Vedam Movie Review : Telugu Cinema has a new benchmark

The year 2008 IMO was one of the best for Telugu Cinema. Along with the usual potboilers like King, Kantri, Bujjigadu,Souryametc it also had some movies which were commercial and yet “reasonably different” in the kind of subject and treatment used. Some of these movies included Kotha Bangaru Lokam, Ashta Chemma, Nacchavule, Avakai Biriyani and Gamyam of course. Gamyam was a true road movie and was completely fresh in its way of reaching out to the Telugu audience. Directed by a debutant, Krish ( Radhakrishna Jagarlamudi ) this was a movie that gave all the actors scope and in particular made “Gaali Seenu”, the character played by Allari Naresh extremely popular. The movie went on to be remade in Tamil, Kannada and Bengali (awaiting release) as well.

Somehow after a good 2008, the next 1 & ½ years or so haven’t been all that good for Telugu Cinema. Last year saw the super success of Arundhati and Magadheera but after that there have hardly been any path breaking films. So when Krish announced his next film Vedam & disclosed that it will be a multistarrer with 5 different stories running in parallel, naturally the expectation levels began to soar. What made matters worse was that in 2010 while some movies have indeed made money, none of them again have been trendsetting films. So obviously as June 4th , the day of release for Vedam approached there were a lot of questions on people’s minds- the most important being will Krish be able to live up to the hype and will he be able to demonstrate that Gamyam was no flash in the pan?

So that’s why I was all the more excited while watching Vedam on the very first day of release. So is it a brilliant film, does Krish live up to the expectations and does the movie herald good news for Telugu Cinema? Well I’ll come to all that shortly but before that let me dispense away with the basics first. Vedam is what I’ll call a true Hyperlink film ( on the lines of Crash, Amores Perros etc ) and yes indeed its a multistarrer with 5 different stories/tracks running in parallel.

Track 1 : This one is all about Chakravarthy (Manoj Manchu), an aspiring rock star. His mother wants him to join the army and continue the family tradition. Instead Chakravarthy wants to follow his heart to become a rock star. He and his rock band members including Lekha Washington miss their flight from Bangalore to Hyderabad where they are supposed to perform at a live concert. Hence they decide to travel by road.

Track 2 : Ramulu (Nagayya) is a weaver in a small town. His grandson is a bright student. Ramulu owes money to a money lender and the money lender one day takes away Ramulu’s grandson and makes him a daily labour. Ramulu hence urgently needs money to get the kid back and he somehow finds a way of obtaining the money and visits Hyderabad along with his daughter-in-law ( Saranya ) for the same purpose.

Track 3 : Saroja ( Anushka ) is a prostitute in Amalapuram and very much popular. As she has to pass on major part of her earnings to the brothel owner, she decides to run away to Hyderabad and start her own brothel there. Giving her company on the run is her eunuch companion.

Track 4 : Raheemuddin Qureishi ( Manoj Bajpai ) is tired of being discriminated for being a Muslim and decides to leave Hyderabad and go on to make a career for himself in Sharjah. Accordingly he even gets his visa and is all set to fly out when his past catches up with him in an unfortunate development.

Track 5 : Cable Raju ( Allu Arjun ) is a cable operator in the slums of Jubilee Hills/Film Nagar ( Hyderabad ). Being a smooth talker he manages to get a rich girlfriend ( Deeksha Seth ) who is convinced by his charms that he is a rich guy too. As New Year’s Eve approaches she requests Raju to take her for a New Year eve party, where the entry tickets for a couple cost Rs.40, 000. Now Raju has to arrange money for the same.

While all 5 stories are of different kinds and temperament, Krish does a fairly good job of trying to run them in parallel and link them in his own way. At times one comes across a lot of cinematic moments which could have been avoided if possible and this is especially evident in the climax. But for all such moments there are so many well made moments as well which makes you completely look rooted to the screen while watching them.

My personal favourite track in the movie is the Allu Arjun one. While the premise is simple, it has been done in a very impressive manner. I would give full marks to Krish and Allu Arjun for elevating this track to the desired level. Frankly I did not expect this track to emerge so good. While on Allu Arjun I must admit that I have always felt that behind the star in him there exists a good actor who can be brought out to perform given an author backed role. So Krish has gone on to do exactly the same with Allu Arjun in Vedam.Check out the scene in the hotel on New Year’s Eve as Allu Arjun walks off to the parking lot and you may agree with me.

Nagayya as Ramulu is fabulous and he carries off the emotional scenes wonderfully. It’s tough to say that this is his first film. This is again a track that impressed me. The clandestine “organ donation” racket has been naturally depicted. The way Krish links this track with Cable Raju’s track is impressive. Manoj Manchu also comes up with a natural performance and is at ease playing the rockstar. Anushka’s role was looked forward to, thanks to the character she portrays and it’s heartening to note that she has not let her fans down. She comes across as genuine and lives up to the requirement.

Manoj Bajpai is a veteran and certainly doesn’t disappoint. Apart from the main characters Krish has brought out some good performances from the supporting cast as well and in particular those who stand out are Satyam Rajeshas Cable Raju’s friend, Ravi Prakash as the cop who hates Muslims and the eunuch friend of Anushka. A lot of other actors like Brahmanandam, Posani Murali Krishna, Raghu Babu, Giri etc put in brief appearances. Deeksha Seth and Lekha Washington manage to get noticed as well.

