Cast: Uday Kiran, Aditi Sharma, Srinivasa Reddy, Venumadhav, Ahuti Prasad,Surekha Vani, Master Ritham, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Ajay, Jayaprakash Reddy, Surya and Others.
Art: T. Nagendra Prasad.
Cinematography: J. Prabhakar Reddy.
Choreography: Swarna Babu, Vidya.
Dialogues: Madan.
Editing: KV. Krishna Reddy.
Music: MM. Keeravani.
Story, Screenplay & Direction : Madan.
Producer: Paruchuri Sivaram Prasad.
Presenter: Paruchuri Kireeti.
Banner: United Movies.
Release Date: 12th September, 2008.
The basic storyline of Gunde Jhallumandi has the potential to be an interesting watch. However, once the writer and director are finished with adding in all the accessories, most of them downright nauseously old-school full of red hearts and balloons and flowers and humor that produces more grimaces than grins-you have a drag.
Plot Balaraju wants to stand for president, but needs to finish his degree for that so he comes to the city for that and promptly falls in love with Neelima. Neelima is in mortal fear of someone cascading her off and ending her 'career' like it happened to her sister. So to stop guys from showing interest in her she creates a 'boyfriend' character, complete with details of job and paints 'Neelima loves Rajesh' all over the city. Balaraju creates his own fictional love story, but once they fall for each other, they have more issues and rivals than fictional lovers to deal with.
Story, Screenplay and Direction The plot sounds interesting enough. But the direction is amateurish. The whole 'Lovers Association' set-up is not for those with weak stomachs. Before '96 and Prema Desam, this could have even been tolerate, but after something like that clicks and people watch so much of it they are tired of it, there is no way you can inflict more of that on the audience. So throughout you hear audible sighs, groans and some even walk out much before the climax. You can get all this on non-prime time Teja TV.
The humor comes rarely, i.e., not-so-silly humor. Venu Madhav's track is bearable sometimes, but the way his track begins is just not funny. The whole confusion that occurs because of fictional characters (with names of real and known people in the story) is the only saving grace, along with Keeravani's music.
Most of the times, the movie drags when not focussing on the main plot. If they just stuck to that and chipped off the hearts and all the other college add-ons, the movie could have been watchable. The editing and dubbing are disappointingly bad. Jhoom Barabar Jhoom had a similar pretext, but so much more interesting.
Performances Uday Kiran's craft has not really improved dramatically. Aditi Sharma, winner of the Zee Cinestar Contest is comfortable enough with the camera, but dubbing by Sunita did not suit her perfectly. With time and better scripts, she might do well. Ahuti Prasad as Neelima's father is finally getting his dues and a variety of characters to play, which he is more than capable of. The 2 'villains'-Vidya as Rajesh, Ajay as Uday Kiran's rival in the village for the president's post are okay. Surekha, Jayaprakash Reddy and Srinivas Reddy add their two cents to the movie's ensemble.
Song and Dance Three of the songs are good, while the picturization remains average.
Last Word You can take the oldest story in the world and make it interesting. People still like to watch Ramayanam, don't they? But take a potentially interesting storyline and kill it with every imaginable silly track in the world. A disappointing watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment