Dookudu Dir. Srinu Vaitla

      The opening credits spelled out Superstar and then added "Daring and Dashing" to his name. All true for Mahesh Babu's peformance in his latest flick Dookudu. I just love going to see all my favorite Tollywood heroes on the big screen, even without subtitles the experience in a full theater with a vocal and appreciative audience is just not to be missed. I was a little worried I wouldn't get tickets when I saw on twitter that my friends in DC and Toronto were having a hard time getting tickets, so I hedged my bets and bought them on-line about a half an hour before leaving for the theater. My friend Marcia and I went to the 7pm show on Saturday. It was't quite housefull but pretty close. We did get the usual tap on the shoulder and the trying to be helpful "did you know this is the line for the Indian film?" comment from the person behind us. They are allways so curious and delighted when they find out that yes we are in the correct line.
     I had read a few of the reviews and synopsis before we went so I could follow the plot more easily.  Prakash Raj plays  Shankar Narayan a politician and NTR admirer who is a much loved man of the masses. When he meets with a suspicious accident his family allow people to believe he is dead while he lays in a coma in a hospital in Mumbai. Meanwhile his son Ajay (Mahesh) grows up to be a cop in Mumbai who works undercover to get the mafia Don, Nayak played by Sonu Sood. Ajay goes to Turkey for an undercover job and while there meets Prasanthi played by Samantha. Unbeknownst to Ajay, Prasanthi is the daughter of his boss, played by Nasser in a rare comedic role, who Ajay had just accidently shot in the butt during an attempt to bust Sonu's gang.

 Meanwhile Shankar wakes up from his 14 year coma and the doctors tell Ajay and family that he cannot be shocked or upset in anyway. So Ajay sets up a ruse by hiring Brahmanandam as a reality show actor to help convince his father that he did follow in his footsteps and become a politician and that among other things, NTR is alive and well and still serving the people. Much of Brahmanandam's and Mahesh's comedy was verbal so I missed all of that. There was alot of slapping and the audience was in stitches so I will have to wait for the DVD to fully appreciate their scenes together. Later Mahesh brings in MS Narayana playing a wannabe hero to try and dupe Kota Srinivasa Rao and Sayaji Shinde, who played bad guys in league with Sonu. MS Narayana's comedy was much more visual so I enjoyed his scenes alot. I loved his send-ups of Yamadonga, Maghadeera, Simha and Endhiran.

All of the supporting actors did what was required of them. The only problem I had with the movie was there was too many of them so they weren't utilized to the best of their capabilities. Ajay, Subbaraju and Shafi all had miniscule parts. I think it would have been better maybe to combine their charactors and let one of them shine rather than all of them just be in the background. Wasted talent in my opinion and they are all so good at being bad.

Samantha was cute as usual, although she didn't have much to do. It's funny how the voice the actresses are dubbed in in the first movie you see them in gets imprinted. I did not like the voice they used for her as I am used to the voice that dubbed for her in Brindavaanam.

Sonu Sood was his usual badass self and looking fabulous with his all white outfits (my favorite color on him) and bad guy mustache.

But the movie definetly belonged to Mahesh. His hero introduction scene had him revealed behind shattering glass, it was a real cool effect with the music and action. He has excellent comedic timing and could hold his own with Brahmanandam. The interval bang was awesome with Mahesh running and fighting like a knife wielding locomotive. Mahesh was handosme as usual and has a wonderful way of conveying mischeviousness and emotion with just a flicker from his eyes.

 This was my friend Marcia's first Mahesh movie and the next day she was commenting how much his eyes intrigued her and how handsome he is. I introduced her to the favorite Mahesh fan girl pass time of counting layers and Dookudu does not disapoint. There were several scenes whre Mahesh had only 2 layers (polo shirt and tshirt) but during many of the song picturizations he had 4 layers (t-shirt, shirt. Jacket and scarf) especially in the desert song Chulbuli. I enjoyed all the song picturizations. Mahesh isn't the best dancer but he is enthusiastic and the choreographers create dances that suit his abilities and tall frame. My favorite songs were the Kilimanjaro inspired Chulbuli and the wedding song Adara Adarakottu in the second half. I also loved the item number Puvai Poovau. Judging by the whistles from the audience it's well on its way to being considered a classic.

All in all Dookudu was a fabulous in theater experience. The audience was laughing and whistleing and really enjoying themselves. I'm going to try and see it one more time in the theater and will definetly add it to my collection when the dvd gets released. Yay! Mahesh is Back and he is Daring and Dashing!

