Punnami Naagu (1980) Dir. Rajasekhar

In celebration of Naga Panchami a bunch of Indian Film bloggers are discussing their favorite snake movies. Here is a link to the blogs participating and another link to a thread on snake movies at the BollyWhat? Forum. Welcome to the Fessssstival!

I must confess, although I am a huge fan of snakes (I even own a 4 ft long cornsnake named Skittles), I had not watched any Nagin movies, other than Anaganaga O Deerudu. And with my desire to get more Chiranjeevi movies under my belt, I settled on the 1980 movie Punnami Naagu. What a wonderful treat it was too! Besides snakes and Chiranjeevi this movie had a menagerie of animal charactors that played key roles. There was an elephant, a monkey, a bull, a mongoose, and not to forget the brief but ill fated appearance of a chicken.  Plus an awesome snake dance item number.  The DVD I rented from NJMTV.com did not have subtitles but I managed ok.

    The movie starts with a man interupting a snakecharmer that is accosting a women. The snake charmer sends a cobra to bite the man. The man dies and leaves behind a  young son who is then cared for by the village head and comforted by an Elephant. Yep the elephant even gets free reign of the house!

At the same time a the snakecharmer's sister is pregnant and about to give birth.  She is alone in the woods and her pet monkey comes to her rescue. He first hides her from prying eyes (modesty being the most important thing after all), before geting help and then fetching water.

The little girl that is born becomes a life long friend of the Monkey and likewise the boy grows into a man with his elephant always at his side. Narasimha Raju plays Raju and the girl Laxmi is played by Rati Agnihotri. They meet and fall in love and both the elephant and the monkey get very involved as match makers, passing notes and cleverly playing tricks to bring the two love birds together.

Meanwhile Chiranjeevi plays Laxmi's cousin, Naagulu and is the son of the snakecharmer.  He, his Father, his Aunt and Laxmi all live together in the village.

One day Naagulu rescues Menaka, played by Madhavi, who is being attacked by a bull. Of course they fall in love. Menaka happens to be the adopted sister of Raju.

Unbeknownst to Naagulu, his father the snake charmer has been feeding him snake venom his whole life in order to make him immune to the bite of a cobra, an occupational hazard for snake charmers no doubt.

Enter the brief and ill-fated appearance of a chicken, who wanders in and eats the poisoned food. RIP Ms. Chicken.

Now comes the problem...one night Naagulu becomes desturbed by a snake dance he hears being played in the village.  This is an awesome snake dance! I loved her sequined body suit.  I couldn't find it on Youtube so you'll just have to imagine it from this screencap.

For reasons I couldn't figure out because of the lack of subs Naagulu's father goes to the local Snake anthill where the villagers leave offerrings for the cobra that resides there and plays his flute to draw out a baby snake. And then while the Mom  cobra is watching he steps on it and kills it.  I found this scene disturbing because it looked to me like the snake charmer was really squishing a live snake with his foot..poor baby!

The cobra comes slithers into the snake charmer's home and just when it strikes at the snake charmers foot to get it's revenge, Naagulu rolls over in his sleep and get s bit instead! But he doesn't die!

Instead, whenever the moon is full he goes out searching for a female to mate with.  You know that's what he wants to do because they show two snakes intertwined writhing around. Unfortunetly the first female Naagulu seeks out is his love Menaka.

Naagulu is overcome with grief when he learns that Menaka is dead.  At the same time his Father is on his death bed because the Cobra finally got him. Now Naagulu finds out what his Father had done and he is in shock. He starts digging through his father's papers to find a remedy.

Raju becomes suspicious of Menaka's death and he and Naagulu have a series of altercations. It was a bit weird to see Raju, who does not look like a tough guy at all, beat up Megastar, but Chiru got revenge by trying to bite him! Infact I loved it best when Naagulu was in snake mode, he'd get this look in his eyes and periodically dart his tongue in and out of his mouth.  Infact I kinda wondered why the girls he killed didn't notice this unusual behavior and refuse to go off into the night with him.

Naagulu's next victim was an unsuspecting school teacher. She shows up asking for directions at a tea kiosk while Naagulu is there pondering his fate.  I just loved her big red daisy print sari.

But you would think with those big glasses that she would be able to see that there was really a snake sitting there.

With all these dead girls showing up Raju begins suspecting Naagulu more and more and well, Naagulu has other things to worry about.

