Interview with Raja

National award winning director Neelakanta is coming up with Mr Medhavi. This film sports Raja and Genelia in the lead roles. Raja is so much confident of the film’s success that he bought the overseas and DVD rights of the film. Here is our exclusive chitchat with Raja -

Tell us about your character in Mr. Medhavi?
I am doing a challenging role of a project manager for a group of companies. I come from a poor family. My character’s intelligence in this film is like a double edged sword which is both boon and bane to me. It is a very manipulative character. The film is all about how Mr Medhavi (Mr. Intelligent) manages the good and bad things resulted due to his intelligence.

What about Genelia character?
She did the role of an NRI who comes from Canada. She is an entrepreneur. She has strong personality, independent attitude and she is a go-getter. Mr. Medhavi will be a hat-trick film for Genelia after Bommarillu and Dhee.

How is it like working with Neelakanta?
Neelakanta is one the finest screenplay writers in the country. He is a fabulous director to work with. I watched the rushes during the dubbing time and I was surprised at the performance Neelakanta extracted from me. If I had to repeat this performance, I might not be able to do it. We have very few directors of such type.

We do find female dominating characters in Neelakanta’s films. Is Mr. Medhavi an exception?
Yes. There is no female dominance. And the movie is titled on my character. I cried watching the climax of Mr. Medhavi. I had similar feeling when I watched Anand and Aa Naluguru. Mr. Medhavi has emotionally moving climax.

Tell us about the music?
Music of the film is fabulous and rerecording is great. My favorite song in this film is ‘neeti mabbullona’. The song ‘kala kaduka’ comes during the introduction of Genelia.

What is reason for taking overseas and DVD rights of Mr. Medhavi?
I will be distributing Mr. Medhavi overseas on Sri Raj Film Distributors banner. I also bought DVD rights. I am very confident that this film has everything right going for it. I had seen the film three times and every time I had fallen in love with the film. That is the reason why I bought the overseas rights.

Who is going to coordinate your overseas release?
RK Films that releases blockbusters like Bommarillu and Happy Days will be helping me release the film. The interested exhibitors can also call me up on my personal number 99490 88343.

Is it part of your remuneration?
No. I paid cash and bought it.

You worked with Genelia and Sneha. How different they are?
Sneha does mature characters and she has good hold on the family crowds. Genelia does youthful roles and she has following in youth. I must say that both these actresses does perfect justice to the roles given to them.

When is Mr. Medhavi is going to release?
The tentative date of release is 24 January.

‘Mee Sreyobhilashi’ Review

Review: Slow and Not Convincing

Film: Mee Sreyobhilashi
Presented By: CC Reddy
Banner: Visu Films P Ltd
Cast: Rajendra Prasad, Naresh, Ravi Kondala Rao, Radha Kumari, Dhanush, Raghu Babu, Krishna Bhagawan, Tanikella Bharani etc
Art: Ashok
Stunts: Ram-Laxman
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Music: Koti
Producer: Y Sonia Reddy
Director: V Eeshwar Reddy
Released On: 28 Dec 2007

Story:
Rajaji (Rajendra Prasad) is a professor who loses his wife and grown up daughter. He regularly goes to a park and finds a few people coming there with various problems in life. Kiran (Dhanush) comes along with his lover and both decide to die. The reason is that their elders object their marriage.

Raghuram (Ravi Kondala Rao) is an old man who is neglected by his son. He comes along with his wife (Radha Kumari) with a decision to commit suicide.

Amala is a lady who gets pestered by dowry craving in-laws and husband. She too wants to commit suicide and comes to that park.

Cheetila Chinna Rao (Krishna Bhagawan) also wishes to die. Surya Prakash Reddy (Naresh) is a film producer who goes bankrupted and hence wishes to die.

Rajaji gathers all these suicide aspirants and hires a bus to die collectively. He plans to make the bus jump into Sri Sailam valley so that everyone in the bus will be killed. He also chooses a bus driver who wishes to die due to his family problems. He says that by dying in a bus all together, the families wouldn’t get bad name as it will be coated as an accident.

The bus starts with all these suicide partners including Rajaji. He too says that he wants to die as he has nobody with him. The conclusion is within in the predictable limits of common audiences. As the bus approaches Sri Sailam, the people in it find attachment with life and change their minds. They want to live happily. Entire film has only bus journey and nothing else. This story sounds variety when listened. But it requires firm screenplay and effective narration to make it a successful movie. That key element is lacking here.

Performances:
Everybody acted within the limits of script and nobody got the scope to exhibit talent personally.

Although there is Krishna Bhagawan in the film, his character never makes the audiences laugh. It’s like one in the group.

Rajendra Prasad continued a decent role after ‘Aa Naluguru’ but there is no range of that film here.

Naresh’s character is just ok and his slang is not into the skin. It’s only Raghu Babu who could make people laugh for some time with his performance. That is the only relief in the film. Brahmanandam comes as a guest and does his part.

Nazar played the role of police officer and he gave his own dubbing for the first time.

Dialogues are weak and the screenplay is also feeble. There are a few illogical scenes in the film as well. On a whole it couldn’t touch the hearts of people.

Analysis:
It’s a film that is assumed to be in the school of ‘Aa Naluguru’. But that range hasn’t come for ‘Sreyobhilashi’. All the characters in the film wish to commit suicide for silly reasons and that can be convinced. But the way they get enlightenment is very artificial. There is no convincing point in the film why the characters change their minds. The depth and spirit is missing there.

