Golimaar - Movie Review

After giving three successive hits like Pokiri, Desamuduru and Chiruta, Puri Jagannath flopped with Bujjigadu and some how gained image with a moderate hit like Neninthe and again bitten the dust with Ek Niranjan. He took a considerable gap and has come up with Golimaar with Gopichand as hero. Though Puri planned to produce it on his own banner ‘Vaishno Academy’, Bellamkonda Suresh took over the project and brought out the film. The film is a complete action drama with police story in its backdrop. Puri Jagannath claimed that he prepared the story with an inspiration from the real life story of Dayanayak, encounter specialist.


Story:
Gangaram (Gopichand) is an orphan. His wish is to become a police officer. He works in a tea shop and raises to the level of a police sub-inspector. Noticing his guts, the DGP promotes him as an encounter specialist and gives him a list of gangsters whom he has to eliminate. During the course of his job, Gangaram kills more than 100 gangsters and with the prize money carried on the heads of those gangsters, he starts an orphanage. At this juncture, he accidentally meets Pavitra (Priyamani), daughter of Arundhati (Roja). Arundhati hates the men and police in the society and brings up her daughter with the same mindset.


Pavitra works as an event manager. As Gangaram performs his duty sincerely, he manages to kill one of the leaders of the two gangs in an encounter. He seeks permission from the DGP to permit him to eliminate the other mafia gang leader who is staying in Malaysia. Stating that a police can’t go outside the country even to arrest a gangster and there will be lots of rules and gives him an idea. He tells Gangaram to give him a resignation letter without any date and go to Malaysia on his own and do whatever he wants and kill the mafia leader at his own risk. If there is any problem from government, they could cite his resignation and wrap up the issue. Gangaram accepts the proposal and resigns to his job. Soon, the police arrest him and brand him as a corrupt officer. What happens next is a intresting part of the story.


PERFORMANCE:
Gopichand has given a electrifying performance as an encounter specialist on the lines of Venkatesh in Gharshana. His well-toned body suits him at the best for the role. He is good in every department including dialogue delivery, action scenes and also in the songs. Especially his facial expressions were worth watching on the screen while eliminating the gangsters in cold blood. Priyamani filled the glamour slot. She is okay as far as performance and was sexy in a romantic song with revealing outfits. Kelly Dorji once again proved that he is good as a mafia don. Roja, who made a comeback into the Tollywood with Sambho Siva Sambho, proved her seniority as an artiste and showed a matured performance. Other artistes including Nazar, MS Narayana, Jeeva, Shawar Ali and others did justice to their respective roles. Ali appeared only in a couple of scenes as the heroine’s assistant.

TECHNICAL:
The cinematography by Shyam K Naidu needs a special mention in the film. The action scenes were perfectly choreographed by fight master Vijay and were excellently shot by Shyam. He was able to capture the beauties of Malaysia and in India. Music by Chakri is also okay and a couple of songs are nice to hear and melodious. Bellamkonda Suresh’s production values are good. There is no need for a special mention about Puri Jagannath who had penned the story, dialogues, screenplay and direction of Puri Jagannath. There are many a punch dialogues in the film. The screenplay was crisp so as the story. Puri once again proved that he is very good at picturising the action films with police subjects.

REMARKS:
The making of the film would resemble the style of Puri Jagannath and it is like a tailor-made subject for Gopichand. However, once we keenly observe the subject, any average audience could simply say that Puri Jagannath reversed the story of Pokiri to bring out another action drama. The hero of Pokiri first appears a gangster and turns a police officer in the climax, while in this film, the hero is a police in the beginning and turns a gangster in the climax. The film would definitely attract the mass and youth audiences but a strict no for family audiences as it has lots of violence.

Cast: Gopichand, Priyamani, Nazar, Roja, Kelly Dorge, Shawar Ali, MS Narayana, Ali, Jeeva, Aryaman, Roja, Prakash Raj (special appearance) and others

Credits: Camera – Shyam K Naidu, Editing – Marthand K Venkatesh, Art – Chinna, Action – Vijay, Music – Chakri, Presents – Bellamkonda Padmavati, Producer – Bellamkonda Suresh, Story, screenplay, dialogues and direction – Puri Jagannath.