There are a series of events instigated by Naagulu that put Raju and the elephant at risk. But don't worry, the monkey gets his revenge by intercepting Naagulu at his next victim, with a well timed Mongoose in a basket.

Snakes do NOT like Mongeese and Naagulu is no exception.

This was my favorite scene in the whole movie. I just want to know who had the job of repeatedly throwing a live mongoose at Chiranjeevi's head? I wonder how many takes it took to get just the right reaction?

The movie had a comedy track involving some fake snake charmers and a village girl. She had a cool song and dance number I quite enjoyed as well. I couldn't find the song but I did find this awesome trailer.

Yay! My first Snake movie and a Chiru one at that!

ETA: The ladies over at CinemaChaat found the video of the snake song and did an awesome post on this movie as well. Check it out here

Alexandre Dumas seen Lurking at Golconda Fort!

I share many, many loves with my 2 sisters. Since we were kids we’ve always liked the same kind of music (Beatles! Springsteen!), movies (Rom-Com’s, Musicals, Adventures) and Books ( Austen, Greek and Roman Mythology and Dumas). We love the slapstick of Abbott and Costello and the absurdity of Monty Python. We even were attracted to the same types of men. (tall, dark and handsome, swarthy piratey types) But much to my chagrin I have never been able to convince them of the awesomeness that is Indian Cinema. Just looking at the above characteristics you’d think they would be ripe for SI film induction, but I am very sad to say that I have failed miserably in my attempts to win them over so far. This is my last best attempt. If mine and Dolce and Namak’s posts on Tollywood and the Romantic hero can’t crack them, then nothing will. (Well I may still try my duct tape and Youtube videos idea) So Karen and Gale, this post is dedicated to you.

I have loved the books of Alexandre Dumas since I was a kid. I remember writing a poem about the Three Musketeers for an English class in Jr. High (I can’t find it,  I remember it being very cheesy, but hey it rhymed!) Recently I found this picture I sketched in college.  

My favorite books for the longest time were the Three Musketeers and its sequels, plus I loved The Count of Monte Cristo, the best revenge book ever.    It says something for these stories that were mass produced for 19th century French audiences that they have remained so popular. Many of the things I love about these books are reflected in the things I love about Tollywood Masala.

                                               At the end of her post 2 degrees of Separation: The Romantic Hero in Tollywood, Dolce and Namak imagines a conversation between the ghost of Alexandre Dumas and the “first Telugu dishoom” writer.

ADG: Monsieur, my stories are too French at heart to be adapted. How can you presume to do so?

FTDS: Rreyy, I dare you to find one element that we cannot translate into a South Indian movie.

ADG: I have evil dukes, jealous queens and mistresses, and cardinals who are up to no good.

FTDS: And we have evil goondas and underworld lords, jealous aunties, and all kinds of corrupt Ministers and Chief Ministers just waiting to chew some hero meat.

ADG: Hm… I also have family rivalries and backstabbing.

FTDS: That’s ok, we have factionists!

ADG: And what about the damsel in distress whose greatest asset is not her wit but her beauty and her virginity.

FTDS: Ah, for that we have Kajal!

ADG: I also have lyrical speeches and heart tugging emotional love scenes.

FTDS: Heh… Our script writers are not very good with that, but we’ll make do with plenty of songs, dances and sensual poses instead.

The Ghost of Alexandre Dumas has no choice but to slap his forehead and return to the darkness whence he came.

I don’t think of Dumas as the ghostly predecessor to Tollywood’s mass films. I am convinced that he has been reincarnated in the script writers and directors of my beloved Tollywood Masala. When I began preparing for this post I dug out the well worn Bantam paperback edition of The Count of Monte Cristo I got from my parents as a Christmas present in 1982. 

On the first page there is a short bio of Alexandre Dumas (pere). Two quotes from there stood out as proof that Dumas has been reincarnated as the Writers and Directors of Tollywood.

About Dumas: “L’action and L’amour were the two essential things in his life and his fiction” That’s it in a nutshell isn’t it? Action and Love that’s what we the mass audience want and what gets delivered over and over again in Tollywood movies.

And this quote: “His work ignored historical accuracy, psychology and analysis, but its thrilling adventure and exuberant inventiveness continues to delight readers.” I mean come on! If that doesn’t prove Dumas is alive and well and hanging out at Ramoji Film City, I don’t know what does! (I hope the next time fans of Indian cinema complain about mass films, and wish  there would be more class films coming out of Hyderabad, that they first think on whether they would also criticize the works of Dumas.)

