Ramcsays….

It would have been quite hard to imagine Allu Arjun as Stylish Star, a decade back when he debuted in Gangothri. He metamorphosed into a real style icon for Tollywood audience. And his latest release ‘Iddarmayilatho’ is an epitome of that. He looks apt for his role, dresses like a rockstar, moves well on his feet and above all he emotes near perfect.

Iddarmayilatho is a regular love-drama-revenge saga with some complications. You have a cute Indian girl, Komali (Amala Paul) who arrives in Europe to study music. Obviously, she falls for our guy, Sanju Reddi (Allu Arjun) who is a street performer. Parents of either parties accept their love. A mafia gang kills both the families as Komali captures a murder incident in her camera without her knowledge. Unfortunately for the villain, hero survives and how he avenges them is the second half. How the Mafia and Aakansha(Catherine Tresa)’s politician-father and the hero are connected is the basic plot of the movie.

The first half is a cute love story, narrated to audience as a diary study by Aakanksha. Bramhanandam as music teacher of Komali makes the first half a joy ride. His song on Western vs Classical music is good. Puri squeezes in couple of interesting scenes about one’s character with some tongue-in-cheek lines. Apart from these and a couple of candid dialogues, there is nothing much to praise Puri for in this movie. He should get rid of his bad habit of introducing comedy characters in the second half which are totally irrelevant to the script. The Ali-Bramhanandam episode does no good to the movie and above all it fails to serve its purpose: to provide comic relief in a needlessly prolonged second half. Puri has to do more than just coming up with an interesting (or should I say, irrelevant) title for the movie, if he wants to get back his heydays.

The best thing about this movie is Bunny. Next to that, I can remember couple of peppy numbers by DSP. The violin song sounds as romantic as it can get. The mass song lives up to its name ‘Top Lesipoddi’. The background score by DSP is just awful in the action sequences, the loud unnecessary video-gamish eagle screeches are totally avoidable. The action sequence in the first half, where the hero tears into the villain’s henchmen with a dead expression is impressive. The cinematographer has done a commendable job and almost all the shots in Spain look beautiful, especially the way he has captured the beauty of those two leading ladies will not go unnoticed.

A special mention about the new girl (considering her first movie went unnoticed :P) Catherine Tresa captures your attention with some senseless-silly dialogues initially and later she sizzles in every shot with her oomph factor. Going by the role, one must say Amala Paul loses out to her on glam quotient. She also makes faces, typical girl kind of and uses her two extra large eyes to maximum affect to make an impression. Most of the cast, although unnecessary, do their job well. No complaints in that regard. However, you would wish you were the editor for this movie . This is one of those movies where you wouldn’t miss much if you skip. Anywhichways – this movie is just made to forgotten, thanks to the long and boring second half.

PS:As I was made to sit through the torturous second half I repeatedly asked myself this one question. Why so much exaggeration over everything.? Why so much exaggeration in Audio release functions over some trivial things Hero/Heroine does to prepare themselves for a role? They are actors. They ought to do those. No need of exaggeration. Why so much exaggeration on an inspired script/fight/music? Why exaggeration on presentation rather than content? And why not put the same effort on making the script impeccable? If you think through you will hardly find a handful of movies in the recent few years which are genuine and deserved to be watched every second on the silver-screen. What hurts me is, as audience we ought to take the burden of raised ticket fares (Imagine the situation of NRIs who buy tickets for tens of dollars) and be treated to nonsense like this. The director when has nothing to fill in the second half just throws in some absolute rubbish to make it a regular commercial 2.5 hour movie. Puri is an expert at this..!! Remember his vulgar comedy in Nenu Na Rakshasi and other films where comedy track has nothing to do with storyline? If the director can not twine comedy track with the main story and move the story forward (Off late VV Vinayak and Sreenu Vytla have excelled in this) then he better not fill in nonsensical stuff. This is coming out of frustration of audience esp. when you expect something from Puri Jagganadh and this is what he delivers and over that the cast and crew exaggerates this shit.

After making some Shor In the City, the southern director duo of Raj and DK have created quite a buzz with their next venture Go Goa Gone. The film is quite a new genre: Zomcom, for direct Indian audience who are not into US and UK zombie TV series and movies. The film is about how three friends bored with their lives, go for a fun ride to Goa and how they handle flesh eating, blood sucking zombies.

