My Review:

Story:

A regular cop story, the movie begins with Sathyam (Vishal) who is a tough cop and an honest one too. He is an ACP and believes that law and order must be maintained at all times, however he is more of a peace lover and strongly believes that anyone who has done something wrong can be taken to task under the purview of justice and book of law without using any special methods. This also makes him feel repulsive about the encounter methods.

However things take a turn when a well known politician (Kota) wants to get on to the chair of the Chief Minister and in this process, he hires a contract killer and gives him a list of names that have to be killed. However, he has a shock of his life when he gets news from the killer that someone else is already on the job without his involvement. Sathyam is given the assignment of nabbing the culprit and finally he manages to arrest Prathap (Upendra) who ironically is an ex cop himself but then he does not believe in the law system since he gets betrayed professionally. The ideology clash between Sathyam and Pratap goes to a peak and then the hero decides to put an end to this by proving his point. Is he successful in his mission? What is the link between Divya (Nayantara) the crime reporter and him? All this forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Vishal: is very impressive as a cop. He has taken much care in his looks and body language, and even went to the extent of shaving his head off when the story demanded. Nayanatara: is more the hero’s neighbor and love interest than a TV journalist. In fact, except in one dialogue and in some scenes where she holds the camera, the audience would not even know that she’s a journalist! Upendra is superb in a role with negative shades. His role was applauded by the audiences more than anyone else’s! Kota Srinivasa Rao is as natural as he can be as the evil-minded politician. Tanikella Bharani has a limited role as the heroine’s doctor-father and Hema appears opposite Bharani. Sudha Chandran, the dancer from Mayuri, appears as the hero’s mother in an insignificant role. Ali as the heroine’s aide, Brahmanandam as a broker at the RTA, and Senthil in a role that he repeats from Bharateeyudu fail to generate much comedy.

Technical Departments:

The story has nothing new in it. The treatment too is laced with unnecessary scenes such as those involving the children, and has scenes that miss logic. The screenplay is generally too loose to hold the interest of the audiences throughout. Music has Harris Jairaj’s signature all over. Re-recording falters sometimes. Lyrics are good for the first song nammara nEstam…. Choreography, though not the dances particularly, is good on the whole, and particularly for the second song gaDagaDagaDa… involving children, superheroes, and graphics. The last song Endammaayaa… is typically Tamil in its picturization, and that’s possibly why Chiranjeevi’s poster is shown in the backdrop in the starting of the song - to attract Telugu audience too! (There’s also a dialogue ” Megastar anTE mass…”, probably for the same reason, elsewhere in the movie.) Nayanatara’s sizzling performance in one of the songs may cater to the masses, but doesn’t help the movie much anyway. Camerawork is impressive. Dialogues by Shashank Vennelakanti are good and thought-provoking as needed. Action choreography is interesting, though the fight sequences are shot to be long.

Presentation:

The director has come up with a wafer thin plot and though his presentation was good, the narration lost out big time and it turned out to be pathetic. The dialogues are stale, the script is feeble, the screenplay has not been executed perfectly. The saving grace for the movie is the above average music with some soulful tunes and the cinematography was eye catching. The costumes department was decent and the frontline sectors failed miserably. Vishal is impressive in his new muscular look and looked like the perfect cop guess that’s one reason why he looked stiff at few scenes, Nayan on the other hand was oozing out glamour in the songs but then she was totally decked up during the movie so her role is actually negligible. Upendra did his bit to give an anti hero feeling but his role was not well etched, Kota did a brilliant performance while the comedy track between Ali and Brahmanandam looked silly. The others did not have much scope to perform so they are not in the list.

Bottom Line:

While the movie does pass on the message that the people in the society should generally be more proactive, there is not much good in the film except for the hero and good camerawork and (lengthy) action episodes! Still, this is not the first movie with the exact same message! And, did the politicians, police, or public change, by the way? Why or why not? Let’s ask ourselves too!

My Review:

Story:

Chanti (Ravi Teja) is a care-free family member in Ramakrishna (Superstar Krishna) joint family who does nothing but kicking baddies. Chandramohan who is the father of Chanti sends him out of the house. Bhanumathi (Anushka) who is a student falls in love with this Baladoor for his good deeds. Chanti who comes out of the house saves his family members from all the problems created by Pradeep Rawat and his brother-in-law Subbaraju.

In the climax, Ramakrishna and his entire family comes to know about all the good deeds of Chanti from a well-wisher and brings him back to the house along with his lady love Bhanumathi.

Performances:

Ravi Teja throws some witty one-liners and the entertainer tries hard to fit in a family drama. His chemistry with Anushka is pretty good. Anushka mouths some ‘spicy dialogues’ and she shows off more than the required skin show. Superstar Krishna looks good in his get up but there is not much to do for him. Brahmanandam’s comedy is so hackneyed. Radhakrishna’s music is passable.

Analysis:

Baladoor is typical family drama that we have seen umpteen times. It is replete with same old sentiment scenes, masala songs, unnecessary action sequences and silly family drama. Director Uday Shankar’s only claim to fame is his debut movie - Kalisundam Ra. Since then, he has been rehashing similar themes with no success (Premato Ra, Raaraju, etc). Baladoor is no exception; he presents clichéd storyline with even more morbid narration.

