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.

Desamuduru - it's official I want to have Allu Arjun's babies

Please note - all my Allu Arjun videos have been removed from YouTube. Read more about it when I blogged about it here and here.



Bala Govind (Allu Arjun) is a young crime reporter who works for MAA TV. His heart is always in the right place and fights for justice which gets him into trouble. It happens that one day he saved a man from getting beaten up from a gang of goons. Little did he know, the guy he severely hurt is Murugan (Subbaraju), son of Tambidurai (Pradeep Rawat). MAA TV fears for Bala Govind's life since Tambidurai is a known smuggler and sends Bala Govind to shoot a travel program in Kulu Manali. He meets and fall in love with Vaishali (Hansika Motwani), a sanyasin. Will he get his love? Will he return back to Hyderabad? Will Tambidurai and his goons ever find Bala Govind?



First of all, I have never made so many screen caps for any movies yet . I just went screen-cap crazy. There's so much of this movie I want to share - this may be the longest post ever too. Not only cause Allu Arjun is so freaking hot - his best look, IMO - but the location of Kulu Manali is so beautiful! Allu Arjun impresses, yet again, with his amazing dancing skills and shows off his six-pack abs.



Even though I went screen-cap crazy, the movie's script is weak. The beginning half of love-struck Bala Govind was border-line stalkerish. Since I don't know if I can find a hot guy telling me that he loves me when he first meet me - yeah, no love at first sight but I do think it happens. Although I wouldn't mind if he was stalking me, LOL, I didn't feel their love was genuine and Vaisali didn't love him. I believe she liked the feeling of being in love and Bala Govind taking care of her. Perhaps I was annoyed with her not showing any real emotions and suddenly she just wanted to be with him. Nevertheless the beginning half that was focused on their love story dragged a bit. If it wasn't for the songs, beautiful location, action scenes, and Allu Arjun's mesmorizing charm and dancing abilities, I would've fast forwarded most of the beginning.



The second half takes a different turn when Bala Govind finds out who Vaishali really is and Tambidurai and his goons looking for him. The action scenes were great. Allu Arjun's movies introduced me to Telugu cinema but I still haven't watched as many Telugu films as I want to. Later I learn that in Tollywood, there are a lot of OTT action moments.



Bala Govind - a young, hot, sexy crime reporter fights justice. Not realizing he messed with the wrong people ends up filming in Kulu Manali and falling in love with Vaishali. One cute part of the beginning is Bala Govind's intro. Radio Mirchi was asking people on the street who their favorite action star is and everyone was giving his/her opinions. Since I'm not that familiar with the names of Tollywood stars, I can not repeat it here. There's one name I do know - Mahesh Babu. A guy told them that a regular, tough guy comes out of no where and fights justice, who can be a great action hero but he has no idea of the identity of this unknown man. Then you see the strong, muscular Bala Govind.



I'm sure by now anyone who has been following my blogs and know me - I'm in love with Allu Arjun. Do I need to repeat myself and say that I just fall in love with his charm in his films? And the fact that he may not be the best actor but as long as he entertains me like he does in Aarya, Bunny, and Happy, that's all that matters? Oh yeah, I just did.



Vaishali, the sanyasin, who Bala Govind falls in love with. I think Hansika is cute and reminds me of Bhoomika Chawla. Although she is a child actress, she needs to work on her acting. She was one of the little girls in Koi Mil Gaya. Can you believe she's only 16 years old in this movie?!? Sometimes she does look 16 and other times she looks 26. She's also the leading actress opposite Himish Reshamiya in Aap Ka Surror.



Murugan (Subbaraju) - the guy who gets severely beaten up by Bala Govind.



Tambidurai (Pradeep Rawat) - Murugan's father and a known smuggler who everyone is afraid of, even the cops.



The man (Raja Ravindra) who Bala Govind saves and tells him who Vishali's past.



Mata Shivani - a sariyasin who helps Bala Govind get his love.



Ramaprabha - head of the sariyasins



Swami - the news crew meets him and wants to film a documentary on him. He tells them his journey into becoming a Swami. His story seems is very funny and adds humor but it was unnecessary. You'll realize later why his story was significant.



One part of his story is showing the struggles he went through. The martial arts pose is very funny.



