Seetamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu: Preserve This

In many ways the Telugu Audiences deserved and earned Seetamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu with their belief and allegiance to Telugu Cinema. It seems like they are rewarded with one, which is just that. A proper and true Telugu Cinema. Not just because it is a multi-starrer. Oh, it is just an icing on a delicious cake.

SVSC offers rich and detailed insights into a middle class joint family in a village headed by a compassionate father, a dutiful mother and two brothers who could not be more opposite to each other than the two poles. However, it is the love for each other that binds the family together though no one is very vocal or dramatic about it. It is with the simple moments of this family’s journey through their quirks and inflated egos, Srikanth Addala delivers his message that humanity thrives on its inherent benevolence and the differences we have with each other in our daily lives should not stop us from helping each other in need.

Its ensemble with their stellar performances and belief in the director’s vision help the film hugely. Venkatesh brings in a lot of credibility and respectability to his underwritten role, which requires him only to sit and grimace for extended periods of time but when it matters boy, does he deliver. The scenes of his bonding with Mahesh and the camaraderie they share are likely to be etched in our minds for a long time. Anjali gets a meaty role and to her credit does not ham despite her rough edges. Jayasudha is a natural and her performance is a given but it is Prakash Raj who sticks out as a sore thumb. He is just not Tu-Go-Ji’ish enough to pull off this one. Samantha plays the girl friend and she appears star struck in the role and befittingly wins her trophy man towards the end.

But, the film most certainly belongs to Mahesh Babu who puts in one of the best performances by a leading man in Telugu Cinema off late. He has mastered the dialect and understands the demands of his role while appearing to be supremely confident with the material he is given to work with. Words fail and awe does not suffice in praise of his portrayal of the younger brother who stares at, reasons with and goads Venky (elder brother), flirts with Samantha (girl friend), acts playful with Rohini Hattangadi (Grandmother) and completely honest with Jayasudha (Mother). He is totally effortless with his one-liners speaking of which, they seem to have written a 1000 of them and decided to use the top 999 in the film. They added the last one too as an afterthought.

Anyone versed with Srikanth’s characters would know that he deals with people whom we can easily identify or run into in our lives. Here we face them in form of relatives, who try to know what you are up to without any real interest in it, a devious uncle and his son to scorn at your lack of wealth, kids trying to act more than their age to garner and the regular good-man to complete the experience.  In short the village atmosphere is created most authentically with a loving eye towards the paraphernalia. 

All of this is not to say that it is a perfect film, but it certainly is one that gives you something to carry home with. The flaws are mainly with its duration and the second half in particular which seems to be a repetition of all we saw in the first half. In it’s attempts to be simple, it comes across as naïve case in point being the Google Interview faced by Mahesh Babu where the panel asks him to smile from his heart.  A couple of unfortunate songs pop up which may test the patience of the audience and the music is not particularly great either.  Another minor squabble I had with the film is that all the women in it are surprisingly willing to be taken for granted by the men and seem to be enjoying it, but it is all done in good spirit.

A great endorsement of family values for our future generations. A Must Watch. 

Naayak: Formulaic

What does (a+b)² mean to you? Well, that’s Nayak for you. There goes one spoiler. Damn.

Even if I give away the entire plot with all the twists, chances are that you will still go ahead and watch the film. You might even come out enjoying it because the story is not the point at all. It is about how the whole works as a package and how faithfully Vinayak adheres to the success formula, which he had created himself. Going by the number of times he manages to tickle the ribs, one should say he has done well.

Nayak should not be judged on its intelligence because it is to miss the point completely. CCTV cameras record videos in HD, CBI officers drink on their duty and none of them have ever heard of any terms like DNA or fingerprints and the works. Its agenda is to make you laugh, laugh more and laugh harder. The film can boast of great performances by the support cast in eliciting guffaws through out its entire runtime. For a change it is Posani that spearheads the comedy track, Brahmanandam is his usual self and JP continues what he has done in Krishna. Together they make the film a fun-ride, one that you won’t mind despite its dangerous obsession with chopped limbs and severed legs. 

Ram Charan has done only four films prior to this but unfortunately he doesn’t have to do anything he has not done before. Kajal Agarwal and Amala Paul together have lesser screen time than Fish Venkat that is excluding the songs. If you include them, they come close. That does not seem a bad idea at all given how poorly their characters are written (or not written at all).

V V Vinayak looks uninterested in directing the action sequences but he gets his act right with the generous amount of comedy. The visuals are surprisingly tacky for such a high budgeted film and they could have certainly gone easy on that fish eye lens. Production design in Kolkata episodes is awful. All the songs are bad with special criticism reserved for Thaman’s Subhalekha Rasukunna, which is a brutal, terrible, Tarantinoesque murder of Ilaiya Raja’s classic.  

All in all a film which is targeted at the masses and plays it up to the galleries with numerous references to other stars in the family. There is not much to dislike and the film itself does not have any illusions of greatness.

Nothing to write home about. Ahh..well. 

Table No 21: Not a great start to the Year

Table No 21 is neither as intelligent and imaginative as Slumdog Millionaire nor as cheesy and tacky as Soham Shah’s Luck, two of the recent films that centered themselves on reality shows. But it does not sit comfortably midway either.

The plot starts as a couple struggling with their relationship get a chance to spend a vacation in Fiji. Soon learn it is a part of an elaborate plan with things getting dark and grimy when they find themselves being a part of a game that can give them 21 Crores of Rupees. Paresh Rawal is at the helm of the game, controlling it and manipulating the couple. A grim looking young man with stubble who doesn’t have any purpose except showing himself at convenient moments aids him.  There are many references to the number 21 and not all of them are great except the last one at the ending credits.

Make no mistake, Table No 21 is a film with noble intentions but for a thriller the writing is a bit too lazy and the plot takes its time to get going.  The twist at the end which is closely guarded through out with red herrings planted does not come across as disturbing as it is desperate to. The dialogues are no great shakes either with “If you lie, you die” being repeated every time they want Rawal to sound menacing. Rajeev Khandelwal tries his bit but finds it difficult to make us empathize with him. The writers don’t do him any favors either with a poorly etched role. Paresh Rawal is a veteran but here he just goes through his motions and is never quite the delight he ought to be. Tena Desae wears a bikini, shaves her head but her she can't act or kiss good.

There are a couple of songs at the beginning and the end, which hamper the narrative but are forgettable otherwise. Background score is conspicuous by its lack of impact. The film is shot at Fiji but it could as well have been Ramoji Film City and Goa since the locales of the place are never explored.

The best use of Table No 21 could be to serve as a warning for all of us not to fill all those forms that are thrown at us in various shopping malls promising exotic trips. Now that is a worthy lesson. So it’s not so bad after all is it?