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Showing posts with label Shweta Prasand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shweta Prasand. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Mini-reviews: part 4 (Telugu edition)

Here's more Telugu film mini-reviews, just a continuation of mini-reviews that I've been doing.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Ram



Bindaas (2010)

Ajay (Manoj Manchu) is a free-spirited guy and doesn't take anything too seriously, just living a "bindaas" life. His family has estranged him from the tree due to a conflict that his deceased father had done in the past that caused another family to rival with each other. The feuding is so chaotic that each opposing families want to kill each other. In order to close the gap with the family, Ajay plans to unite both families together.



Manoj Manchu!!!! Why did I take soooo long to watch this film?? I absolutely looooved Manoj in the film. His character is soooo freaking adorable. Not only that, Manoj is also a cutie pie. His dimples are to-die-for! He gave his character his all and did an awesome job. I've said before I love fun, loving, carefree, unselfish guys and that's what his character is all about.

Sheena is mostly there for the songs but has a cute love interest with Manoj. She was seen in Bollywood with Teree Sang. The storyline is nothing new but it was great to see fresh faces and laughable comedy. Definitely worth a watch.



Kasko (2009)

Vamsi (Vaibhav) goes to Hyderabad and ends up meeting Mahesh Babu (Brahmanandam). He then goes by the name Pawan Kalyan who joins with Mahesh to end rowdism. But he really came to search for his lost love Krisna (Shweta Prasad) who has been abducted by rowdies.



I mainly watch this film for Shweta Prasad who I found adorable cute in Kotha Bangaru Lokam but just like Kalavar King, I was disappointed :(  Unfortunately Kasko is one of the most boringest movies I've seen in a long time. The storyline dragged and dragged. Not only that, I hated Shweta's annoying character. I did not understand why Vamsi would fall for Krisna at all! Vaibhav was a cutie and danced well and I wouldn't mind watching more of him in the future.



Kick (2009)

Kalyan (Ravi Teja) is no ordinary guy. He likes to spice up his life with getting a "kick" out of life by adding the extra oomph or adding a cherry on top. Otherwise, it'll just be another boring life. Naina (Ileana D'Cruz) hates Kalyan and he only falls for her to add a "kick" to the story. Eventually, she ends up falling for him but leaves him only finding out about him lying to her about having a job. She ends up living in Malaysia where she meets a tough cop, Kalyan Krishna (Shaam) who is seeking an anonymous thief from India and now in Malaysia.



The length could have been reduced a bit and let go some of the comedy tracks but overall, Kick is absolutely fun! I enjoyed it a lot. Storyline added a "kick" and that's what made it worth watching. I absolutely love Ileana D'Cruz and see her acting growth as an actress. This is my first Ravi Teja film and he's hilarious in his role. There's rumors about a Kick remake from Bollywood starring Salman with Deepika or Sonakshi.



King (2008)

King (Nagarjuna) is a badass ruler and everyone is scared of him...until one day he goes missing. Is he dead?
Enters Seenu (Nagarjuna) who is rowdie and works for the fearful Gyaneshwar (Srihari). Seenu falls for Sravani (Trisha Krishnan) but steals the identity of Sharath (Sunil) to woo her. Seenu, now Sharath, and Sravani are in love.
Seenu looks like the missing King and gets abducted. He is paid to play King to unite and bring the King family together.



Worth a watch. King takes you for a fun ride but I had to re-wind a few times because I got confused with all the different characters Nagarjuna played. Made me re-think who really is dead, the King or Seenu? Or none? Whew! The twist exploded in my brain :D

One of the best parts were the performances. Nagarjuna is definitely the king. Trisha looked really good and is really good in comedy. Mamta had the supporting role but did a great job and wowed me. The songs are great, especially the title song. However, the film is more known for the song, "Nuvvu Ready" because of the many guest appearances by actresses, including Trisha and Mamta -- Anuksha Shetty, Charmy, Genelia D'Souz, Priyamani, Sneha Ullal, Kamna Jethmalani.



Kurradu (2009)

All Varun (Varun Sandesh) ever wanted was a bike. He dreams of it day and night. His father works hard and doesn't have extra cash to give him to spend on something useless. After many bitter disagreements, the sad father finally gives in. With the brand-new bike, Varun tries to be responsible and get a job to help his dad with the bills. He is in love with Hema (Neha Sharma) for two years. With the new bike, he could take her to her destination instead of her taking the bus. Unfortunately, Varun ends up getting dragged and involve with some rowdies and his bike gets stolen.



