Chinnadana Nee Kosam Telugu Movie Review

Chinnadana Nee Kosam Telugu Movie Review

Nithin (Nithiin) is a happy go lucky guy who meets the Multi-talented Nandu (Mishti) accidentally and falls for her instantly. They keeps on meeting each other by chance keeping her in an odd spot. A while ago, Nithin helps her in setting up a coashing class at Reddy's (Nasser) place. Very soon both of them turn to be good friends. But in a sudden twist, Nandi leaves to Europe with out any intimation.What is the reason for this sudden Europe trip? Who is Nandu? Will Nithin and Nandu ever meet again? forms the rest of the story.

Nithiin who is seen immitating Pawan Kalyan in his recent films has gone further in this film and literally immiates the actor in every scene. He also put up some weight in the movie. Mishti is totally out of place in the movie. Some how she never looked like she got connected to the role. Senior Naresh, Rohini and Sithara are good but Nassar is too loud in a character with a limited scope. Thagubothu Ramesh, Ali and Madhu have tried to tickle the funny bone but failed to a larger extent.

The film has got a wafer thin story but is totally let down by aimless narration and enigmatic characters. The film starts well but totally goes wayward after that except for some comedy here and there. The movie also have some similarities to Pawan Kalyan's Tholiprema, Attarintiki Daredi and Prabhas' Darling. Director Karunakaran does not seem the same man who directed some classics in the past.

Music is just average and half of the songs wasted in the film. The Background score is fine and the dialogues, particularly delivered by Nithiin are good in parts. Editing of this film is okay. The irritating gay comedy, Ali chase and few forced songs in the second half should have been chopped. The production values of Nithiin home production house are grand.

Chinnadana Nee Kosam at the start appears as a very promising comedy film but very soon disappoints with critical directional errors by Karunakaran. There are several loose ends and senior actors like Nassar, Senior Naresh, Rohini and Ali have totally gone wasted. Finally the movie may have put an end to Nithin's success streak.

Mukundha Telugu Movie Review

Mukundha Telugu Movie Review

Mukundha (Varun Tej) is a good man who goes to any extent to help his friends. His friend Arjun falls in love with the niece of a Municipal Chairman (Rao Ramesh) and Mukundha keeps saving him from the attacks of the Chairman and in the process falls in love with daughter (Pooja Hegde) of the Chairman. Then it is the election time and Mukunda supports Prakash Raj as nominee for the ward elections over Rao Ramesh. Rest of the story is all about - Will Arjun marry his girl friend? Will Prakash win over Rao Ramesh?

Varun Tej, new entrant from Mega family is a mixed package for audience. Looks wise he is better than many Mega heroes but seem to be still struggling with the acting. He could not emote for the various moods of the character and is mostly seen with a single expression. Pooja Hegde looks very beautiful but needs a lot of improvement in acting. Rao Ramesh is the major highlight of the film and is superb in the the role of a doting father and a corrupt politician. Prakash Raj is wasted in a little role which has nothing to do excep giving fact quotes. Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, Nassar, Raghu Babu and the new comers are confined to very limited roles.

Srikanth Addala once again has come up with a honest intent but is let down by a poor screenplay. The story is quite simmilar to numerous films in the past. But it lacks the depth to take the story or characters forward with very slow narration. The interval bang looks promising but the second half goes on sinking further finally completing with a hurried climax.

Mikcy J. Meyer did justice to both the songs and as well as the back ground score. The cinematography is neat and there are may fresh locales giving a good feel for the audience. The film suffers slow pace through out especially in the second half, editor could have easily trimmed of 15 minutes odd. Production Value of Leo Productions is good.

Finally, Mukundha is for Varun Tej what Gauravam is for Allu Sirish. May be it is a bit better than Gauravam but will do no good to the first timer in any way. This is definitely a script that should not be preferred for a debutant. Finally it ends up as a disappointment for Varun Tej as well as the audience.

Mayapuri 2015 Malayalam movie Review

Mayapuri 2015 Malayalam movie Review

Mahesh Kesav's 'Mayapuri' could have sprouted from an extremely appealing idea, but when the core spirit of the film seems to have been lost in the process of being adapted to screen. Blemished by some incompetent storytelling and mediocre special effects, 'Mayapuri' is an archetypal instance of a motivating thought ruined beyond repair in the course of its execution.

The film tells the tale of four children who embark on a journey to a mystical land named Mayapuri, where the ultimate power reigns. The voyage, beset with colossal perils tangles with the evil spirit's endeavours to take God himself as hostage! The numinous terrain hides within its realms disclosures galore as the kids explore and discover for themselves.