Nijam (2003) Dir. Teja

    Nijam starring Superstar Mahesh Babu, is another one of my favorite award winning but apparent flop movies. It is Mahesh's least layered performance interms of the number of shirts he wears (only one!! plus the occaisional undershirt) But he gives an award winning performance as he transforms himself from the geeky-cool but innocent school boy, Sitaram,  to a bad-ass killing machine, trained by his equally bad-ass Mom played by Rameshwari. It's a movie with a questionable moral message about the corruption that pervades Indian life.
    The the first half of the movie establishes Sitaram as an innocent school boy that is harrassed and teased by his amorous neighbor played by Rakshita. She shamelessly chases after him even going so far as to press her breasts up against him while he rides his bike. Sitaram howls, makes faces and closes his eyes as he indignantly avoids her advances. I love that unlike Hindi heroines, Telugu ones are frequently portrayed as having a healthy (and normal) atitiude about sex. Rakshita's portrayal of this type of heroine is one of my favorites- cute, fiesty, lusty and confident.

   
  
   






Sitaram lives with his Mother and Father. They are clearly a family of integrity. His Father is a fire fighter who slaps a rowdy that he caught setting a fire. Unfortunetly for him the Rowdy is the soon to be over the edge crazy Devudu played by Gopichand.  This is one of my favorite Gopichand negative roles. He plays heros now but he started off  getting villain roles. He starts off as the surly and morose just-another-member-of-the-goon-squad, but emerges the leader of the gang after killing his higher up and then performing a blood ritual. He shaves his head and ends up with a killer 'stache too.
  



Once Devudu comes to power he seeks revenge on Sitaram's Father. This is where all the bad stuff happens. He sends goonda's to kill his Father in the market place but instead the brother of Devudu's girlfriend Malli, played by Raasi, get's killed. Sitaram's father is imprisoned and everthing Sitaram does to try to get his father help fails because he is first always asked for a bribe. Devudu gains access to the prison and beats his Father badly.

When Sitaram see's his Father is injured he runs from official to offical to get his Father medical attention and justice but everyone is corrupt..from the police officers, jailers, lawyers, government officials, hospital workers and politicians, everyone asks for money first.

Brahmaji was superb as the corrupt cop

When his father dies Sitaram's Mother turn's into a harbinger of revenge. She trains and instructs Sitaram to be her killing machine.  Everyone that didn't do their job and asked for a bribe was going to die. That was the only way they would have justice for what was done to them.

Mahesh does a great job of portaying the transformation from fear and helplessness to anger and then ultimatley revenge. He won a Nandi Award for his peformance and I think it is well diserved.
Once they are on their revenge rampage, the police send in ACP Prakash Raj to capture the murderers. Woot! Yay! Prakash Cop!

Prakash Cop is always one step behind however, and the final showdown between Devudu and Sitaram is awesome. Gopi's performance is C-R-A-Z-Y.

In the end after all the murder, Prakash Cop decides that justice is being served, destroys evidence, shoots himself in the arm and instructs Sitaram and his Mother to lie about what happened. I guess one kind of corruption (plus extrajudicial killings) is better than another.

The music was just so-so, the playback singers didn't mesh with Mahesh. The song picturizations themselves were fun. My favorite's were the ones in the first half plus Raasi's Snake song.


I also liked this one between Mahesh and Rakshita.



I also like Rangu Rangula but I couldn't find a video of it.

All in all Nijam is good fun if the violence and moral ambiguity doesn't bother you. Mahesh is perfect and Gopichand's performance is one of the best all time villains.

The Many Layers of Mahesh

Exciting news for Mahesh fans! He is going to be starring in Mani Ratnam's next film, a period film based on a revered Tamil novel called Ponniyen Selvan. The book is truly an epic piece of literature according to it's wiki page. At 2400 pages I think  I better start reading it now, so I can finish it by the time the film comes out!  The movie will also star Tamil Hero Arya and some reports have said Vijay will feature in it too. Mahesh is known to be an excellent actor and a bit of an enigma on and off screen. His fans will be curious and excited to see the kind of multi-layered performance Ratnam will get out of Mahesh as he brings a classic piece of Literature to the big screen....
    Oh wait, that's not the kind of multi-layers his female fans are concerned with. Oh no. We want to know if Mahesh will shed his usual multi-layered clothing style to go shirtless in a period film. That is the real question!
    I mean look, if it's going to be about the 10th and 11th century Chola Dynasty he has to be dressed appropriately right? Take a look at these pictures:

I am not seeing room for any t-shirt with a  longsleeved shirt under a jacket with a scarf while fighting in the desert combinations ala Khaleja in 10th century Chola land.

Or his usual 3 layers: t-shirt, long sleeved shirt (sometimes rolled up!) jacket sans scarf ala Pokiri.

It's no use ladies you won't get those layers off him.

Sometimes he changes things up by wearing the long sleeved shirt under the t-shirt!

Knowing Mahesh, I'm guessing there is a t-shirt hidden under these layers:

Mahesh even goes to the beach fully clothed. Well it is hot so he rolled up his sleeves to get some sun.

I noticed that in his earlier films he was frequently wearing only one short sleeved shirt and an undershirt.

For a while I blamed his wife Namrata for having him so layered with excess clothes, but then I noticed there are pictures of him in public with his wife, where there is excessive skin show!

