Tag Archives: Tarak

Baadshah (2013)

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Baadshah

Time for another adventure without subtitles – this time the latest Jr NTR release Baadshah.  There was a surprising new innovation at the cinema too – the addition of a queuing system! No free-for-all crush to get in and grab a seat!  This meant less conversation outside, but more time for discussions inside as it took quite a while for the trickle of people to slowly fill up the cinema.  Needless to say there were still plenty of chants and cheers (and a lot of seat swapping) as the cinema was full for the first night show.

Not understanding Telugu turned out to be not too much of a problem this time since Baadshah closely resembles director Srinu Vaitla’s last venture, Dookudu – even including a similar convoluted scam as the comedy track.  Despite the air of déjà vu, there was still plenty to enjoy with well-choreographed action scenes, awesome dancing from Tarak and (judging from the audience response anyway) some entertaining dialogue.

Baadshah

The film opens with a voice-over from Mahesh Babu, who is the first of a number of guest artists to appear in the film, although there is a large and impressive support cast too.   Tarak is Baadshah, the son of gangster Ranjan (Mukesh Rishi) who successfully runs a casino in Macau.  Ranjan works for international crime lord Sadhu Bhai (Kelly Dorji) and the first half sets up the inevitable struggle between young upstart Baadshah and the established boss.  Sadhu Bhai does have a rather swish Asian inspired lair, with a very shiny black table but otherwise Kelly Dorji’s villain is fairly routine.  I do wish he would cut his hair though – it’s too wispy to be effective as an evil crime lord look!  Sadhu Bhai has the assistance of Crazy Robert (Ashish Vidardhi) and Violent Victor (Pradeep Rawal) who both do their best to eliminate Baadshah and his father which keeps the body count relatively high in the first half.  There is also some painfully bad violin playing, which even Kajal attempts to my horror!

Baadshah

Baadshaah ends up in Milan in time for the first excellent dance number, and this gives him the opportunity to meet Janaki (Kajal Agarwal).  After the usual misunderstandings – she thinks he’s trying to commit suicide while he fails to mention any of his gangster affiliations – the two get together for a romantic song in the snow.  This would have been much better without the addition of some dreadful female backing dancers who looked out of place and uncomfortable wearing jeans under their saris and clomping around in Ugg boots while sliding around in the snow.  They did make Kajal look like a professional dancer in comparison though, so perhaps that was the whole point?

Baadshah

Janaki just happens to be the daughter of the Commissioner of Police Jai Krishna Simha (Nasser) and once back in Hyderabad is supposed to be getting married to another police officer Aadi (Navadeep).  I’m not sure if Navadeep was trying to portray angry and forceful for his character here, but he didn’t make it past mildly petulant and mainly just looked as if he had smelt something bad.  Siddharth on the other hand puts in a good performance in his brief guest appearance as Baadshah’s brother.  By the start of the second half, not only does Baadshah have to deal with the threat of Sadhu Bhai and his evil plans to blow up most of India, but he also has to get rid of Aadi and deal with the police if he wants to get the girl.

Baadshah

While the comedy in the first half comes from M. S. Narayana as a spoof film director, Brahmi appears in the second half and his character Padmanabha Simha takes over the comedy proceedings, and most of the action as well. Although the humour was mainly dialogue based there was plenty that made me laugh even as a non-Telugu speaker.  The audience loved it judging by the response, but the biggest cheer of the night went to a dance by Janaki’s female relatives at the Sangeet ceremony.

Baadshah

The film depends heavily on Tarak’s screen presence and thankfully he delivers on every scene, whether it’s action, comedy or in the dance sequences, although he is somewhat side-lined by Brahmi in the second half.  It was great to see some better choreography, without so much emphasis on ‘trick’ steps, although the item numbers weren’t up to the same level.

Kajal is good as Janaki, but she looks almost subdued in a number of sensible outfits and I thought her make-up made her look tired.  However she did seem to get some good dialogue, and at least she had a meatier role than usual for a ‘love interest’ character.  The support actors in general were reprising roles they have done many times in the past although most didn’t have a lot to do.  I was delighted to see Ajay back on screen as a gang member, even if only for a short time!

Baadshah

Baadshah follows a predictable path, but it’s entertaining with plenty of variety and it’s not quite as gore-soaked as Dhammu or Oosaravelli.  I loved the action sequences and Tarak’s dancing was an absolute stand-out in the first half, but for me the second half dragged due to the more dialogue driven comedy scenes.  The film could also have done without two item numbers, neither of which were particularly impressive. But overall this was a fun film to watch and I’m looking forward to the DVD where I can work out all those references to old NTR films.

