Tag Archives: Telugu

Sardaar Gabbar Singh (2016)

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I didn’t expect great things from Sardaar Gabbar Singh, so wasn’t surprised when it turned out to be a formulaic action flick that’s overly reliant on Pawan Kalyan’s star power.  What the makers of Sardaar Gabbar Singh seem to have missed is that Dabangg and its Telugu remake Gabbar Singh were successful because they poked fun at the traditional herocentric films of the seventies and eighties. Here was a hero who wasn’t pure and honourable but instead was a bit crooked himself and out to look after No 1 above all else. If other people happened to benefit from that self-interest, well and good, but that wasn’t the main motivation behind Officer Chulbul Pandey’s vendetta against Chedi Singh. And therein lies the problem with Sardaar Gabbar Singh. While the first half gets off to a good start, by the time the story is starting to take shape Gabbar Singh (Pawan Kalyan) turns out to be just too, well, good. He’s not selfish enough, not corrupt enough and not greedy enough to win our hearts the way Chulbul Pandey did in Dabangg. For all it’s faults though the film does have an entertaining first half and the big budget ensures top-notch fight scenes and well constructed sets. It’s just a pity the rest is so pedestrian and clichéd.

The story is threadbare thin and follows a by-the-numbers good cop vs. evil landlord format with a beautiful and hapless princess thrown in to add a little glamour. After a cute opening scene to prove that Gabbar Singh has always stood up for himself (even as a child when sleeping under a Sholay film poster on the streets), he next appears as a rough and tough cop determined to bring his own form of justice to bad guys everywhere. Luckily for Gabbar Singh the crooks haven’t learnt that they need to attack en masse rather than one at a time if they want to have any chance of winning, so right from the first fight, he has little difficulty in overcoming an entire gang all by himself. At least the fight is well choreographed and Pawan Kalyan is funny as well as competent while taking down the latest collection of inept gangsters. His success means that Gabbar Singh is shipped off to a town in dire need of some law and order, with his best mate since childhood Samba (Ali) dragged along too.

The villain of the story is cartoonishly over-the-top evil and sadistic, while his crimes are varied and myriad. Bhairao Singh (Sharad Kelkar) has destroyed the local farmland by mining after viciously disposing of the villagers who happened to be living there. He’s also taken over the roads for his own use, intimidated the locals by killing anyone who opposes his rule and maintained a triad of lieutenants who commit various other crimes in his name. In Bhairao Singh’s sights is the land owned by Princess Arshi Devi (Kajal Aggarwal), as another potential site for a mine – although the concept of prospecting to discover if there is anything worth mining never seems to cross his mind. In the meantime, Gabbar Singh has the princess herself in his sights while simultaneously attempting to win control of the town back from Bhairao Singh. Adding to the impressive cast line-up but not necessarily to the plot, Mukesh Rishi plays the role of General Hari Narayana, guardian to the princess who is trying to secure a deal with hotelier Ramesh Talwar (Rao Ramesh) to save Arshi’s palace and secure her future.

Gabbar Singh is a one-man army capable of overcoming a seemingly never-ending parade of thugs while dodging bullets, speeding trucks, horses and everything else that comes his way. He wins back the local school for the children, fights against oppression and is prepared to give up the girl of his dreams because of her higher station in life. In short he’s a paragon of everything that is right and good, and that really just makes him rather dull and uninteresting. Thankfully Pawan Kalyan has the charisma and screen presence to make something more of his character, but even he can’t save the overlong and drearily predictable second half. Even the fight scenes start to become dull as Pawan Kalyan shows off his martial arts skills (impressive) and the thugs repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

Another problem is the character of Bhairao Singh who is basically a caricature of an ‘evil overlord’ and is only required to curl his lip autocratically and look down his nose at everyone else to play his part. Although Sharad Kelkar has an impressive sneer and can flare his nostrils when required, it’s not a demanding role and he’s too cartoonish to be a properly intimidating villain. The usual suspects who appear as his multitude of henchmen and assistants are not on screen for long enough to make an impression, while Brahmaji appears as police officer who seems to suddenly back Bhairao Singh for no apparent reason. Surprisingly, although Ali and Brahmi provide much of the comedy they are both fairly subdued and practically disappear in the second half leaving Pawan Kalyan to supply the humour as well as the action. For me the most interesting character is Gayathri, Bhairao’s wife. It’s a small role but Sanjjanaa makes the most of her time on screen and conveys a lot of meaning though her body language and eyes, making more of an impact than many of the other seasoned actors around her.

Devi Dri Prasad’s songs work well in the first half, especially the title track and Tauba Tauba which has the best picturisation and is fun to watch.

However the romantic songs in the second half are poorly placed and slow the pace considerably. They’re also very unimaginatively shot in the snow-covered peaks of Switzerland which for me is just a cliché too far.  Otherwise the film looks beautiful with Arshi Devi’s palace looking stunning and Kajal dressed in amazingly beautiful costumes and jewelry. The village does look as if it’s somewhere in the Wild West instead of India, but there are plenty of doors, boxes, miscellaneous carts and glass windows for the thugs to be thrown against, so it serves its purpose well.

