Monday, April 6, 2009
Billa- nothing more than an ostentatious show
Language: Telugu
Genre: Action
Direction: Meher Ramesh
Starring: Prabhas, KrishnamRaju, Anushka, Rahman, Namitha, Hansika, Ali, Sampath, Kelly Dorge, Subbaraju, Jayasudha
Synopsis:
--------
A remake of the tamil film Billa which starred Ajith and Nayanatara. The Tamil Billa was itself remade from hindi film DON (2006) yet another remake of DON (1978).
The story is about a most wanted antisocial element (Billa) who is killed in a cop chase. The cops want all the data of the underworld including Devil who instructs Billa and is not yet known to the world. The cops find a person who is replica of Billa and send him in his shoe to get the data.
Brief:
-----
Prabhas plays the title character Billa who is wanted for arm smuggling, treason, murder, etc. He always mentions "Trust no one". Billa cants the famous dialogue from Terminator-"hasta la vista baby ". Lisa (Namitha) has been with him for more than four years and she is obsessed with him and even shows that she can die for him. Billa resides in Malaysia but his operations are carried out everywhere. Rashid(kelly Dorge) makes deal with Billa alone. As cops have always been futile to nab him, Krishnamoorthy (KM from here on) (Krishnamraju) has been appointed as the new in charge to trace Billa down. Krishnamoorthy makes many a attempts but Billa eludes every time. KM also appoints a spy in Billa's gang but the spy is killed by Billa himself. Billa also kills one of his aide Vikram (Subbaraju) as he wants to quit the gang for his personal prospects. Vikram wanted to marry Priya (hansika). Now Priya on a revenge trys to seduce Billa to death; she even successfully unload his gun but Billa still has a bullet in the form of locket which proves be handy and its Priya who is captured by Billa. Using her as the bait, he again escapes from KM and throws Priya on the road only to be run down by a heavy truck. Meanwhile KM feels the pressure from Interpol to catch Billa by hook or crook failing which Interpol will have to intervene.
Maya (Anushka) wants to avenge the death of her brother Vikram. She is introduced to Billa by his members after she saves them. She makes a couple of attempts but situation fail to permit her.
KM also wants to avert a deal that is likely to take place between Billa and Rashid.
KM almost catches Billa red-handed with loads of ammunition, but yet again Billa evades him on a sophisticated Ferrari. After a intense chase KM shoots Billa fatally. KM secretly takes Billa to a burial ground and with the help of an Indian informer (Ali) buries the dead body. KM wants the world to still believe that Billa is alive. It is here when the informer says that he has a friend in Vizag (Vishakapatnam) who is a replica of Billa.
Now, the scence shifts to Vizak where Ranga and his small gang earn their daily bread by pick pocketing and other petty thefts etc. He also has two younger siblings whom he adopted after they were orphaned. So to meet their expenses he has to steal. KM offers him a great amount if he is ready to put on the shoes of Billa and get all the data of Billa's superior Devil. Though initially unwilling and after some persuasion along with the feeling of providing his siblings better living, he obliges and gets trained.
Billa is then induced back to his gang and acts as if he is suffering from memory loss. Yet another act of drama makes him get back his memory. Smartly he gets all the data from the computer system to a pen drive. This is given to KM. Later, Namitha is accidentally shot by Billa fatally while trying to confront her after she has discovered that he is not the original Billa. KM is shot by unidentified person while in pursue of catching some goons.
With the death of KM, Ranga is in an ironical situation as he doesn’t have substantial evidence to prove he is not Billa. He even tries provoking Billa's aides so that the spat can prove he is innocent, but fails.
A big deal is to happen between Billa and Rashid where it is revealed that Devil is none other than the Interpol officer himself. After a big tiring fight Billa (Ranga) wins and is proved innocent.
Performances:
============
Prabhas had good histrionics but yet lacked the elegance of playing a DON. He rather excelled in the role of Ranga.It was this character of Ranga which brought in some interest in the audience and even tickled their funny bone. Anushka was sizzling in her bikini and other scanty dresses but had nothing much to prove. Namitha after a hiatus of 4 years was again seen in a telugu movie but her role was only for voluptuous show. KrishnamRaju was OK. There was nothing notable about Hansika as she was confined to an item song only.
The camera work needs a mention. The movie was really rich but yet lacked the punch.