'Mayapuri' for the most part does not get its course right, and it might sound ironic that the film itself talks of a tricky route to an imaginary land where glory awaits. The script too meanders along like this fiddly pathway to grandeur, and is riddled with potholes and caverns galore that the naive viewer quite easily falls into.

This is a film that fails to exploit its true assets, and the thoughtful undertones of the film never really take off beyond the starting point. And when the slogging begins shortly after, 'Mayapuri' shows signs of evolving into an uninvolving film, with the drudgery steadily on the rise with every passing minute.

If 'Mayapuri' ends up an arid endeavour, it is only because its emotionally lifeless. And then, one hopes for the spectacles to light up the screen, and when the graphics look a bit too labored and the special effects too run-of-the-mill, it dawns on you that the staging isn't much better than the scripting.

It's disappointing that for a film that claims to bank on its 3D effects, 'Mayapuri' falls exceptionally low in the technical finesse that it puts on show. In comparison to other 3D films that we have had in the recent past, 'Mayapuri' pales beyond recognition and scores terribly low.

I wouldn't call 'Mayapuri' a nothing movie, since the sparse, but captivating specks of thought that appear here and there are worth a mention. That they build up into a bloated cinematic piece is another matter altogether, but the fundamental notion is without doubt an enchanting one.

The acting, especially that of the young actors is adequate, and Kalabhavan Mani is around as well in an evil avatar that is expected to send a chill up one's spine. Though nothing of the sort transpires, Mani does manage to make his presence felt with an ominous act that maintains a precarious line that keeps him from venturing into ham-away territory.

The two odd stars that are granted to 'Mayapuri' are for the intriguing and yet almost invisible philosophical line of thought that stretches across its rutted narrative. Barring that single element, there is very little left in it that would impress the viewer looking for either entertainment or intellectual enticement

The Theory of Everything 2015 Movie Review

The Theory of Everything 2015  English Movie Review

There has been a sudden influx of biographical dramas these past few years. Biopics today are like Tom Hanks - who doesn't love them? Audiences love them, critics love them, and they make good money more often than not. But while making a biopic, a filmmaker has to walk a thin rope. Neither can he border on hero worship, nor can he afford to understate the subject's achievements. A perfect balance has to be found, a task easier said than done.

This week's The Theory Of Everything has Stephen Hawking as its subject. The film is adapted from Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, written by his wife Jane Hawking. But instead of your typical biographical drama chronicling a person's extraordinary achievements, the film instead provides you an intimate look into the private life of The Hawkings.

The film starts off from the first time that Stephen meets Jane, two students who have a chance encounter at a college party. They debate the existence of God, phone numbers are exchanged and a whirlwind romance begins. But soon, Stephen finds out that he has a disease that'll make him lose all motor functions and muscle movement with time, and doctors give him just 2 years more to live. Despite the odds facing them, Jane never gives up on their love and the two get married.

The love story is cut-into by a scientific discovery/theory by Hawking every now and then, but the main focus of the film remains on the progression of Stephen's disease, Jane's unwavering commitment to him and the life that they lead together. The film explores how their beliefs are tested and how their love holds up over exactly what Stephen based his first thesis on: time.

The advantage of concentrating so narrowly on their personal lives is that the film never really gets into the hero worship zone, like we saw with Angelina Jolie's Unbroken a few weeks ago. Director James Marsh instead chooses to portray Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest minds in the history of the world as just another ordinary human being unfortunate enough to be afflicted by the disease. He humanizes the man, and tells his story in a most simple and intimate manner.

On the downside of this very approach, the fact that he chooses to not focus on his scientific achievements removes the awe factor from his life. Hawking is an inspirational figure across the world because of his achievements despite his personal hardships. When people in the film say that they feel blessed to meet him, you cannot possibly agree with them because you haven't been told of his success in the scientific field except in the most vague manner.

Even if you're left feeling that you've got to know only one side of the man, there's still enough drama and layers to the characters to leave you highly fulfilled. The first half of the film pretty much breezes by, setting up the characters, the situations and the drama wonderfully. The establishment of the different shades to Hawking is done masterfully, especially when it came to his dilemma of physical cosmology vs existence of God.

The second half turns to tell the story from Jane's perspective. Being the wife of a paralyzed genius isn't as much of a joy as the outside world would imagine, and the realization dawns upon her that she can no longer do this alone. It's in these portions that the film begins to lag a bit. While you certainly empathize with Jane and her frustration, having sacrificed her entire life for her husband's, you cannot escape the feeling of having seen similar situations in other films previously.