Banner: Sri Sai Ganesh Productions

Released on: May 27, 2010

Vedam – Movie Review

Director Krish bagged several awards for his debut film ‘Gamyam’. This made the audiences keep high expectations on his latest release ‘Vedam’ as this time he prepared a subject, which has a scope for two heroes and a heroine. Another interesting point in this film is that stylish star Allu Arjun, who has an image both among the masses as well as youth audiences, is starring in a mass character, while Manchu Manoj, son of Mohanbabu, has done the role of a rock star and Anushka appears as a prostitute. The Telugu audiences, who are craving for a multi-starrer, eagerly looked forward for the film. The film has given them an experience of watching a Hollywood film with gripping screenplay and five different stories that run simultaneously.

Vijay Chakravarthy (Manchu Manoj) is the son of a Major and grandson of a Captain who have sacrificed their lives for the country. But Vijay does not want to join Army and he wants to become a rock star and starts a rock band. He gets an opportunity to play live in Hyderabad. He misses the flight and sets off to Hyderabad from Bangalore via road in a vehicle along with his troupe.


A handloom weaver Ramulu (Nagayya) borrows money from a private moneylender. He sells off his kidney and returns the principal. The lender takes away his grandson as he does not repay the interest. So, he decides to sell his daughter’s kidney for Rs 40,000 and go to Hyderabad and gets back his grandson.

Saroja (Anushka) is a prostitute, who stays in a brothel. In order to get away from there and launch her own brothel company, she reaches Hyderabad and gets caught by the police. Saroja’s friend suffers a stab injury in one incident and she takes her to hospital.

Cable Raju (Allu Arjun) stays in a slum in Hyderabad. However, he has fluency in English and can grab the attention of Deepa (Deeksha Seth), daughter of a millionaire, by pretending that he is also a rich man. Deepa wants to introduce Raju to her parents in a New Year party and wants two passes for the bash. The premier party charges Rs 40,000 for a couple and Raju set off to earn that money. Unable to get the money from any other source, he decides to go for chain-snatching. All his efforts prove futile.

Noticing that Ramulu has Rs 40,000 with him, Raju follows him and snatches away the money from him. But Raju realises his folly and confesses it to Deepa that he is not a rich man and only a worker in a slum. He returns money to Ramulu. Vijay, who is on his way to Hyderabad, notices a woman, who is badly injured in an accidents tries to rescue her by taking her to hospital. At this juncture, some terrorists capture the hospital and start indiscriminate firing killing scores of people. Raju and Vijay, who are there in the hospital, try to save as many patients and collect all of them in room. But they find the terrorist leader become a human bomb and want to blast the entire building and to save the innocent lives, they push him out of the hospital and die in the blast along with the terrorist. Thus they become immortal in the hearts of people, despite doing wrong things in their lives earlier. Saroja too wanted to lead a normal life instead of returning to prostitution in the climax.

PLUS: All the characters in the film have equal importance. Though Manoj has a less footage when compared with Allu Arjun, his character would make an impact on the minds of audiences. Though he appears in few scenes, Manoj shows energy in them. Definitely the film would earn him the name that he is a very good artiste. Arjun has also given a good performance and the director has etched the character with different shades and Arjun has given a matured performance in this film. The emotions in the character vary from scene to scene and Arjun emotes excellently in every frame. Anushka has also given a sizzling performance. Without resorting to any kind of exposing, she shows the exact oomph in the character as a prostitute at the same time. She has a chance to perform in a couple of scenes.

The highlight of the film is the gripping story, excellent screenplay and the punch dialogues. Incidentally, all these departments are handled by the director Krish himself, who does not lose grip on the subject or screenplay and he perfectly runs the five different stories simultaneously by balancing each and every story and culminating of all the characters in different stories into one in the climax. Music by Keeravani is another asset for the film. The timing of songs is very good and the director placed the songs perfectly at necessary places. Definitely, the film would earn a critical acclaim because of the gripping subject and fantastic screenplay.

MINUS: The common and mass audiences could not understand the story because of its clumsy nature. They get confused why Manoj become furious at the lorry driver and they could realise only a little later that despite being chased, he comes to his rescue and make him learn the value of life, which becomes useful in the climax. But common audiences cannot digest such a clumsy scene. Lack of duets, interesting fights and action scenes, foreign locales, and the tragic climax, may prove obstacles for the commercial success of the film.

