Posted on Saturday, May 21, 2005 - 2:43 pm:

---

quote:

N.T.R. Arts
Film: Athanokkade
Cast: Kalyan Ram, Sindhu Tholani, Ashish Vidyarthi, Surya, GV, Raghubabu, Ajay, Rami Reddy, Chandramohan, Rajyalakshmi, Prakash Raj, Chalapathi Rao, ‘Ahuti’ Prasad, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Venu Madhav, Brahmanandam, Vizag Prasad, Chinna, Sudeepa, Ananth, Narsing and others
Music: Mani Sarma
Dialogues: Marudhuri Raja
Lyrics: Sahiti, Chandrabose, Sai Sriharsha, Bandaru Danaiah, Chinni Charan
Camera: C. Ramprasad
Editing: Gautham Raju
Art: Narayana Reddy
Choreography: Suchitra Chandrabose, Pradeep Anthony, Santhi
Costumes: Basha
Fights: Stun Shiva
Producer: Nandamuri Janaki Ram
Story, Screenplay, Direction: Surendar Reddy
Release Date: May 07, 2005

Summary:

A typical family revenge story with good visual effects, interesting narration, and well-treated scenes. It might go well with the mass audiences. Although such gory stories of revenge are nothing new, Atanokkade comes with fresh treatment by director Surender. It has some entertaining moments although much of the story do not talk of law and logic. A paisa vasool film from Kalyan Ram.


Story Line:

Ram (Kalyan Ram) and his family move from New Delhi to Hyderabad as Ram wants to pursue his higher education in Hyderabad. Anjali (Sindhu Tholani) lives with her limping uncle (Surya) in Hyderabad and goes to the same college as Ram. They have something else in common – revenge towards a local goon known as ‘anna’ (Ashish Vidyarthi) and other henchmen. The reason for revenge is that the lead pair lose their family to the violent attacks of ‘anna’ and his gang. The flashback and the revenge stories form the rest of the movie, ending typically like a love story.


Analysis:


Technical Departments:

Story by Surendar is a standard family revenge story where only one or two members of a family remain after a massacre by the villain and his gang, and those who live grow up to take revenge on the villain, while also reuniting with other missing family members who lived through the massacre. While the screenplay is better, direction by Surendar could have been a lot better. The intersting and major plus assets to the film is Surender's telling the film in intersting manner and putting camera angles innovatively. Yet, he has not taken care in many scenes that some times give cliched feel. Issues like “State Central Library” (in Telugu) board inside “City Library”, pursuing degree in Hyderabad in just one year, showing “Windows Safe Mode” (?) loading screen and calling it “chatting”, GV throwing a sword and again holding it in his hand in the next scene, Prakash Raj’s name tag on his uniform not having an initial, villains not knowing the hero by face but still chasing him before climax, etc. are only some inconsistencies in the movie.


Music by Mani Sarma is good, and the background score elevated certain scenes. Dialogues by Marudhuri Raja are adequate; dialogues by Prakash Raj in a scene where he talks to Vizag Prasad, and the dialogue “daadaagiri cheyyaalanTE dammu kaavaali. dhandaa cheyyaalanTE dhairyam kaavaali.” spoken by Ashish Vidyarthi won applauses among audience. While Ramprasad takes every effort to make cinematography a strong point, choreography and costumes dilute his efforts very much in songs. Poor choreography could also be because of lack of dancing skills of the hero, but that doesn’t justify bad costumes anyway. Costumes have not been given enough importance, one can say, even if one notices a small issue like stars being “torn off” from an old police uniform, instead of choosing a uniform with no tear marks. Makeup for the heroine could have been better, though she looks good in closeup shots. Ashish Vidyarthi’s getup is different from his routine style. (Was it supposed to remind us of someone?)



Performance of Artistes:

Kalyan Ram still has a long way to go as a hero. Though he did try to emote his best to suit his characterization, he needs to improve his diction and expression in powerful scenes, and should do a lot of exercise pertaining dubbing – he does not pronounce La, Sa, Na or any mahapraaNa-s in Telugu well! When heroes in Nandamuri clan claim that they have an impeccable pronunciation, shouldn’t Kalyan Ram try better to live to the expectations? He appears to have the talent to carry the role on his shoulders but seems to have lacked good directorial guidance in this movie. He should also improve a lot on his dances if he wants to have fast-paced dance numbers – sometimes, in songs, only the lower half of his body was shown, which could mean that he needed dupes to perform certain dance steps! He appeared good in action scenes though.