No undershirt! Chest hair exposed!

Usually Mahesh looks fabulous, even in all those layers.

Sometimes mistakes are made.

But the big question is why? Why all the layers Mahesh? Maybe he is excessively shy and modest. Maybe the people in charge of continuity on the sets don't want to deal with excessive sweat stains...

Who knows, and with Mani Ratnam's film the question will no longer be relevent. There will be no shirt counting in that film. Maybe we will have the pleasure of counting abs...and we will wonder "Will he go for a 6 pack or will he stay more natural"?

Only Mahesh knows the answer and he's not likely to talk!

Takkari Donga (2002) Dir. Jayant Paranjee

My alternate title for this post is: Move over Old Spice Man: It's Mahesh! In a Cowboy Hat! And Chaps! On a Horse! That should be sufficient information for anyone to watch this 3 hour unsubbed extravaganza of leather multiple times like I did. But if you are not into Cowboy Westerns (or should it be Cowboy Easterns?) and would need further encouragement to watch this wonderful movie, there is available on-line a subtitled version created painstakeingly by a fan, god bless them.

       I happen to love Cowboy Westerns. It is one of those things that my sisters and I bonded with our Dad over. He loved cowboy movies starring John Wayne, James Stuart, James Coburn, John Ford, and Clint Eastwood and he grew up on Roy Rogers Serials. When we were kids he loved sharing his favorite movies with us. I think our family favorite was McLintock! starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. (That movie is my dream Southie remake, Rajamouli, how'd you like to give it a try? Please!)

Clearly writer and director Jayant Paranjee is a huge fan of the genre as well because every possable Cowboy cliche and trope is irreverently put on display in Takkari Donga. Don't believe me? Just look:

We got Spurs



Cowboys galloping across scenic vistas




An exciting  train robbery!



Obligatory fight on the train

And under the train!

Wanted Posters

A Bank Robbery!

Woo Hoo! Mahesh in chaps!

Western town with Hotel, Bar, Bank and Jail

What's for dinner?



Did ya think it would be chicken Tikka?



If that's not enough for you wait 'til you hear about the plot. The film starts with Bad guys on horses dressed in black, lead by Rahul Dev chaseing down some men. They kill one and chase the other off a cliff in pursuit of information about a secret diamond mine.
Fast forward 18 years and you have the survivor of the fall waiting for Raja, played by Mahesh to come and rob a train. Raja shows up in time to singlehandedly rob the train. Next are a sequence of roberies and shootouts and daring escapes as the price on Raja's head climbs higher. He runs into two con-artists played by the lovely Bipasha Basu and Tanikella Bharani (I think he is in every movie ya?) They steal his money, but he manages to get it back after some more fights, shoot'em ups and daring escapes.

The conartist and gambler



A poker game





During one of his escapes Raja runs into Bhuvana played by Lisa Ray. She is seeking a fortunetellers advice about finding her true love. Raja overhears and immediatly begins teasing Bhuvana. Of course she takes an immediate dislike to him. Next Raja is hired by Bhuvana's Father to take her away from the town because the Bad Guy Shaka is after him and he fears for his daughters safety. Now Raja has to travel with an uncooperative female (shades of True Grit) while being chased by Shaka and his men, the Marshalls that are after him for the robberies, and Bips and Tanikella.

More fights shoot'em ups and several daring rescues of a fluffy dog. (Awww!)

During all this Bhuvana tries to get Raja's pants off. Several times. Now I watched this without subs the first few times and I was allways curious what she was doing. I mean I know why most of us ladies would want to get Mahesh's pants off but Tollywood films usually aren't that risque. She never does manage to get his pants off. She should take some lessons from Raja.

After all the fights, escapes and general riding around. (They always seem to end up back at the same town) Raja tells Bhuvana about his past and it turns out that the bad guy Shaka was the one that killed his father and sister. We also find out that Bhuvana has the map to the diamond mine hidden in her locket.

But Shaka catches Raja just as the map is burned up. He takes Bhuvana and leaves Raja on a horse with a noose around his neck! How many Cowboy movies have we seen that happen!  And you know there is gonna be snakes, rattlers maybe that will scare the horse into galloping away!

Well not rattlers exactly...COBRAS!

Now there is another daring escape,  a hazardous travers of a waterfall and a harrowing climb down a cliff. Finally Shaka and Raja fight it out in the diamond mine. And Rahul Dev meets another spectacular demise at the business end of a stalagtite.

Besides all of these fabulous Cowboy western tropes, Takkari Donga has not forgotten it's Tollywood sensabilities either.  There are  the usual song picturizations. I have to say the music didn't stand out to me in this film, but the picturizations were great because they had Mahesh in all kinds of shiny fringed outfits and tight jeans.

Ah Mahesh! I am waiting for your next Western. In a cowboy hat! And Chaps! On a Horse!