Dookudu (Daring)

I remember planning to watch this movie on big screen, somehow never got around to doing it. Finally saw it on Hotstar recently where its available with subtitles.

The movie starts with Shankar Narayana (Prakash Raj) who is a popular leader and an independent

MLA from Shankar Nagar (in Hyderabad) during the time of NTR. Shankar Narayan is an honest man who loves his people and has dedicated his life to them. He is a widower, lives with his son Ajay and his brother’s family. Shankar has three close followers namely Sivayya, Meka Narsingh Rao and Ambarpet Ganeshan and his close rival is the highly corrupt Mallesh Goud who vows to destroy him. One day while going for a function, he meets with an accident and is presumed dead along with his brother.

The timeline moves to the current time where we see the Police commissioner in Mumbai being questioned by media about the illegal activities of a local don Nayak (Sonu Sood). Here we see the entry of larger than life hero Ajay Kumar (Mahesh Babu), mercilessly beating up some goons. He is part of a task force charged with arresting Nayak, headed by Nassar (Murthy). Ajay’s identity has been hidden from the media for the success of the operation. To get to Nayak, Ajay captures Guru Talwar who is a close aide of Nayak. Since no one knows where Nayak is, Ajay learns that the way to get to Nayak is through his brother Bunty who is sometimes seen visiting his girlfriend in Istanbul, Turkey.

Ajay and his team go to Turkey. There he bumps into Prashanthi (Samantha Ruth Prabhu) and falls in love with her. Prashanthi, her mother and younger sister are in Turkey for a fashion designing competition which Prashanthi won.

Ajay successfully captures Bunty, and when Bunty calls Nayak, Ajay shoots him. Nayak believes Bunty to be dead. The team returns to India.

Meanwhile, we see that Shankar Narayan didn’t actually die in the accident, but has been in a coma ever since. He has a miraculous recovery and the doctor tells the family that he should be kept away from any shock and should stay happy to aid quick recovery. Shankar Narayan’s one desire was that his son should also stand with his people and be a leader like him.

To take care of his father, Ajay puts on a huge act. He rents his old house in Hyderabad and pretends to be the leader his father wanted him to be. Even the newspapers and TV shows are modified to reflect that his dad's beloved leader NTR is still alive and is the prime minister of the country. The entire act is quite hilarious. Ajay enlists an aspiring actor Padmasri (Brahmanandam) to help him with his drama. Padmasri believes that he is in a reality show being sponsored by Nagarjuna TV channel.

Meanwhile Bunty confesses about Nayak’s close associates to Ajay namely Mallesh Goud, Meka Narsingh Rao and Ambarpet Ganeshan (his father’s erstwhile followers). Ajay is quite unaware of his connection with these men. Nayak returns to Mumbai and kidnaps the police commissioner and sends a warning video to Ajay. Ajay brings Bunty to exchange for the PC. In the fight that ensues, Nayak escapes and Bunty is picked up by Shankar Narayan’s old aide Sivayya. Ajay recognizes Sivayya and runs after him while Bunty dies when he is hit by a train. Ajay captures Sivayya and learns that Sivayya was trying to kill Bunty to get to Nayak. He also learns, that is father was not injured in the car accident but was murdered in a conspiracy by Mallesh Goud and Nayak. Sivayya also learns that Shankar Narayan is alive and goes to meet him.

With this new-found knowledge, Ajay plans his revenge (what a coincidence that his personal and professional enemies are the same 😊). Ajay plans an intricate plot where he pretends to be a film director with some granite land to sell in Bellary. He tricks Meka’s PA and an aspiring actor Bokka Venkata Rao (M. S. Narayana) to get close to the trio of Mallesh Goud, Ganeshan and Meka. He kills the first two in encounter and Meka is later killed by Nayak himself.

Nayak is captured by Ajay and killed unknowingly by Shankar Narayan.

Ajay and Prashanthi also get married in between this revenge drama. Shankar Narayan learns the truth behind the deception and is happy that his son did all this to take care of him.

And they all live happily ever after.

As you can see, the story line of Dookudu is quite complex with many twists and turns. This I would 

say, is a huge differentiator for the movie. From a regular action revenge drama, the various subplots keep the movie lighthearted without compromising the main theme. The flipside is that the movie is way too long (almost quarter to three hours) and at times you just want the villain to come on to the screen quickly. A little crisper editing and fewer songs (songs are below average anyways) would have brought it under two and a half hours and it would have made all the difference.