ANALYSIS: The movie shows the taste of producers in making a meaningful movie and they are just not after profits. The first half of the film is entertaining and the second half raises the heartbeat and pulse rate of the audiences with each passing minute. The producer and director should be complimented for taking such a subject especially with a commercial hero like Arjun and glamorous star Anushka, besides Manchu Manoj.

Cast: Allu Arjun, Manchu Manoj, Anushka, Lekha Washington, Deeksha Seth, Siya Gautham, Manoj Bajpai, Nagayya, Pruthvi, Posani Krishnamurali, Saranya, Brahmanandam, Raghu Babu, Ravi Prakash, Satyam Rajesh and others.

Credits: Music - MM Keeravani, Lyrics - Sirivennela Seetarama Sastry, Sahiti, E S Murthy and Keeravani, Camera – VS Gnanasekhar, Editing – Sravan, Action – Ram, Lakshman, Art – Rajiv Nayar, Producers – Devineni Prasad and Yarlagada Sobhu, Story, screenplay, dialogues and direction – Jagarlamudi Radhakrishna @ Krish

Banner: Arka Media Works

Released on: June 4, 2010

Nokia N900 Arrives in India Officially

Nokia's Maemo 5 based tablet, the N900, was available in India via unofficial channels for quite some time now. Seeing the demand for the handset in the grey market, Nokia seems to have thought of bringing in the handset officially to India and that is exactly what it has done today.

Nokia has officially launched the N900 in India. The N900 boasts of an impressive hardware spec sheet that begins right from the processor - an ARM Cortex A8 that provides 1GB of application memory and Open GL ES 2.0 Graphics acceleration support.

The OS is Linux-based Maemo 5 that provides the device comprehensive multitasking ability. The N900 also features a WVGA touchscreen and a full, slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It comes with 32GB of memory (which really isn't an upgrade over the N97) and an expansion slot - you can add up to 48GB - which should suffice for "normal" users. With a decent 5 megapixel camera, the N900 seems to take photography seriously. All the other features you might expect find their way in as well. We're talking about the A-GPS and FM transmitter support. On the connectivity front, it supports HSPA Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity as well.


The phone will cost Rs. 30,639 in India, which is on the expensive side - but is well below the initial expected cost of the handset - which was just over Rs. 35,000. The N900 was officially launched in August 2009.

Online tatkal passport racket busted

HYDERABAD: Passport tatkal online booking racket was busted and seven accused persons arrested by the city Task Force sleuths.

Addressing a press meet on Friday, city police commissioner A K Khan said the police started investigation after the passport authorities informed them that applicants were finding it difficult to get slots on the tatkal online booking site as it was never accessible.

The probe found that the passport office website was being hacked and online bookings blocked. The gang involved in it was selling the blocked slots for a hefty sum. In the last two months alone, as many as 3,000 applications were sold through these online slots.

The commissioner said Gorantla Lathadhar Rao, 36, a shop owner, Shaik Subhani, 34, travel agent (Akash Travels) from Narasaraopet in Guntur district, Mohd Jahangir, 45, native of Rezimental Bazar in Secunderabad, Bhooma Srihari, 56, resident of Market Street of Secunderabad, Giddala Chinna, 29, of Kummariguda, Secunderabad, Syed Valiuddin, 30, of Tolichowki, Kondreddy Penchal Reddy, 35, of Chikkadpally were arrested. All the seven are passport agents, he informed. Two other accused Khaleem and Srinivas of Hyderabad are absconding.

“These nine had formed a gang and were charging Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 from each applicant in dire need of a passport under tatkal scheme,’’ the commissioner said.
The police seized the laptop used by the hacker, Lathadhar Rao, along with wireless internet modem and copies of passport applications. The Market police are investigating the case.

The website www.Passport.gov.in, is developed and maintained by the National Informatic Centre (NIC), New Delhi.

Masand: 'Raajneeti' is thrilling and gripping

Cast: Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpai, Ranbir Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Katrina Kaif

Director: Prakash Jha

"Raajneeti", directed by Prakash Jha, is a compelling drama about a family in politics. It's about the extent people will go to, driven by a greed for power and a thirst for revenge.

Deliciously dramatic, and packed with sinister twists and turns, the film's plot and characters are rooted in "The Mahabharata", although parallels with "The Godfather" are hard to ignore. Jha's film relies on the solid performances of its ensemble cast to distract your attention from its many lapses.