Sindhu Tholani looks good, and has an expressive face. Her character required her to emote various feelings – love, hatred, anger, passion, fear, pain, etc. and she did an okay job. Compared to many Mumbai-imported heroines, she is a lot better in expression! She seems to have ease in dances, but did not have good choreography to project it well. She did not appear great in certain modern getups portrayed in a song; costumes were not good for the heroine either and that could have been a reason too. However expressive she was, she did have some trouble showing passion towards rain in certain scenes.


Chandramohan and Rajyalakshmi pair up again after their hit combination in Shankarabharanam 25 years ago, and there’s also a dialogue that refers to the classic movie. They are adequate as hero’s parents. Prakash Raj appears in the flashback as hero’s (original) father, and puts up a great performance that’s expected of an artiste of his caliber. For example, in the scene in which he is struck by several bullets and is slain, the effort he “shows” in trying to get up is quite naturally portrayed. Ashish Vidyarthi appears as the main villain but does not have a great role. He does his part well though. While G.V. Sudhakar and Raghubabu appear as his chief aides, Ajay (of Okkadu and Sye) who had been playing positive roles appears in a negative role and does the job well. Venu Madhav appears as a student who tries to project himself as a powerful guy and evokes laughter in several scenes. Surya does a decent job as the heroine’s uncle, showing the necessary emotions for the role. Senior and talented artistes like Brahmanandam, Chalapathi Rao, Chinna, Vizag Prasad, ‘Ahuti’ Prasad, Rami Reddy, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Ananth do not have roles that require their skills, but do the needful.


Song Order:

chiTapaTa cihTapaTa chindE vaana: The song comes as a way of introducing that both the hero and heroine like rain and playing in rain with children, eating ice cream. Choreography is bad.
atanokkaDElE: There’s no particular reason for this song at this time. This song brings the heroine closer to the hero’s family. This number uses heavy metal orchestration and comes with a suitable beat. Though choreography for the song is better, the hero’s face is not shown when portraying certain good steps.
Naughty girl, naughty girl: This song comes as a typical love song for the lead pair and starts off showing the heroine with cigarette! Was that necessary at all? The song comes in an okay tune, backed by good interlude and foreign locales (Germany).
mEghamaala merisindanTE: This flashback song comes as another rain song in the movie, showing the lead pair’s closely knit family, and using SreeSree’s famous lines aanandam arNavamaitE... of advaitam (also used as a song in kanyaaSulkam movie).
gunDellO daaginadi: The scene that leads to this song is dragged unnecessarily. The song is picturized on snow mountains of Austria. The male voice in the song is melodious. Choreography in the song is bad again.
amma dEvuDO anipinchaavE: The song comes when the hero realizes that his blood-related family members are alive, but the song lyric or theme are not at all related to this! Choreography in the song is average. The song was picturized mostly in Ramoji Film City. While the lyric goes EDukonDala vEnkaTESwaraa!, the hero is seen wearing a cross that symbolizes Christianity as an ornament around his neck! While Telugu film industry did not come forward generously to help the recent tsunami victims, the lyricist liberally uses gunDellO tsunami puTTe as an expression of love, akin to gunDellO alajaDi. Are we always ready to use anything for a commercial purpose?!

Final Point: The film is intersting to watch but it could have been a better project for the hero if the film is devoid of cliched moments. Paisa Vasool film for mass audiences in this summer.

---

Posted on Saturday, May 21, 2005 - 2:41 pm:

---

quote:

N.T.R. Arts
Film: Athanokkade
Cast: Kalyan Ram, Sindhu Tholani, Ashish Vidyarthi, Surya, GV, Raghubabu, Ajay, Rami Reddy, Chandramohan, Rajyalakshmi, Prakash Raj, Chalapathi Rao, ‘Ahuti’ Prasad, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Venu Madhav, Brahmanandam, Vizag Prasad, Chinna, Sudeepa, Ananth, Narsing and others
Music: Mani Sarma
Dialogues: Marudhuri Raja
Lyrics: Sahiti, Chandrabose, Sai Sriharsha, Bandaru Danaiah, Chinni Charan
Camera: C. Ramprasad
Editing: Gautham Raju
Art: Narayana Reddy
Choreography: Suchitra Chandrabose, Pradeep Anthony, Santhi
Costumes: Basha
Fights: Stun Shiva
Producer: Nandamuri Janaki Ram
Story, Screenplay, Direction: Surendar Reddy
Release Date: May 07, 2005

Summary:

A typical family revenge story with some good visual effects and some well-treated scenes. The movie could be a pastime for sections of audience who like such gory stories of revenge that do not talk of law and logic.


