Yuvraj review

Every step you take, every move you make… we’ll be watchin’ you. Have altered the lines of a famous song. For, this one is applicable for Subhash Ghai, a proficient storyteller, one of the most successful stories from this side of the Atlantic. Irrespective of how his films are received at the ticket window, Ghai’s movies are always under scrutiny. You watch every film with a magnifying glass.

yuvraj is no exception!

Ghai’s forte has been drama. Recall the dramatic moments in Karz, Vidhaata, Meri Jung, Ram Lakhan, Karma, Saudagar. He re-visits the genre with      yuvraj. Besides,      yuvraj is his most opulent work thus far. It has a sweeping effect, the film makes a stunning visual statement.

Honestly,      yuvraj isn’t Ghai’s best work, but post Yaadein, Kisna and Black & White,      yuvraj salvages him, even redeems the storyteller.

The story (Ghai) mirrors a universal truth. Greed leads to disputes and in turn, ruins all relationships. A fact you’ve heard or witnessed time and again in real life. While the story is captivating, the screenplay doesn’t really do justice to the thought. Also, Rahman’s music acts as a soothing balm, but the problem is, it takes time to grow on the listener. And that could be a deterrent.

Yet, in all fairness,      yuvraj is a notch above the commonplace. If you intend spending your hard-earned money on it or devoting 3 hours of your precious time on Ghai’s new outing, chances are you won’t regret it.

Deven      yuvraj (Salman Khan) is a chorus singer, in love with Anushka (Katrina Kaif). Her father Dr. Banton (Boman Irani), however, is dead against this relationship. Things take a turn when Deven’s father passes away and he returns to London to stake claim on his father’s wealth.

He meets his two estranged brothers Gyanesh      yuvraj (Anil Kapoor) and Danny      yuvraj (Zayed Khan) after almost twelve years. But things aren’t hunky-dory between them…

Ghai has an eye for visuals and every frame of  yuvraj seems like a painting on celluloid. Unmistakably, that’s the first thing you notice as      yuvraj unfolds.

It takes time to absorb      yuvraj. In fact, Ghai doesn’t open all his cards at the very outset. It’s only when the father (Javed Shaikh) passes away and Mithun Chakraborty, the Executor of the Will, enters the scene that the wheels start moving.

The film gathers momentum after the interval. If the first hour has a few by-now-famous Ghai scenes, the second hour sees Ghai in form, with a number of sequences staying in your memory. The penultimate 20-25 minutes are the best. Watch Anil go through the handycam with disbelief, watch Anil and Salman’s act during the concert, watch Salman’s emotional outburst towards the end… also the titles (brings back memories of Om Shanti Om).

On the flip side, the screenplay is erratic. There’re constant highs and lows in this journey, the film works in patches. In fact, the screenplay falls prey to predictability and mediocrity at places.

Ghai handles the dramatic scenes with flourish. Rahman’s music is soothing, but you expect more because Ghai’s movies are embellished with lilting music that you recall even after 2 or 3 decades. Kabir Lal captures the striking beauty of Europe well. The output is superb. The sets (Omung Kumar) are truly majestic.

yuvraj belongs to Anil Kapoor, who towers above the entire cast and delivers a natural, believable performance. Salman’s looks are inconsistent. At times the boyish look is intact, at times he looks bloated. Ditto for his hairstyle. His performance, however, is better, mainly towards the finale. Zayed tries hard and convinces in a few scenes. Mithun Chakraborty is fantastic in a brief role.

Katrina looks angelic. Despite the focus being on the three men, she registers an impact. Boman Irani is credible, especially in the scene when he steps out of the Operation Theatre towards the end. Aushima Sawhney is confident. Anjan Srivastava and the pack of villains/vamps look straight out of Ram Lakhan and Taal.
On the whole,      yuvraj is interesting in parts, with the penultimate 20/25 minutes taking the film to an all-time high. At the box-office, the package (a mammoth cast, Subhash Ghai, A.R. Rahman, the stunning locales of Europe) should ensure a hearty opening and with no major opposition in the forthcoming week, it should keep its investors smiling.