Only Anushka’s glamour is eye-catching. She titillates the audiences with suggestive dialogues and offers plenty of skin show in songs. First half is better than the second half. Nevertheless, the movie on the whole is a disappointment. Lack of entertainment is another big minus.

Technical Departments:

Screenplay and direction by Uday Shankar is just average. He selected a routine and old story line and tried to give a new look to it in which he miserably failed. The story lost tempo in the second half and also he added more emotion in it because of which the audience will feel little bored.

Bottom Line:

If we have to pick up one attraction in Baladoor, it is ought to be Anushka’s glamour. There is nothing new in the movie.

My Review:

Story:

A love story with a twist, the film begins with the story of Siddharth (Naresh) who falls in love with Sailaja (Manjari) at the first sight and from then on starts impressing her with his charms. Finally, she also falls in love with him but then there is a problem. Her father Obul Reddy (Jayaprakash Reddy) is a major factionist near Kurnool and to achieve some political motives he joins hands with long time rival and arch enemy Bhooma Reddy (Gangaraju) and promises Sailaja’s hand to his rival’s son.

Siddu knows the real background of Sailaja and gets practical, he says that he cannot afford risking his family and his life and therefore wants to split. Sailaja is adamant and then puts a condition that Siddhu must come and be there throughout her engagement and marriage ceremony and if he can get through all that without any qualms then she will get married. Siddu accepts the challenge and comes to her place where he meets Nisha (Shraddha Das). While Sailu tries her best to win Siddu with her charms, he stays away. What happens after that? Does Siddu win against the power of love? Will Sailaja’s love succeed? All this forms the rest of the story.

Presentation:

The director has come up with a predictable story line but then he added a small twist to the characters which makes things a bit different. The presentation was alright but the narrative went lengthy at few points. Cinematography was fine, though one or two songs were good, the background score was too quick for slow emotions and the background vocal for the male lead was a wrong choice. Editing was alright but then it did a mistake in cutting the frames too short when the real emotional scenes came which spoiled the feeling. Costumes were good and locations for songs were nice. Naresh was his usual best but this time he had a more serious role to play so he did his job well. Manjari’s presence is fine and her eyes do most of the talking but then, she still needs to work on few of her expressions, Shraddha was hot but her role was limited only for the skin show. The comedy track by Dharmavarapu, M S was somewhat entertaining and Venu Madhav did his bit too but his role could have been developed further. Jayaprakash Reddy has become a routine factionist becoming a nice man, Ahuti Prasad’s character was funny. The others did their bit in the required manner.

Conclusion:

The film looks to be the regular formula of brain winning over brawn but then the twist here is the hero not keen on getting the heroine which was the case with hit movies like ‘Dhee’ ‘Ready’ etc. while the first half goes about with the elements of romance, comedy and songs a twist takes place just before the interval and the second half is more on the romantic part, this is where unwanted comedy sequences and unnecessary drama scenes came up which actually slowed the plot a great deal. The film will make its money given the mass elements and the glamour scenes but a hit will depend on external factors.

Mahesh Babu started out his movie career as a child actor in his father’s films before making his debut as an actor. His debut film as a lead actor was “Rajakumarudu”, cast opposite Preity Zinta. His next few films such as “Yuvaraju” and “Vamsi” also helped establish Mahesh’s career. But in 2001, his release Murari became a breakthrough for Mahesh. Mahesh and Sonali Bendre played the main roles of the film. However in 2002, Mahesh had a dull phase. Both releases Takkari Donga and Bobby flopped at box office. In 2003, Mahesh finally got the hit he was looking for. “Okkadu” became one of the biggest hits in Tollywood for the year 2003. Mahesh gave another flop at box office with, Nijam, that same year. However, he won the Nandi Award for Best Actor for his performance in Nijam. In 2004, Mahesh acted in the flop, Naani, which was remade into a Tamil hit New. Arjun, which released in Summer 2004, came to be an average to above average grosser. For one year, Mahesh did not sign up for any film, as he was busy with Athadu from June 2004 to July 2005. It was a big hit both in India and overseas. In April 2006, his next movie, “Pokiri” became the highest grosser in the Telugu Film Industry. Mahesh’s performance was applauded by even Ram Gopal Varma and Amitabh Bachchan. Mahesh’s recent film, Sainikudu had a tremendous opening but failed to live up to expectations. But it managed a cool 100 day run. All his hits have been remade in Tamil and Hindi.

His upcoming films are Athidhi, Mirchi,Hare Rama Hare Krishna and An untitled project with Puri Jagannadh.

AS AN ACTOR:

1. Athidhi (2007)
2. Sainikudu (2006) (as Super Star Mahesh Babu) …. Siddharth
3. Pokiri (2006) (as Prince Mahesh Babu) …. Pandu
4. Athadu (2005) …. Nanda Gopal/Nandu/Pardhu
5. Arjun (2004) …. Arjun
6. Naani (2004)
7. Nijam (2003) …. Seetaram
8. Okkadu (2003) …. Ajay
9. Bobby (2002) …. Bobby
10. Takkari Donga (2002) …. Raja
11. Vamsee (2000) …. Vamsee
12. Raja Kumarudu (1999) …. Raj Kumar

Wish you Happy Birthday to Prince Mahesh Babu ( Aug 9th )