Tag Archives: Devi Sri Prasad

Shankar Dada MBBS and Shankar Dada Zindabad

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It’s Christmas. And we’ve been very good all year. Yes, really! So Santa brought us not one, but two Chiranjeevi movies for the festive season.

Shankar Dada MBBS and Shankar Dada Zindabad are remakes of the hit Munna Bhai Hindi film series.  Having seen both versions we have to say we like the Telugu versions much more. 

In Shankar Dada MBBS Chiranjeevi takes on the lead role as Shankar, the rowdy who has been pretending to his parents that he is a doctor who runs a charitable hospital in Hyderabad.  A series of mischances during his parents’ visit leads to Shankar vowing to become a real doctor to win back his father’s respect.

There is plenty of scope for comedy as Shankar, whose very name is enough to strike terror into the local community, heads back to school with the assorted nerds and geeks.  But this is THE Shankar Dada who may be a thug, but still has a heart of gold and some very cool ishtyle. As a student he just has to have a stylish walk, as pointed out to him by his trusty assistant ATM (Any Time Murder – a much more graphic moniker than Circuit).

And then of course there is the dancing. An area in which Sanjay Dutt cannot compete! Only Chiru could possibly pull off some of these ridiculous moves with such panache and style.

 

Shankar objects to the injustice he sees in the hospital and infuriates his teachers by his stand on social justice and medical treatment for all.  It is a bit of a worry, but possibly not surprising given the usual standard of filmi medicine, that he is more effective than the other doctors at the hospital with his outlandish cures. These rely heavily on the therapeutic benefit of hugs and spreading love to all with a big Chiru grin, which quite frankly would probably cure us of any ailments as well.  There is a lot of byplay on Shankar’s use of English, while although funny to us is likely much funnier within the context of the Telugu dialogue. 

The dean, Dr Ramalingeshwara Rao, is a proponent of laughter therapy which he has to rely on heavily as term progresses and Shankar makes his presence felt in the classes. This is used to good effect and Paresh Rawal is convincing in this role. His gradual breakdown into more manic behaviour as his carefully controlled world is invaded by Shankar is very funny. The beautiful Sunitha; daughter of the dean, Shankar’s childhood friend and a doctor herself, is the romantic interest.  This also causes her father some stress, and extra giggling therapy is required.

As a goon Chiranjeevi uses his physicality to good effect when threatening local business men who are tardy with their loan payments. As well as the capable ATM (Srikanth) his gang includes comedy stalwart and permanent scapegoat Venu Madhav. For a change the alternate comedy track is kept to a minimum and is amusing enough without distracting from the main story.

One difference from the Hindi film is that the Shankar Dada role has been expanded, but the character development for the other gang members has been reduced to accommodate this. ATM is a much less realised role than Circuit and the rest of the gang never really make an impression as individuals.  The scenes with Munna Bhai and Circuit having late night conversations in the laundry troughs are almost totally cut and this removes some of the more poignant moments we recalled from the original film. However the scenes with Thomas, a terminally ill patient, work much better in this version as Chiru shows much more empathy and concern, and his ‘treatment’ is all the more amusing and touching as a result

Sonali Bendre as Sunitha has very little to do other than keep her lip gloss shiny but at least makes a more age appropriate heroine for her mature aged student hero.

Like the original Hindi version, the film suffers from a really thin and basically implausible storyline.  And the sequel, Shankar Dada Zindabad falls even shorter in this regard. 

Shankar Dada Zindabad revisits the same characters as previous, but this time Shankar is in love with RJ Jahnavi (Karishma Kotak) and there is no reference to any of the previous MBBS story. He pretends to be knowledgeable about Gandhi in order to win the prize of  meeting Jahnavi and begins to hallucinate (or ‘haloginate’ as the subtitles would have it) that the great leader appears to talk to him and give him advice.