Sadly Sardaar Gabbar Singh fails as a follow-up to Gabbar Singh, with the only link being the lead character’s name and occupation. The industry self-referential comedy that made Dabangg such a success is missing and there is little to recommend it other than Pawan Kalyan and a couple of good songs. While the first half is entertaining, the film badly loses its way after the interval and becomes yet another overlong and repetitive action film. It’s not terrible but given the team behind the film it’s disappointing that this is the result. One only for fans.

Stri

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Stri-Stri

Stri is a beautiful film about an infuriating relationship. K.S Sethumadhavan directs with restraint, and the intimate scale lets the cast really shine. The story feels complete, with the focus on the important things and people and a pleasing complexity to some of the characters. Maybe that’s because it’s an adaptation of Palagummi Padmaraju’s short story and not purpose built for a filmi audience. Stri won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu in 1995, with leading actress Rohini also getting a special mention at those awards.

The film opens with no dialogue or music at all for the first 5 minutes or so as a girl on a ferry cranes her neck to look anxiously towards her destination. They arrive and she pushes her way through the disembarking ladies, hurrying to where or to who?

Rangi (Rohini) has come in search of Paddalu (Thalaivasal Vijay), who is getting out of jail today. He is not wildly attractive but has a roguish charm as befits a singer, actor, thief. She gets him cleaned up, dressed, and fed. Rangi beseeches and berates him to go straight and ditch his “other woman”. She’s left her family to be with him, is unmarried, and is very aware of what people think of her.

Paddalu is famed as a singer and actor in devotional and folk plays, but he is losing his audience to the movies and his old fashioned patron is short of cash. Rangi knocks herself out trying to think up legal and positive ways for them to make a living, but Paddalu simply doesn’t want to work hard. He comes up with a scheme to make some money and convinces Rangi to just go along with it. They scam a lift on a riverboat, meeting the author of stories about poor people just like them. The writer (S Bheemeswara Rao) clearly hasn’t mastered the art of ignoring ones neighbour when Rangi and Paddalu are up for some action. But he is a sympathetic audience when Rangi finds herself left behind as Paddalu scarpers with some of the cargo.

The film shows their intense mutual attraction, although nothing else about the relationship is healthy. And the more you find out about Paddalu’s behaviour, the more questionable and destructive it all becomes. Rangi continually alienates herself from others for the sake of his dubious affection. He tries to get her into bed and she demurs but says abstinence is hard for her too. She says she may as well sleep with all of his friends because he has turned her into a street woman, and if he likes variety why can’t she have some too. It’s a one way street of course – only Paddalu can sleep around. Rangi should either go back to her parents, or let him do as he will.

After a night of ‘celebrating’ Paddalu carefully feels under their pillow and searches around the waist of Rangi’s saree, looking for her purse. He tries to sneak out but Rangi has locked the door. She knows she can’t really hold on to him, but she tries so hard to stop him from running. Even when he abandons her on the boat she tries to believe that he will still be her man somehow and she will get him back. There are issues galore in this relationship.

Rangi’s behaviour fluctuates between immature and girlish to sadly knowing. Rohini is beautifully simple and raw as Rangi, emotions playing across her face in an instant as Rangi battles to hang on to her man. She judges the performance and characterisation to perfection. Seeing Rohini stride around, a diminutive figure with her saree tied in what I think is a Madurai style, she just exuded determination. I hated the relationship but I really felt for Rangi, and wanted her to come to her senses. And it was interesting to see a female who was a bit of an outsider behaving in an often aggressive and entitled way as she claimed Paddalu as hers. She is subservient to her man but a feisty woman to all others. I also liked seeing Rohini in a lead role as I’ve mostly seen her recent work like Ala Modalaindi and Baahubali.

Vijay gets the short end of the stick as Paddalu is utterly despicable, but he also gives his best to try and make the character a little more nuanced. He sometimes looks at Rangi with sympathy or regret, but nothing will stop him from chasing another woman or another scheme. He is a clown at times, but has a violent streak and seems to post rationalise his way out of accepting any consequences of his actions. He and Rohini have great chemistry and whether the scene is a light hearted tickle fight or an intense confrontation, there is always a sense of connection between the two.

P.L Narayana, K.K Sharma and S Bheemeswara Rao have the main supporting roles as travellers and crew on the boat. Their characters provide some backstory for Rangi and hear her version of life with Paddalu. The other women in the film are mostly Paddalu’s paramours or nosey neighbour ladies who taunt Rangi about her loser of a man. They all shout a lot.

The style is intimate and realistic, and there is no background music to obscure the sounds of village or river life. There are a couple of songs but they are part of the narrative and the style is in keeping with the characters. The rural setting is not overly sanitised and no one is glammed up or filmi looking.