Dhammu

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I’d been warned to pick up my ticket early for Dhammu and although I wasn’t expecting a big crowd given the response to NTR Jr’s last few ventures, I did dutifully turn up before the suggested start time. And the guys on the door were right. By the time the film was ready to roll, the cinema was totally packed, which meant a very loud and enthusiastic response to Tarak’s explosive entrance on screen. Despite a few issues with the sound and difficulties getting the second reel of the movie to play, the audience maintained their enthusiasm which helped turn a run-of-the-mill mass masala film into an entertaining Friday night ‘adventure without subtitles’.

Dhammu starts with a flashback, setting up the story and explaining the rivalry between two families in a rural village. Within the first few moments there is a decapitation followed by various scenes of death and dismemberment so it’s fairly obvious that this isn’t going to be a fluffy romance despite the promise of two heroines on the poster. The two families seem determined to use the Kilkenny cat principle of conquest and it’s not long before the remnants of Suman’s family are reduced to living under the yoke of Nasser’s sadistic thugs. Once the scene is set, the film jumps to the present day and Tarak enters via a suitably ridiculous leap from a window onto a black 4WD. This is the first of many such black 4WD’s that gave their lives during the making of this film, so be prepared for crashes, inexplicable explosions and general vehicular destruction often for no apparent reason other than the director seemed to feel that it was time for another car (or 3) to meet an untimely end.

Tarak plays Ramachandra, an orphan who is against violence although that’s not entirely obvious since he’s beating up bad guys single-handedly from his first appearance on screen. OK, so he does fight with his hands behind his back and shows a reluctance to actually kill anyone, but at first I took that to be a novel trick fighting technique just because it looks good.

Ramachandra meets and instantly falls in love with Satya (Trisha) and after some initial very mild reluctance she seems to reciprocate. But it looks as if the romance, brief as it is, seems doomed to failure since Satya’s father (Subhalekha Sudhakar) wants her to marry a rich guy. Trisha looks lovely in some beautiful traditional outfits, but apart from looking pretty and the odd dance routine she has very little to do. The appearance of Karthika as the second heroine seems totally redundant as she gets even less screen time than Trisha and the attempt to create some rivalry falls flat.  Karthika also has so much collagen pumped into her lips that it looks as if they might burst at any moment while she’s speaking and this is incredibly distracting, particularly since I think she looked much better and prettier in Ko.

Both Trisha and Karthika look very stiff in the Neelo Undi Dhammu song and their awkwardness seems to increase in direct proportion to the shortness of their skirts. They both do much better in the songs where they are wearing more traditional outfits and the choreography seems to suit them better too. Tarak is on excellent form in all of the dance routines and although the songs by M.M. Keeravani aren’t particularly memorable the choreography is less fixed on trick moves and more on coordinated steps which look very slick. The only exception is the song Ruler which has little dancing and lots of CGI which looks rather out of place compared to the rest of the film.

By some means Ramachandra’s friend (Ali) learns of a rich family looking for a son to adopt and Ramachandra promptly applies to become a member of the Vasireddy family, adopting the name Vijayadwaja Sri Simha. However it’s not long before he discovers the drawbacks, namely being expected to resolve the feud between the two warring families once and for all as well as dealing with his entire extended family.

The fight scenes are the best part of Dhammu which is fortunate because there are quite a few. Tarak is often shown in slow-motion leaping and pouncing like his adopted family mascot of a lion and it works well. Mostly the fight sequences are totally over the top and unrealistic but they are expertly choreographed by Ram-Lakshman and look fantastic. People ricochet off cars, buildings and other people if they don’t happen to hit anything else in the way, or bounce off the ground in totally gravity defying ways which most of the audience seemed to find as entertaining as I did. There are lots of declarative speeches in between the various bouts of mayhem which generally went down well too, although there were a few scenes where they slow the pace considerably and it takes a while to pick up again.

The supporting cast are all well known actors and generally do justice to their roles. Kota Srinivasa Rao is familiar as the aging patriarch, while Tanikella Bharani, Suman and Sampath Raj all appear in small roles. Nasser is good as the slightly psychotic head of the opposing family and he also sports a wild and strange moustache which looks incredibly impractical. Ali is fairly inoffensive as Vijay’s friend and he got plenty of laughs from the audience, although his comedy did seem rather muted. Brahmi pops up for a few scenes but I couldn’t work out exactly what his role was in the Vasireddy family and he had very little impact. Venu Thottempudi also makes an appearance as a member of the Vasireddy family and was good in a brief but important appearance.

Overall Dhammu has nothing new to offer and relies heavily on NTR Jr to make the most of an overused storyline with standard masala ingredients. There are plenty of good moments and NTR Jr puts in an impressive performance but there isn’t anything to make this film stand out from other similar action movies in his filmography. It’s not brilliant but it works well enough as a mass entertainer, especially with an appreciative audience and I’d recommend watching at least once for Tarak, his dancing and some excellent fight scenes!