The story starts off well, but is a standard tale about a rich man’s greed versus the common man so stays in well travelled territory.  Shankar does his best to put the world to rights with a hug and snippets of Gandhian philosophy aka Gandhigiri.  As with the earlier film, the emphasis is on Shankar achieving a good result, regardless of his initial motivation.  The story unravels as Jhanavi feels betrayed, then neatly re-knits itself into happy ever after endings for all.

Although this is a light entertainment piece, it does still include some thoughtful dialogues and ideas. There are some interesting questions raised along the way about respect for culture, obeying your conscience (which may appear to you as a small man in a dhoti), being truthful and being proud of who you are.

As with the first film, the message is about love, respect and truth. The disparate characters that Shankar has helped throughout the film all cross paths in the last scenes to hit us over the head with the message one final time. Pawan Kalyan shows up in a small but pivotal appearance to give his support to the message and prove that the men in that family have very nice eyes.

Srikanth is again present as the reliable ATM, as are the other gang members. Despite the presence of Prabhu Deva as director this film also disappoints a little in the dancing.  There is one exception: a fantastic number featuring hippies, people in animal costumes, clowns and also to our great delight a guest appearance by our favourite, Allu Arjun. The rest of the dance numbers are OK but not quite up to the standard of the first film.

Karishma Kotak stands around looking pretty while waiting for Shankar to save the day, and does well enough at this. There are some sweet moments with the group of elderly men who make their home with her, and this part of the story does work reasonably well. The gang run around doing their thing but the plot here is so worn and predictable that it’s hard to pay any attention to their antics. There is the obligatory comedy side plot involving Brahmi as an astrologer and the various supporting actors all do their best to keep the story, such as it is, moving along.

Both these films rely heavily on the performance and star power of the hero and really entertain best when Chiru is on screen. Chiranjeevi switches effortlessly between the hardened gang leader and the affable humanist. In this he does a much better job than Sanjay Dutt who excelled as the don, but his smile never quite reached his eyes so he lacked the warmth and humanity of Shankar. The comedy is funny the first time round but doesn’t stand up to repeated viewings and we are bombarded so much with the ‘love is all you need’ message that it totally loses all effectiveness.  ATM suffers in comparison with the Hindi character of Circuit but Srikanth does as best he can with his reduced role.   However, the films still entertain more than the Munna Bhai versions, thanks mainly to Chiranjeevi, the soundtrack and dances, and the ability of most of the cast to look as if they are enjoying themselves.

Heather says: Both these films are enjoyable to watch because of Chiranjeevi and his great screen presence. I have to confess that I did originally get Shankar Dada Zindabad for the Jagadeka Veerudiki song, and the first film was just a bonus, However MBBS is the better of the two films and having enjoyed the original Hindi version I was a little surprised at how much better this version is. While I thought that Sanjay Dutt was excellent as the gangster, when he smiled at the children he really did look more like a tiger eyeing its prey rather than a cheery doctor. Chiru on the other hand while excellent as the rowdy, was much less scary in these later scenes and his genuine and real-life humanitarianism shone through. Although I did miss Boman Irani’s terrible bald wig, that was more than made up for by the supporting actors who were all very capable. I did prefer Arshad Warsi to Srikanth, but this was also partly due to the difference in the characters of Circuit and ATM.  The story is thin and rather tired, but Chiru manages to instil enough life to make it a fun watch. This one gets 3 ½ stars from me.

Shankar Dada Zindabad is just an excuse to watch more Chiranjeevi, and a little Allu Arjun. The cast all do their best, but the film really never excites, not even when they are on the Gold Coast in Australia for a song. I do really like the appearance of Prabhu Deva, Ravi Teja and Allu Arjun in Jagadeka Veerudiki and it was also a nice surprise to see Pawan Kalyan pop up at the end. The idea behind the story was interesting but there were too many clichés in the delivery to make it hold my attention. This film gets 3 stars from me which is just because of a couple of the songs that I really do love and the brief appearance of Allu Arjun – worth ½ a star alone.