What's impressive, though, is that at no point does director Marsh or the writer Anthony McCarten try to gain the sympathy of the audience by emotionally manipulating them, something that is a permanent fixture in similar stories of the triumph of human spirit. In fact, they portray their leads as well-rounded beings with their own moments of weakness. Marsh does an especially great job, interspersing the tearful drama with a few light-headed moments. He takes the facts that are in evidence, and he weaves together a film that is engrossing for the majority of its running length.

Even in its weaker moments, the film manages to stand tall on the shoulders of its strong leads. The dawn of the rookies has been upon us for some time, and Eddie Redmayne continues the trend with his portrayal of Stephen Hawking. It's one thing to vaguely act like a person and a completely different thing to actually become one. Redmayne is so skillful as Hawking that you couldn't possibly tell that he isn't actually wheelchair-bound. The physicality of the role itself is an impossible achievement, but every single aspect of it, from the posture to the movement of the fingers to the manner of speaking to that incredibly innocent yet mischievous smile, Redmayne nails down everything to perfection. For the most part of the film, he has to convey his character's myriad of emotions only through his face, but the actor doesn't skip a beat. Every single micro-expression on his tortured face is him one step closer to nabbing this year's Best Actor trophy at the Academy Awards.

Felicity Jones is equally adroit as Jane Hawking, following Redmayne's lead in most sequences. She conveys the loneliness, dissatisfaction and the urge to stray that her character feels in her life with utmost expressiveness. Not only does she look elegantly beautiful, but when the opportunity presents itself for her to shine in the second half, she grabs it by both hands and impresses you with a pitch-perfect performance. Rest of the cast members provide able support.

The film starts off well, only to lose some steam in the second half. But there's hardly any damage done, with James Marsh's accomplished direction righting the ship. Marsh and writer McCarten also find the most ideal ending you could possibly imagine, rewinding the clock to the first time that the duo first met at the party, mirroring Stephen's wish to reverse time to the beginning of the world. Add to that, Redmayne's faultless and applause-worthy portrayal of Stephen Hawking is something you're not likely to forget any time soon. If that's not enough to make you leave the theater impressed, I don't know what is.

Aambala Tamil Movie Review

Aambala Tamil Movie Review

"Aambala", which directly translates to masculine, is like film made by "Singam" fame Hari Gopalakrishnan, who is known for making films with flying objects, say cars and throws in some humans too occasionally.

Maybe Hari was hired to direct the action portion because Vishal as the producer may have felt that nobody else can do justice to his action avatar. So when Vishal makes a grand entry in a scene seated on the bonnet of a car about 30 feet above the ground, you know he's quite right about Hari because he's Tamil cinema's Rohit Shetty when it comes to action, while Sundar is known for churning out some great comedy, the kind audiences in B and C centres will guiltlessly lap up.


Vishal's (who plays Saravanan) political leanings are very evident in "Aambala", at least in the initial few minutes where he impresses a local politician and is subsequently asked if he'd like to enter politics. Saravanan replies, "Why would we take your place, if you do your job well?" Not that it's so important, but this line reminds us of a recent incident between Vishal and a senior actor, who heads a film body. This is Vishal's subtle way of letting everyone know that he's happy being an actor. Otherwise, the film turns out to be a cliched rehash of several family stories with adequate dose of action and nauseating comedy.

A southern filmmaker's idea of a commercial family drama is becoming very formulaic. Most of these stories are about fixing a broken family, reuniting with long separated family members and endorsing inter-familial marriage (in 21st century, really?). Here, three pairs of cousins plan on getting married. And the whole idea of the family reunion in "Aambala" is so dumb.

When three sisters banish their brother from their family, the latter sends his three sons, many years later, to woo the daughters of his sisters. Imagine how simple life would've been if all family tussles were ironed out by making its members marry each other (doesn't matter even if you were to kidnap someone and marry)? This pattern of storytelling was started in the 1980s and it's disappointing to see that it's still being milked dry.

Another problem is the size of these families, which usually feature more members than a cricket team (including non-playing members). Why can't family stories be about, say a family of two or three, like the older couple in Telugu film "Mithunam"? There's no hard and fast rule that it should be about a smaller family but the same applies for stories featuring bigger families as well. In "Aambala", the additional characters in the family may have been included just to give hero Vishal an opportunity to prove he's got more relationships to fix besides his own and his brothers'.

This is the third time Hansika has collaborated with director Sundar, who by now has proved she's got much more to showcase than her acting chops. Santhanam on the other hand, who is still capable of carrying the weight of a film singlehandedly, has started to get extremely nauseating with his funny one-liners that are mostly offensive and racist. Sundar's choice to cast Ramya Krishnan came as a surprise but her role not so much as she plays a toned down version of Neelambari from acePadayappa".