Story Line:

Ram (Kalyan Ram) and his family move from New Delhi to Hyderabad as Ram wants to pursue his higher education in Hyderabad. Anjali (Sindhu Tholani) lives with her limping uncle (Surya) in Hyderabad and goes to the same college as Ram. Ram and Anjali find that they have similar tastes such as eating ice cream in rain (Remember Tarun’s nuvvE.. nuvvE...?), playing with kids, liking the City Library building, and more. They have something else in common – revenge towards a local goon known as ‘anna’ (Ashish Vidyarthi) and other henchmen including his younger brother Shankar (Ajay), and Sadaa (G.V. Sudhakar) and Abdullah (Raghubabu), and a corrupt D.G.P. Bhavani Shankar (‘Ahuti’ Prasad). The reason for revenge is that the lead pair lose their family to the violent attacks of ‘anna’ and his gang. The flashback and the revenge stories form the rest of the movie, ending typically like a love story.


Analysis:


Technical Departments:

Story by Surendar Reddy is a standard family revenge story where only one or two members of a family remain after a massacre by the villain and his gang, and those who live grow up to take revenge on the villain, while also reuniting with other missing family members who lived through the massacre. While the screenplay is better, direction by Surendar Reddy could have been a lot better, and so could have been the songs placement and/or lyric (theme) for the situation. It can be seen in various scenes that the director did not care to make a perfect or flawless product. There is illogic and several inconsistencies throughout the movie. Many examples can be given;enlisting all of them would be unnecessary – as they say, gongaTlO tinTU venTrukalu vacchaayanTE elaa? Characterization of hero’s parents’ roles (Chandramohan & Rajyalakshmi) takes a too-modern approach with parents creating a feeling of love in their child’s mind, (Isn’t it typically his jobless friends’ job?) and talking about several things that they should not, particularly when there’s a grownup daughter around! Are we in such a society which welcomes such a situation without complaining? The hero suddenly calls the heroine nuvvu while he was calling her meeru all the time, just when she says that her parents are no more! Such illogic in characterization is quite prevalent. Issues like “State Central Library” (in Telugu) board inside “City Library”, pursuing degree in Hyderabad in just one year, showing “Windows Safe Mode” (?) loading screen and calling it “chatting”, GV throwing a sword and again holding it in his hand in the next scene, Prakash Raj’s name tag not having an initial, villains not knowing the hero by face but still chasing him before climax, etc. are only some inconsistencies in the movie.


Music by Mani Sarma is okay, and the background score elevated certain scenes. Dialogues by Marudhuri Raja are adequate; dialogues by Prakash Raj in a scene where he talks to Vizag Prasad, and the dialogue “daadaagiri cheyyaalanTE dammu kaavaali. dhandaa cheyyaalanTE dhairyam kaavaali.” spoken by Ashish Vidyarthi won applauses among audience. While Ramprasad takes every effort to make cinematography a strong point, choreography and costumes dilute his efforts very much in songs. Poor choreography could also be because of lack of dancing skills of the hero, but that doesn’t justify bad costumes anyway. Costumes have not been enough importance, one can say, even if one notices a small issue like stars being “torn off” from an old police uniform, instead of choosing a uniform with no tear marks. Makeup for the heroine could have been better, though she looks good in closeup shots. Ashish Vidyarthi’s getup is different from his routine style. (Was it supposed to remind us of someone?)