The drama unfolds as the prototypical Pandavs-versus-Kauravs conflict, with cousins Prithvi Pratap Singh (played by Arjun Rampal) and Virendra Pratap Singh (played by Manoj Bajpai) drawing battle-lines in blood when the patriarch of their powerful political family suffers a paralytic stroke. Both seeking the reins of this political legacy, they resort to blackmail, murder, backstabbing, and marriages of alliance to achieve their ends.

Ajay Devgan stars as Suraj, the Karn-figure from the mythological epic, who sides with the rivals of his step-siblings. Ranbir Kapoor, meanwhile, is Samar, younger brother of Rampal's Prithvi Pratap Singh, who's content with his life in the US, disconnected from politics, until the murder of his father prompts him to slip into his family's dirty business.

"Raajneeti" has a sprawling canvas, and it takes some time to figure out the characters and their motivations. Arjun Rampal is the impulsive, hot-headed Bhim. Manoj Bajpai is the scheming Duryodhan. Ranbir Kapoor the focused Arjun. Nana Patekar stars as the wise counsel Brij who represents Krishna; and Katrina Kaif plays Indu who stands for Draupadi, a pawn in this clash for ultimate power.

The film's first half is immensely engaging, the various machinations making for thrilling entertainment. It's in the second half that "Raajneeti" stumbles. The Kunti character's confrontation with her abandoned son, played by Ajay Devgan, lacks the required dramatic punch. Also rather unconvincing is the sudden transformation in Ranbir Kapoor's character Samar, a subplot whose antecedents may be drawn to Michael Corleone's initiation into his family business in "The Godfather".

A bloody shootout in the film's climax between top politicians in broad daylight appears ridiculous to say the least; and equally disturbing is the film's logic, which allows a central character to walk away from the messy political marshland in the end, his blood-soiled hands notwithstanding.

At 2 hours and roughly 50 minutes in running time, "Raajneeti" is way too long and demands much patience on your part. But it's held up by a string of credible performances. Nana Patekar is terrific as Brij Mama, the smiling, politicking, guiding light who allows his expressions to do more talking than his words. Katrina Kaif looks uncomfortable in the film's early portions, but comes into her own when she slips into the politico's garb and unselfconsciously delivers impassioned speeches at election rallies. Ajay Devgan gets a great introduction scene and uses his eyes effectively to convey hurt and anger, but you can't help feeling the actor was shortchanged in a half-baked role. The usually reliable Manoj Bajpai makes Virendra Pratap Singh a bellowing caricature, while Arjun Rampal offers a confident, assured turn as the brash Prithvi Pratap Singh. The most mature, performance, however, comes from the youngest cast-member, Ranbir Kapoor. The actor plots silently and inconspicuously and is the face of calm even in the most tense moments. It's that rare performance that is calculated, and yet so spare.

In the end "Raajneeti" is thrilling and gripping for the most part, even though it does lose steam in its final act. And as far as politics goes, it doesn't tell you very much more than you didn't already know. Still I'm going with three-and-a-half out of five for director Prakash Jha's "Raajneeti". For the superb acting, and for the exciting dramatic highs, it's a film I recommend you do not miss.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Lemon Mobile Duo 401 Launched

Lemon Mobiles has announced the launch of its latest dual SIM handset, the Duo 401 in India.

The Duo is projected as an entry level multimedia handset and offers a lot of features for the price it sells. Let us now take a look at what it has in store for a potential user.

The Duo features a large-ish 2.6-inch display. While large enough, it is let down by a low resolution of just 176x220 pixels which you were used to seeing on older generation Symbian handsets. The phone has a metallic finish that might appeal to members of the fairer sex. It features a multimedia player as well that supports various formats like Mp3/MP4/3GP AVI. The phone also has an FM receiver that should help make your daily commute a bit more relaxing.

The imaging part is taken care of by a basic VGA camera that adorns the rear of the phone. The phone is capable of accepting microSD cards of up to 2GB.The internal memory on this phone is extremely low - just 500KB! It also offers 4 hours of talk time and 360 hours of standby time - thanks to a powerful 850mAH battery. Another unique feature for a handset in its price range is the presence of an accelerometer on the device that can be used to shake the handset and change the track the user is listening to.
The Lemon Duo 401 can be yours for Rs. 3,699 - which seems to be a decent price for a device with the kind of features it sports.

