed and she turns into a really scary snake monster. (Disney is expert at scaring the bejeezus out of really little kids.)
    The movie ends with a typical happy ending. The children are cured, the village is rid of Irendri, Priya is saved and the Hero gets his sight back. Like I say it is pretty standard fair for a Disney film. Except for the standard Telugu comedy track. I mean you just won't see someone like Ali in drag, with a Carmen Miranda fruit hat and  pinwheels over his nipples that spin like crazy everytime he sees the Hero in your typical Disney film.

I have to admit I laughed like crazy everytime those pinwheels started spinning! But then I have a pretty low sense of humour. Brahmi was in the film too in a short scene in a bar where Yodha cons him out of his drinks.
    The music and song picturizations was just OK. Nothing spectacular. My favorites were the Ninnu Chuudani


and Pralaya Kaalabheela Damshtra picturised on Lakshmi Manchu.


    I  have to say I liked everything that focused on Lakshmi Manchu the most. She definetly had the best part in the film. I am really looking forward to seeing her in more films. 

    Anaganaga O Dheerudu is the debut film for both Lakshmi Manchu and Shruti Hassan. Both of them are the children of huge stars. Lakshmi is Dr. Mohan Babu's daughter and Shruti is the Tamil legend Kamal Hassan's daughter. Shruti didn't have as much to do as Lakshmi did. She mostly was in the romantic song picturizations with Siddharth. Siddharth was great. He's definetly one of my favorites and I had fun watching him in such a swashbuckling role.

Jalsa (2008) dir. Trivikram Srinivas

    I have now thoroughly crossed the subtitle barrier.  In the last month or two I have made a point of getting to my local theater to see the Telugu new releases, even though they do not have subtitles.  I have managed ok so far, because during the interval a get help from my very-surprised-to-find-me-there Telugu speaking neighbors.  Besides being super excited to see Tarak, Mahesh and Siddharth on the big screen for the first time in the coming months, I have found myself to be looking forward to Pawan Kalyan's next film Komaram Puli.

    Pawan Kalyan  aka Power Star, is very new to me. Infact I have only seen one of his films so far, the 2008 blockbuster Jalsa. (Directed by Trivikram Srinivas) I found Jalsa had all that was required for a perfect Tollywood Masala Experience.  First: It has a very appealing hero in Pawan Kalyan.  He plays a perpetual college student (forever young!) with a drinking problem (he's vulnerable!)  and, it turns out, a mysterious past (Oh! a bad boy!). Of course these things add up to him  being pursued by the lovely Bhagi, played by Ileana, after he rescues her and her friend from some rowdies. 

Second: The romance works and is fun to watch. Ileana does a great job playing the pursuer with the perfect combination of insecurity and determination.

Third: The comedy tracks work for the most part. Sunil, Brahmanandam and Ali show up in different capacities. Sunil's track works the best I think. He is Bhagi's advisor and helps her get her man. He does this by misunderstanding the "advice" he gets as he tries to help her. 

Additionally, there are those sweet little graphic touches that happens so frequently in Tollywood films. Little surprises that make you giggle and smile.

Ileana's about to slap that kiss away!

Is that a full moon or a fool moon?

Sunil's about to replay a conversation.

Fourth: There are some kick ass fights in this movie. The fights are really well choreographed with some nice super fantastic moments.  Like when Pawan grabs the Turban off the old man and uses it as a weapon.  And then in another fight he kicks a bunch of bamboo poles in the air and they all land like daggers around one of the bad guys.  I just love stuff like that! 

Fifth and Sixth: Jalsa has a decent cliffhanger with an emotional impact at the Interval. So all through the first half of the movie we think that Sanjay  is an alcoholic, career student living on a stipend.  But wait! At the interval we find out he grew up so poor and miserable that he became a Naxalite! I never saw that coming.  But now that I think about it there was some foreshadowing of Sanjay's revolutionary past.  A giant poster of Che Guevara shows up in one of the songs and a smaller version was on one of the walls of his house.

Seventh: This movie has Prakash Dad and Prakash Cop! Yep a two for one Prakash Raj -orama! Prakash plays Ileana's Dad who during the first half rejects Sanjay's request to marry his daughter.  Then after the interval we find out he is actually a cop who had been hunting down Sanjay back in his bad ol' Naxalite days.  I love how they had him hunting naxalites in the forest wearing a preppy white Izod polo shirt.

I guess it was too preppy so they had him remove it! Hee Hee!

Eighth:  Evil villains are very important for the all around Masala entertainer and Jalsa has a great one with Mukesh Rishi.  This villain is so bad he even manages to come and go from jail to do all kinds of evil stuff. Murders, kidnaping, showing up in court, then stopping to make some threats before returning to jail. All in a days work I guess.

You can tell he's the villain 'cuz he's filmed at an angle!

Ninth: Of course there has to be great songs too.  The music is by Devi Sri Prasad.  I don't think this movie had the greatest choreography so I'll wait untill I see Pawan in more movies to decide whether he can dance or not.  But Ileana was great as usual.  These are my two favorite songs.




All in all Jalsa has all the requiremnts for a great Masala entertainer. I am really looking forward to Power Star's next movie!