It’s no secret that politics along with cricket and movies always occupies pride of place among Indians in terms of topics to discuss and identify with. Though the political scenario in India hasn’t really changed much of late, we see a lot many more youth getting into the political fray these days across parties and some of them are already making a mark in the political scenario, be it in a regional or National level. I’m sure all these thoughts as well as a lot of interesting developments in the political scenario of A.P must have weighed on the mind of noted filmmaker Sekhar Kammula as he started conceptualizing Leader, the debut movie of Rana Daggubati who comes from one of the most well known families in the Telugu film industry (with names like D.Ramanaidu, Suresh Babu and Venkatesh in the family, it really cant get bigger right? ).
Talking about the debut I can surely say that with a director like Sekhar Kammula, a veteran production house like AVM Productions, a well known production/distribution house doing the distribution ( Geeta Arts ), Rana couldn’t have asked for a better debut. But one also needs to note that this also makes it even tougher for Rana to deliver as the expectation levels are pretty high. So how successful has Sekhar been in making a transition from his style of filmmaking into making a political drama? Has Rana succeeded in making a confident debut? Well read on friends for all this and more.
The movie begins with Arjun Prasad ( Rana ), a PhD scholar in the U.S rushing down to Hyderabad as his father, the C.M of A.P ( Suman ) is injured in a car bomb blast. When his father dies, the family elder- Peddayana ( Kota Srinivasa Rao ) wants someone else from the family to occupy the C.M’s position, a throwback to the dynasty regime that is followed in a lot of cases across the country. The frontrunner for the throne turns out to be Arjun’s cousin, Dhananjay ( Subbaraju ) who has a tainted record. Now keeping his father’s last wish in mind as well as his mother’s (Suhasini) advice, Arjun decides to become the C.M and an interesting power play begins.
Right away Arjun realizes that corruption in the system is rampant and nearly everybody has been affected including his late father. So Arjun decides to clean the system in his own way. And while doing so he realizes that delivering what people want is not easy and the journey is fairly risky. Hence Arjun decides to use some of the tricks of the system itself in order to meet his objective. How Arjun goes about in his journey and how he transforms not just into a C.M or a politician but a leader like his mother describes once is what the rest of the story is all about.
The uber cool CM with his aides
While the movie has a fairly engaging first half, it falters a bit in the 2nd half. Sekhar allows the tale to meander a bit as there is a lot of time spent on the romance angle (not very impressive) and also the power struggle in between. Thankfully the dialogues are straight on and sound real rather than the usual over the top style that one usually gets to see in such films. There are lots of moments which remind you of films like Mudhalvan/Nayak, Yuva /Ayutha Ezhuthu etc but then in a genre like this similarities are not very surprising. But credit goes to Sekhar for following his own path and not really modeling the film on any other influence per se.
The movie is very topical and highlights a lot of incidents that the audience would instantly connect to. While some people may find the climax and the way the movie culminates to be a bit too hard to digest, I have a confession to make over here. While watching the movie initially even I was a bit bewildered but now on hindsight I think the usage of the “ Maa Telugu Talliki “ song to showcase the flow of events in a montage was pretty good and tends to be different from the unnecessary drama that otherwise would have been the way to unfold the events.
The movie is a very good showcase for Rana and he has certainly handled the challenge very well. Rana has great screen presence and his dialogue delivery is fairly impressive as well. Leader works reasonably due to Sekhar’s vision and Rana’s performance. The supporting cast is pretty efficient and they add their contribution to the film. It’s a pleasure to see Kota once again as a wily manipulator and Subbaraju as Rana’s opponent is quite credible. Suhasini does her role with ease and others like Harshavardhan, Rao Ramesh, Tanikella Bharani, Ahuti Prasad all are quite effective as well.
Rana and Richa GangopadhyayAnd except for the Udaya Bhanu item song its good that Sekhar hasn’t tried to please the masses in a major way by going for the usual comedy brigade, unnecessary fights etc. Though the movie looks a bit too idealistic and far fetched at places, it still retains some moments of realism. Coming to the heroines both Richa Gangopadhyay and Priya Anand do what is expected of them, but sadly they don’t have much to contribute in terms of the actual flow of things. Micky J.Meyer’s music is effective though the songs aren’t probably in the same league as some of his previous outings. But of course the genre of the movie is different and he has worked with that in mind. While a lot of the proceedings are unique to A.P, the movie certainly would work anywhere else as well.