The film is made to give a message. The message is ‘problems are inevitable for anybody. But no problem is such a big one that needs death as solution. Problems just test the individuals. So, one shouldn’t commit suicide to run away from problems’. The narration should be convincing, effective and heart touching for this theme. But it lacks in everything. There is no scene in the film that touches the heart. Although there is scope to make this film in a touching way, the director couldn’t take it to required depths.

First half of the film is very slow and by the time interval bangs, audiences expect that there may be something in second half. But that is very well predictable and at the end, the message is not rooted deep in the hearts of audiences. Director might have done more homework in the aspect of bringing more conviction.

Mass audiences cannot relish this film and the class audience may not feel the depth in the film. We have to see who would patronize this. But it is really an adventure by CC Reddy to make something different. Had he focused on bringing in depth for drama, the theme would have got better remarks.

Reel Buzz: Teja's Iron Hand On MS Raju's Son?

Has MS Raju done a mistake by putting the debut of his son in the hands of Teja? In every film of Teja, his hero will be weak. Teja extracts heroism from the weak characterization of hero. Although such films turned hit, all his heroes are now facing problem in career.

Uday Kiran, Nitin, Navdeep are now struggling to break the nut. Teja has shown even Mahesh Babu in a weak characterization in the film 'Nijam'. Now will Sumanth Ashwin, the son of MS Raju, have weak characterization as usual? In fact there is no hard and fast rule that the hero should project himself weak with his debut.

Freshly it was said that Teja gave a humble caution for MS Raju to keep away from involving in direction aspect. So, is that an indication that MS Raju took a wrong decision? Everything can be known only after the release of this film.

Attention Grabbing Director of the Year-2007!

The director of the year is none other than Shankar who made it national news with the film 'Sivaji'.

He proved that a film which was made with big star and big hype makes immense business at the box office irrespective of the substance in it. He has shown new vistas of Indian Cinema by selling his film 'Sivaji' at whopping prices making entire nation stun and shock. The film made big openings in international scenario as well. The sustenance at box office and the collections also proved impressive. As far as Telugu connection is concerned, Tamil dubbing Sivaji is the movie that made bigger news in AP this year than another direct film.

Although there was lot of repugnance from many sections of film lovers, after the film released, the pre-release hype and the news that it incurred huge budget made the movie a hit of this year.

That's the magic of Shankar who directed not only the Super Star Rajni Kanth but also directed the pre-release hype. But basing on the substance he has shown in the film 'Sivaji', there are many doubts on Shankar now. Big stars from Bollywood are not giving green signal for his fresh project 'Robot'. We have to see how he plans his career and image-management in subsequent days. Shankar is anyway turned the director of this year 2007.

Trade Talk: 'Don' Down-Down And Thrillers Gone Up

The film 'Don' was released with lot of craze but proved a dud. Many awaited the combination of Nagarjuna and Lawrence as they made a super hit 'Mass' earlier. The film was made with wrong budget and the substance was also proved to be down. The film lost the over all spirit and hence lost at the box office. Adding for all this, the over action of Lawrence in the film marred the tempo, say some.

But on the other hand the thriller flick 'Anasuya' is pulling the crowds in big way. The collections are good at various centers and the variety is invited by audiences.

Another thriller 'Mantra' is also doing well at the box office. The film brought big profits for the producers.

Raasi's 'Maharajasree' lost completely at the box office. The film suffered with 'no openings' and no sustenance at the box office.

'Nava Vasantham' completed 50 days and the drop is collections are seen now.

Nagarjuna, Sekhar Kammula's Prema Nagar

Nagarjuna is keen on working with Sekhar Kammula right from the days he directed Godavari. This combination is going to happen very soon.

Ramanaidu has expressed his wish to remake the evergreen classic PremaNagar.He plans to rope in Nagarjuna to play the lead role and Shekar kammula has evinced keen interest to do the project.Heard the director too liked the film and the hunt is on for a right heroine.

Ramanaidu also has plans to remake Legend NTR's Ramudu Bheemudu with NTR.

Telugu Film News 28th Dec 2007

Brahmanandam Drama Company by the end of Jan 2008

Producers Palli Keshav Rao and K.Kishore’s comic caper ‘Brahmanandam Drama Company’ has entered its post production phase with only the climax and a couple of song left to be picturised. Starring veteran comedian Brahmanandam in the title role, the film stars Shivaji, Ravi Krishna, Kamilnee Mukherji and Sameeksha in the lead roles, the film is a remake of the hit Hindi film ‘Baagam Baag’. The film’s audio will be released in the first week of January 2008 while the film itself will be released in the last week of the same month. A song was recently picturised on the three leading men and a popular item number star, at Ramoji Film City.

Jagapathi Babu-J.D’s Homam almost complete

Actor turned director J.D.Chakravarthi’s Homam starring Jagapathi Babu and Mamtha Mohandas in the lead has almost come to the end of its shooting schedule with only ten days of shoot left. Speaking about the film, producer Kiran Kumar Koneru said that the J.D.Chakravarthi has done a splendid job of directing this family entertainer. J.D. will also be seen in a guest role in this film that also stars Hindi film actor-director Mahesh Manjrekar, Pradeep Rawat and M.S among others. The film has music by Hindi Film music director Nithin.

Choreographer Prem Rakshit turns director

And the saga of choreographers turning to film direction continues. The latest entry to the choreographer-turned-director list is choreographer Prem Rakshit. It is believed that the dance director, who choreographed the foot tapping ‘5 feet 8 inches’ song from Jagadam, has a couple of interesting scripts on hand. Word also has it that a young lead actor has even given the nod to work in the former’s film. One has to wait and watch whether another dance director will make a successful transition into a film director.

Gallery: RP Patnaik's Andamina Manasulo