Oosaravelli Dir. Surrender Reddy

October is turning out to be a fabulous month for movies! As a major Jr.NTR fan, I went to see his latest movie Oosaravelli at the Wednesday night Premier show in Minneapolis. Even though it was the middle of the work week there was no way I was going to miss the first day first show! It was early enough  that there were no reviews or movie synopsis for me to rely on but I think I managed following the plot just fine.

This movie was really different than a typical NTR vehicle..in fact it was anything but typical. Major kudos have to go to Tarak for having the confidence and generosity to choose a story that gives such a prominant role to the heroine and shares some of the biggest .laughs with the supporting cast.

Tarak's charactor Tony is an unpredictable  street thug. He meets Niharika, played by Tamannah, when he rescues her from terrorists in Kashmir. He falls in love with her and pursues her but is thwarted when he learns she has a fiance named Rakesh. Most of the comedy in the first half is from Tony's interactions with Raghu Babu and his motley gang of rowdies. Eventually Tony meets Sarkar a low level mafia Don played by Jaya Prakash Reddy and from what I could tell without subs it seemed like he was using first Raghu Babu's gang, then Sarkar's connections to get to the real bad guys. Unfortunelty for Niharika, her fiance Rakesh was one of the really really bad guys. When Niharika realizes Rakesh is a criminal she suddenly decides she loves Tony instead. But for some reason Tony avoids all her calls, instead he kills off all the bad guys at the interval fight. All of them, or so I thought.. The second half brings in the real villain Azzu Bhai, played by Prakash Raj and in a flash back you find out what the connection is between Tony's apparent change in feelings for Naharika and what the connection is between Tony, Niharika and Azzu Bhai.


The flashback is all Tamannah's and it really shows her acting talent. The scene where she meets Tony and begs him for help is very moving. Both of them gave excellent performances and the sight of her clinging to his leg as he drags her through the mud is unforgettable. 

Tamannah's role is such a departure.  Most of the Telugu films I have seen under utilize (that's putting it mildly) the heroine. In fact it is common for the heroine to disapear completely in the second half or to only show up just before the songs come on.  The phenomona of the "disapearing heroine" is one of the quirks of Telugu films that non-Telugu people like me find most perplexing. Oosaravelli proves that having a strong female role adds so much potential and depth to the story that I hope in future film makers will use heroines for more than just titilation.

 Besides Tamannah, another female actress, Payal Ghosh had a substantial part as Niharika's friend Chitra.  She had some powerful scenes with both Tarak and Prakash Raj. The script also allowed her a chance at comedy too.

Surender Reddy and Vakkantham Vamsi should be commended for the story and script. Like I said at the beginning it was noticable that the many laughs were spread around to much of the supporting cast. Everyone from Raghu Babu, Sarkar as well as their henchman had a chance to bring the laughs and MS Narayana's brief appearance was also very funny.

Another thing that was unusual with Oosaravelli was the pacing of the songs. I have gotten used to the first song being a hero introduction song that establishes the heroic qualities of the lead. But the first song  (Brathakali) was a duet between Tarak and Tamannah. I loved the picturization and was surprised it wasn't the usual type of opening song.

 Then the second song was another duet called Nenante Naaku. I love the melody of this song and it is my favorite from the album. But surprise surprise the third song was another duet! Devi Sri Prasads music is really good but the choreography for Tarak's duets in all his movies are pretty much always the same moves.  Tarak is such a delight to watch dancing I was begining to wonder when a fullout dance number would start. Finally Dandiya India came on just before the set up for the interval bang and Yay! Tarak dancing at his best and choreography that does justice to his talent!

I loved the picturization of Sri Anjanayam even though Tarak didn't dance and Yalango Yalango was fun too. Once again Tamannah got more screen time and was the focus of the Niharika song.

The action  scenes were very well done. I loved the interval bang with Tarak chasing down the bad guys with a sledge hammer like he was holding Simhadri's axe again. The final fight with Prakash Raj was very cool. The slow motion scenes along with the exciting Oosaravelli Theme song really worked well. Infact in general the slow motion worked  well in all the action scenes it was used. Often the slow-mo messes up the sense of gravity a fight scene should have if you know what I mean.Ooosaravelli's action had people and things seem like they landed hard rather than fall too slowly like often happens.

