Tag Archives: Mahesh

Murari

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One day our friend Indiequill asked for film recommendations, specifying that she wanted to see Mahesh Babu as something other than a baby faced killer. Murari was a popular pick amongst friends on Twitter, and for that reason as well as our commitment to research and possibly a bit of persuasion by The Mahesh Fan, we watched it too. And it wasn’t bad. There is nothing really out of the ordinary in the story, the jokes or the material so the film had to rely heavily on the appeal of the cast and the production design to keep us engaged.

The film opens with a bonus appearance by Prakash Raj in a wig (according to Liz he may have been channelling Jackie Shroff in this avatar) and it was obvious he was No Good. After insulting the deity at a local temple, he is promptly despatched by a green CGI monster and leaves a curse attached to family.

Goodbye and thanks for coming Prakash Raj.

The film skips forward several generations and we learn that every 48 years a member of the family dies to fulfil the requirements of the curse. Why 48 years is never explained, at least in our subtitles, and it really doesn’t seem to matter except as a device to show a few grisly deaths.  When we see Mahesh Babu leap onto the screen it is not only obvious he is the hero, but we were also sure that he is marked for death. He plays Murari, a bit of a too good to be true type who defends the defenceless and all that, but is saved from being a total prig by his good natured pranks and teasing. These were actually pretty funny and captured the adolescent nature of our hero.

This was apparently Peter Hein’s first film as a fight director, and certainly there are several heroic scuffles with bad guys thrown through the air like so much sweaty confetti. And one interesting fight scene in the water. But no baby faced killer.

Murari is from a feuding family. During one attempt to bring the two sides back together he meets his cousin Vasundhara, played by Sonali Bendre. Sparks and insults begin to fly as instant dislike signals the love story to come. Romance blossoms over pranks and practical jokes, as does some more dodgy CGI work.

In order to facilitate the growing relationship, Murari is intent on resolving the family schism as his grandmother Sabari is equally intent on removing the curse. Murari is blissfully unaware of the danger he is in, but the gods seem to like Mahesh Babu and his elephant Ganesh keeps a watchful eye on his owner. There are lots of close calls, and we know Murari is drawing closer to his death a long time before the family priest bothers to check the horoscopes.

Murari’s family approve of him marrying Vasundhara, hers are eventually persuaded and then grandmother puts the veto on this union. She is obsessed with saving Murari (who was named for her husband who was a previous victim of the curse), and keeping Vasundhara from being left a widow. In the midst of all the domestic drama, death is lurking and only an arduous and lengthy ritual can save Murari. Since the angry deity in question is Durga, the price for absolution had to be blood; and that is spilled in abundance before the film ends. Although the climax was powerful in its visual impact  the outcome was rather predictable as Sabari had always known what was needed to lift the curse. Along with all that blood of course. Why she held off on taking action until this particular generation is never adequately explained.

Mahesh Babu seems to be the actor who explains basic concepts in Telugu film, and we thank him for that. In Athadu he laid out the rules for killing and in Murari he explains the rules of obsessive filmi love. Apparently if he was thinking of Vasundhara, he needn’t worry about whether she loved him before going to politely kidnap her and bring her back to the family home. The reason he was thinking of her was that she was thinking of him. So his father told Murari there was no need for boring talking about feelings and plans and all that. She wanted him! It was all her fault! Just go grab her! Another filmi mystery solved!

It was interesting to see Mahesh Babu playing a young man who wasn’t a homicidal loner. This is also before maxi-layer Mahesh became quite so multilayered and developed his signature style. Although his favoured T-shirt and shirt combo make plenty of appearances there are quite a few scenes where only a single T-shirt was in evidence and nary a scarf in sight. We enjoyed his comedic flair in Khaaleja and he certainly milked the laughs from some of his scenes with Sonali. He did all the standard heroic stuff but this was much more character driven than action centred and relied on dialogue.  Sonali and Mahesh had some fun and flirty scenes that helped give the romance a bit more spark. Sonali is beautiful to look at and seemed to enjoy playing her more extrovert character in this.  She really excels at frustrated screams, and her performance appeared very genuine and heartfelt particularly in the latter half of the film.

Murari’s mother Gopamma was played by Lakshmi who did a great job of giving this teary filmi Ma some real character. She was very believable in her confrontational scenes when visiting her brother and family, and emanated a warm and loving personality in scenes with Mahesh Babu. The rest of the supporting cast were all OK without being exceptional. It’s often comforting seeing so many familiar faces in amongst all the cousins, uncles, aunts and servants but it does mean we tend to overlook them as they usually perform the same role over and over. The sets for the family homes were lovely and looked really lived in.

There were lots of knick-knacks and paintings scattered around to catch the eye and each house had a different feel that reflected the occupants’ tastes. The elephant fountain was fabulous and so was the actual elephant.

