Tag Archives: Adventures without subtitles

Khaaleja

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Friday night and time for another expedition to India Talkies for the latest Telugu release.  Mahesh time!  Even though we’ve only been watching Telugu movies for 8 months, we were caught up in the excitement around his long-awaited return to the big screen .  We had with us a true Mahesh fan – someone who had been there for him right from the start – and despite her concern over the lack of subtitles, came along with us for our first look at Mahesh on the cinema screen.  So how did it go?

Although the plot was surprisingly easy to follow for the most, we won’t get too detailed or reveal too many spoilers in this review. We thought this appeared to be two separate films in one.  It starts out with a very funny story about Raju, a taxi driver who is jinxed by the stunningly beautiful and walking disaster Subbhasini, played by Anushka.   It detours into buddy film territory as Raju meets up with a documentary director, played by the very funny Sunil. And then becomes a story about corruption and environmental politics all tied together by Mahesh as the saviour of a village in Rajasthan. And we should probably mention that Raju somehow becomes identified as an incarnation of Shiva. Our friend the Mahesh fan spotted his godliness as soon as she saw his snake wrangling skills. It was very exciting!

Our hero starts off as the taxi driver who has a disaster every time he meets up with Subbhasini.  There are many excellent and very funny scenes set around the numerous ways in which it is possible to destroy a taxi. These are nicely illustrated by Mahesh in later discussions with his boss by the use of model cars – a technique which really should be used by all insurance agencies. The romance is played well by both leads. They are worlds apart, don’t speak the same language (he is pure street, she is more the college girl) and of course, she seems to be an omen of doom for Raju. Their meetings are usually capped off with Raju’s taxi being totalled so it was always going to be a rocky relationship.

Anushka plays the daughter of a wealthy businessman who has some very undesirable associates, and an eye for marrying her off to his own advantage. She is smart, well off, a really bad driver but seems to be a decent human being. She does have terrible taste in get well gifts though (and Mahesh would seem to agree with us).  Her father is involved in some dealings with GK – the evil Prakash Raj. We were perturbed by the wardrobe chosen for the multi-billionaire GK as some of his suits looked to have been designed for a schoolboy not a magnate.

Through a series of typically filmi coincidences, arguments and relationships (no really you don’t need subtitles to work this bit out), our hero and heroine find themselves in Rajasthan and on the run. Raju is delivering or demanding an insurance payment relating to a deceased friend or colleague or the guy who died and landed on the cab  (we don’t know and it didn’t matter so much why he went). Subbhasini is running from her intended fiancee who turned up for a romantic dinner in the desert and in a fine public health announcement, dropped a packet of condoms. So she ran to her almost certain death rather than deal with an over eager boyfriend who planned to practice safe sex. Hmmmm.

Once Raju and Subbhu are together in the desert, the plot takes a turn.  Siddha (played by Shafi) has been searching for the saviour of his village, a man he will recognise by certain signs. Guess who? Yes. Raju was indeed the man. Anushka was then sidelined for the remainder of the film as it became the more familiar Mahesh style of action adventure.

The ending was both predictable and exciting in it’s epic scale and the grandeur of Trivikram’s vision. Mahesh fans will be delighted to see their hero in full flight, and dominating the action.  Prakash Raj was in total villain mode, and made the most of every second of his gore-splattered finale.

The songs were well filmed and the choreography suited the performers. They were also well placed in the story so actually helped enhance our understanding of the plot and the developing relationships. And the songs gave the costume designers the chance to see how many layers of clothes they could make Mahesh wear and still allow him to dance.  We did enjoy the occasional daring flash of an elbow or even a collarbone whenever the three shirts and a scarf permitted. The modesty singlet made several appearances too. Mahesh keeps himself well under wraps. It just adds to the allure according to our resident Mahesh fan.

None of us expected Mahesh Babu to have the comic flair and style to carry this off. We know the dialogues must have been hysterical as we could hear the crowd laughing and the boys sniggering like naughty kids at some of the colourful language. But to perform this role , and still keep us fully engaged, laughing and cheering along really takes something special  from an actor. Mahesh delivered that. In fact we found him funnier than comedy stalwarts Ali and Brahmi and he certainly kept up with Sunil who is one of our favourites. Khaaleja really is hilarious! We were never bored, it seemed to make sense despite our lack of language, and the time just flew by. We would have to give this 5 stars!

Komaram Puli

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Once again we ventured to the cinema on an unsubtitled adventure. The session screening time had been changed a couple of times due to various delays with the film’s release. So it came as no surprise at all to still be waiting for the 9:30pm show to start at 11:00pm! We eventually staggered out of the theatre at 2:00am. Bear that, and our language issues in mind as we try and unravel Komaram Puli.

The crowd reaction was amazing. In the hour or so we were waiting, we had ample opportunity to perfect our Pawan Kalyan chants. The crowd favourite was “Twinkle twinkle little star, Pawan Kalyan Powerstar!”, and the roof almost came off before the film even started!

Not understanding Telugu wasn’t going to be an issue for this film, as there was no way we were going to be able to hear any of the star dialogues. The crowd started cheering, screaming, even crying, as soon as the credits began to roll and it didn’t stop. Some fans had carefully pre-cut strips of paper to hurl in the air at key moments, other more spontaneous types just tore up newspapers as the spirit moved them.

Now to the film.

