Tag: Jagapathi Babu

The Family Star

April 18, 2024 / / 0 Comments

After what ‘felt’ like 6 months, we went to the theaters to watch The Family Star. Our last movie date had been to HanuMan.

Let’s get down to the review of The Family Star.

Review:

Released on: April 5th, 2024

Director: Parasuram

Starring: Vijay Devarakonda, Mrunal Thakur, Rohini Hattangadi, Jagapathi Babu.

————   SPOILERS AHEAD  —————–

The movie starts with Indu (Mrunal Thakur) praising Govardhan (Vijay Devarakonda, VD for short in this post) and telling whoever is listening to her about his good nature.

VD is the good boy of the family, who even takes care of the families of his 2 elder brothers, (who have no role in the movie at all). He is single, because he is yet to find a wife who thinks like him, who is ready to accept to live in a joint family, with responsibilities and all.

Now enters Indu, a new tenant in VD’s house and his life changes. All is well, till they decide to make things official but soon VD finds out that Indu is infact submitting a thesis on VD and his family in her University. She is an anthropology student and the book she published is called ‘The Man! (Highly unlikely and unbelievable even by the standards of anthropology and the movie, BUT whatever!)

VD feels insulted that she chose to approach him with a thesis at the back of her mind. He slaps her, doesn’t let her talk why she had done, what she had done and that’s the sign of INTERMISSION in movies.

Then comes the brain sucking, yawn inducing second half. What have I done to deserve this?

VD rakes his brains and comes up with a master plan on how to get back at Indu!

He contacts the company that had initially hired him during his campus placement days, meets with Jagapathi Babu, the MD.  He not only asks for the job, but also for 2 or 5 year salary advance! (I am not sure if it is 2 or 5 yr advance because, at this point I was like, what the hell!)

Interestingly, Jagapathi Babu not only accepts his proposal but also decides to send VD for on-site work in the USA!

Can you guess what VD does with his salary advance, which is in crores? He pays off loans, buys bike, jewellery for the ladies in the family. Well and good. But he shows it off to Indu, through video calls! Such a loser!

He gets ready to fly to USA and guess who is accompanying him, but none other than the new CEO, Indu, who is the daughter of Jagapathi Babu!

Wait! So Indu’s father is running a construction company. She is his only daughter who inherits everything. She will surely be the CEO. Then why the hell did she go about studying Anthropology in Central University and write a thesis on VD!  Beats me…

From here on the movie is a drag, with fights here and there and boring story line and sad faces and taunting lines.

Even Vennela Kishore is wasted in this movie, with no scope for humour. I wasted 350 bucks for a recliner seat and 750 bucks for caramel popcorn (I thought the movie would be entertaining!)

This is an all time bakwas movie I had ever watched, right behind LOVE STORY 2050, which is still going strong at the first spot.

P.S:

  1. Rohini Hattangadi as the grandma is a plus for the movie. I love watching her always. The other side characters are passable, not worth mentioning. The fresh pairing of the main lead is a positive for the movie.
  2. The director even tried to remind us of Geetha Govindam by clever placement of classical dancers near Mrunal Thakur, (as in Inkem Inkem kavale song) but still, this is no Geetha Govindam.
  3. To think that the movie was made by the director who made my all time favourite movie SOLO is a little surprising, but then, humans make errors.
  4. Solid editing would have made the movie better.
  5. Interestingly, die hard fans of VD say that the movie is fantastic and big heroes are trying to bring VD down, just like they did with Uday Kiran. I think that is trash talk. Uday Kiran movies were wayyyy better!
  6. Last but not the least, the name VD goes by in the movie is Govardhan and everytime I heard the name, I could only think of Subbaraju as Govardhan in Khaleja (another favorite of mine).

Guntur Kaaram!

January 20, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I am not a fan of Mahesh Babu. (Sorry fans!) I am more of a story centric viewer. I was not at all eager to watch Guntur Kaaram. Firstly, I didn’t know it was directed by Trivikram Srinivas, secondly, I didn’t particularly enjoy the trailer! In-spite of this, I watched Guntur Kaaram, because, we have a family friend A, who gave us free passes for the movie! (Fans do so much for their Stars!)

Without much ado, let me review the movie.

