Tag Archives: Sonu Sood

Arundhati

Posted on by

Arundhati is a wonderful revenge story with plenty of melodrama, over the top action and what appears to have been an unlimited budget for blood.  Add in a heroine driven storyline with some excellent performances and it makes for a worthy  addition to the South Indian Cinema Induction Programme.

We learn through flash-back that Arundhati was a princess of Gadwal, trained in the arts of dance and war.  Her bravery even as a child was likened to the goddess Jejamma, so this was how she was known.

Her sweet and innocent older sister, Bhargavi was married off to Pasupathi, the evil and depraved nephew of the King, who enjoyed a protected status despite his raping and murdering ways.  After he attacked and killed Jejamma’s blind dancing teacher, Bhargavi killed herself.

In revenge the precocious young Arundhati beat Pasupathi, tied him to a horse and drove him from the kingdom.  Despite extensive injuries he didn’t die, but was rescued by a group of Agoras and learned to be even more evil, which we didn’t think was possible.

Having his vile talents augmented by the knowledge of tantric arts and by the possession of malevolent spirits, he returned to take revenge on Arundhati, fortuitously arriving on the day of her wedding.

Some excellent posturing and slashing later, including a take on the drum scene from House of Flying Daggers, Arundhati defeated him and imprisoned him in the palace, still alive but trapped in a fairly well constructed tomb.

Two generations later and there is a new Arundhati, who comes back to town for her marriage.  Pasupathi is now an evil spirit, confined in his grave in the ruined fort by various amulets and prayers which prevent his escape.  He uses the influx of naive newcomers to try and break free of his prison. He tricks a young couple into entering the fortress where one disappears and the other becomes insane.  Attempts by the mad man to break open the grave are thwarted, and he ends up being chained up in the village.  Pasupathi is able to lock doors and move objects to try and kill Arundhati’s father, but luckily can’t use the same tactics to escape.

Just as an aside to all heroines and disposable sidekicks – if you go into a building and have to break cobwebs which are thick enough to block your way, there is a very good chance that the friend you are looking for is not actually there, since otherwise there would already be a path of broken cobwebs – just a suggestion!

Eventually and inevitably Pasupathi manages to break free and torments Arundhati. She now has to come up with a way to vanquish this evil spirit for good, otherwise he will claim her as his wife and all of her family will die.   She has some help in the form of a Muslim fakir who seems to be pretty well unstoppable, which is just as well as there are many attempts on his life!  Sadly he is pretty inept at passing on the simple instructions he was given to stop Pasupathi or the second half might have ended much sooner. Everyone else who tries to help her dies – usually in very gruesome and bloody ways!  Did we mention this film had an exceptional gore and blood budget? The heavy-breathing Pasupathi manages get Arundhati exactly where he wants her – but will he succeed in his evil plans of rape and revenge? Will Arundhati remember her brave heritage and triumph over her immortal adversary?

Anushka excels in her double role as both the modern day Arundhati and the warrior princess.  In Jejamma mode she is masterful and determined, while in the modern day avatar Anushka manages very well to convey the despair and madness as Pasupathi torments Arundhati with images of her family’s fate.  She carries the film, and manages to be compelling, beautiful and convincing. However, there are some scenes later in the film that drag on for far too long. There is really only so much whimpering and scrambling that Anushka can do in her modern day character before the impact of her reactions fades. The young actress Divya Nagesh who played the young princess Arundhati was a delight to watch as she faced down the original Pasupathi.   Sonu Sood appeared to revel in his role and conveyed the total depravity of his character with great gusto and much eye twitching madness.  He seemed to be having such a great time as the completely evil Pasupathi and we just love him in this total manic mode! There is a downside to this wholehearted effort. He is just having too much fun and it detracts enormously from the characterisation. In some scenes he looks like he is barely restraining laughter and as a result Pasupathi just isn’t really evil enough to be truly frightening. As the second half was quite drawn out and hinged on Arundhati’s fear of Pasupathi, the lack of real menace did make the film feel overly long and the uneven pace was jarring.  Sayaji Shinde puts in a very credible performance as the knowledgeable fakir, and we loved seeing Manorama as the old servant who fills in the back story for modern day Arundhati and us.

The music is well integrated into the drama, and all songs serve a purpose. The cinematography is excellent and both the set and costume design really enhance the story. The special effects are for the most part used well, but there is a tendency to overdo things. The blood and gore team were especially enthusiastic!

The novel (to us) use of death by coconut was dramatic but repetitive and once again, key scenes dragged on a bit too long to sustain the drama. The climax of the film seems to stop and start. Modern day Arundhati had to scramble around crying and panicking for ages until the two storylines started to piece together for the conclusion. We theorised that the director still had a couple of days and half the blood budget left to use and decided to just go for it. The ending is bloody and violent and yet uplifting once it really gets going.