Temple says: I’m not a fan of the Munna Bhai films, primarily because I don’t really like Sanjay Dutt, so found them a bit of a chore to sit through despite Arshad Warsi doing his best. So it was a pleasant surprise to find myself  enjoying the films in Telugu, and only partly because of Chiru. Although, I do think that if you don’t appreciate Chiranjeevi there isn’t a whole lot else going on.  I think both films are a little better written and better paced than their Hindi counterparts so make for better story-telling. The hero centric style does mean the peripheral performances are diminished but not reduced to the point of not mattering. The casting is pretty good in both – Paresh Rawal and Sonali Bendre were very good in MBBS, and it was fun to see the majority of the ensemble back for Zindabad.

One point of interest for me was looking at these films in light of Chiranjeevi’s political career. There are resoundingly clear messages around respect for culture and history, respect for people despite caste barriers, truth and love. So in my ignorance of AP politics, I was pondering what this said about the politician as well as the character in the film, and did this role have some synergy with his political persona. I’m sure I will be enlightened in due course. My DVD of MBBS also had a very interesting little addition at intermission:  a plea from Chiranjeevi to the audience to consider donating their eyes after death and encouraging people to talk about it with their families, which I think was a great use of celebrity and sort of appropriate to the film.

Like Heather, I found Zindabad less engaging than MBBS, but will always be grateful to our fabulous DVD guy Sunil for finding me subtitled copies at a bargain price! Both films get 3 stars from me – they’re a good timepass and the songs are really fun.

Ready

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A straightforward romantic comedy, Ready is lifted above the mediocre by the charming screen presence of Ram and Genelia in an excellent pairing

Ram plays Chandu, the well-loved son of a large family.  He is an engineering student with the squishy heart of a true romantic. He routinely assists his friends and family in ‘liberating’ themselves from unwanted marriage plans. He is the prankster— quick thinking and smooth talking. Life has been a series of games to him, until he meets the girl of his dreams and the stakes get more serious.

Genelia is Pooja – recently returned from the USA and desperate to escape an unwanted arranged wedding. She is an educated and independent girl who still wants to fulfil her late parents’ wishes but on her own terms.

So when Ram goes to kidnap yet another bride for freedom and elopement, it is no surprise at all when he bundles the wrong woman (Genelia) into the van and makes a run for it.

Pooja’s feud riven Rayalaseema family of machete-wielding Sumo-driving men are not happy to see her go: owning her equals owning the balance of power and the cash in the clan.  She is pursued by both sides of this divided family each in separate convoys with their own potential groom. Chandu’s family have kicked him out for aiding in his sisters elopement  so he has nowhere to go.  Along with his closest friends, Chandu flees with Pooja ,who was initially quite happy about her abduction, but she begins to have second thoughts when she realises Chandu has no escape plan and her relatives are very serious about getting her back.  The youngsters run and hide and run some more as they try to find a refuge. After an excellent Peter Hein choreographed fight with chief henchman Narasimha (Supreet), they flee again and make it back to their friends.

For a number of fairly flimsy reasons Chandu persuades Pooja to pose as an orphan sent from the local  guru’s ashram, to stay with his family. This allows him the chance to keep her safe, win her over and also to negotiate his way back into the family home. Chandu fell head over heels for Pooja the instant he saw her face – but she feels that this is part of his fickle nature and it takes her at least 2 songs to succumb.

Their relationship develops and while the family don’t know the truth about Pooja they see the burgeoning love and approve heartily, understanding what she is to their prodigal son. But nothing was ever going to run that smoothly and one of Pooja’s uncles manages to track her down and take her back.

So Chandu enlists the help of his family, a reluctant Brahmi who is coerced into employing Chandu, the other bridegrooms and basically every man who has so far appeared in the film to try to get Pooja back. Chandu will only marry her in front of her family, with their blessings. Apparently eloping is what other people do. What a real hero does is: invest in a remote controlled toy car, dress up as a superhero (Krrish and Spiderman make appearances), do some creative accounting, invent brides for the other competing grooms, persuade his own family to impersonate the family of invented brides, coerce the factionalists into new haircuts, sharp suits and being nice to their wives, become the obvious choice for marrying the now unwanted Pooja, and there you have it. A simple plan— until it all falls apart.