Bips to join Twitter soon

Joining the Bollywood bandwagon on social networking site Twitter "very soon" is actress Bipasha Basu, who was announced the brand ambassador of Wynncomm Telecom Limited here Tuesday.

"I think the phenomenon of social networking sites is great. I am not on Twitter as of now. But I am getting on Twitter very soon," Bipasha told reporters at the event.

"A lot of people use their phones these days for social networking. But I just call people through my phone. In our kind of business, it is most important to first stay connected with our manager and chartered accountant. And for me, a verbal conversation with them is a must," she added.

The actress, who looked her slimmest in a fitted white coloured one-shoulder dress, admits that she isn't a gadget freak.

"I am not a gadget freak. But anything that makes life easy and simple for me, is most welcome. Among the gadgets I like are - a good audio visual system, mobile, air conditioner and transport," she said.

Bipasha has been appointed as the ambassador for Wynncomm "for her connect with ordinary Indians who want to get to the top", said company founder and chairman, Rakesh Malhotra.

Bipasha, who was last featured in "Pankh", will be seen next in Rahul Dholakia's "Lamhaa", releasing July 17. For now, she is heading to Colombo for the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) weekend starting Wednesday. She will be performing some of her popular numbers there.

"I am looking forward to IIFA. I hope it is an amazing weekend ahead," she added.

Bipasha's topless video makes a splash

Just as Bipasha Basu [ Images ] announced that she will soon join the microblogging site Twitter, videos of her posing topless in an old advertisement surfaced on the video posting site YouTube. The dusky actress featured in the New York Lotto commercial, along with Vivek Oberoi [ Images ], in the initial days of her modelling career. Since the ad was very bold, the question remained whether the actors had indeed shot for it.
In a statement, Bipasha's manager confirmed, "Bipasha had done this ad in 1999 when she was modelling for Ford [ Images ] Modelling Agency in New York. It was done as an international assignment and was meant for the international market. I don't know why such an old ad has surfaced now."
The ad was reportedly shot by Ken Nahoum in India [ Images ]. Like Sherlyn Chopra's [ Images ] nude posture, Bipasha's ad is also likely to create ripples on the net.

Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor: Look Back in Anger

Kareena Kapoor is sweetheart to million young hearts for her sexy image. Her arresting beauty and marvelous gesture can create the wave of warm excitement even in the injured mind of an age old dude but right now she is busy of lambasting her soul mate Shahid Kapoor for the breach of promise. There is nothing unfair in love and war.
It is prominently palpable when she charges Shahid Kapoor for his undue indulgence in tampering the domestic affair of Priyanka Chopra.
The rumors are fanning around the Bollywood tinsel stardom that Priyanka Chopra has a soft corner towards Shahid Kapoor and he is now little bit in confusion about his previous engagement. Will he sacrifice the recent development in his relationship? Or all that glitters is not gold. Maybe everything is fuss and bogus. However, who will bell the cat?
Kareena Kapoor has vented her spleen on her dream boy for enhancing the maturity of the love affair with Priyanka Chopra. Time will be the best testimonial to the future consequence.

Kollywood Spl team rushed to Bollywood

As Bollywood showing no intention of listening to the requests of their brethrens in Kollywood, there is a special team rushing to Bollywood to persuade the industry to boycott IIFA in Sri Lanka.

Selected members from all the films bodies of Kollywood will go to Mumbai and meet Bollywood members like Salman Khan, Sunil Shetty and others to reason them why they should not go to IIFA in Sri Lanka. Film Chamber of Commerce Kalyan, FEFSI Secretary G. Siva and AIFEFCI Secretary L. Suresh are part of the team. The south Indian film industry sees this as the last attempt to convince the Bollywood people.

South Indian film industry is against IIFA event being held in Sri Lanaka as it goes against the interest of Tamil people around the world. The entire South Indian film industry including the super stars like Rajinikanth. Kamal Haasan, Mammootty, Mohanlal, Venkatesh, Nagarjun and others have expressed their opposition to IIFA in strong words.

In a joint statement recently the Directors’ Council of Tamil Nadu, the Producers’ Council, the South Indian Nadigar Sangam, FEFSI, Film Distributors’ Association, Theatre Owners’ Association and all the affiliated associations condemned the act of Bollywood. They even passed a resolution to boycott anything Bollywood if they conduct the event in Sri Lanka.

South Indian Film Industry feels “the act of the Bollywood is like dancing on the burial ground.”