Heather says: I loved this film.  The two leads are fantastic and the child princess Arundhati does a really good job for such a young actress.  The story is very heavily focused on Anushka, and this is probably one of the film’s flaws in that the other characters don’t ever really engage us.  Sonu Sood is totally manic, which makes for some great viewing but not necessarily the best approach for his character. His Pasupathi was too cartoonish to ever be scary, particularly in the latter half of the film where the heavy breathing began to become wearing.  However, he was very watchable and certainly seemed to be making the most of his time in the film.  There were a few too many plot points clashing with each other at the end, and modern day Arundhati was just a little too wimpy. But still a very watchable film – I give this 4 ½ stars.

Temple says: I really enjoyed seeing a tough yet feminine heroine driving what is for the most part an action film. Anushka is stunning in this, and deserved the critical acclaim and awards. I like Sonu Sood but his hamming annoyed me. It wasn’t really the role for a lighthearted villain and would have benefited from a more menacing performance. As it was, he reminded me of a character from an old TV series – Catweazle. You can go look that up and see what I mean! The film really is the story of the bitter enmity between Arundhati and Pasupathi so that lack of serious venom detracted a bit from the overall impact. The pacing was all over the place too – some scenes dragged on far too long, while others rushed through interesting bits of the back story. The modern day avatar of Arundhati didn’t get much to do apart from crying and running until towards the end of the story.  But thanks to the amazing screen presence of Anushka the film is absolutely rivetting at times.  I give this 4 stars – it would  have been less except for her extraordinary performance.

Dabangg

Posted on by

Masala is back in Bollywood! Oh yes!

After what seems to be far too long, here is a Hindi film with all the elements we fell for in the first place – songs, melodrama, romance, over the top fight scenes,  good guys, bad guys and lots and lots of explosions.

Salman plays Chulbul Pandey, a somewhat corrupt cop, but one who loves his mother – so we know at heart he must be a good person.  Chulbul’s widowed mother Naina, in an small but significant role by Dimple Kapadia, married Prajapati Pandey (Vinnod Khanna).  Together they have a son who Prajapati favours over his step-son Chulbul. Our hero grows up feeling like an outsider and determines that when he is older, he will be the one with all the power and influence.

Fast forward 20 years where Chulbul is now a police officer with enough money to buy and sell his step-father many times over (that moderate corruption we mentioned), and a rather thin moustache.

Chulbul has a strained relationship with his step-father and spineless, self-centered step-brother Makkhi; Arbaaz Khan with a more robust and unruly moustache and an appalling selection of shirts. Makkhi is desperate to wed Nirmala, but her schoolmaster father cannot afford the dowry Prajapati insists on. Meanwhile Chulbul falls for the enigmatic Rajo, the daughter of a drunk.  This is the debut film for Sonakshi Sinha and although she was very lovely there really wasn’t very much in her role for her to work with.  But the relationships with her father and brother seemed genuine which added a fuller dimension to her storyline. She did have some very beautiful costumes too!

Along the way, Robin Hood Pandey, as he renamed himself, makes an enemy of the chest baring Chhedi Singh. Sonu Sood seems to be making a career out of playing the manically evil antihero – something he does so well – and we do not mind the shirtlessness one bit.  Singh is the youth representative for Anupam Kher’s political party, and Chulbul’s policing  is cutting into his supply of money from running various shady deals.

There is a wonderful item song featuring Malaika Arora Khan choreographed by Farah Khan.  This let Salman ruin Sonu Sood’s night while indulging in some excellent uncle dancing and Malaika did what she does best, so this was great fun to see.  We applaud a film that condenses political confrontations into a dance.

Various plots are hatched and foiled, loved ones die, marriages are arranged and un-arranged, peoples’ values are put to the test.  Finally it culminates in a chance to blow absolutely everything up, bare some more chests and let Salman save the day.

This is Salman’s film. Perhaps it is the presence of Arbaaz as producer, but Abinav Kashyap really seems to have drawn every last bit of charisma from Salman and used him to best advantage.  The action sequences choreographed by S. Vijayan are brilliantly filmed, and manage to give a nod to many great action sequences from recent Hollywood and South Indian blockbusters.  Despite having Helen in the family, Salman has never been the greatest dancer.  The choreography by Raju Khan and Shabina Khan has cleverly allowed Salman to showcase what he does do well, and the colour and movement of the backing dancers disguises the fact that he really isn’t the most nimble person on the floor.

The film does lose momentum after the interval, but soon picks up the pace and the finale has enough action to appease our South Indian accustomed filmi taste.

This is a great entertainer of a film. We give it 4 and 1/2 stars! It gets extra points just because we have been suffering Bollywood Masala Deprivation Syndrome and this may be the cure!

Athadu

Posted on by


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!