Performance of Artistes:

Kalyan Ram still has a long way to go as a hero. Though he did try to emote his best to suit his characterization, he needs to improve his diction and expression in powerful scenes, and should do a lot of exercise pertaining dubbing – he does not pronounce La, Sa, Na or any mahapraaNa-s in Telugu well! When heroes in Nandamuri clan claim that they have an impeccable pronunciation, shouldn’t Kalyan Ram try better to live to the expectations? He appears to have the talent to carry the role on his shoulders but seems to have lacked good directorial guidance in this movie. He should also improve a lot on his dances if he wants to have fast-paced dance numbers – sometimes, in songs, only the lower half of his body was shown, which could mean that he needed dupes to perform certain dance steps! He appeared good in action scenes though.


Sindhu Tholani looks good, and has an expressive face. Her character required her to emote various feelings – love, hatred, anger, passion, fear, pain, etc. and she did an okay job. Compared to many Mumbai-imported heroines, she is a lot better in expression! She seems to have ease in dances, but did not have good choreography to project it well. She did not appear great in certain modern getups portrayed in a song; costumes were not good for the heroine either and that could have been a reason too. However expressive she was, she did have some trouble showing passion towards rain in certain scenes.


Chandramohan and Rajyalakshmi pair up again after their hit combination in Shankarabharanam 25 years ago, and there’s also a dialogue that refers to the classic movie. They are adequate as hero’s parents. Prakash Raj appears in the flashback as hero’s (original) father, and puts up a great performance that’s expected of an artiste of his caliber. For example, in the scene in which he is struck by several bullets and is slain, the effort he “shows” in trying to get up is quite naturally portrayed. Ashish Vidyarthi appears as the main villain but does not have a great role. He does his part well though. While G.V. Sudhakar and Raghubabu appear as his chief aides, Ajay (of Okkadu and Sye) who had been playing positive roles appears in a negative role and does the job well. Venu Madhav appears as a student who tries to project himself as a powerful guy and evokes laughter in several scenes. Surya does a decent job as the heroine’s uncle, showing the necessary emotions for the role. Senior and talented artistes like Brahmanandam, Chalapathi Rao, Chinna, Vizag Prasad, ‘Ahuti’ Prasad, Rami Reddy, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Ananth do not have roles that require their skills, but do the needful.


Song Order:

chiTapaTa cihTapaTa chindE vaana: The song comes as a way of introducing that both the hero and heroine like rain and playing in rain with children, eating ice cream. Choreography is bad.
atanokkaDElE: There’s no particular reason for this song at this time. This song brings the heroine closer to the hero’s family. This number uses heavy metal orchestration and comes with a suitable beat. Though choreography for the song is better, the hero’s face is not shown when portraying certain good steps.
Naughty girl, naughty girl: This song comes as a typical love song for the lead pair and starts off showing the heroine with cigarette! Was that necessary at all? The song comes in an okay tune, backed by good interlude and foreign locales (Germany).
mEghamaala merisindanTE: This flashback song comes as another rain song in the movie, showing the lead pair’s closely knit family, and using SreeSree’s famous lines aanandam arNavamaitE... of advaitam (also used as a song in kanyaaSulkam movie).
gunDellO daaginadi: The scene that leads to this song is dragged unnecessarily. The song is picturized on snow mountains of Austria. The male voice in the song is melodious. Choreography in the song is bad again.
amma dEvuDO anipinchaavE: The song comes when the hero realizes that his blood-related family members are alive, but the song lyric or theme are not at all related to this! Choreography in the song is average. The song was picturized mostly in Ramoji Film City. While the lyric goes EDukonDala vEnkaTESwaraa!, the hero is seen wearing a cross that symbolizes Christianity as an ornament around his neck! While Telugu film industry did not come forward generously to help the recent tsunami victims, the lyricist liberally uses gunDellO tsunami puTTe as an expression of love, akin to gunDellO alajaDi. Are we always ready to use anything for a commercial purpose?!

Theater Talk (Sandhya 70mm, Hyderabad): Some dialogues, most of them spoken by someone else other than the hero, won applauses. Applause for nice dance movements by the hero was seen initially but that died down as people probably realized his face was not being shown. Some people were found saying that the hero was better in his previous movie Abhimanyu or that he appeared better on wall posters than in the movie! Villain G.V. Sudhakar came to the theater to watch the show, and there were hero’s fans (“Nandamuri Fans”, as the posters read) creating a great show of crackers and music all around the place.


Final Point: This could have been a better project for the hero if the direction was better. For the hero, this movie does not take his career to any better heights than his previous movies, though the movie might stay in the theaters for a few weeks.

---