All in all Oosaravelli was a nice departure from the usual hero centered formula. I saw an interview Tarak did after Brindavanam where he indicated he had a specific plan to move himself beyond his usual mass roles and that Brindavanam was the first step. Oosaravelli proves he is headed in the right direction!

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.

Bbuddha...Hoga Tera Baap! (2011) Dir. Puri Jagannadh

Popular Telugu Director Puri Jagannadh's Bollywood release starring Icon Amitabh Bachchan got me all excited when I saw this trailer for the movie:


OMG! Sonu Sood! Charmee! Subba Raju! and Prakash Raj! Squee! Some Southie style Dishoom, and  my favorite Hema Malini and then Raveena Tandon making a comeback appearance! Woo Hoo! This was looking like all kinds of fun!

 Bbuddha...Hoga Tera Baap! mostly lived up to my expectations, it was a fun masala romp.

The movie starts with Prakash Raj as the mafia don Kabir gleefully ordering and then watching the bombing of some public figures. Sonu Sood plays ACP Karan Malhotra in charge of hunting down the criminals. He is given the classic rowdy bashing slow-mo entrance of a Southie Hero. It is so cool to see him in his IPS uniform kicking some goonda butt. Infact one of the plusses of the movie is Sonu gets lots of screen time. 

Kabir gets frustrated when ACP Karan arrests two of his henchman so he demands that the best assassin be hired to take him out. Enter the Big B..stylish hired gun and angry "old" man, Viju. He gets angry anytime he is called "Bbuddha" (old man) and either verbally or physically bashes the hapless ne'er do wells that cross his path. These confrontations were done in a "toned down" Southie style which worked because you don't really expect to see Big B flipping 12 rowdies through the air with one punch but it was cool to see him take on 3. Woot! Go Big B!

I have to admit I am a noob when it comes to Mr. Bachchan's pre-2000 iconic roles (**looks around sheepishly and whispers**...I have only seen Sholay and Yaarana) so I am unfamiliar with his "angry young man" persona. But I did thoroughly enjoy this role..I am one who does not get put off by him playing a flirt either. 

Early in the first half he runs into Amrita, played by bubbly South Actress Charmee, and helps her and her friend Tanya, played by the lovely Sonal Chauhan, deal with some eve teasers.  When Amrita invites him home to thank him, her mother, played by Raveena Tandon immediately responds as if they are long lost friends. It was great fun to see Raveena back in a funny role.  Amrita's over active imagination leads her to suspect that Viju might possibly be her Father. On top of that Tanya is being romantically pursued by ACP Karan all the while that Viju is threatening and taking shots at him.

There is a nice but predictable twist at the interval, and in the second half Subba Raju shows up as one of Kabir's rowdies who is suspicious of Viju's sudden prominent position in the gang.

As a fan of Telugu movies I have to say Puri Jagannadh did an excellent job creating roles for the supporting actors that highlighted what they are so very good at without having the South Indian OTT tropes overwhelm the story. Prakash was awesome as usual in his Prakash Bad avatar and the final confrontation scenes with Big B are fabulous! A must see for Prakash Raj fans.  Charmee had a role that showed her comic and bubbly nature. Subba Raju was a bad guy with a significant speaking part and it was a thrill to watch him go toe to toe with Bachchan. (Can someone please cast him as a Hero already? Geez! Some fan girls have been waiting..) Likewise it was fun to watch Sonu get his hero entrance at last.

I do have some complaints as a fan however...Hema Malini was waisted in her role as Sonu's Mother. She just mainly worried...Her and Amitabh are so good together and have such chemistry but the role she was given didn't call for it. She didn't have much screen time (Raveena Tandon's part was bigger) and though there was ample reason for sparks to fly between her and Amitabh it just didn't happen. That was a lost opportunity in my opinion.

Also the biggest throw away scene from Jagannadh's hit Pokiri was included word for word in this movie..Why?
My other complaint is why oh why wasn't Raveena Tandon's Item number in the movie?? Without it there was only one full song picturization with dancing, the Title song combined with Go Meera Go which was fun enough.