The worst thing of the movie was for its terrible English; one example was KrishnamRaju says” we catched him".
Music was OK, not very special in fact missed the trade mark of ManiSharma.
Meher Ramesh again failed to deliver the punch required.
Overall the movie failed to strike the right balance.
See if you haven't seen the Hindi DON or don't know the story. Don't expect much. You can give it a miss
Rating:2/5
rating index:
1: very bad
2:OK
3:Good
4:awesome
5:Outstanding
Friday, July 18, 2008
Ashwini Dutt:A great Patron but....
He is also the producer of Kathanayakudu. This film too was of high pictorial value but faltered at BO
All the movies coming from the stable of VYJAYANTHI MOVIES are hyped to the maximum extent but the results, especially of the last few films have not lived upto that.
The casting of the films has always been great with the combination of top heroes, sizzling and hot heroines and ofcourse talented directors. And when it comes to music it has been consistently Mani Sharma who has been composing for this production house for almost a decade. The music was never a let down, instead it added to the hype.
It's high time he concentrates on better scripts.
The list of movies from 2000 under VYJAYANTHI MOVIES BANNER
Kathanayakudu(2008)....failed and left without a trace....*ing super* rajinikanth, Jagapathi babu, Meena Music Director: GV prakash; Director: P Vasu
Kantri(2008)....a so-so film *ing:NTR, Hansika, tanisha Mukerjee(Debut), prakash raj.
Director:Meher Ramesh(Puri Jagan's Assistant) Music d'tor:ManiSharma
Chirutha(2007)...an avg flick *ing:RamCharanTej(Debut),NehaSharma(debut) prakashraj,Ashish Vidyarthi. Director:Puri jagan. Music d'tor:ManiSharma
Sainikudu (2006)...bombed at BO *ing:Mahesh,Trisha,Prakash raj,Irfan Khan Director:Gunasheker Music d'tor:ManiSharma
Jai Chiranjeeva (2005)....a cropper film. Director:Vijayabhaskar Music d'tor:ManiSharma
Subash Chandra Bose (2005)...total failure. Director:K. Raghavendra Rao. Music d'tor:ManiSharma
Balu ABCDEFG (2005) ...an average film; film director:karunakaran Music d'tor:ManiSharma
Gangotri (2003)..HIT....Director:K. Raghavendra Rao. Music D'tor:MM keeravani
Indra (2002)....Mega HIT...Director:B.gopal Music :mani sharma
Azad (2000).....above average...Director: Tirupathi swamy ;
Music d'tor:ManiSharma
Ashwini Dutt- a great patron but an average film-maker
Friday, June 13, 2008
KUDOS to mani sharma...
Mani sharma was born in Tamil Nadu in the year of 1964.
He was introduced to Tollywood(may be by chiranjeevi) through the film Baavagaru Bagunnara. The film turned out to be a box office hit and Minisharma(from here on referred to as M.S.)received great accolades for the refreshing and awesome music. All the songs were of great and different composition which the industry
felt new.The entry of MS marked a trend of fast and rock beats.
There was no looking back for him right from the beginning of his career. Hits after hits from him and for him. Even if the film failed, he never let down
anyone irrespective of the film budget. Almost all of his films had atleast two songs which were on top of the chart.
It was the back to back successes of Choodalani undhi and Samarasimha reddy that took him to the league of greats like keeravani, Koti and SA rajkumar as both the films were blockbusters.
Year after year he only established a image of being the greatest contemporary music director.
By the end of 2001 all the films starring the top heros like Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna were composed by MS.
He had almost a monopoly run if not for keeravani who is evergreen.
MS also has a rare credit of composing music for the likes of Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Venkatesh, balakrishna,Mohan babu, Mahesh, NTR jr, Pawan kalyan, arjun,Ravi teja, prabhas and gopi chand.
So he never had a problem composing music for the seniors or the juniors.
I heard it "through the grapevine" that during the shooting of Narasimhanaidu, Lawrence who was supposed to choreograph for the song "KHOKHO KHO anni" which starred Balakrishna and preethi, was lost in the beauty of the song. He was just listening to the song again and again. He was indeed mesmerised and ofcourse that film stands as one of the best works of MS.
Of all, I feel that Mahesh, Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna should really be pleased and greatful to MS for the way he composed such phenomenal music for all their films.