There are no surprises in the actual storyline. It’s a typical boy meets girl, girl isn’t interested, boy goes after girl, boy beats up the opposition, boy finally gets the girl and they live happily ever after.  What distinguishes Ready from many other films in this vein is deft use of humour and the likeable stars. There are some  quirky touches in the fight scenes and, although he looks like a stubbly twelve year old at times, Ram is actually believable in many of the more physical scenes as he has a certain acrobatic flair. The dancing and fights have been choreographed to suit him, and he really throws himself into it. Genelia is her usual bubbly self and here she has a leading man who has enough energy to match her. They do make an attractive pair, and there is enough chemistry to make their romance seem genuine and appealing.

The supporting cast features all the usual suspects. Master Bharath is a delight as the very dramatic tyrant-in-the-making Chitti. He has excellent comic timing, an impressive evil laugh and a confidence in his performance that meant he could hold his own amongst the established adult character actors (Kota Srinivasan Rao, Jayaprakash Reddy, Nassar, Shafi, Saranya, Supreet to name a few).

While there is plenty of comedy running throughout the main storyline, there are a number of  comedy subplots which are shared between Sunil, Brahmi, Santosh and MS Narayana. Sunil is fun as the dance-obsessed fool Janaki and has some excellent theatrical moments. Brahmi is involved in much of the second half drama which requires him to do little more than look bewildered or angry most of the time.

Santosh plays a hapless tourist kidnapped by the uncles along the way as the only person who can identify Chandu and makes the most of his small but amusing role.  MS Narayana has the least amusing and smallest subplot but also suffers from someone’s idea of special effects.

The songs are well integrated into the film and are enjoyable without being particularly memorable. Ram and Genelia seem to thoroughly enjoy dancing together and this helps lift the soundtrack and enhances the affinity between them.

Heather says: Ready is a little gem of a film.  It has almost everything you could possibly want in an entertaining Masala movie.  This was the first of Ram’s films I watched and it did make me go out and buy more of his movies!  I think that the lead pair here are very convincing as a couple.  Ram and Genelia seem to enjoy themselves immensely in the film,  adding to the feel-good atmosphere.  The story is fairly standard, but there is plenty of comedy, and the scene with Chandu impersonating Krrish is one of the funniest I have sen in Telugu cinema.  The interactions between all the various characters seem well written (at least according to my subtitles), and the comparisons between Chandu’s loving and family, and Pooja’s feuding and unhappy family are well drawn.  The only downside for me is the songs, which I just didn’t find very catchy.  I thought the choreography was well suited to both Ram and Genelia, but again, it wasn’t outstanding.  The exception is the engagement song above, which almost makes up for the others!  But this film is all about the comedy and the interaction between the leads, and is a winner on those. 4 1/2 stars from me.

Temple says: I watched this again recently and it says much for Ram and Genelia that I stuck with it a second time. Honestly, I was bored whenever they were not on screen for any protracted period. That’s not a criticism of the support cast who are all fine, more a symptom of a very stock narrative that doesn’t hold up to a repeated viewing. I was not a fan of Genelia when I first saw her in Hindi films, but I really like her in her Southern films. I think it has something to do with energy levels. Paired with a laid back star, she can seem over-the-top but with someone like Ram who balances her energy she is really appealing. They have a lovely on-screen chemistry and that’s what makes Ready an enjoyable film. Seenu Vytla has ensured that the choreography for the songs and fights suits Ram in particular and these sequences are beautifully filmed. The multiple comedy tracks were frankly annoying. I enjoyed Sunil and Brahmanandam’s roles but the rest was quite unnecessary in an already crowded cast of thousands. Overall while this is a pleasant enough film, it isn’t really my cup of tea. 3 stars from me – one each for Ram, Genelia, and the fun song picturisations.