Kurrudu is a remake of the Tamil film, Polladhavan, which is inspired from the Italian movie,  Bicycle Thieves.

Since I absolutely adore Varun, I wanted to see more of his films. I was stoked to find out the heroine is none other than Neha Sharma because I think she's a hottie in Chirutha.

Varun's role is much different from his other two films, Happy Days & Kotha Bangaru Lokam, which he plays a college student. This time, he shows off his baddass and beats up rowdies. Neha is the bashful, sweet love interest and still looks gorgeous and sexy, covered up.

Worth a watch but the beginning is really slow.
The film is more about being at the wrong place at the wrong time with misunderstandings and backstabbing. The love story takes a backstep, along with the family values, which were shown in the beginning half.
If you are used to Varun playing the loverboy, stay away because you will be disappointed!



Prasthanam (2010)

Mitra (Sharwanand) and his sister (Surekha Vani) lost their father at a young age. His mother is forced to marry another man (Saikumar). He takes the responsibility of raising them two and ends up having Chinna (Sandip) with their mother. Since childhood, his sister hates the fact that her mother remarried. On top of that, she hates Chinna because he is the product of the marriage. Mitra loves Chinna and is a loyal son in his step father's political field. Chinna always felt alone, unloved, and unappreciated compared with Mitra. Therefore, he becomes angry and careless about life becoming jealous of Mitra.



Dolce did a wonderful full review on the film, along with comparing it with the Cain and Abel theme.

One of the best political films ever! From beginning to end, to the performances, to the screenplay, everything was just perfect. The songs just released some tension that was stirred up and added a nice feel. Each character had enough volume for you to understand each one.

I adored Sharwanand since Gamyam and was excited to see Prasthanam. He stepped it up several notches with his acting and choice of film. Ruby Parihar is cute and really had nothing to do but be in the songs and a love interest.

The film is a bit long, falling right under 3 hours but you don't really feel it because you get really into the characters and want to see what is going on.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Mini-reviews: part 2 (Telugu edition)

Continuation of my mini-reviews pt 1

These are some Telugu films I've seen (that I could remember :D )




Avakai Biryani (2008)

Story about a Hindu girl, Lakshmi(Bindu Madhavi), and a Muslim guy, Akbar (Kamal Kamaraju) falling in love. Lakshi's father hates Muslims because of his past experience. Lakshmi's family move to the village after losing everything and ends up making pickled mangoes to make money. Akbar is an orphan and a rickshaw driver.



Storyline is nothing new but I mainly saw this film because the producer is Sekar Kammula who I adore. What I did like about the film is the two leads. It was great to see two new faces and took place in a village. There is gorgeous cinematography. I just loved how everything flowed together, just a good-feel film for me :D



Chandamama (2007)

Mahalakshmi (Kajal Agarwal) has an arranged marriage with Dhorababu (Siva Balaji). He is the sweetest guy that you've ever met. Therefore, Mahalakshmi has to tell him the truth of her past. She once loved a guy name Kishore (Navdeep) but he wasn't interested in marrying her and had cheated her. Since Dhorababu deserves better, she thought she would tell him the truth. Learning this, Dhorababu seeks to find Kishore. He learns that Kishore and Mahalaxmi had a misunderstanding and that Kishore still love Mahalaxmi. Dhorababu want to unite the two lovers. In the process, Mahalaxmi's childhood friend, Rani (Sindhu Menon) ends up falling for Dhorababu.



It is a fun film. It gives you the same feel as Ashta Chamma. However, it is not as good. What Chandamama lacked were adorable couples.

Kishore was a selfish prankster. Mahalaxmi was a bit flaky and annoyed the heck out of me. I really didn't care whether or not they got together or not. What I do love is Dhorababu! Why do the girls always like the jerks?

I couldn't believe that this Siva was the same guy in Aarya who played the annoying Ajay! How funny that both Shiva and Navdeep played Ajay :D I absolutely looooved Siva. He reminded me of a moustached Surya back in his earlier films. Navdeep is a cutie but he tried a bit too hard to be funny and slick in his role, which didn't make me like him anymore. I have yet to find a role of Kajal's that I really liked. I don't really have a problem with her, it's the roles that she chooses. Sindhu cracked me up in her short role.

Overall, worth a watch!