It's still tough to understand why Vishal would do two back-to-back masala entertainers after experimenting with films such as "Pandiya Naadu" and "Naan Sigappu Manithan", which performed well commercially at the ticket window. Maybe he underestimates his own talent and trades it for garbage like "Aambala", which is unarguably the worst product to have come out of Sundar's factory.

If masculinity is all about making Vishal drool at the slip of Hansika's pallu, her back and when she slips her mobile into her blouse (while on a video call), the makers have got everything right. Otherwise, there's nothing masculine about "Aambala".

Meagamann Tamil Movie Review

Meagamann Tamil Movie Review






Just like in the game of chess, how a move by your opponent might totally catch you off guard, the proceedings in Magilzh Thirumeni's impressive action film "Meaghamann" achieves that.
Interestingly, most of the film's characters are inspired by chess pieces -- king, rook, bishop and pawn. In the climax, when Siva (Arya) locks horns with the villain, Jothi, played by Ashutosh Rana, he slyly whispers in his ear "checkmate". Both Siva and Jothi are kings in their own world and that's what makes them equally strong, unlike stories in which the hero always has the upper hand.


In chess, rook is considered the most important piece, a heavy piece to be precise, after the king. In the film, Chitti is next in hierarchy after Jothi. In another scene, Jothi is shown playing a game of cards on the road, and he repeatedly ends up picking up the king to symbolically highlight that he's the king. A small character of that of a Bollywood actor, who appears exactly in two scenes, wears a t-shirt reading 'pawn' the first time we see him on screen. These touches by the director are impressive and it shows Tamil filmmakers are gradually avoiding regular cinematic stereotypes.

Arya plays an undercover policeman in a drug cartel. A man on a mission, he has no distractions even when the heroine desperately tries to know more about him. The film would've worked better even without a romantic track but this is Tamil cinema, and we're used to the idea of having a heroine just for the heck of it even if it's not necessarily needed.



Hansika plays Usha, whose father runs a hotel named 'Usha Bhavan', and this joke is probably the dumbest moment in the film. In an impressive action film devoid of the genre cliches, instances such as these really makes one wonder what's wrong with the director. But Magilzh makes up for his silly mistakes by keeping the romance one-sided. Arya is an extremely busy man, so he doesn't waste time in singing duets with Hansika. But there's one intimate number as part of a figment of Usha's imagination.



The action is realistic; especially the pre-interval scene. But Meaghamann is more brain than brawn. In a standout scene, when Arya's operation is called off by the police department and he's wanted for the killing of over a dozen people, it's quite natural to think it's all over or expect the story to follow the path of a regular hero-centric action film.



What follows is the exact opposite and that's where I think the director proves he doesn't like to follow the herd. Magilzh impresses in similar fashion at regular intervals and almost lets us down in the climax, at least to an extent. But there couldn't have been a better climax.

Magilzh's narrative style isn't the best, considering how many times he goes back and forth to reveal crucial moments in the story. Although he does it convincingly, it isn't easy to appreciate the screenplay without pointing out a few flaws. It's a fresh approach and it's perfectly alright to not appreciate if one doesn't like it but he can't be discouraged.



It's such a relief to see Arya in a serious role after a slew of comic characters in recent times. He plays his part subtly without trying to be an action hero for once. Rana and Sudhanshu Pandey are decent in their respective roles, and the best part is that they don't speak Tamil in some fake accent even though the film is set in Mumbai and Goa.

"Meaghamann" is an almost satisfying action film going by Tamil cinema standards

Darling Tamil movie 2015 Review

Darling Tamil movie Review




Director: Sam Anton
Producer: Allu Aravind, K. E. Gnanavel Raja
Production Co: Geetha Arts

Music Director: GV Prakash kumar
Cast: GV Prakash kumar, Nikki Galrani Srushti Dange, Karunas, Bala Saravanan, Sujith  Complete Cast & Crew

G. V. Prakash is all set to make his debut as a hero in his first film 'Darling'. Nikki Galrani will be playing the female lead with GVP himself providing musical score for the movie. The upcoming Tamil horror film is being directed by debutant Sam Anton and produced by Allu Aravind and K. E. Gnanavel Raja of Studio Green.

'Darling' is said to be a remake of the 2013 Telugu film 'Prema Katha Chitram' which was received well by the critics and audience alike.

Darling also has Srushti Dange, Karunas, Bala Saravanan and Rajendran in supporting roles with cinematography being handled by Krishan Vasant and editing by Ruben.

So, grab your popcorn and have a fun scary time this Pongal.