Kanthaswamy

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Kanthaswamy is not a great film, but instead serves as an excellent example of what might have been. A potentially appealing concept – a modern superhero/Robin Hood taking on the system, with all the benefits of the latest film technology and a good cast. And yet it falls short of the mark. A meandering story line, an irritating heroine and uneven pace mean this falls into mediocre territory.  It’s still a moderately enjoyable film, but could have been a lot better.

Vikram plays Kanthasamy, an officer in the economic offences department of the CBI who leads a double life as Kanthaswamy, a modern day version of Robin Hood.  Pay attention to that “w”! Using a local temple dedicated to Lord Murugan to assess who is in need , he and his band of merry men use money they have acquired as a result of their CBI raids, and distribute it to the poor.

Kanthasamy’s back up team are skilled in theatrical productions and technology, and after each reckoning with the villains, we get to see how it was set-up. We really enjoyed this – it was a cool twist on the invulnerable loner type of heroes. It also allowed for some back story about the group of friends and the introduction of one of the villains of the story.

Kanthaswamy is literally a ‘chicken’ superhero.  He has a great lair with numerous chickens which presumably come in handy for costume feathers as well as for Kanthaswamy to perfect his chicken impersonations.

Vikram is awesome as a chicken. No one else to our knowledge has managed to capture the mannerisms and emotional range of a chicken as well as he.  He makes the most of these Chicken Superhero moments and these are when the film works best.

There is also some clever comedy as Kanthaswamy metes out punishment to those who try to cheat the poor. One of the best moments occurs when local ne’er-do-wells pray for an Aishwarya Rai lookalike to come visit them and have some “fun” – and their wish is fulfilled in an unexpected but truly deserved manner.

The growing fame of Kanthaswamy brings the attention of police and media, and everyone wants to know who the Masked Chicken Man is. He falls foul (had to do it!) of local big-shot PPP, who promptly fakes illness to avoid further police action.   The rest of the plot revolves around PPP and another local crime lord Raj Mohan; detailing their various machinations to eliminate both avatars of Kanthasamy so they can get back to their illegal financial skulduggery, and the ways in which their plans are foiled.

As a second thread, PPP’s daughter, Subbulakshmi is roped in by her father to seduce Kanthasamy and bring him into her father’s crime organisation.  This very annoying character is played by Shriya. It says a lot that at one stage, Subbu’s life was in danger and we were yelling at the screen for Kanthasamy to let her die!  Portraying the heroine in the monotonously OTT way chosen here gave Shriya nothing positive to work with – as we didn’t buy the emotional element to the story, it became a distraction and deadweight. And her hair looks like a meringue; it’s also very distracting and annoying.  Shriya has been better in other films we have seen, so we suspect the director may have really missed the mark with this. The role itself had potential to elicit more sympathy from viewers but the performance highlights the narcissistic, arrogant and trashy aspects over the more likeable qualities that could have been conveyed.

Vikram plays his role quite deadpan, and the direction relies on a psychic voiceover to convey many of the inner thoughts and feelings “I know she knows that I know she knows”. This is a good gimmick, but is overused and may hamper the performances.

The running comedy track involving a dim-witted petty crook who operates in the vicinity of the temple is integrated with the story and is occasionally funny. But it is too long, recurs too often and disrupts the rhythm of the story.

The songs were huge hits. They are well integrated into the film and are successfully used to show aspects of the character.  However, there is limited dancing, always a negative in our view, and what dancing there is wasn’t well choreographed for the actors’ skills.  The exception to this is the songs featured on Vikram and friends which does work much better.  Allegra in particular is a fine example of how bad choreography can derail a song!   And the subtitles throughout the songs are frequently perplexing!