Kalavar King (2010)

Rajesh (Nikhil) is street smart and goes around town making loans, after loans, after loans. Shruti (Shwetha Prasand) accidently drops her chain necklace in Rajesh's home. She looks for it everywhere because Narendar (Ajay) gave Shruti the chain necklace and is in love with her. Rajesh must find the chain necklace since he has taken it for a "loan." In the meantime, Rajesh is forcing Shruti to marry him.



It's another case of forced marriages when the heroine doesn't want to marry the villian. However, this story is a bit different in the case that the hero and heroine do not fall in love with each other and that's the reason why she doesn't want to marry the villian. She is scared of the villian and just wants out. The hero realized that he made a big mistake in trading in the necklace.

There were cute moments and Nikhil was cute dancing but other than that,. Not really worth watching. It was good to see him after Happy Days. I mainly watched it for Swetha but she looked really bad in the film. Nothing like how she was in her Telugu debut film, Kotha Bangaru Lokam.



Kantri (2008)

The orphan Kantri (NTR JR) is fearless but helps out the orphanage since he can understand the pain. He later joins forces with the don Pothu Raju (Prakash Raj) only to find out that he is the long lost son to the don.



The film has a lot of twists and the love story between Kantri and Varalakshmi (Hansika Motwani) and Priya (Tanisha Mukherjee) was only a backdrop. It added to more of the confusion. I didn't really care for the romances at all. Varalakshmi was really annoying and whiny. I preferred Priya's personality.

Overall, I did enjoy the conness of Kantri. He was smooth and slick, loved his thorough plan and twisted things around with Pothu Raju. Again, I looooove NTR Jr's voice and always a pleasure to see him dance!



Lakshyam (2007)

ACP Bose (Jagapati Babu) is ah honest and sincere police officer who is happily married and lives with his parents and younger brother Chandu (Gopichand). Chandu and Indu (Anushka) are college students and fall in love with each other. Villian Section Shankar (Yashpal Sharma) kills anyone who comes in his way and does not leave any evidence or witness behind. With the help of a backstabbing police officer and politian, he takes loans from the bank and blames it on Bose. Everyone turns on Bose. Chandu does his best to prove to everyone that his brother is not crooked.



Worth a watch! Some scenes were slow but overall, it's a good film. I liked the fact that I was able to see Gopichand in a lead role instead of the supporting cast or a villian. The beginning was focused a little too much on the love angle but glad it didn't take that long for the storyline to kick in. I do think how they met was cute and fun. Anuksha reminds me so much of one of my favorite 80s Bollywood actress, Poonam Dhillon.



Style (2006)

Ganesh (Prabhu Deva) is one of the best dancers ever. This causes his rival, Anthony to become jealous. A tragic accident has caused Ganesh to lose both of his legs. With the encouragement of his loving sister, Priya (Kamalinee Mukherjee), he looks for another dancer who could train since dancing is his passion. Raghava (Raghava Lawrence) loves dancing but works cleaning up in a dance school in Vizag along with his four friends. No one ever recognizes his talent. Ganesh sees the dancing potential of Raghava and his friends on tv and wants to train them to compete with Anthony in the dance competition.



This is what I call fun! I loooooved this film. That's what you get for putting two of the best choreographers from India in one film -- Prabhu Deva & Lawrence! OMFG! From the beginning, I was hooked. Sure, the ending could've been done better but I am easy to overlook stuff like that.

The starcast is huge itself. Well, to me, that is. Kamalinee Mukherjee is one of my favorite actresses. Then add in Charmy and Raja too. I loved it! The dancing was top-notch.

Admittedly, I have to say that Style could possibly be in my top 10 films. I mean if you have a film about dancing, this is it!

PS - I'm starting to have a slight inexplicable crush on Lawrence. I need to seek more of his films.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Kotha Bangaru Lokam - one of my favorite Telugu films!



First of all, I read on Wiki (don't read it unless you want to cause there are spoilers), that Kotha Bangaru Lokam is based on a book. However, I went googling and found nothing about the title of the book that it was based on.
Therefore, I'm asking everyone who is reading this and knows the answer to puhleeeeese let me know the name of the book. Thanks so much in advance :)



I have a lot to say about this film but may not be able to say it all. Just that I freaking looooooooooove it. So much that after much thought about it for the past few days, I have placed it #2 of my favorite Telugu films...so that means I have to update my top Telugu films post :D

Honestly, I was debating whether or not I love it more than Magadheera. In the end, Magadheera won because of it's overall masala entertainment, even though I did enjoy the two characters more in Kotha Bangaru Lokam.