Review:

Directed by : Trivikram Srinivas

Released On : January 2024

Actors: Mahesh Babu, Sree Leela, Rao Ramesh, Prakash Raj, Murali Sharma, Jayaram and Jagapathi Babu.

The story starts with a fire accident and the ensuing fight causes Raghu Babu to kill Sunil by mistake. (Sunil in a brief cameo.) Incidentally, the fire also causes Ramana (Mahesh Babu, MB for short in this post) to lose sight in his left eye. (I am not exactly sure about it, but how can a person who is partially blind in an eye, not even show a little bit of discomfort in his fights or dances? That’s hero worship for you, where even the director is blinded by the hero and his fandom!)

The fire accident also causes a rift between both MB’s parents, where his father ends in jail and mom leaves her only child to marry another gentleman, Rao Ramesh. They have a son, Rahul Ravidran (another useless cameo!), who could have been replaced by a card board figure and no one would have known the difference, as such!

Jayaram, plays the father of MB, who does nothing but sit in his corner table and listen to situational songs. (Perfect example of casting an actor for a role without scope for acting. He hardly gets a scene to perform. I loved him in Ponniyin Selvan and even Ala Vaikuntapuramlo)

How would a child turn out if the father lives in his own world and a mom who leaves the child and never stays in touch? The child would have issues, with everyone and everything. That is the reason for MB’s temper issues. (Guntur Kaaram)

Ramya Krishna plays MB’s mom and she gets a scene or two, to show her prowess.

Anyway, Prakash Raj, plays maternal grandfather of MB. As you might have guessed he is the villain, who wants nothing but MB signing off his inheritance and the likes. His lawyer Murali Sharma is incharge of getting MB to sign. This somehow brings Vennela Kishore and Sree Leela into the picture, who are after MB to get him to sign.

That is where everything goes wrong for me. Which lawyer in the world would send his own daughter to pester a man, who is known all around to be Guntur Kaaram, known for his temper issues?  Why is there a need for so many cameos? Why did Jagapathi Babu even work in the movie? Why is there a character of cousin in the movie, called Raji? What is the significance? The only thing I could come up with is, Trivikram roped in one actor each from all his hit movies, to give Guntur Kaaram an extra push!

But…

Guntur Kaaram feels similar to Ala Vaikuntapuram.

Rahul Ravindran replacing Sushanth,

Ramya Krishna mirroring Tabu, (both living with their rich fathers)

Prakash Raj – villainous grandfather replacing the lovable grandpa Sachin Khedekar

Sree Leela replacing the dusky Pooja Hegde

Meenakshi Chaudhary and her counter part Nivetha Pethuraj

Mother sentiment in both the movies, even background score is similar to Ala Vaikuntapuram. Lack of creativity and imagination from director and music director is sad.

Trivikram even managed to rope in Eashwari Rao ( the nurse from Ala Vaikuntapuram. She plays MB’s aunt.)

Seasoned actors Prakash Raj, Ramya Krishna, Jayaram, Murali Sharma, Vennela Kishore performed well within the scope of their respective roles. MB never lit so many cigarettes in any movie ever! He has performed better in the dance numbers, probably not wanting to lose to Sree Leela! The movie is worth watching only for its seasoned actors and MB.

I am not a fan of the unnecessary dance performance by Sree Leela, in the godown! We all know she is a fabulous dancer, but the sequence is so out of place. I loved Ala Vaikuntapuramlo better, because, the hero worship was less apparent! (Atleast it had top notch acting from Murali Sharma, Sachin Khedekar and Allu Arjun, while the story was the main hero!)

P.S:

  1. It has its moments, but it is no ‘Athadu‘ or ‘Khaleja‘. It is just a forgettable Guntur Kaaram! (But fans may disagree with me.)
  2. I dozed off in the second half of the movie, that sums up everything for you.
  3. I know a hero needs to cater to his fans, but I was surprised by mass song MB performed at the end! It reminded the song, Ma Ma Mahesha from Sarkar Vari Pata. That is not all. The concept of the heroine approaching MB with ulterior motive is similar to what Keerthi Suresh did in Sarkar Vari Pata. Overall, Guntur Kaaram is a mash up of two hit movies but it still is a mediocre one time watch!
  4. If you are in a mood for a new movie, with fantastic visuals, goose bump moments and without cheap thrills, head straight to ‘Hanu-Man‘ and thank me later.

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