The first half of the film moves along pretty well. There is intrigue as Subbu and her evil father PPP attempt to destroy Kanthasamy as he takes on big business and corruption in and out of the police force. Then it all goes off the rails as the story shifts to Mexico for no good reason.

The motivation of characters seems to get muddled as well. Subbu wanted Kanthasamy to love her so she could destroy him but she loves him or doesn’t (we really couldn’t work this out!) and there is no rationale embedded in her changes of heart.  A needlessly convoluted sting operation later, the characters return to India, and the film starts racing to its conclusion.

Finally, PPP gets Kanthasamy in his clutches and thinks he has control over the activity of Superhero Kanthaswamy as well – but he is mistaken. Subbu learns that her father isn’t the man she thought he was, and Kanthasamy is more than a match for her. We learn that we are all Kanthaswamy or maybe we’re not, and that in the Rock-Paper-Scissors of life, a sledgehammer will beat a bus any day.  All’s well that ends well, but do we still care?

You may be wondering about item numbers. We were. Luckily Mumaith Khan shows them how it’s done! (Beverage warning applies – get the drinks away from the computer before you watch this. We have warned you.)

Heather says: I heard the songs from Kanthaswamy while I was working in Tamil Nadu as they were being played everywhere.  Even the local school children performed to Allegra at their prize giving.  I’d even seen the song clips as we had DVDs on our bus, so knew that the choreography didn’t quite live up to the potential of Devi Sri Prasad’s music.  (The reactions of the other Australian Health Professionals  to their first views of Mumaith Khan gyrating away to some uninhibited subtitles was however priceless!)  So I was disappointed when I managed to watch the entire film, as it could have been so much better!  There are quite a few notable moments in the film, but they are all centred on Chicken Superhero Kanthaswamy and his team of experts.  I really didn’t like Shriya in this at all, and found her presence to be an annoying distraction which totally derailed the plot for me.   Her storyline could have been removed which I think would have made for a more coherent plot and subsequently better paced film.  I don’t understand why Susi Ganeshan decided to make her such an unsympathetic character, as by the end there seemed to be no reason why Kanthasamy would fall in love with her. Indeed the actors seem to have come to the same conclusion as this romance was very unconvincing.  The frequent cuts from Vikram fighting as Kanthaswamy to him exercising and training may have been an attempt to make the film feel more like a HW blockbuster, but just disrupted the flow for me.  Despite this, overall the film looks good with some great visual effects and excellent choreography in the fight scenes.  Ashish Vidyarthi and Mukesh Tiwari were excellent as the villains and much more entertaining than the good guys.   But despite the amazing chicken impersonations, and great songs this film ultimately just disappoints – especially when you can see how good it might have been!  3 stars from me

Temple says: I didn’t hate this film, but there wasn’t a lot to love either. Ultimately, the frustration of seeing the potential for this to be a more entertaining film but not getting there overwhelmed the positives. The constant shifts from superhero to comedy to unconvincing romance just grated. If this had been a straight out Robin Hood crime caper with a superhero and his team taking on the system, I think it could have been great. Despite the big FX budget and glossy visuals this has a real pot-boiler feel as elements appeared to be added on at whim – the excursion to Mexico, the comedy track, the sting operation etc. Shriya really fails to impress in the role of Subbu, and yet I have quite liked her in other films (Chatrapathi for example, and she was very good in Kutty). For those of you wondering about whether her hairdo really did look like a meringue:

Vikram was good as the Chicken Man but less effective as the real Kanthasamy – perhaps due to the voice-over which spared him the need to emote in many scenes. They had no chemistry at all as a couple, although there is a really dire attempt at seductive song magic in the “Miaow Miaow” track. I tend to feel the director was at fault for this character misfire as the performers are capable but the film overall lacks a centre. I don’t like the soundtrack that much, and really the only reason to re-watch the songs was for the spectacular subtitles.  It’s actually not a bad time pass, but I was hoping for a lot more. I give this 3 and 1/2 stars – it gets a bonus half star for the excellent drag fight choreography.