The music was forgettable, and so was most of the dancing although it was rather exuberant at times. See this film if you’re interested in watching one of the biggest stars in the industry before he adopted the cool calm killer persona and if you like a bit of domestic drama.

Temple says: This is an entertaining if unexceptional film. I like Mahesh Babu as an actor, and he did well in this romantic comedy hero style. It is kind of fun to see him playing such a young and flirty boy rather than the brooding loner role he has put his stamp on of late. Having seen Khaaleja recently, I am now surprised at how shocked everyone seemed to be at his ability to do comedy in that, as he had that under his belt in this film (along with snake wrangling skills). I particularly liked the teasing flirty interludes with Sonali as they each had their moments of triumph and of discomfort and the scenes flowed really well. I even tolerated the dreaded Filmi Child Actors as they were kept well under control and wore a pleasing array of stripey shirts. Speaking of costumes, Mahesh Babu in a lungi is always memorable (I’m thinking of you Jenni). It’s a shame the DVD copy is so bad as the visual design of the film is very nice, and it was a pleasure to watch – certainly these screencaps do it no justice. I don’t know that I would hurry to watch this again, but I did enjoy it for what it is – a romantic comedy with a bit of gore, a bit of divine intervention and excellent use of elephants. I give it 3 stars.

Heather Says: I liked Murari, but then it’s a romance and I’m a sucker for love stories. It also has elephants (an instant win), snakes (also a win), and the goddess revenge drama does spice up the storyline nicely. I enjoyed the way the two characters played it true to their supposed ages in the story and the little touches that were very typical of a guy trying to be macho and impress the girl. The teasing between Murari and Vasundhara appeared very natural and Mahesh showed that he has a natural flair for comedy. It was great to see him in a role where he wasn’t just a cool and competent killing machine, but had so much warmth and feeling. There seemed to have been quite a lot of thought put into the interactions between the various members of the two families as well, and I liked the way that they all had different characteristics within their roles in the family. Even the kids were ably utilised in this film, and the elephants weren’t just there for decoration.

My only complaint, apart from the terrible DVD quality, was that the ending dragged a little. The lead up to the climax was great, but then it seemed to take forever to actually get there. There were also perhaps a few too many near misses for Murari, especially since at least one appeared very contrived. However the rest of the film was fun and overall its an entertaining watch. I vote for more elephants and snakes in all movies! 3 ½ stars from me.

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!

Athadu

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We know what we expect from a Mahesh Babu film – lots of action, great fight scenes, and a tenacious, tough hero with a heart of gold. We also expect to be thoroughly entertained by a good story, and Athadu lives up to expectations on all those fronts.

Mahesh plays Nandu, whom we first meet as a child when he shoots a gangster called Vanka Suri. This is never really explained so we assume he was just on the fast track in his chosen career. Escaping from Suri’s henchmen (shooting one while the other runs away, although as Nandu only had a sawn off shotgun, had fired two shots and hadn’t reloaded, we’re not sure why the other thug ran away – but that’s a minor detail), he meets up with the gangster Sadhu and gets recruited into his fold. Following a bank robbery the gang ends up in custody at the police station, but Nandu manages to escape and rescue Malli and Sadhu, killing a police inspector along the way. So this establishes that Nandu is a killer who has no compunction about taking whatever action he feels is necessary to ensure his survival.

We can therefore jump to the present where we see that Nandu is a contract killer, still working with Malli now played by Sonu Sood, and he seems to be very good at his job. Malli on the other hand appears inept as a getaway driver, since the first time we see him he gets stuck in traffic, and the second time he manages to drive into a petrol tanker and is blown up! Nandu accepts a job for politician Siva Reddy who wants to garner the sympathy vote resulting from a supposed failed assassination attempt, and use this to get into power. Nandu is hired to shoot but not kill Siva Reddy. The mission goes badly wrong when Siva Reddy is shot and emphatically killed – by someone else. The police know exactly where Nandu is, suggesting that there is some sort of set-up going on, but despite this Nandu manages a spectacular escape onto a train.

This is where he meets Pardhu, who is returning to his village after a self-imposed exile of 12 years. Pardhu is accidentally killed by the police and after escaping the police pursuit, Nandu goes to the village in Pardhu’s stead. To further complicate matters, Pardhu has issues to deal with back in the village, one of which is his fiancée arranged since childhood, Poori, played by Trisha.

This is where our ‘heart of gold hero’ manifests, as Mahesh helps Pardhu’s grandfather who is having land rights issues, and generally makes himself useful. Over time he also falls in love with Poori – they ‘accidentally’ kiss and many colourful song picturisations ensue!

In time however, the CBI in the form of Prakash Raj catches up with Nandu. Prakash Raj also gets a chance to display his excellent Identi-kit Artist skills after somehow deciding to interview old time gangster Sadhu who is in jail. It could only be a matter of time til they identify Mahesh Babu from that sketch!

The detailed description

The amazing artistry of Prakash Raj!