Overall the movie doesn’t come out as a masterpiece but then at least what’s praise worthy is that Sekhar has stuck to his thoughts and come out with an attempt to bring out something contemporary and topical. And Rana certainly needs to be appreciated for believing in Sekhar and the team of Leader. As a debut movie for him it works reasonably well. It’s better than a lot of the regular movies that are being dished out in Telugu these days. So go for it with an open mind and certainly come out thinking that there’s a lot that can be done by us. At least Leader makes us think and probably that’s where Shekar succeeds.
Talking about the debut I can surely say that with a director like Sekhar Kammula, a veteran production house like AVM Productions, a well known production/distribution house doing the distribution ( Geeta Arts ), Rana couldn’t have asked for a better debut. But one also needs to note that this also makes it even tougher for Rana to deliver as the expectation levels are pretty high. So how successful has Sekhar been in making a transition from his style of filmmaking into making a political drama? Has Rana succeeded in making a confident debut? Well read on friends for all this and more.
The movie begins with Arjun Prasad ( Rana ), a PhD scholar in the U.S rushing down to Hyderabad as his father, the C.M of A.P ( Suman ) is injured in a car bomb blast. When his father dies, the family elder- Peddayana ( Kota Srinivasa Rao ) wants someone else from the family to occupy the C.M’s position, a throwback to the dynasty regime that is followed in a lot of cases across the country. The frontrunner for the throne turns out to be Arjun’s cousin, Dhananjay ( Subbaraju ) who has a tainted record. Now keeping his father’s last wish in mind as well as his mother’s (Suhasini) advice, Arjun decides to become the C.M and an interesting power play begins.
Right away Arjun realizes that corruption in the system is rampant and nearly everybody has been affected including his late father. So Arjun decides to clean the system in his own way. And while doing so he realizes that delivering what people want is not easy and the journey is fairly risky. Hence Arjun decides to use some of the tricks of the system itself in order to meet his objective. How Arjun goes about in his journey and how he transforms not just into a C.M or a politician but a leader like his mother describes once is what the rest of the story is all about.
The uber cool CM with his aides
While the movie has a fairly engaging first half, it falters a bit in the 2nd half. Sekhar allows the tale to meander a bit as there is a lot of time spent on the romance angle (not very impressive) and also the power struggle in between. Thankfully the dialogues are straight on and sound real rather than the usual over the top style that one usually gets to see in such films. There are lots of moments which remind you of films like Mudhalvan/Nayak, Yuva /Ayutha Ezhuthu etc but then in a genre like this similarities are not very surprising. But credit goes to Sekhar for following his own path and not really modeling the film on any other influence per se.
The movie is very topical and highlights a lot of incidents that the audience would instantly connect to. While some people may find the climax and the way the movie culminates to be a bit too hard to digest, I have a confession to make over here. While watching the movie initially even I was a bit bewildered but now on hindsight I think the usage of the “ Maa Telugu Talliki “ song to showcase the flow of events in a montage was pretty good and tends to be different from the unnecessary drama that otherwise would have been the way to unfold the events.
The movie is a very good showcase for Rana and he has certainly handled the challenge very well. Rana has great screen presence and his dialogue delivery is fairly impressive as well. Leader works reasonably due to Sekhar’s vision and Rana’s performance. The supporting cast is pretty efficient and they add their contribution to the film. It’s a pleasure to see Kota once again as a wily manipulator and Subbaraju as Rana’s opponent is quite credible. Suhasini does her role with ease and others like Harshavardhan, Rao Ramesh, Tanikella Bharani, Ahuti Prasad all are quite effective as well.
Rana and Richa GangopadhyayAnd except for the Udaya Bhanu item song its good that Sekhar hasn’t tried to please the masses in a major way by going for the usual comedy brigade, unnecessary fights etc. Though the movie looks a bit too idealistic and far fetched at places, it still retains some moments of realism. Coming to the heroines both Richa Gangopadhyay and Priya Anand do what is expected of them, but sadly they don’t have much to contribute in terms of the actual flow of things. Micky J.Meyer’s music is effective though the songs aren’t probably in the same league as some of his previous outings. But of course the genre of the movie is different and he has worked with that in mind. While a lot of the proceedings are unique to A.P, the movie certainly would work anywhere else as well.
Overall the movie doesn’t come out as a masterpiece but then at least what’s praise worthy is that Sekhar has stuck to his thoughts and come out with an attempt to bring out something contemporary and topical. And Rana certainly needs to be appreciated for believing in Sekhar and the team of Leader. As a debut movie for him it works reasonably well. It’s better than a lot of the regular movies that are being dished out in Telugu these days. So go for it with an open mind and certainly come out thinking that there’s a lot that can be done by us. At least Leader makes us think and probably that’s where Shekar succeeds.
Originally posted in PFC- check it out here- http://tinyurl.com/yyj4z6e
No comments:
Post a Comment