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billa review

Billa' Review:

Film: Billa
Rating: 3/5
Cast: Prabhas, Namita, Anushka, Hansika, Subba Raju, Supreet, Kelly Dorge, Aravind, Rahaman, Ali etc
Camera: Soundara Rajan
Music: Mani Sharma
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Fights: Stun Shiva
Art: AS Prakash
Producers: Narendra, Prabodh
Screenplay-Dialogue-Direction: Meher Ramesh
Released On: 3rd April 2009

The much awaited big banner film ‘Billa’ has released today. Many assumed that it would be an oasis in the desert of flops. Let us hope how far the assumptions turned true.

Story:
Billa ( Prabhas) a gangster in Malaysia becomes the most wanted for Interpol, Indian and Malaysian police. They collectively search for him but he keeps on escaping. Lisa (Namitha) is the girl friend of Billa and Maya (Anushka) is another dame who joins Billa’s team to put an end for him with a secret vengeance.

Finally ACP Krishna Murthy (Krishnam Raju) takes up Billa’s case and chases him. Finally he catches him and kills. But later with the help of an informer (Ali) Krishna Murthy learns that there is a look alike of Billa in Vizag. He conspires to use that look alike in the place of Billa and smoke out all gangsters connected to Billa.

The look alike of Billa is none other than Ranga (Prabhas) who is a pickpocketer and petty thief. The story takes the turn when Krishan Murthy meets Ranga and gives him the offer to act as Billa.

Finally how far Krishna Murthy gets success in his operation? That has to be watched on screen.

Performances:
Prabhas is at his best in look, body language and performance. He followed a humorous style in delivering dialogues for Ranga’s character. That has pumped in some refreshing air in the heads of audiences. And as Billa he is the best suit. His physique is perfectly impressive and inspiring.

Anushka is serious and hot. Her much publicized bikini act got desired response in theaters. Namitha also did enough of skin show but that looked odd. Hansika is there for a while for a song and even she too was used for glamour dose.

Supreet acted as side kick to Prabhas. Subba Raju is smart enough to pair up with Hansika. Aravind (Arundhathi fame) appeared as side kick for Kelly Dorge and slowly he promises to be good choice for bad guy on screen. Rahaman is ok as Interpol officer.

Krishnam Raju tried his level best but there is problem in his bearing. He appeared to have tried very hard to move like a police officer. But there is nothing to pint out about his performance. His seniority has reflected.

Coming to technical details, Art, Cinematography and Costumes played key roles in this film. They deserve very good mention. The biggest minus point in the film is lack of punch in dialogues. Direction is average. Production values are very good.

Analysis:
The film is lacking desired punch. It hasn’t met the standards especially in the matter of dialogues when compared to Hindi and Tamil versions. Hindi film ‘Don’ is identified with the most famous dialogue ‘Don Ko pakadnaa mushkil hi nahi namumkin hai’. There is no such punch in any dialogue in Telugu. It is only Prabhas’s Ranga character that brought enthusiasm for audiences. Although the Billa character was designed in very impressive way with respect to look and feel, the soul is missing on a whole. Heroines are for good visual feast for young audiences with bikinis and short dresses. But people started laughing looking at the costumes of Namitha. She turned a laughing stock by wearing such dresses with odd look, being obese. It is time for her to cut down weight. Otherwise, she becomes a comedian than a ‘hot’ actress.

First 30 minutes of the film brings boredom as more importance is given for style and sound than the story part and narration. The part should have filled with good dialogues to avoid boredom. And the film gets some tempo when Ranga character enters the screen. Although that appeared promising for a while, the graph has fallen down in second half. The climax is also not that enthusiastic. It’s a movie made with rich production values and stylish presentation.

The film has no big muscle to hold box office tight for weeks together. But the season may help the movie. As there are no films those are ruling box office and as there are no big films in line to rub shoulders, Billa may fall on the safe zone.

MANORAMA REVIEW

Manorama' Review: Good Thought-Bad Execution

Film: Manorama
Rating: 1.5/5
Banner: ZEE Motion Pictures
Cast: Charmee, Nishan, Sridhar Rao, Dhanush, Lahari, Pinky, Srivastav, Ali, MS, Narsing Yadav etc
Music: Koti
Cinematography: Jagan
Art: Ashok
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Story-Dialogues: Padmasri
Director: V Eswar Reddy
Producer: Zee group
Released On: 27th March 2009

It was with a lot of expectations that the film ‘Manorama’ was talked about since it had Charmee in the lead role along with direction by Eswar Reddy known for his meaningful flicks. This was slated to be a thriller and how thrilling it has been, let us see.

Story
Gilli (charmee) comes to Hyderabad to have a good time but gets involved into saving the life of a lover boy who wants to commit suicide. There, she meets this handsome guy whom she calls killer (Nishan) and what she does not know is that he is a bomber who comes to explode the popular Manorama café in Koti.

Both of them meet each other through a sequence of events and in no time, they realize that they are in love with each other.

What happens to Killer’s mission? Does their love story succeed? All this forms the rest of the story.