How's this for some "exuberant inventiveness"

    So if the writers and directors are Dumas incarnate, what about his characters? One of the reasons I love the Heroes in SI movies is because they remind me so much of the  moustachioed macho lover boys of Alexandre Dumas’ novels. In fact I suspect that Tarak, Mahesh, Prabhas, Bunny and Siddharth are all reincarnations of Dumas’ swashbuckling heroes. 

    

Here’s what I think: 

The Three Musketeers

Athos: I picture Mahesh as Athos. He’s supposed to be the wisest, bravest and most secretive. A lot of his most popular characters were very secretive like Nandu in Athadu and Pandu in Pokiri. He just needs a proper 'stache. Can't you picture him looking out from under the brim of a Musketeer hat?

 He’s kind of an enigma in real life too.

Athos is supposed to be older than the other Musketeers and looked at as a Father figure by D’Artagnan. It doesn’t bother me that Mahesh isn’t old enough for that, but if you need a real Father figure for Athos look no further than MegaStar Chirenjeevi. Beside who doesn’t look up to him in Tollywood? And he has a righteous moustache. 

Porthos: He can only be Tarak. Porthos was honest, fierce and has an appetite for food, women and song. Besides that he has a sword named Balizarde. Lots of Tarak’s movies fit here but his character in Simhadri works best. Simhadri in his goodness refuses to explain his relationship with Bhoomika. He doesn’t have a sword but he has a kick-ass axe.

Besides the awesome dancing the movie also implies he ends up with both heroines. (gasp!)

Aramis: The lover of the Three Muskateers, I think of Siddharth. He is more of a lover than a fighter but he can dishoom with the rest of them when called upon. Here he gets thrashed at a wedding until he is sure of Sada’s love, then his Tollywood super powers come into play.

d’Artagnan: I think of Bunny as d’Artagnan. d'Artagnan is young and hot headed and easily smitten by pretty ladies. His interest in Milady gets him into all kinds of trouble. He is a loyal friend and has major bromances going with his Musketeer pals. I just watched Arya 2 so I can’t help thinking of Bunny playing d’Aragnan after that…only less crazy…LOTS less crazy.

                       The Count of Monte Cristo

Edmond Dantes: Has to be the one and only Prabhas. Just watch Munna and you will see Dumas type revenge played out Tollywood style.  Edmond Dantes had so many alter egos as he exacted his revenge. Prabhas can play down and dirty tough as well as cool and classy a la Billa.

The Man in the Iron Mask:

Sometimes I want to put Ravi Teja in the mask but he looks too macho and tough to have been imprisoned for so long so I think Pawan Kalyan would make an excellent Philippe. He could play royalty with class (after all he is Chiranjeevi’s brother) and he is built in a way that makes him look wiry and tough like I imagine Philippe to be. Plus he rocks the 'stache, must be in the genes.

 

 
 
 
 
 
     I could go on, I love to imagine who would be Cardinal Richelieu (Sonu Sood!) Milady (Sameera Reddy) or the Comte de Rochefort (Rahul Dev) and Constance Bonacieux (has to be Charmi).

     Yep even though it's Hyderabad India, they are all there, 19th century French heroes created by Dumas for a mass audience that hasn’t changed its love for L’action and L’amour no matter what century or continent they are from.
      Now when I watch a fight scene of my Tollywood Super Heroes at Golconda Fort or in the Vikarabad Forest, I imagine the camera panning around and we see Athos, Porthos, Aramis, d’Artagnan, Edmond Dantes, Phillipe and Dumas cheering them on.

Vive la Mass! Jai Masala!

Rajamouli Magic

    S.S. Rajamouli is Tollywood's director with the Midas Touch.  He has a 100% success rate with his seven releases. All have been hits, with his  last couple (Yamadonga, Maghadeera) out doing each other and all other releases at the box office.  He is my favorite director and will remain there until someone makes a movie that unseats Yamadonga as my most treasured film.
    With his next release (Maryada Ramanna)just around the corner I decided to finish out his body of work and watched the last two Rajamouli films I had left, Sye and Vikramarkudu. Each of his films deserve a review/post of their own so I won't review each now.  Instead I will briefly write what stands out for me about each film, some of which I watched months ago. I tried to rank them but gave up after getting too many tied for 2nd and 3rd place, so I will just discuss in the order released.