If the plot seems convoluted up until now, it just gets twistier. The CBI has already realised that Nandu couldn’t have been the killer, but they keep pursuing him as the number one suspect. When the action shifts back to Hyderabad, a number of other factors come into play until almost everyone who was involved with the plot to assassinate Siva Reddy is dead.

The final scene between the actual killer, Nandu ,various officials and police takes place in a church and is very reminiscent of John Woo’s excellent film, The Killer. Nandu confronts the real assassin and explains: “Killing is not wrong. If you kill your enemy it is a war, if you kill your friend it is a crime, and if you kill a betrayer it is justice.” And the resolution of the film hinges on those words.

Mahesh has mastered the official patented hero run, which he does use to good effect in his many escape efforts in this film. He excels at playing the hero who doesn’t say a lot, but instead lets his actions speak for him.

A comment on Mahesh’s wardrobe – he seems able to pull off the most amazing moves despite his love of the layered look. We never see him without at least 2 T-shirts and a shirt, or a T-shirt, shirt, jacket combination. We like to call this look “Maxi-layer Mode Mahesh”. It is hard to believe he doesn’t collapse of heat exhaustion while dancing! Instead he looks cool and in total control.

Trisha is believable as Poori, the pampered princess whose elder sister isn’t as pretty or as spoiled as she is. But she is genuine in her love for Nandu, and Trisha manages to make her character’s self absorption come across very well in the initial scenes. This film has the usual suspects of Sunil as the best friend, Brahmi as the cantankerous son-in-law, Ajay as the son of the murdered politician, and the various other actors who play mums, dads, uncles, aunts and thugs and who never seem to be out of work in Telugu cinema! The action is well choreographed as usual by Peter Hains, and fits well within the narrative. The plot is complex enough to require some concentration, if only to remember who everyone is and their connections to each other. One of the credited choreographers is Vaibhavi Merchant, and indeed the dancing in this is a cut above some of the other Mahesh films we’ve seen.

While Athadu is an action packed film, there is still  the obligatory comedy track which allows Sunil and Brahmi to do their thing. Both play characters that serve a purpose in the narrative, and both perform well. Sunil in particular gets to show some of the range that made Maryada Ramanna so enjoyable. There are other light moments throughout the film that just happen along the way. One local goon sends his gang off to thrash  Nandu but insists that as petrol prices are high, they should travel in one car. While we missed the traditional Sumo convoy, we did enjoy this:

Heather says: This is one of my top 3 favourite Mahesh films with an excellent performance by Mahesh, and a really well developed story. The character of Poori is nicely played by Trisha, and she manages to hold her own in her scenes with Mahesh. Given that she is playing a rather shallow and selfish character she does instil her with enough warmth that we do want to see the romance work out in the end. Mahesh is in top form as the über-cool all action hero who can fight through the various gangs of thugs, police and various other obstacles in his way; capture the respect and heart of a family and romance the heroine. He really is perfect for this role – able to express so much just by small changes in his facial expression, and moving his gaze – just too good!  The transformation from cold killer by the realisation that he didn’t need to be the lonely outsider was a different take, and used the storyline of the family with a missing son very well.
The supporting cast keep the story cracking along at a fast pace, and everyone has a part to play. For a change Prakash Raj is the good cop, and turns in a slick and polished performance in this role. There is really little I can criticise in this film as it all comes together so well, and Trivikram has done a fantastic job with the screenplay and direction. It is fairly violent, but never in a way that is purely gratuitous, and certainly no worse than many Hollywood films. This gets 4 1/2 stars from me!

Temple says:  This is one of my favourite Mahesh Babu films. It doesn’t have the best soundtrack, dancing or story but it just has a bit more depth than the usual loner-on-a-mission fare and manages to blend the action, romance and comedy very successfully. I give much credit for that to Mahesh Babu. His performance is fantastic and nuanced and he really drew me into caring about what happened to Nandu despite that character being a sociopath and murderer. His subtle reactions to being welcomed into a family – such a foreign experience for him – were funny and touching. His struggle to understand women, especially the irritating mosquito style of Poori, and his dry sarcastic put-downs were brilliantly delivered. I thought Trisha did well with her role which was a shallow princess-y character although I don’t think there was much chemistry between Poori and Nandu/Pardhu. The fight scenes are expertly choreographed, better than the dancing for the most part, and are restrained yet gory and very effective. The climax scene, a beautiful tribute to John Woo, just went a bit overboard on pigeons and men who couldn’t shoot straight. I liked the comedy track but I did have issues with the rather daft police investigation process in this. Much as I could sympathise with Nandu for the Siva Reddy debacle and the fact that he seemed like a decent guy in light of his actions in the village setting, it doesn’t alter his past as a contract killer. So while I applaud the ending, it’s all a bit wrong. Only in films!  Points off for a so-so soundtrack and dancing, and more so for not getting Prakash Raj a stunt-artist and for the abysmal marksmanship. I give this 4 stars!