Like in all Allu Arjun's movies, there has to great songs and dancing. Admittedly, the songs could've been avoided but then the movie wouldn't be the same without seeing Allu Arjun show off his six-pack abs and dance moves. Yes, I'm obsess, uploaded on YouTube with English subs. His dancing just melts my heart and I'm hypnotized by him everytime.

A lot of Telugu videos on YouTube do not have English subs so I uploaded them on YouTube with English subs. YouTube quality isn't the best but at least you will definitely see Allu Arjun's charm and dancing skills.

Sadly, this isn't the case anymore since my YouTube videos were taken down but I have replaced them...why were my videos targeted? Whatever! I wasn't able to find all the videos from the movie though.



Song #1 - "Satte Satte"
Bala Govind and the crew goes to Kulu Mananli









Watch Below



Song #2 - "Gola Gola"
Bala Govind thinks Vaishali is hot and sees her not as a sanyasina











Watch Below



Song #3 - "Ninne Ninne"
Bala Govind finds out Vaishali is Telugu and believes that she doesn't want to spend the rest of her life being a sanyasina







Watch Below



Song #4 - "Gilli Gilli"
Bala Govind and Vaishali together at last









Watch Below



Song #5 - "Manasuley"
Bala Govind and Vaishali imagine being together











Watch Below

Song #6 - "Attanthode"
Thambidurai and his goons are looking for Bala Govind. Bala Govind joins in a random celebration. Song features Rambha (she reminds me of the late Divya Bharti, RIP)









Watch Below



The beginning half of Desamuduru was filmed in Kulu Manali, as seen in the beautiful, mountain parts of Jab We Met in the "Yeh Ishq Hai" song where Geet and Aditya take their road trip. However, we get to see more of the beautiful Kulu Manali in Desamuduru. In my Jab We Met review, I talked about the outfits reminding me of Hmong clothing, my ethnicity. For some reason, this always amazes me since I rarely see any Indian movies film in the mountains showing tribal regions. Since Kulu Manali is in Northern India, there are a lot of hillside tribes which Hmong people are. Most of the captures below are from the songs - "Satte Satte" and "Ninne Ninne"











Since I mentioned about Hmong clothing, here are some pictures of Hmong people. Although we do not have a country, we are a tribal group that stays in the northern part of other countries such as Thailand, Laos, Burma, and Vietnam. Sadly not that many people have heard about us.









More pictures of the beautiful Kulu Manali. I've been living in the USA since I was a baby - 6 months old - I'm basically an American. I've never gone back to visit - nor have I visited outside of the USA. Sad, I know - I'm a spoiled American.













Filming in Kulu Manali, you expect to see a lot of tribal groups. Not only did Desamuduru featured that but also showed sariyasins. When I saw movie stills of Desamuduru, I immediately thought about the Bollywood movie, Paap. Even though Paap focused on Buddhist elements and monks instead of sariyasins, the scenery and outfits are similar to me.









Movie stills from Bollywood movie Paap, starring John Abraham and Udita Goswami







In all of Allu Arjun's movies - Aarya, Bunny, and Happy - he's known as an action hero who falls in love. I love the fight scenes the most in Desamuduru. Most of it is martial-arts influence, which I love!





Not only was it martial arts influence, another action scene is taken from Ong Bak, a famous Thai movie of Tony Jaa. Bala Govind runs away from the goons and flips over cars and people



Stills from Ong Bak, Tony Jaa's debut film to stardom, even in Hollywood. Here's a video with Tony Jaa jumping over a car. I've watched his live demos and he really can jump. Watch him perform at the Lakers game, it's towards the end.



Another inspired scene is taken from the Thai action superstar Tony Jaa's other movie, The Protector. (Yeah, I watch way too many films and notice these similarities and remakes) This scene shows Bala Govind surrounded by fire and using two fire-flamed weapons.





Still from The Protector. The Thai title for this movie is called Tom Yum Goong.





Again, since I'm in love with Allu Arjun...more caps since I went screen-cap crazy. His look in Desamuduru is my favorite. I love the hair and scrubs - it suits him. Arjun, if you're ever reading this, it's official, I am really in love with you. And I really do want to have your babies.





















And I couldn't resist that six-pack abs and muscular body (there goes my shallowness again), I kept talking about. Well, since he worked out very hard for the film, I'm showing it here too.