Oosaravelli

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Oosaravelli had it’s first showing on Thursday, so perhaps it wasn’t too surprising that the cinema was only a third full for the Friday night showing. We still had an appreciative audience in Melbourne with a few whistles for Tarak’s entrance and plenty of laughs at the comedy dialogue, but it was generally more subdued than we’ve become accustomed to in our regular adventures without subtitles.

Oosaravelli is basically a revenge movie. It takes a while to get to the explanation but the set up is entertaining and both Tarak and Tamanna make an impression. Tarak is Tony – he has his name helpfully tattooed on his neck just in case he ever forgets, or maybe it’s a concession to help those of us who don’t understand Telugu and are occasionally confused as to who is who by the fast paced dialogue. We start by learning the anatomy of the human body with an animation which I think is supposed to imply that Tony is a man with all the right parts to be the ultimate hero, or maybe it really was just a quick biology lesson while waiting for the hero’s entrance.

Tony is a man with a large collection of scarves and bandannas who seems to be a small time thug with big time ambition. He meets Niharika (Tamanna) in Kashmir where they have both been kidnapped by insurgents who seem determined to dispose of their hostages one by one. Tony helps Niharika escape but rather carelessly loses her as they run off into the forest. Later, back in Hyderabad, Tony has tracked Niharika down only to find that she is in love with a guy called Rakesh, who is less than impressed with Tony’s appearance.

Along the way Tony has various dealings with a gang of the usual suspects including Jayaprakash Reddy and Murli Sharma who are united in their truly dreadful fashion sense, although the pink stripped shirt with teddy bears was a favourite. This stylishness  doesn’t last though as Tony moulds them into ‘Men in Black’ after beating them up with a bag full of baseball bats – just as his father showed him. Back when he was alive that is. The gang is further intimidated when the ghost of Tony’s father turns up to join in a drinking session but after that, ghost dad is eerily silent until part of the explanation for events later on in the second half. We do get some bedazzled ninja backing dancers though as some compensation.

Tony continues his pursuit of Niharika by getting her evicted from her flat and then setting her up in his house. They decide to be ‘just friends’ although Niharika’s friend Chitra (Payal Ghosh) is sure this is a bad idea. Sure enough Tony finds out that Rakesh is a bad guy and is up-to-no-good. He’s in league with his uncle, don Azzu Bhai (Prakash Raj), and along with his father and friend is involved in some shady deals including arms and diamond smuggling. There is a brief glimpse of CinemaChaat favourite Ajay before he is sadly disposed of but otherwise every usual bad guy seems to turn up as a member of one gang or another.  For some reason one of Tony’s gang turns against him and delivers him up to Rakesh as the wannabe don who’s muscling in on their territory. Right about now is when Tony turns from a mildly affable joker to a totally psychotic killer who wipes out the entire gang in a matter of minutes with some impressive moves with a mallet. I was also suitably amazed by the hook which didn’t manage to tear through Tony’s shirt collar, but moments later was put to good use to impale one of the villains.

Just when we think – yay – crazy killer Tarak and wait for more blood to spill without really caring why, it all starts to make sense as there is a flashback revealing exactly who Niharika is and the reason for Tony’s involvement in the first place. But then it’s back to annihilation of all the bad guys although it’s not always clear if they are actually dead or not as a few people take a lot of killing. And death is not at all well diagnosed even by the medical professionals involved.

The highlight of the film is definitely Tamanna. She is excellent in all her different personas throughout the film – as the ditzy fashion designer and girlfriend, the harrowed victim and as the vengeful sister. She has real passion and belief in her character and it shows. A truly brilliant performance from her which also includes some excellent dance moves. It’s hard to compete with Tarak who is such an excellent dancer, but she manages to draw eyes away from him in a couple of songs.

Generally the soundtrack is enjoyable although Devi Sri Prasad has recycled one of his songs from the recent Dhanush starrer Venghai in Dandiya India. Tarak is good as the deranged killer Tony who has a soft spot for Niharika and seems to manage the switch between comedy and action well judging by the audience reaction. Payal Ghosh is also excellent as Niharika’s friend and it does seem as if the girls get the better dialogues and story-line this time round. A lot of the comedy centres on Tony’s gang of thugs and without understanding the dialogue I found this tended to drag. It was also slightly disappointing when ghost dad failed to make a reappearance after a promising beginning.

There are quite a few funny moments which probably aren’t supposed to be funny – such as Tony trying to hide behind a see through curtain, and where people who are dead manage come back to life to manage that one last important sentence. Or in the case of Tony’s dad, a 3 page monologue. It’s a fun film with plenty of action and blood. But even better it has a heroine who actually gets a proper story and gets to do something more than just look pretty. More of that please.