Mahesh garnered the best as most of his films(10 out of his 14 films were credited by MS music)
MS also has with him few of the best young singers which include sunitha, karthik, mallikarjuna, SP charan.
Also, as far as I know he is the only famous contemporaries who has never sung even one song.
Words are always never enough to speak about MS music and the impact or hallmark he has created in the industry.
he is an unsung hero, he is a behind the screen star, he is infact a living legend.
HE LEAVES AN INDELIBLE MARK WITH HIS MUSIC..
ITS NOT A SURPRISE THAT MS IS ONE OF THE MOST SORT MUSIC DIRECTORS EVEN IN TAMIL INDUSTRY.
ALL THE BEST MS
some of his best works(the top 35-----sorry i counldn't cut down the list as all of 'em were excellent):
-----------------------
IN THE ORDER OF YEAR RELEASED
song(film,year)
===============
1 Sorry Sorry(bavagaru bagunara 1998)
2 yamaha nagari(choodalaniundhi 1998)
3 andhala ada bomma(samarasimhareddy1998/99)
4 YEMANI CHEPPANU PREMA(seenu 1999)
5 sirisiri muvvalu (ganesh 1999)
6 ramanna ramanna(rayalaseema ramanna chowdary 2000)
7 KOYALAMA PADUTHUNADHI (vamsi 2000)
8 sonthosham sagam balam(CHIRUNAVUTHO 2000)
9 KHO KHO (narasimha naidu2001)
10 CHEPEMMA CHEPPAMA(murari 2001)
11 PREMANTE SULUVUKADURAA(kushi 2001)
12 EMAINDHO EMO NA(premathoraa2001)
13 MASTMASTH SANGATHUDHI(subbu 2001)
14 NALUGURIKI NACHINADHI(takari donga 2002)
15 NEE NAVULA THELADHANANI(AADHI 2002)
16 Nuvvemayachesavo kaani(Okkadu 2003)
17 adugulona aduguvestha(Raghavendra 2003)
18 chinnagga chinnagga(Tagore 2003)
19 AMMO NEEAMMA (Anji 2004)
20 DUMDUMAARE (Arjun 2004)
21 EMANTARO (Gudumba Shankar 2004)
22 Athanokkade (Athanokkade2005)
23 RAJUMANDRY KE(Narasimhu 2005)
24 EVARANI-TITLE SONG(Athadu 2005)
25 MERUPULAAAllari Pidugu (2005)
26 TILLANAJai Chiranjeeva (2005)
27 CHELIJAABILI (Ranam 2006)
28 galagala( pokiri 2006)
29 ekanthanga unna(ashok 2006)
30 SIGGUTHO CHECHE(Stalin 2006)
31 KANYA RASSI(Dubai Seenu 2007)
32 CHAMKACHAMKA(Chiruta 2007)
33 OKKA MAGADU (Okka Magadu 2008)
34 NAMEVEMO KAANI(Parugu 2008)
35 123 nenokka kantri(kantri 2008)
IF YOU NOTICE THERE HAS BEEN A SLUMP PERIOD OF 2002, THE MAIN REASON BEING THREE NEW MUSIC DIRECTORS WHO WERE ON A NEW FOUND GLORY. RP PATNAIK WAS ON A SUPERB, INEVITABLE SUCCESS SPREE AND THE NEWFIND DEVI
SHREE PRASADWHO WENT ON TO LEAVE AN WAS A RUNNAWAY SUCCESS. OFCOUSE CHAKRI WAS ALSO A HAVING A GREAT TIME.
SOME FILMS WHICH HAD GREAT MUSIC BUT WERE NOT WELL APPRICIATED OR NOTICE:
=========================================================================
ARJUN
GANESH
DUBAI SEENU
PREMATHO RAA
POURUDU(2 songs were great)
TARAK(2 were great)
RARAJU(again 2 songs were nice)
TRIVIA:
-------
1)he never sang a song in any movie unlike his counterparts(correct me if am wrong).
2)has acted in a cameo role(may be 10 seconds)in the film JAI CHIRANJEEVA(2005).
3)may be he is the only telugu music director who composed for aishwarya rai for the film ravoe chandama which starred nagarjuna.