Having said that, Dookudu is out and out full family entertainer and mostly credited to Mahesh Babu. He has a brilliant screen presence which is almost unassuming. This helps to keep it real in spite of larger than life action sequences. Supported well by Prakash Raj, Brahmanandam, M. S. Narayana and Sonu Sood. Samantha Ruth Prabhu as Prashanthi is ordinary bordering on irritating. You just want her scenes to be over quickly. Like I said music is nothing to write about and the movie could have done with fewer songs. Writer Director Srinu Vaitla definitely has the winning formula (much better than our own Rohit Shetty I must say).

All in all, if you need a lighthearted entertainer to watch with the entire family, this is the movie for you.

Do watch.

4 The People

Well! let me first talk about the story before I write the actual review.

It is a story about four young college students who come together to start a revolution of sorts in the country. They start a website where people can post complaints about corrupt officials, crimes and other unlawful activities and these young men take action against them by cutting off the criminal’s hand.

So, of course the police and politicians are up in arms against them and a young officer is brought in to nab these guys. He after a lot of hits and misses finally manages to nab them.

Now there is a girlfriend of one of the guys, some vague story about their families which tries to explain their inspiration for this venture etc.

There are some movies where the plot has some potential, unfortunately there are way too many gaping holes in this movie. Story is shoddy, background score even worse. I did not like the music at all and it was out of place in the movie, but I understand it was a hit when the movie was released. There is no logic to the script and the script writer forgot that he needs to establish some strong characters before telling a powerful story. I don’t think this can even be called a story because it is way too disjointed.

The only decent job acting-wise was done by the Narain (as Rajan Mathew, IPS). Rest of the cast don’t deserve a mention.

I literally saw the movie in fast forward.

Don’t waste your time with this one.

The movie is available with subtitles with AP International and it was dubbed in Tamil and Telugu as well. 

Do skip.

Naan Ee (Tamil) / Eega (Telugu)

Literally meaning " I am a fly", Naan Ee or Eega is nothing you would have seen ever before.

Sudeep, a wealthy businessman who is also a womanizer, has his eyes set on a girl who came to him for donation for her charity. Bindu is a simple girl who runs a school and does micro-art, i.e. carving rice, pencil tips etc. Nani is the boy next door who is completely in love with her for two years now. Bindu while playing hard to get also likes him.

When Sudeep realizes that Bindu is completely oblivious to his advances because of Nani, he kills Nani. Now comes the most exciting part. In a Harry Potter-esque turn of events, Nani's soul latches onto the living object in sight, which happens to be fly eggs. And Nani is reborn as a fly...

He ends up with Sudeep and instantly recognizes him as the killer. Rest of the story is his revenge against Sudeep and his bid to protect Bindu from his amorous advances.

I would say its a feat for Indian cinema for the absolutely fantastic execution of this fantasy drama. The animation is superb. The way it's woven with the rest of the story is remarkable. There are literally no loose ends and after the first twenty minutes the movie is very fast past paced. Compared to other recent sci-fi / fantasy stories like Ra.One, 7th Aum Arivu etc.  Eega is ahead by miles both in story, creativity and execution.

Sudeep (Sudeep) and Samantha (Bindu) have both done a good job. Sudeep especially plays the villain tormented by a fly without much melodrama. though the true hero of the story, needless to say is the "Eega" ;)

I saw the movie without subtitles and really enjoyed.

Must Watch.

Manmadhudu

A masala love story with all the emotions you can think of.

Abhi (Nagarjuna) is a rich, good looking, suave bachelor running an Ad Agency. The only glitch is that he hates women. All the women at the agency are tired of his attitude. His uncle decides he has had enough and appoints Harika (Sonali Bendre) as Abhi’s assistant. There are hilarious altercations between the two. At one point she is about to resign when Abhi’s uncle tell her about his past.

Abhi was in love with Mahi (Anshu), niece of one of their managers. Thinking that the two families are worlds apart, he decides to get Mahi engaged to someone else. Abhi follows her and the two leave in Abhi’s car. The car meets with an accident and Abhi is unconscious for ten days. On waking up he, learns that Mahi has married someone else and h loses his trust in women.

Harika on learning Abhi’s past decides to stay and becomes his boss. The two of them fly to Paris for an assignment and come to like each other. But Harika tells him that she is already engaged. On their return Harika tries to express her love but Abhi is oblivious. Meanwhile Abhi learns that Mahi had actually died during the accident and to save him from trauma people lie to him.

Harika finally comes to give him her wedding card before leaving for her wedding. Abhi loves her but wants her to acknowledge first. From a station enroute to the venue Harika calls him and expresses her love. Follows a chase where Abhi uses all possible forms of transport to reach Harika leading to the climax of the film.

Nagarujuna and Sonali Bendre look good together but Anshu and Nagarjuna have even better chemistry. Hummable songs though the script could have been sharper.

A well balanced film, good timepass.

(Can Watch)