Yuvraj Director: Subhash Ghai

Yuvraj Cast: Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Zayed Khan, Boman Irani, Mithun Chakraborty, Aushima Sawhney

Avakaya Biryani movie review

Cast: Kamal Kamaraju, Bindu Madhavi, Ramesh Rao and others.

Music: Manikanth Kadri

Director: Aneesh Kuruvilla

Producer: Shekhar Kammula and Chandrasekhar Kammula
Avakaya Biryani is canned in a village backdrop and the scenario is quite pure and crystal clear. The first half of the movie is interesting and some scenes succeed in tickling the audience. But the second half lacks the zeal and the climax is well carved and is a little bit tense.

Story

Avakaya Biryani starts with the first frame in a village back drop like a typical Shekhar Kammula movie. Akbar (Kamal Kamaraju) is the only auto driver of a 7 seater auto in a remote village. He is a paper boy of the village in the early mornings and transforms as an auto driver in the day. He is a Muslim with very broad minded thoughts. Though he is an orphan, he grows up with utmost qualities and ethics and grows up with some secular thoughts.

Akbar is constantly pestered by a Muslim leader Babar who is tries to poison the mind of Akbar with some religion related thoughts. But Akbar never deviates from his original principles and so is a well natured guy at heart.

Akbar has his friends who are dearer to him in all manners and considers Masterjee (Rao Ramesh) as his mentor.

Then the twist in Avakaya Biryani takes place as the heroine enters the life of the hero. A Brahmin family visits the village and resides in the village from then on. It is discovered by Akbar that the family is settling in the village and to earn a living they desire to open up a Tiffin center in the village.

Moreover, to gain some more earnings the Brahmin family plans to sell pickles in the nearby towns and village and the family head, who is an orthodox minded character, hands over the marketing business of the pickles to his wise daughter Laxmi (Bindu)

With no other option for transportation, Laxmi has to travel to in Akbar’s auto. After few sweet incidents the hero and the heroine fall in love. But the main hurdle is their religion and then the story goes on the usual way with some suspense and the usual drama.

Finally, all ends well and the climax is pretty much as expected by the youth.

Performances

Kamal Kamaraju who played the character of an IPS officer in the movie Godavari is the male lead in this film. He plays the character of a Muslim youngster in this film and the movie portrays in an apt role according to his body language. His expressions are according to his dialogues and his acting skills are well exposed.

Bindu Madhavi who is a typical Hyderabadi girl gives a good screen presence. Still she has to improve her dialogue deliver and is ago at the dancing skills. In some scenes she looks like a Bengali babe and with the sari below her naval she steals the eyes of every male audience.

The other characters like Rao Ramesh performed well in this film and the music is melodious and apt to the mood which the film creates,
One thing is quite clear that the movie has nothing to offer to the mass crowds, but is a family entertainer to some extent with a classic touch.

The director carved the movie in such way that it looks like the movie been directed by Shekhar himself.

On the whole Avakaya Biryani will be a respite to those who need a soothing experience and are well tailored to reach to all modes of life.

It has been a while since viewers got to see a good situational comedy. And expectations are high from talented actor Vinay Pathak’s first production venture

“Dasvidaniya”, which releases Friday.

The actor-turned-producer had the viewers in splits in “Bheja Fry” along with Rajat Kapoor and Ranvir Shorey.

Directed by first time filmmaker Shashant Shah, “Dasvidaniya”, which means good bye in Russian, is a bittersweet situational comedy that revolves around Amar

Kaul (Vinay Pathak), whose existence is easily forgotten among the millions of people in Mumbai’s ever-increasing population.

Amar, as a shy and quiet guy, lives a dull and monotonous life in the city and is almost non-existent to people around him. It is his obsession for making

his daily to-do list every morning that keeps him motivated to look forward to another day in his life.

And then suddenly his doctor tells him that he will die within three months. Then begins a journey of a lifetime for Amar, where he sets out to write his

final to-do list. He lists down 10 things he has to do before he dies and he feels the list would make his life worthy, before it actually ends.