Varun Sandesh is toooo adorable! I already thought he was the cutest thing in Happy Days. I read that Kotha Bangaru Kokam was suppose to be Varun's debut film but Happy Days ended up being his debut film instead. Interesting tidbit since both films are about young love and growing up.

What makes me love Kotha Bangaru Lokam a lot is that one of my guilty pleasures is watching teenie-bopper films or even of the college atomosphere that I even asked and blogged about film suggestions before.



Kotha Bangaru Lokam is my favorite film dealing with young love and parents' love for their children, along with the misunderstandings/secrets between parents and their children, friendships within the social network. On top of that, the wonderful music, gorgeous colorful cinematology adding the extra oomph that I'm looking for and love. Adding the cherry on top, I can relate to the natural characters in the film and Varun and Shweta were really good. I almost want to say that this is my favorite Telugu film.



Now, if young love isn't your cup of chai, just stop right now and don't read any further.
I haven't even gone into details with the characters and songs like I usually do in my "official" reviews, lol.

Even though I have mentioned that Kotha Bangaru Lokam is about young love, it is more than that.

The film opens up with a mother in a train, narrating her love for her son and how he used to depend on her until he got older.




Her husband loved their son so much that he never punished him and allowed him to get in trouble, hoping their son will know the differences between right and wrong.



So around when does that happen???
Teenage years!!!???!!!

This touched my heart a lot! As a mother, I nurtured my kids. My first born is a son. He used to be by my side all time and came to me for everything. Now in his teenage years, he thinks he is too grown to even go to the grocery store with me! Hubby is sorta like Prakash Raj in the film. He doesn't punish my son like that. He wants him to learn his lesson and usually cater to what my son wants. For example, my son wanted to get an earring and a mohawk. Hubby allowed it, all he asked for is for my son to make good grades in school.



The loving mother



Cool dad
No movie is complete without Prakash Raj



Balu is going to junior college.
In the USA, junior college is not common. I did some research and found out that junior college in India is equivalent to 11th & 12th grades in the USA. Very intrugeing, to me, because even though the USA have community colleges, for non Bachelor degrees, it is still an instutition for post high school graduates. So this was an interesting, learning experience for me since junior colleges in India are like mini colleges for teenagers with dorms and everything. Love it!



Balu a cute guy ready to got to junior college. I love everything about him. From his good looks to his personality! He is young and just having fun. He is kind-hearted, goofy, silly, just plain adorable. I *heart* him!



Move over Siddhu! It's Varun! Siddhu would've done an awesome job as Balu. However, I'm glad to see Varun in the role because he's a newbie and has that "it" factor for me. Right now, I want to watch Varun's short filmography. Even though I heard really bad reviews on Maro Charitra remake but I don't care, I will still watch. Besides I loved the Hindi remake, Ek Duje Ke Liya :D

Sapna is the new girl in the school and comes into Balu's life.



I love how they met by bumping into each other! It wasn't love at first sight but both were curious about each other. It was one of those cute encounters.



Besides the father/mother-son relationship, the main focus of the film is about young love.
Is it really attraction or love? What is the difference?
Is it just a test of age? When does love enters your life? Is there an age requiremement?
When do you find your soulmate? How do you know?



I absolutely adore the newcomer, Shweta Prasand.  Her facial features have some North East Indian looks.



So...I had to look her up...only to find out that she is the same child star in Makdee (double role), Iqbal (Shreya's little sister), and Vaah! Life Ho To Aisi.





The thought of their love was challenged by their professor (Rao Ramesh) because he believes that 1% of young love is just infactuation.



Soundtrack is really good. I am listening to it right now!



Song #1 - "Confusion Confusion"
The carefree Balu








Song #2 - "Kalasalalo"
Having fun at junior college






Song #3 - "Nijangaa Nenena"
Falling in love









Song #4 - "Nenani Neevanii"
Missing you






Song #5 - "Ok Anesa"
Finally together again










Song #6 - "Neepreshnalu" (I)
Sadness part 1





Song #7 - "Neepreshnalu" (IiI)
Sadness part 2







The sweetest moment ever!





Coolest interval



I think Varun has nice, kissable lips!









The horizontal striped shirt is popular in the film, mostly worn by Swapna though.



Again, it would be unfair to say this film is all about young love. Motherliy love is a significant part too.



As you can tell, I absolutely loooove this film! Go watch it!
I need to re-edit my top 5 Telugu films again :)