4)was the composer for the song nee navulla telhadanani from aadhi. this song received a NANDI award for best lyric(written by CHANDRABOSE)
5)HE composed only the background music for a couple of films without composing the songs,and interestingly both the films had the same name lakshmi in them; they were lakshmi(2006) and lakshmi kalyanam(2007)
6)I came across again trough the grapevine that OKKADU was his 50th film
AWARDS and NOMINATIONS(source wikipedia):
-----------------------------------------
1998: Winner, Telugu Filmfare Best Music Director Award for Choodalani Vundi
1998: Winner, Nandi Award for Best Music Director for Choodalani Vundi
2000: Winner, Nandi Award for Best Music Director for Chirunavvutho
2003: Winner, Nandi Award for Best Music Director for Okkadu
2003: Winner, Telugu Filmfare Best Music Director Award for Okkadu
2005: Nomination, Telugu Filmfare Best Music Director Award for Athadu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
films for which MS worked(source wikipedia and some edition from my side)
Parugu (2008)
Kantri (2008)
Ontari (2008)
Pourudu (2008)
Okka Magadu (2008)
Athidhi (2007)
Chiruta (2007)
Lakshyam(2007)
Dubai Seenu (2007)
Lakshmi Kalyanam (2007) (background music)
Poramboku (2007)
Madhumasam (2007)
Raraju (2006)
Stalin (2006)
Ashok (2006)
Pokiri (2006)
Veerabhadra (2006)
Style (2006)
Ranam (2006)
Lakshmi (2006) (background music)
Jai Chiranjeeva (2005)
Allari Pidugu (2005)
Athadu (2005)
Narasimhudu (2005)
Athanokkade (2005)
Subhash Chandra Bose (2005)
Radha Gopalam (2005)
Balu ABCDEFG (2005)
Gudumba Shankar (2004)
Arjun (2004)
Yagnam (2004)
Samba (2004)
Adavi Ramudu (2004)
Sri Anjaneyam (2004)
Anji (2004)
Lakshmi Narasimha (2004)
Tagore (2003)
Palanati Brahmanaidu (2003)
Raghavendra (2003)
Okkadu (2003)
Pellam Vurelithe (2002)
Bobby (2002)
Chennakesava Reddy (2002)
Indra (2002)
Aadi (2002)
Tarak(2002)
Takkari Donga (2002)
seemasimham(2002)
priyadarshini(2001/02)
Subbu (2001)
Murari (2001)
Narasimha Naidu (2001)
Prematho Raa (2001)
Bhalevadevi Basoo (2001)
Mrigaraju (2001)
Kushi (2001)
Devi Putrudu (2001)
Vamsi (2000)
Manoharam (2000)
Chiru Navutho (2000)
ramanna chowdary(2000)
Azad (2000)
Annayya (2000)
Yuvakudu (2000)
Rajakumarudu (2000)
ravoe chandamama(1999)
Iddaru Mitrulu (1999)
Ganesh (1999)
Seenu (1999)
Samarasimha Reddy (1999)
Choodalani Vundi (1998)
Bavagaru Bagunnara (1998)
Super Heroes (1998)
Kollywood Filmography as music composer(copied from wikipedia)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Malaikottai (2007)
Aarya (2007)
Gaja (2007)
Pokkiri (2007)
Sabari (2007)
Illavattam (2006)
Thirupaachi (Only One Song) (2004)
Anjaneya (2004)
Youth (2003)
Aasai Aasaiyai (2003
Ezhumalai (2002)
Alaudin (2002)
Shajahaan (2002)
Narasimmha (2001)
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
the last four of the IPL
Rajasthan Royals(RR) which were the dark horses, started the league round with a loss and critics (including me) were just mocking at them.At that moment I was just thinking" why and What the hell are they playing."
I felt they were playing just for namesake and for benefiting other teams with additional match points. Only of late did I realise that we critics had just made a mockery of ourselves as RR topped the table in the league round(still I feel that time favoured them and they shall be out in the Semis :-( ).
Punjab Kings XI started with two consecutive losses. This didn't deter their belief and proved that they are simply the king makers.
The remaining two berths was really left open.
At one stage the Mumbai Indians(MI) required 2 wins from 3 matches and Cchennai Super Kings(CSK) 1 from two. Delhi DareDevils(DDD) had to win its one and only remaining match and still wait for other teams' results. They had almost nothing in their hand.