 Haal-E-Dil only had about a minute of a montage of Big B walking on the beach.
Main Chandigarh di Star would have been a great addition to the film and there were several places I can think of that it would have fit.


While I don't expect Mr Bachchan to do anymore dancing than he did, it would have been great if Puri Jagannadh had brought some South Indian Choreographers down for the Main Chandigarh Di Star Item Promo song. It could have been choreographed alot better. Raveena could have done more than she was asked to do in that number. Also Charmee is a good dancer and could have been used as such.  This was a Masala movie so more songs would have been appropriate.  I just don't understand why Hindi film makers are pulling away from one of the most important USP's they have. Maybe Hindi audiences really don't like songs in their movies anymore. If that is the case I will either adjust or stick with Southies.

It's my Birthday! and OMG I love Twitter!

    I can't resist doing a short post about my Birthday. And Twitter. And how totally awesome Twitter is especially on my Birthday! I was really feeling down yesterday. Not about getting older mind you. I turn 49 today and am proud of every grey hair and wrinkle because I (mostly) had fun earning them. And the ones I got from sad and stressfull situations have made me a very strong person so I celebrate them too.
     Also I don't feel middle aged at all. I still feel like a kid. Well my vision has gotten worse, I wear trifocals now but I've always had poor vision and have worn glasses since I was 10. So that's not a big deal. And my knees hurt sometimes because I have arthritis, but they have hurt since I injured them when I climbed Kilimanjaro so I totally BRAG about that! So that's not a big deal either.  I feel so much like a kid (um...by kid I mean 25-ish) that my 15 year old daughter complains about how loud I play my music and says I play around too much. I say there is no such thing! Plus embarassing her is kind of fun and rediculously  easy given her age.
    I was down mainly because it seems we miss all holidays and family celebrations because I live so far from my family. Americans are like that, we spread out! I think it is the pioneering spirit, leaving the old country knowing you won't see family again...nowadays we leave home and make our way independently. It's part of what we do. Especially midwest farmer types.  I haven't celebrated any family Birthdays, Anniversaries, Thanksgiving or Easter with my family in maybe 20 years.  I was feeling down because my daughter has always missed out on that too. (Except Christmas, we manage somehow at Christmas.) She's a sweetheart and tells me it doesn't bother her because it's normal to her, so I am the only one that probably feels bad about it.
    But  when she sees me feeling down then she feels bad, then I feel worse.  I was in the middle of feeling crappy but trying not to, so I went on Twitter and decided to spam my Favorite Tollywood stars to see if I could get one of them to wish me Happy Birthday. I focused on Jr. NTR because he is my number 1 favorite and Prakash Raj because he is Prakash Awesome! Spamming them was fun in and of itself because I tried to write something different each time.  I am especially proud of this one, a two for one spam about subtitles and my Birthday!

    And then some of my tweety pals, as Prakash Raj calls them, helped me and spammed them for a Birthday wish too. Thank you Nicki, Cynthia, Liz, Suzy and Harsha! And look! It worked!

    OMG! I was just about to go to bed when Tarak tweeted so I almost missed it! I squeee'd so loud I woke my daughter up! Poor thing! I totally scared her, she thought someone was breaking in! And he tweeted directly to me too! It was so cool and so very sweet of him! It is almost silly how happy it made me!  And then when I got up this moring I found this!

Squeeee! Prakash Raj called me dear!

    And then on top of all of that I have been getting  Happy Birthday Greetings from Tarak's and Prakash Raj's fans all day!  I can't tell you how much everyone's Brithday Greetings have meant to me. So Thank you all that have sent them!
    And then the wonderful guys over at Nandamurifans DB have been sending me wishes there as well. There are 2 threads started, here and here.

I love how the internet makes the world small. Instead of feeling disconnected from my family I feel so lucky and connected to everyone. Thank you everyone for making my Birthday so special!

My special friend Harsha from NFDB and Twitter has started a new blog about Telugu Films. It is going to be great having an actual Telugu person writing in English about Tollywood films. You can find Harshas Theory here. Welcome to the Blogging world Harsha!

Brindaavanam (2010) dir. Vamsi Paidapally

I won't be able to explain exactly how excited I was to finally see my favorite Tollywood hero on the big screen,  let me just say that for me personally, Endhiran and Khaleja were fabulous opening acts for what has turned out to be a superfantastic (yes that is one word) October.
I saw Brindaavanam in a very packed theater (the most I've seen in the theater and lining up for the later show since Om Shanti Om). Since I was going to be seeing a movie without subtitles, I did my usual peeking at reviews so I can get an idea of the basic story going in, so I knew that the first 15 minutes would have a fight and a song. I had my friend Marcia with me who is a newbie to Tollywood and had become a huge Jr. NTR fan after only one viewing of Yamadonga and some dance videos. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the Hero Introduction and it was so cool to see the theater erupt and Marcia almost fall out of her chair. (I of course remained quite composed, I am from Minnesota after all) Ha-Ha! Such fun!

Jr. NTR plays Krish, a millionaire's son, who has a girlfriend Indhu, played by Samantha. She tells him about her friend Bhoomi, played by Kajal who needs help getting  out of an arranged marriage. Prakash Raj plays Bhoomi's Dad. He is wonderfull as the stern Father. He has lots of stoney stares and glares. I wasn't able to figure out why the heck he would push Bhoomi into an arranged marriage with the evil looking goonda played by Ajay, I mean couldn't he tell by looking at him he was bad news? Anyway Indhu convinces Krish to pretend to be Bhoomi's boyfriend in order to help her get out of her predicament. While traveling with her to her rural home (named Brindaavanam)she fills him in on her family which seems to be a very miserable and dysfunctional bunch. Once Krish arrives he is able to win them all over and resolve some of their problems. The supporting cast is excellent and features what seems like almost all the main supporting stars of Telugu films.

Kota Srinavasa Rao plays Bhoomi's grandfather, he tells Krish about his other son played by Srihari. It seems Prakash Raj and Srihari are step brothers who have been feuding for a long time. Someone in the theater was kind enough to tell me the feud was over a lack of respect exhibited at a wedding, not sure whose, maybe Srihari's. When the grandpa leaves to visit his other son Krish goes along.
     Srihari was great! Seemed like all his dialogs started with "Rey!" and were said in an echo chamber. (I just love the Tollywood sound effects during fights and speeches and funny moments. Such a wonderfull part of the ride, puts a smile right on my face!) Krish manages to bring the two Brothers together and Prakash Raj is happy now to let Bhoomi marry Krish. A bit of a problem because Indhu is really Krish's girlfriend. Not only that but it turns out Indhu is Srihari's daughter. Indhu comes up with another plan to play along with the engagement by bringing in  Brahmanandam in as a pretend Father for Krish. At the same time Srihari finds out Indhu has a boyfriend and  brings Krish's real parents to Brindaavanam.
       The rest of the film is a series of comical escapades as they try to keep the charade going. The audience was in stitches during the scenes between Tarak and Venu Madhav and Tarak and Brahmi. Brahmi's entrance caused almost as many cheers and whistles as Tarak's entrance. I enjoyed Venu more I think primarily because his comedy scenes were much more physical and so the lack of subs didn't deminish my enjoyment of him.

    Samantha and Kajal did fine with their respective roles. I liked Samantha's charactor better maybe because I think she is a better actress. It's not an easy task to keep up with Tarak, and I have to confess I was mostly watching him, but I thought they both did an excellent job in the dances.

The movie's climax had Krish confessing to Srihari and Prakash about his deceit. That doesn't go over very well, but then Bhoomi needs rescueing so when Krish saves her all are happy again. In the end Krish has to decide who to marry and like in Simhadri it is implied he ends up with both. 

Brindaavanam can really be summed up in one word: Tarakariffic! (Hee-hee I made that one up!) Tarak was his usual awesome self. The audience cheered during his dialogs, especially the Racha Racha speech (not me though I *ahem* remained quiet and ladylike throughout) The fights were great! I loved some of the funny details like when he wrapped his fist in the towel and helped all the rowdies he pounded land on the ground quietly so he could sneak up on more of them. I loved the tree breaking apart and cutting the other tree in half during the climax fight. The variety of looks on his face when he was in Brindaavanam trying to keep his charade going were priceless. His dialog delivery was fun to watch. I can't wait for the dvd to get the full benefit of the comedy and the emotional scenes. 

The music by S.S. Thaman is very good and Tarak's dancing proved once again that he is the best. There aren't video clips sufficiently long enough to post the songs, so that will have to wait for the review with screencaps I'll probably do whenever the dvd with subs comes out.   I loved Yuvakula, the first song picturisation right after the Hero Intro scenes. What a great way to start the movie! I also loved the the picturizations for Eyi Raja and Chinnadho. In all the songs I was really glad they weren't over edited. I hate it when there are too many cuts like in Adhurs. It takes away from the enjoyment of just watching the man move.

All in all Brindaavanam had everything I love about Tollywood movies. It was definetly worth seeing in the theater even without subtitles. But for me I think the hero made it Tarakariffic!

Kadhalan (1994) Tamil dir. Shankar

    October 1st is fast approaching and the much awaited , much hyped Shankar film, Endhiran, starring the Tamil Super Star Rajinikanth and Bollywood siren Aishwarya Bachchan will hit theaters world wide. Here in Minneapolis we will get all three versions of the movie, the Tamil Endhiran, Telugu dubbed Robo and the Hindi dubbed and subbed Robot. As much fun as it would be to see the original Tamil version in a packed Rajinikanth worshipping theater, I will be going to the Hindi version as it is for some reason much cheaper ($10.00 vs.$25.00) and it has subtitles.

    I am looking forward to it because Shankar's movies are known to have high production values and he has experimented with CGI effects in all his movies. Endhiran is supposed to have had the biggest budget of any Indian film to date and judging by the trailers I can see why. Oh Yeah, It's gonna be a spectacle alright! Take a look at this!

  Now I have only seen one other Shankar movie (Boys 2003), so I thought it would be a good idea to watch another one of his movies to get me in the right frame of mind while I wait for Endhiran's release. I thought Kadhalan, starring Prabhu Deva, would be a great movie to start with. It was only Shankar's second film but the movie and the music by A. R. Rahman was a huge hit.

Prabhu Deva plays Prabhu, the son of a police officer who is the student leader at the college he attends.  His friend, played by comic actor Vadivelu, teases him about why he shows no interest in girls. But Prabhu is convinced that the girl of his dreams is out there and he will recognize her immediately upon seeing her.

When Prabhu goes to ask a powerfull Politician to give a speech at his college, he literally runs into his daughter Shruti played by Nagma. Of course she is the girl he has seen in his dreams, so he begins his quest to get her attention.



Now that is one way to get a girls attention!

 Unfortunetly all of his attempts to woo her fail. His friends insist he is way out of his league and he ends up insulting her when and he and  Vadivelu join her Bharathanatiyam dance class. Heart broken he confides in his Father, who I would like to nominate as the best most understanding filmy Dad ever. He even digs through garbage to find a dress hook his son had saved and cherished!

 His Father encourages him to learn Bharathanatiyam dance in order to impress her. He works hard and in a very short time he has mastered it. He sneeks into her house and dances for her then proclaims his love. She of course then  begins to notice him (what girl wouldn't?) and soon finds herself falling in love too.

Now we come to find out that Shruti's father is behind a series of bombings. He hires an assassin played by Raghuvaran (he is rocking the 90's mullet) to bomb a temple. It happens to be the very temple his daughter is supposed to do a dance performance at. He forbids her to go but she runs away with Prabhu so she can perform in the dance. Her Dad sends in the Army to get her and has Prabhu arrested and tries to get him framed for the bombings.

Now lets take a moment and reflect on the two Dads in this film.

We have the World's Best Dad.

                                                 And the World's Worst Dad Ever!

Shruti's Father has Prabhu tortured in prison. And even tricks his father into beating him.

Shruti locks herself in a rundown building and refuses to eat until Prabhu is released. It is her embarassing behavior at a party that finally convinces her Dad to let Prabhu go.

Now that Prabhu is free all he has to do is stop Raghuvaran, unveil Shruti's Dad as the real villain, find Shruti, who has been sent to her Grandparents and find the bomb, all without getting killed first.

Well, he is the Hero after-all so you know he is going to manage it all just fine. Raguvaran and the evil Dad meet a fitting end. And he finds Shruti with the help of her Grandparents. And of course the bomb is disposed of properly.

A.R Rahman's soundtrack established him as a force to be reckoned with and of course Prabhu Deva's dancing was groundbreaking. I love the two most well known songs, Urvasi Urvasi and Mukkala (love the Good the Bad and the Ugly homage in that one)

I also like Ennavale Ennavale because it shows the Special effects you expect in a Shankar film.

I also like this fun number.

Eerani Kuradhani Gopala

I thought Kadhalan was great fun. I have really enjoyed the two Shankar films I ahve seen so far. After Endhiran I think I'll move Jeans up my queue and try that one next!

As an Addendum to this post, I decided that since Prakash Raj is in about every third movie I watch it is only fitting he be mentioned in about every third of my blog posts. He's overdue for a mention here so I thought it would be a great opportunity to tell you all about my friend DustDevil Liz's awesome new blog: My year with Prakash Raj Be sure to check it out for all the Prakash Awesome you crave.

Bunny (2005) dir. V.V. Vinayak

There are many reasons to watch an Allu Arjun movie.  He is extremely fine to look at and he's an awesome dancer- one of the best. (I'll save the debate on whether he's better than Jr. NTR for another post) He is also very, very good looking. (it's worth mentioning twice) And since I am old enough to be his mom it would be somehow inappropriate for me to mention three times how nice he is to look at, so I'll  leave that gushing to my friend ApunBindaas.  I have seen enough of his movies now to add him to my Favorites list. Bunny is the 5th Allu Arjun movie I have seen, and so far is one of my favorites.

One thing I noticed right away is Bunny's theme song.  Whenever Bunny is coming to the rescue or is about to do something totally awesome his intro theme song plays.  I just love that! It totally builds the excitement, you know some major ass-kicking is about to take place. (I wish I had a theme song like that. It would be so cool to have the excitement and suspense build  for my students when I'm about to assign homework or at home when I tell my daughter to do the dishes. I bet they would be sooo motivated by it...oh gosh it would be FUN!)

 Here's Bunny beating up some rowdies at the beginning of the movie.  He plays a college student who gets Mahalakshmi, played by Gowri Munjal to fall in love with him.  She is the spoiled daughter of the over protective bad Dad played by Prakash Raj.  Prakash Dad will do anything to protect his daughter even have any boy who talks to her get their eyes plucked out. (Yeah he's BAD!) So Bunny would be in danger except he can bash all the goons and can outsmart them all too.

Eventually Bunny gets Prakash Dad to let him marry Mahalakshmi on the condition that all his wealth gets transfered to him. Now we find out that Bunny is really an orphan.  His father was ordered killed by the greedy Prakash Raj, who happened to be his Brother- In- law.  Bunny was given by his Aunt to one of his fathers loyal men to raise with the intention of one day having him marry Mahalakshmi and get the wealth back that Prakash Dad stole. There was some great momma drama (aka heros crying about their moms), when Bunny found out about the sacrifices his adoptive  parents made on his behalf.

In the flashback we see how Bunny's father gets betrayed. Tamil star Sarath Kumar plays Bunny's dad in the flashback.  He gets his own intro scene.  We see how he is a beloved leader of the people and how he gets betrayed by Prakash Dad.

Of course in the end, Prakash Dad has a change of heart, unfortunelty his right hand man Mysamma, played wonderfully by Mukesh Rishi, does not. The final fight sequence between Bunny and Mysamma has some wonderfull taunting. (I love all the taunting that goes on before the fights!)

Maybe he is just angry because someone spray painted a grey circle in his hair!

The last fight is great. Of course Bunny wins in the end.

Hmmm This reminds me, I need to re-watch Varudu. Hee-Hee

Allu Arjun is known for his dancing. This movie has some of my favorites.  I love all the song picturizations.  It was hard to choose my to favorites, but after multiple viewings I have decided these the best Bunny dances!
Va Va Varava
  Bunny Bunny

Did I mention he was fine?