See this for a strong female character played to perfection by Rohini, and for a beautifully made and quite depressing slice of life. I want to be moved by a film, even if that does mean feeling sad and angry. 4 ½ stars!

Kalyana Vaibhogame

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Kalyana-Vaibhogame

I hadn’t originally planned to see Kalyana Vibhogame during the film’s brief appearance in Melbourne, but changed my mind when I discovered that a friend has a brief cameo role. Naturally I then had to see the film! I also really enjoyed watching Nandini Reddy’s previous film Ala Modalaindi so had reasonable hopes for a good story and interesting characters, but unfortunately Kalyana Vibhogame never quite hits the mark. At best it’s a bit of a mixed bag since, although it’s a well-worn storyline with frequent clichéd situations, there are also likeable characters and the comedy is generally funny. However the terrible ending ensures that the film is memorable more for what didn’t work, rather than for what did, and that’s disappointing.

Like many films that feature a love story where the starting point is the marriage of the main characters, there are a lot of contrived episodes to get the couple hitched. Shourya (Naga Shourya) works as a gaming designer with plans to move to the USA, but is being pressured by his parents to get married before his grandmother dies. Shourya has a good relationship with his grandmother so the real driving force behind his impending nuptials seems to be his mother (Aishwarya), although she never comes up with any particularly believable reason behind her attempts to force her son into marriage.  So right from the start it’s difficult to see exactly why Shourya feels that he can’t just say no, move to the USA and live the life he wants to lead.

Divya (Malavika Nair) on the other hand has her autocratic father (Anand) to deal with, whose overbearing attitude does at least give a convincing reason why she agrees to consider marriage. Divya talks up a good resistance when she speaks to her mother (Raasi) but isn’t able to follow through on her threats of independence when she speaks to her father. I liked the contrast between Divya’s day to day life as a medical graduate where she’s completely in control and then her inability to stand up to her father and his expectations. It’s more believable than Shourya’s situation and Malavika Nair is convincing and realistically hesitant in her role.

After meeting, Shourya and Divya plan to get married and then straight away apply for a divorce, reasoning that once they move to Hyderabad they will be out from under their parents influence and will be able to do what they want. However we know it’s never as simple as that. The pair enjoy their relative freedom but are constantly having to act the part of devoted newlyweds as their inconvenient families keep showing up. Nandini Reddy even throws in a Punjabi family friend who comes to live in their building with all the expected standard Punjabi jokes, just when the story was starting to improve.

And that’s the problem. There are some good dialogues and the relationship between Shourya and Divya doesn’t entirely follow the expected path. The inclusion of Shourya’s young brother who has Down’s syndrome is brilliant and a fantastic addition to the story. But then there’s another stereotypical character or trite and hackneyed attempt by Shourya to get Divya’s father to respect his wife and daughter, and the film loses pace once again. There is also never any real intimacy developed between the two characters which makes it even more unbelievable when they realise that they do love each other. When did they ever have a chance to fall in love? (Apart from in the songs of course!)

When it’s Shourya, Divya and their friends the film feels fresh and interesting, but once the families appear it’s back into well charted waters and the clichés just keep coming. The end in particular is too ridiculous to take seriously, despite an attempt by Divya’s mother to make a point about women’s rights which is completely overshadowed by the absurdity of the timing and the melodramatic events leading up to her declaration.

Even with the tired storyline, the actors all do a good job and to some extent that makes up for the deficiencies in the screenplay. Naga Shourya fits the part of a young professional and apart from his inability to stand up to his mother, his character is the most believable of the lot. He’s a typical guy – likes showing off, going out with his mates and chasing after pretty girls. Shourya also does well in generating sympathy for his character, painting him as basically a good guy at heart with a generous and respectful nature, and staying true to this portrayal throughout the film.

Although Divya too is a likeable character and Malavika Nair is excellent, the initial promise of her character isn’t fully realised. Divya seems to lose the gumption that let her enter into the deception in the first place and doesn’t seem to make the most of her situation in the same way as Shourya’s character. Granted she is female and is a doctor, but I expected to see the confident Divya of the early scenes in some of the interactions with Shourya, and instead she seems more immature and somehow diminished by the relationship. It’s like that tired cliché that after marriage the girl has to settle down, wear a sari and become the perfect wife. It’s not quite as bad as that here, but the impression is that Shourya is improved by his marriage while Divya seems to lose something of herself.

Overall Kalyana Vibhogame attempts a modern update of an old story but doesn’t  quite manage to pull it off. Although the characters start with a fresh outlook on life and matrimony, in the end the film follows a familiar path until the oddly overly dramatic finale. There are good dialogues, great performances and plenty of well written comedy which together do mean the film is worth a look, it’s just disappointing that there are frustratingly outdated stereotypical characters in abundance as well and as a result the film doesn’t engage as much as it should.