Student #1 (2001) This was Jr. NTR's first hit.  I watched it on a DVD without subtitles. Even without subs I was able to follow the plot. This is one of only two Rajamouli films that has made me tear-up. I am a complete sap for Heroes crying about their Moms. The scene when Aditya's Mom is coming to visit him in jail and  her husband stops her? That scene killed me, I was a sobbing mess.  I'd say Rajamouli did an excellent job of conveying the  emotions in that scene, if I could be so moved without being able to follow the dialog. If anyone knows of a version that has subs PLEASE let me know!

Simhadri (2003) Another Jr. NTR starrer.  I just watched this last week on DVD that was supposed to have subs, but didn't. (yeah I'm frustrated) I loved the music and dancing in this one and Rahul Dev's demise as the bad guy stands out as particularly spectacular. I missed out on the comedy and sentiment in this one I think, because of the lack of subs.

Sye (2004) This was my first Nitin film- what a cutie-pie!  I would say very different from Rajamouli's previous two. This one is more a campus rivalry than a revenge flick.  The shots of the Rugby game are very exciting. The game didn't seem staged like a lot of sports flick can be. And another stand out is Genelia's dancing. I never thought she could dance very well untill I saw this one.

Chatrapathi (2005)  This was the first Rajamouli movie I saw. What is most memorable for me in this one is the fights. Prabhas kicked-ass in this.  He fought a CGI shark and folded someone in half. It was gloriously over the top. And his brother (played by Shafi)  was a very memorable villain. Plus the Mom scenes. This is the other Rajamouli flick that made me cry.

Vikramarkudu (2006) The Hero in this one is Ravi Teja. Ravi plays a double role as a thief and a police officer. I loved the cute little girl and the villains in this. Ajay as a dacoit seemed like a giant. Once again the music and the song picturizations stand out.

Yamadonga (2007) I love this film. It's as close to perfection as a film can get. Perfect cast from Jr. NTR to Mohan Babu, Priyamani and Mamta. Brahmi and the other comics were used very well.  The fights were wonderfully choreographed and executed. The Music and dancing spellbinding (with Tarak how could it not be?) The story was sweet, funny and exciting. What's not to love?

Maghadeera (2009) This film has opened the doors to the thrill ride that is Tollywood to alot of non-desi Bollywood fans.  I get the sense from blogs and forums that Magadheera has been an eye-opener for alot of Indian movie fans who have never strayed South of Mumbai.  Ram Charan Teja does really well with the action and dancing in this his, second film. I loved  Chiru's cameo, Sri Hari's supporting role and Kajal was beautiful in both present day and past scenes. Great action and a superbly evil villain. Let me also add that Ram Charan has beautiful hair, I'm totally jealous. (He should keep it long. Seriously.)

    So what is behind the Rajamouli magic? Whoever helps him cast his movies should get a raise. The Heroes and Heroines and supporting cast are perfectly chosen.   All of these movies have well put together stories. The majority of them written by Vijayendra Prasad, who happens to be Rajamouli's father. I particularly like how the comedy tracks are so well integrated into the story, something that is often not the case in Telugu films.  The music is memorable and composed by  M.M. Keeravani,  I believe he is Rajamouli's cousin. The set design has improved and gotten more impressive with each film.

    Maryada Ramanna is releasing next week.  It has comic actor Sunil in his second outing as Hero. This film is supposed to be different than Rajamouli's others.  According to his tweets about the film it is less "vulgar and violent" than his previous films. If that is the case then choosing Sunil as the Hero makes sense as he usually plays sweet, funny, sidekick type roles. This short trailer highlights how different from the typical Rajamouli Hero Sunil will be.

    The only concern I have about the film is whether it will have subtitles on it's overseas prints. I have been pestering Rajamouli on his Twitter and Facebook pages and the producer Shobu Yarlagadda on his Twitter account to include subtitles for us non-Telugu speaking fans. I have gotten "we'll try" responses from both of them. It is time for SI films to have them. Magadheera has opened the doors to SI films for alot of non-desi Bollywood fans I think. It would be a shame not to draw more in with the aid of subtitles. I got my fingers crossed, I'll go first day first show regardless - I hate waiting for DVDs and missing out on the big screen experience.

   So the big question is (well besides whether it will have subs or not) will the Rajamouli magic continue and have Maryada Ramanna give him another hit and his fans another wonderful ride? I can't wait to find out!