The ROAD to SEMIs:
thursday 22 may:
delhi vs kolata-----rain plays a spoilsport as each team is awarded a point each
sat 24 may:
ddd vs MI----DDD beat MI by 5 wics. thanks to dinesh karthck for a splendid performance which keeps DDDs hopes alive.
CSk vs RR-----an important match for CSK but they lose it by about 10 runs, so still not confirmed to semis.
sun 25 may a dead rubber day:
RCB vs DC--- RCB won (but both were out of the semis)
KKR vs KXIP---KKR won this nail biting match(but not an important one as KKR was ruled of semis and KXIP was already into the top four)
Mon 26 may:
RR vs MI--- MI lose with some last ball panic. takes MI to a tougher but still possible situation, that is CSK had to lose their match against DC and MI must win their last match.
This confirms DDD a berth for semis in an unexpected fashion.
Tue 27 may:
DC vs CSK-----CSK have a facile win and thus securing a position in the DLF iPL semis......
and MI were to be left of the tournament .
wed 28may ----again a dead rubber day:
The final two matches of the league round were again only dead rubber matches which the RCB and MI will want to win to salvage some pride and the match between RR and KXIP will be a warmup for their semis.
MI vs RCB----MI win by 9 wick
KXIP vs RR---- RR lose by 41 runs.
and now the semis intenarary is like this:
RR vs DDD
KXIP vs CSK
Mumbai Indians lost the two matches by a whisker (which later on gave a death blow).
The first match they lost by a run against KXIP when they required 2 runs of the last ball to win a exciting contest. the second they lost against RR in the a similar situation but in a complimentary fashion. This time they required to stop 2 runs of the last ball and Jayasurya did panic to let loose the second run.
This made them lose the match and confirmed the position of DDD in the semis (as they were having 15 pts).
Now MI had to hope that CSK lose their final match against Deccans, so that CSK could be halted with 14 pts on the board; and then MI should win the final match against RCB so as to secure 14 pts. this would thus lead to a tie w.r.t points. The next to be considered parameter would be Net Run Rate which obviously MI were pretty ahead.
But did things work out the Mumbaikars way?Not at all.
The DC vs CSK match was just favoring CSK. DC won the toss and elected to bat first which also seemed to work out in CSKs way as Dhoni wanted to feild first if he had won the toss. DC were 26 for the loss of gilly and out of form Gibbs in 6 overs that is powerplay time. They went on put up a target of 147 for CSK. CSK won the match comfortably with 4 balls to spare, thus ruling MI out of the semis as the CSK now had 16 pts in their kitty, which irrespective of MI winning over RCB(which will keep MI on table with only 14 pts)will take CSK to semis.
This makes the first round of IPL to come to a close with the following listing:
position team played won lost NR pts
1 RR 14 11 3 - 22
(the underdogs who turned things to gold )
2 KXIP 14 10 4 - 20
(no looking back )
3 CSk 14 8 6 - 16
(well begun is half done; won first four matches)
4 DDD 14 7 6 1 15 (made it to the top 4)
5 MI 14 7 7 - 14
(4 consecutive losses at beginning cost them dearly)
6 KKR 14 6 7 1 1 3
7 RCB 14 4 10 - 8
(lost their way)
8 DC 14 2 12 - 4
(no charge at all)
so if the match between DDD and KKR would not have been abondoned, then what would be the situation....???????????????
Well, if DDD would have won that match there would not be any impact,but if KKR would have won that then the last position for the semis would be the survival of the fittest between the three-DDD,KKR,MI. the team with better runrate would have made to the semis. so probably MI would have an upper hand as they were fairing better in terms of Run rate.
Disclaimer: This blog is all with respect to the author's view and was not meant to hurt anyone. Wrong data, if any is not intentional. This is not a copied content.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
just starting to blog
I started to type the urls of wordpress and blogspot so as to create a a/c, but luckily or unluckily wordpress has been blocked in my office, so had to choose this one.
I clicked the mouse on the home page eagerly to create an a/c and started to enter the details and went to give a username started with names such as ibllogss,blogs,bloggs and many more trails which only failed saying not available. I Finally was euphoric when i was struck with the idea of putting the name as TEATIMEBLOGS(sorry for coffee lovers; may be u can try out something like coffeetimeblogs:-) )...
and just wanted to pendown sorry sorry.... typedown or qwertydown some blog and it resulted in this blog... a non useful blog (rather than calling it a useless)