As the countdown begins, Amar succeeds in fulfilling the final tasks on his wish list and in the course of doing them, he realises that he had actually been

‘dead’ despite being alive until now.

Amar is symbolic of all those people who have always wanted to do things but kept them on hold.

Thanks to changing tastes of viewers and the multiplex culture, experimental films have carved a niche for themselves and, going by the past performances of

such films at the box office, “Dasvidaniya” may succeed in entertaining people

Cast: Surya Siva Kumar, Simran, Divya Spandana, Sameera Reddy and others

Music: Harris Jayaraj

Direction: Gautham Vasudev Menon

Producer: Aascar Films

Vaaranam Aayiram is a typical Gautham Menon film which seems to be pretty close to his real life and has a message at an end. The movie has a three hour long heavy sentiment drama, which has all the ingredients of Romance, love, comedy and at last advocates non- smoking heavily, as it gives a hard slap to all the smokers who can face the harsh consequence of Cancer. Surya is superb and Simran steals the show with her superb acting skills.

Story

Surya (Junior Surya), the son of Krishnan is an emotionally bonded guy with his parents and his sister. He grows up seeing his parent’s immense love towards each other and the passion towards him and his sister. The different phases of life, are well depicted in this film as the child, teenage life, adulthood in a man’s world are well illustrated. Surya is closely attached to his father and Simran who plays the character of mother to him inspires him for being strongly will powered and also to be emotionally weak sometimes.

Krishnan (Senior Surya) is Surya’s Father who is a middle class man and ventures out to USA in order to fetch his true love Simran. They marry and are proud parents of two siblings. Surya and his sister as told earlier get the inspiration and lesson from their parents that nothing is impossible in this world if your dedication and the sanctity in heart are well pure.
With these principles, Junior Surya gets into his adult hood with a brief love phase in his life. He falls in love with Meghna (Sameera reddy) but the love ends as soon as it is started as Meghna decides to part her ways in order to pursue her professional dreams. She prefers to chase her dreams rather than accompanying Surya. Moved by this Surya regrets to be in love with Meghna and desires for a beloved who is in lines of his mother Malini (Simran).

Surya fetches a defense cop career and is posted somewhere in Jammu and Kashmir. After a few reels of regular kidnapping and goon bashing drama, Surya’s heroic skills are well expressed. Unfortunately he is informed about his father Krishnan’s illness of cancer and leaves the base camp, to be with his family.

He immediately packs and moves to his family and realizes that his father Krishnan is ill and his mother Malini is shaken by this incident. But again, Krishnan inspires his son by his strong will power and determination to invade out through his illness.

Then Surya’s wife Priya (Divya Spandana) enters his life and they marry happily. But Krishnan’s illness deepens day by day and this makes him close to his grave. In a scene which is heart touching, where he tries hard to express something to his grandson, but fails to do as his Vocal Cords fail indicating the last stages of life.

The whole movie is packed with sentiment and love towards a family and the movie is loaded with an emotional drama in every scene.

Finally, the movie ends with a justified climax and this is a suspense which must be seen on the big screen.

Performances

Surya Siva Kumar plays the dual role of Krishnan and Surya in this film. The actor doesn’t need a certificate for his acting as he has immense talent. The senior surya looks more promising with his make up and depicts a perfect middle aged person with lots of experience to reveal. Junior Surya plays the role of an obedient son to his father and is tinged with some love, romance and mother sentiment from the female characters.

Simran plays the character of Malini who is a Pativratha to Krishnan. She plays the role with ease and takes on the limelight of this film.

Priya is the character played by Divya Spandana. The character demands some love, attitude and also sometimes emotions and Divya Justifies her character as a wife to Surya.

Sameera Reddy enters the life of the hero like a breeze and plays the character of Meghna. She moves around the trees with the hero and finally departs.
O the whole, the movie is highly sentimental drama which has nothing for the mass crowds. The movie will surely hit the 50 day mark, due to its touching story. But may finally give up after 70 day mark.