The opening sequence is violent, shocking and full of portents. A woman goes to the police to try and find her husband or to follow up on his murder, and ends up being beaten half to death by Manoj Bajpai (who is the man who offed the husband). She escapes and through the blessings of god and the shelter of a local temple, her pregnancy comes to term. Her son learns to march on the path of righteousness while in the womb – and that is not an attempt at poetic license. Its an accurate description of the films visuals. He grows up to become:

A charismatic, dedicated and honest policeman – Komaram Puli –  who vows to take on crime and corruption. We never had a hope of getting all the detail of the very fast talking Puli’s dialoges but we believe it went something like “I swore an oath to serve my country and its people without fear or favor. Some of you are a disgrace to the uniform and could afford to shed a few kilos. Get your act together, sit up straight or I will take you down”. Or something. Anyway – he is a good cop struggling with a police force that is at best lazy, and at worst corrupt.  For all his talking he is a man of action – the opening action sequence featuring Pawan Kalyan and some excellent product placement is packed full of thrills and stunts that had the audience going wild.

Now, answer this question. You have a terrorist with a bomb strapped to his body. You can kill him by dropping him from a helicopter, shooting him or detonating the bomb. What to do? If you chose “all of the above”, you are going to love this film!

The installation of special phone booths allow people to call Puli’s team direct and report their law and order problems. On receipt of a phone call from the special “Bat Phone”, Puli and team leave their high tech HQ and seem to be able to arrive anywhere in Hyderabad within mere minutes – another tipoff that this is fiction, as we all read the endless tweets about celebs stuck in traffic in Hyderabad. They start to beat the corruption out of the force – literally.

In addition to this, Puli Force are on the trail of a terrorist master-mind called Nixon, and local crimelord Saleem, Manoj Bajpai back on the scene, this time in a distinguished grey wig and moustache.

Oh, and there is always time for romance. Especially when the girl is a crazy stalker with a theatrical streak and your mother approves of her. Puli never stood a chance once Nikesha Patel and her friends decided he was the one for her. Right down to the most bizarre marriage ceremony, he is railroaded by the women in his life, but its all for his own good.

Now that love has kindly provided a likely target for hostile forces, a romantic night at home is rudely interrupted by vampire ninjas in V for Vendetta masks. The outfits are never explained, but neither are many other things. Deal with it. We did.

The film has many heroic dialogues. Every time Pawan Kalyan brandished his index finger towards the camera, the audience went wild. We will never know what exactly his message was, but we are pretty sure no one else could hear it either.

Pawan Kalyan has an excellent enigmatic walk, which we believe is essential for all film heroes. He also excels in the high adrenalin action sequences, and looks totally convincing in these scenes. Sadly, he doesn’t seem to have inherited the dance gene that runs in his family. He does try, and in the “Powerstar” song he does come close. But perhaps we were blinded by the fabulous costume:

On the subject of costumes, we noticed on arrival at the cinema that all the boys in the ticket office were wearing the same style of red and black scarf. We did wonder, but not for long:

Now THAT is star power!

Unlike so many other filmi mothers, Saranya played an important role in the action. She was no passive victim standing on the sidelines and weeping for her boy. She delivered powerful and moving dialogues and was clearly the strength behind her son. And never, ever discount the power of a mother’s tear.

While overall we found this highly entertaining, the film does have serious flaws. The songs seem to be misplaced in the narrative and this gives the feeling that the film is disjointed. The climax is muddled by having two villains and apparently running out of a plot for one of them. The final confrontation between Puli and Saleem is very heavy on the dialogue and slows the conclusion of the film down. However, the final few frames are truly amazing and left the audience stunned (although still screaming).

This was our first taste of Powerstar Mania and it was just awesome. The screaming, cheering and applause never stopped right til the very end. Which, we will remind you, was at 2:00am. While we would give the film itself 3 and 1/2 stars, we give the audience 5 stars!

Maryada Ramanna

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Maryada Ramanna was released on Friday with a lot of expectation – the latest film from SS Rajamouli, and starring Sunil who is better known for his role as the comedy sidekick. Could they pull it off after the huge success of Magadheera?  We went to see this in the cinema with a little trepidation – would we follow enough of the story and actually get the comedy, since neither of us understand Telugu? Fortunately for us the combination of excellent direction and storytelling, with a great performance from Sunil ensured we were amused and entertained from the very first moments.The plot twists and turns are generally easy to follow, although not understanding the dialogues we did have to puzzle over some of the longer speeches.

There are many stand-out scenes, from the opening song where Sunil appears to channel some Chiranjeevi style,  the hilarious train platform scene, to the final dramatic showdown.   The talking bicycle which sounded strange in the promos is actually used to good comic effect, as are the many other props and devices throughout the film.

The film isn’t just about comedy mayhem though, there are some beautiful quiet moments captured along the way, including a stunning scene illuminated by the flickering light of fireflies.

The song and dance tracks are well integrated into the narrative and serve a purpose within the story. The supporting cast , especially the two murderous brothers, are excellent and everyone makes a good contribution to the film. Saloni makes the best of what she has to do, and is certainly quite charming in her scenes with Sunil.

For those of you debating whether to see this film without subtitles, we think you should give it a go. Of course it is a different experience when you can understand all the dialogue but this film proves that a good story, great director and excellent performances will always keep you engaged.