muddam

To tell you the fact on whole film: Film is richly crafted and produced – sweeping shots, stunning locales, jungles, waterfalls, but where is the story? The Mani Ratnam directed movie "Raavan" has the impressive star cast of Aishwariya Bachchan and Abhisek Bachchan. The bilingual movie is shot in both Hindi and Tamil. It is the most hyped movie of 2010. The film got rave reviews in the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. However, the box office opening was disappointing.

The movie is a modern day take on the Hindu epic Ramayana by the ace director Mani Ratnam. The three characters of the epic, Ram, Sita and Raavan are portrayed in the movie with a twist. Abhisek Bachchan plays the role of Raavan, Aishwarya is glamorous in portraying Sita and the role of Ram is carried out by Dev in the movie.

However, unlike the epic, all the three characters have grey shades in the movie. The music composed by A R Rahman and Gulzar are a delight to the ears.

The film opens with policemen killed at various places around Lal Maati, a small town in Northern India. This is followed by abduction of the local police chief Dev's wife Raagini.

Mani Ratnam takes you to virgin locations within India never exposed before on screen. Be it the thick dense forests in Kerala or the same state's dangerous Athirappally Waterfalls or the exotic Orcha in Madhya Pradesh and Malshej Ghat valley in Maharashtra, Santosh Sivan and Manikandan's camera captures it all with super finesse. The action finale on the hanging bridge, a never seen before feat in Indian cinema makes your heart skip a beat.

Oscar winner A.R. Rahman's music coupled with Gulzar's lyrics is mesmerizing but Mani hardly gives any time for any song to register any impact, as if in a quick hurry.

The battle is drawn into the jungle, converting the forest area into the battleground. Ragini, too, is not left out and becomes a part of the battle. While the jungle is dense, confusing and scary, the journey through the jungle tests each one's beliefs, convictions and emotions.

Finally we have to wait and see how this movie runs...

Rama Krishna (Ram) is the son of a Gandhipuram village president (Nassar). His father is a strict disciplinarian and wants Rama Krishna to be perfect. Rama Krishna is a funny youngster who pretends to be good in the presence of his father but does a lot of mischief on his back. Ashok (Arjun) is a mafia don in Mumbai and he goes into a sabbatical after the death of his his wife. Ashok along with his two sisters settles in Gandhipuram. Rama Krishna unfortunately gets in to the bad books of Ashok. Meanwhile,. Ashok's past catches up. The rest of the story is all about how Rama Krishna uses his intelligence and muscle power to achieve the good will of both his father and Ashok.

Ram comes up with yet another energetic performance. His dialogue delivery in Godavari dialect is nice. NTR gave the voice-over to the introducing of hero character.Arjun suited the role well and he dubbed his own voice. Priya Anand is alright as female lead. Bindu Madhavi's role is pretty much limited. Naseer is extremely good. Brahmanandam's character doesn't offer required level of comedy. Pruthvi and Bharat are entertaining. Srinivas Reddy is one of the most promising comedians who can generate laughter with his dialogues like Ali and Krishna Bhagawan. He is good in this movie. Gracy Singh did a small role as Arjun's wife. Sekhar's (Chatrapati fame) performance is odd in the first half.

Story of the movie is little formulaic with inspirations from films like Basha (Arjun's character) and Bangaru Bullodu (villains searching for hero in villages). Unlike earlier movies, the director preferred straight narration where the mafia don's role is revealed in the first scene of the movie.

ANALYSIS: First half of the movie is alright. Interval episode is good. Second half becomes predictable. Climax should have been better. The plus points of this movie are Ram, Arjun and commercial elements. This movie suffers from predictability and lack of freshness in second half. On a whole, RRKK is a commercial film that is intended to cater to families and masses. We have to wait and see if this movie clicks with the target audiences or not.

Bala Krishna is terrific as Simha in the flashback episode. His dialogue delivery is controlled and is extremely effective. His get-up as Simha is highly respectable and dignified. After a long gap, Bala Krishna fans are going to cherish the looks and performance of Bala Krishna as he plays it to the galleries. His other character of Srimannarayana is also good.

Nayana Tara is very good in the flashback episode with jewellery and traditional wear belonging to lineage of kings. The voice given by Sunitha helps in some key episodes of the movie. Sneha Ullal is improving from film to film and she is good too. Namitha should watch her weight. Kota comes up with another fine performance.

Story of the movie is not new, but follows a time-tested formula. Boyapati Seenu who mastered mass treatment to his movies like Bhadra and Tulasi made sure that there are ample commercial elements that satisfy the thrust of masses and fans. He projected Bala Krishna in the right way and extracted powerful mass performance. Screenplay of the movie is predictable. Direction is good in parts.

First half of the movie is adequate. The flashback episode is established well. The climax should have been more effective. The plus points of the movie are Bala Krishna performance (and dialogues) and mass elements. On the flip side, there is excessive violence/fights in the movie. Simha movie generated tremendous pre-release positive buzz and it resulted in humongous openings.