Performance
Charmee looked natural without glamour but then her act has become repetitive. Nishan has got the looks but he now has to work on his body language and his expressions if he is looking at a career in movies. Dhanush is fine, Sridhar Rao is ok, MS was brief, Ali was not used to his full potential, Lahari was cute and luscious. The others came and went.

The storyline seems a bit unusual and off track given the plot and what happens in the film. The script was without strength, the screenplay was not up to the standard.

Dialogues were normal barring few lines which give some insight into life and humanity. The background score was an overdose during few emotional scenes but one song was worth taking home. Editing was crisp scene wise but the arrangement of the sequences was at random. Costumes did not have much to do as the entire movie runs in one pair or two for all the characters. Art department did their bit to come out with a real picture of the busy Koti area.

Analysis
The film takes off as a terror plot but that is exposed in the first five minutes of the film. However, as it passes, the direction drifts completely towards romance that blossom in less than twelve hours. And some ridiculous coincidence of destiny that brings the hero and heroine together. At one point, the man who plants the bomb moves about without a tinge of fear and that too in and around the location where it is left to explode.

The idea of bringing about humanity is a good thought but it needs depth to create an impact on the audience and to deliver a message to them.

To add to the woes, the ending is quite tragic and this was not what they were looking for in a Charmee film and that too on an Ugadi day. Since there was no storyline with depth, it looked like an effort to justify the standard two and a half hour frame. Thankfully, the technical aspects were somewhat okay but the content was poor. Even logic fails to prevail at times by showing Charmee figuring out through her lip reading ability about someone committing suicide and taking note of the number through her binoculars. Not stopping at that, she also gives a call to the girl to find out what the problem is and the rest of the story revolves around that subject and her eventual romance.

The mass audience would be in for disappointment since there is nothing that Charmee has to offer in terms of glamour and instead she has few valid philosophies on life if they are ready to take it. The class audience will find it equally tough since the pace and sensibilities tested patience.

metatag

AKASAMANTA REVIEW

'Akasamantha' Review: Heart Touching "ONLY FOR CLASS"

Film: Akasamantha Rating: 3.25/5 Cast: Prakash Raj, Aishwarya, Trisha, Ganesh, Talaivasal Vijay, Venkat Raman, Jagapathi Babu etc Lyrics: Veturi, Ananth Sri Ram Music: Vidya Sagar Cinematography: Preetha Art: Kadhir Dialogues: Sasank Vennelakanti Producer: Dil Raju Story-Screenplay-Director: Radha Mohan Released On: 27th March 2009 The title ‘Dil’ for Raju aptly fits. He has proven that once again. He rightly produced the movie that touches the ‘dil’ of audiences. Let us see how the movie touches the strings of hearts and sounds a poetic music. Story: The story starts with Raghuram (Prakash Raj) who jogs in a park. Sudhakar (Jagapathi Babu) spends his time with his 2 year old daughter in the same park around a tot lot. He takes an interval from that girl and sits beside Raghu Ram and both introduce each other. The conversation starts between the two with the topic of that child. Raghu Ram starts narrating about his daughter Abhi (Trisha) to Sudhakar. He narrates his entire flash back saying about all tender feelings he had with her through out his life. He starts with the birth of Abhi and narrates till her marriage to a Sardarji (Ganesh). That’s a set of tender feelings which has to be watched on screen. Finally after listening to the story of Raghu Ram and his feelings on his daughter, Sudhakar understands how he should make up his mind and heart with respect to his daughter. That’s the end of the film. Performances: Prakash Raj is at his best. He proves an artiste with mettle. He lived in the role of a loving father living in an isolated hill station. Aishwarya is ok in her role. Trisha portrayed the role as per requirement. Ganesh grooved well in the get up of Sardarjee and justified the role. Karuna Vel entertained and emotionally gripped in the role of Ravi Sastry. Technically the film deserves full marks for cinematography. All the verdant locales of hill station are rightly captured. Music is just ok and ‘Atala patala…’ song is haunting. Dialogues are crisp and filled with subtle humor that’s not far from natural appeal. There are no melodrama sequences any where and that gripped the attention of present day audiences. Direction by Radha Mohan is good. The story line and narration is subtle with all elements right from message to entertainment. Plus Points: Emotional narration Subtle humor Justification Minus: Prakash Raj’s character is coated with excessive sympathy in some scenes. Analysis: The film has a message coated with entertainment and emotion. It has got message for fathers, message for daughters and message on a whole for every citizen. It shows how fathers should balance his feelings and possessiveness on their intelligent daughters. It portrays how daughters should understand the tender possessive feelings of responsible fathers. It shows a way for citizens how the society can be adopted to kick poverty and fence the nation with love. Apart from all these, it shows how great the sardarjees are and how bad to crack jokes on them. It also shows the humorous moments of life, sweet nothings and many more. First half of the movie has got more humorous moments while the second half is filled with some emotion and message. On a whole it’s a movie that deserves patronage of all matured audiences. It’s family movie that holds the emotional levels. Mass audiences may not connect with the movie due to lack of speed and other elements.