Hardik (Kunal Khemu), Luv (Vir Das) plan a Goa trip when the former loses his job and the latter his girl friend. They are accompanied by their roomie, an innocent Bunny (Anand Tiwari), unlike his roomies who smoke pot all the time. Luv meets Luna (most upgraded version :P) played by Puja Gupta of Faltu fame, and tries hitting on her and later Hardik follows suit. The movie is routine until the Zombies hit the screen, but you are never left high and dry, the hilarious lines and local slang expletives provide the laughs. A new drug is launched in a party organized by Russian Mafia in a nearby island, it supposedly makes them super high and numb; it turns people into zombies. All the hell breaks loose and zombie fun begins then as the three friends and Luna along with Boris (Saif Ali Khan) are the only humans left on the island. How Saif helps them escape the zombie bite and getout of that island is the rest of the story.

Kunal and Vir Das share awesome on screen bonding as best buddies and they succeed everytime they try to make you laugh. Special mention for Kunal Khemu as he pulled off his role very easily, it is his breakout performance where audience go crazy watching him. Anand looks apt as the innocent guy and delivers his lines well. Puja Gupta looks hot in bikini and cool otherwise. She actually has nothing much to do except hold a gun and be a tomboy, while a rocking Saif and his boys steal the show. Saif easily looks Russian mafia with his Russian kinda English and his bleached hair. Although, the movie posters have him ahead of the other guys in the film, its actually Kunal and Vir Das whose lines you remenisce with your friends and laugh out loud. Saif should be appreciated for accepting this small role (although, for her sis’s beau, Kunal). This movie needed someone like Saif to catapult it to a big movie status and big openings.

The other departments have all done a good job. This is one of those movies where almost everything falls in place; the songs are a rage on MTV, the background score – simply apt for a fun on the run movie, the cinematography – Goa…!! its a beautiful landscape and an awesome party place captured true to its sense. The way the director duo captures the hilarious ‘those awkward silence moments’ between a lovely couple before the guy makes his move, shows the directors’ imagination and reminds you of your teenage romance. Simply put, the directors have done a great job instilling a Zombie adventure with a perfect right dosage of the fun and the frolic pill.

Go for it dude..!!

Post Ishq Nithin has gone for a complete image makeover. He is choosing scripts which suit his neat and boy next door looks. He essays one such cool role in GJG. Undoubtedly, situational comedy is the USP of the movie and the actors respond well with good comic timing to the director’s convincing narration of a tentaively confusing story.

GJG begins with hero falling for Shruthi, played by Isha Talwar, and gets her phone number through his friend Pandu, played by Ali. Karthik (Nithin) notes down the wrong number which happens to be Nithya Menon’s phone number. All through the first half Nithin uses a bag of tricks to win Shruthi’s heart on phone, while he actually is talking to Nithya Menon. Meanwhile Karthik helps his friend Madhu, played by Madhunandan, win the heart of his dreamgirl which coincidentally happens to be Shruthi. Interval bang turns out to be interesting as the mix up is realized by Nithin. How he sets things right and who he chooses ultimately, Shruthi or Nithya forms a hilarious and bit emotional second half.

Direcor Vijay Kumar does a great job in treating a confusing subject with right dose of humor. He made sure Pawan Kalyan’s fans (who would boost the movie’s business) are thouroughly entertained by remixing Power Star’s song and fusing the famous Kushi interval bang scene into the script very hilariously. The gay comedy scene might be a little too much to digest for family audience, but its okay. He just caters for what audience look for, comedy that gels with the story. Music by Anoop Rubens is not great, but never sounds sour. Couple fo songs need a special mention, the Pawan Kalyan’s remix song, which makes u tap your leg and the title song, which you might hum for a few nights after you watch the movie. Cinematography, camera work are good. The audience might not mind a sharper pair of scissors for editing.

Coming to performances Nithin passes as the lover boy with ease. He dazzled in dances, especially in the Tholi Prema remix song. But its Nithya Menon, who steals the show in the second half with few grey shades to her character. She is a natural actor and looks cute with her expressive eyes, sounds cute too as long as she dubs for herself. She just has to take care of her costumes to hide a few extra pounds, made obvious by her short stature. Madhunandan bags a meaty role and does not let the director down. Infact, he churns out many funny dialogues with good comic timing. Thagubothu Ramesh has a few hilarious punch lines too. Nothing much Isha Talwar does, what she does is good enough for her role. There is an item song where Jwala Gutta tries to set the dance floor ablaze, but falls flat as nothing more than a cheap skin show, which the censor board took care of. One wonders if she looked better on Badminton court.

Add another successful movie to the long romcom genre of Telugu Film Industry. The movie is a clear winner providing laughs for the entire family and a cool 2.5 hours in this hot summer. Enjoy it.