The writing by Krish is also to be singled out as he has beautifully interwoven these tracks together. Also ensuring that all the actors get their due is again not an easy task and hats off to Krish for ensuring the same. M.M Keeravani’s music is very much in line with the film’s requirement and the veteran does what is expected. Art Director Rajiv Nairdeserves a special mention for his work and the cinematography by Gnanasekhar V.N is effective as well. The producers- Devineni Prasad and Shobu Yarlagadda deserve to be appreciated for backing an interesting film and ensuring Krish gets to do the movie the way he wanted.

All said and done while this may not be the defining moment in Telugu Cinema, it’s certainly a film that’s a good attempt and Krish does succeed in proving that he’s no one film wonder. The drought in Telugu Cinema hopefully should end with Vedam and now filmmakers have a new benchmark to compare their films with.

Originally published in PFC-http://passionforcinema.com/vedam-movie-review-telugu-cinema-has-a-new-benchmark/

Chandrasekhar Yeleti undertakes a new ‘Prayanam’

A couple of years ago,on one fine morning, I was stranded in Bangalore’s HAL airport (or the old airport as we now describe it) for some 4-5 hours. The reason being my flight and most other flights were delayed due to fog condition and so I was caught unawares. Since the agenda was only a meeting with a retail chain towards lunch time, I was hoping to catch up on some other agenda’s and catch the evening flight and return back. You see those were the pre recession days and could easily fly short distances like Chennai-Bangalore and get back the same day too . Well I do miss those days I guess. Before you wonder if this post is going to be about my ramblings on recession, flying etc- let me clarify that it’s not what I have in mind. I just narrated this incident to tell you all how I wish I had at least known the story of Chandrasekhar Yeleti’s ( C.Y from hereon ) latest Telugu movie-‘Prayanam’ by that time.If that were so, who knows those few hours could have changed my life.
For those who have seen or heard of C.Y’s previous movies namely Aithe, Anukokunda Oku Roju (remade as Sunday in Hindi) and Okkadunnadu, it would surely come as a surprise to know that Yeleti this time has changed tracks and gone in for a lighthearted romantic film in the form of Prayanam. Before talking anything about the movie- I have a question to ask. What would any guy who has a lot of time to while away in an airport try to do? Well yes the normal responses would be reading, checking your mail/chatting, having endless cups of coffee/mugs of beer, talking with someone on the mobile etc. But would anyone among us think of falling in love and then ensuring that one tends to get successful in it?
Yeah! I’m sure most of us probably end up seeing a good looking girl and some of us probably even manage to talk to the girl and feel happy about it. But I repeat how many of us would use the few hours of time with us at the airport to fall in love with the girl and then try to woo her successfully? Not many, right? Well let me then go on to tell you what Prayanam is all about. The plot if I were to call it is all about a trio of friends – Dhruv (Manchu Manoj), Janardhan and Tamim who have just completed a sightseeing trip to Malaysia and are now at Kuala Lumpur’s International airport to fly over to Singapore. At the same time you have the female lead Harika (Payal Ghosh a.k.a Harika) along with her friend Kalpika who are also at the airport to catch a flight to Hyderabad.
Harika is about to meet a prospective bride groom in Hyderabad and that’s the reason for her travel. In truly filmy style Dhruv falls in love with Harika – a classic case of love at first sight. But our hero is somewhat different because he is not content by merely falling in love; he wants to successfully woo her too. And he has just 2 hours to go about in this task. How he goes about doing this is what the movie is all about. Now I’m sure even without seeing the movie it would be clear to almost everyone that the plot is extremely simple and does not carry any meat on its own. In such a case it becomes very important for the director to be very effective in ensuring that the proceedings on screen keep the viewer enthused throughout the duration of the film.
It is here that C.Y shows he is in complete control. By ensuring that the humour quotient is fairly high throughout the movie, he manages to keep the proceedings interesting enough till the end. In fact though it is a romantic film, I personally did not find anything extraordinary about the romance in the movie as such. But it is in the comedy scenes that C.Y completely excels and lifts the movie to a large extent. Also what is remarkable about the movie is that the movie is more or less shot in just one location (except the few scenes at the start) i.e. in the airport and there are just 5-6 characters in the movie. Also commendable is the fact that the comedy is never over the top. Brahmanandam as Satyanaryana Swamy is hilarious and the scenes that he has with Janardhan are certainly innovative.
Also interestingly the characters of Kalpika and Tamim have been well sketched and the scenes involving them are entertaining again. Manchu Manoj seems to be having a blast in this movie (after Nenu Meeku Telusa which was reasonably noticed) and he will surely be talked about with this movie. Harika/Payal Ghosh does not have much scope but is fairly decent. Music by Mahesh Shankar is fairly adequate and does not distract (just 3 songs in the movie). The animation in the opening titles and the first song (YYW) is quite interesting. All in all this is one ‘Prayanam’ which can be safely undertaken. Not outstanding cinema, but definitely entertaining enough.
P.S- By now you would have understood why I mentioned I wish I knew the story of Prayanam when I was stuck at Bangalore’s HAL airport. But on hindsight even if I had liked some girl then, with all the chaos that prevailed there on that day I doubt if I would have been successful enough like Manchu Manoj in the movie .

P.S- Originally published in PFC.Check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/chandrasekhar-yeleti-undertakes-a-new-%e2%80%98prayanam%e2%80%99/