Watch in Haste and Repent at Leisure...That's What I am Doing Now...

Soon after having bought or got (!!) the ticket to a movie, I hear myself say, "at least this movie..." and usually, I come out of the cinema hearing myself say, "Shuks! This too sucks!" There are very few occasions when I could hear myself say..."Ah! This is one of those movies." It is like I enter with a ray of hope and usually end up with a pang of frustration.

Very recently I have been to one movie and I heard myself say, coming out..."Shucks! This too sucks!" And, the familiar pang of frustration hit me once again. That movie is titled to be "Naenu Meeku Telusa?" One thing different about this particular movie is that the director of this movie is one who is a could-have-become (not been) -a-good-friend-of-mine. Ajay Sastry is the name.

THE STORY

It is simple. A part of 50 First Dates, a part of Memento and a part of Gajini and some ingenious episodes of perversion, fathered by some I-wish-I-knew. You have this story ready.

I do not have anything against watching the same story again and again and again. But then, I am really bothered about the presentation. That's where this movie has disappointed...and done it uncompromisingly. The details follow:

SCREENPLAY

When you are there to savour a buffet and find each one of the items served there to be really good, you are sure to leave the place feeling full, happy and probably sleepy. It is a real strange thing with this movie that each frame is really good and the movie, as a whole, leaves you repenting. Amazing feet, not just tried, but achieved too!

Whenever one wants to talk about something that moves very slowly, it is customary to use the expression 'at a snail's pace.' This movie beats snails in that area, particularly in the first half. Even a snail is sure to get bored to eternity at the pace with which the movie m....o....o....o.....o....v.....e.....s, from frame to frame to frame to frame to frame to frame to frame to frame to frame to....

Tired reading this? Well, that was how I felt watching the movie.

ACTING PROWESS

None of the roles is really challenging to any of those that appear in the movie. All that Sneha Ullal - the supposedly lead heroine- needs to do is to walk, stand and look like a final year (reasonably matured) student of graduation reacting to the proposal from a first year (very immature) student of graduation on a Valentine's Day. You sure know how she walks and stands. She has done that perfectly well. My cousin, Sreedhar, has told me that she is considered an ersatz of Ash. Mmm...she looks to be one.

If ever there is any shot when and where she feels a bit uncomfortable...that is only then, when she has to allow the eyes of the crew and the eye of the camera to ogle at her belly-button...in one of the songs. It is obvious even to an ordinary front-bencher that she feels a bit uncomfortable there. For a change, even the camera's eye seems to be hesitating to approach the otherwise forbidden, nevertheless wide open a spectacle.

The zeitgeist of the contemporary times is to think that audience (a stratum of them, i.e.,) love it so much, if the camera's eye lingers there around for some considerable amount of time and then traverses to some other part, oozing a certain degree of excitement at the prospect of visiting some other area, though reluctantly leaving this location. This one is certainly one of the very few living anachronistic directors in this area. The chastity of belly-button is not that much deflowered here. It is just visually caressed and left untouched for the rest of the movie.

After all, not all directors can (or want to!) be Raghavendra Raos. I am really and sincerely happy for the fact that she is not used as a heroine is generally used. Thankfully, it is Mohan Babu's son who is the hero. If only Mohan Babu were to be the hero!!! Well, I leave it to your imagination.

Then there is Riya Sen, another heroine. All she needs to do is to act very lovable, when she is in the presence of the hero and hero alone...and to act like a self-respected girl who is more bothered about her social status and personal image...shooing away the overtures of the hero. Riya Sen does not require to be one with great acting prowess. All she needs to do is to be 'herself' and she IS. There is not even a single scene where her frame is exploited. I really like Ajay there. She is allowed to look as homely as she is in the recent Airtel ad, where she is a married lady, shy even when she talks with her husband.

I have a feeling that there are some people who are severely disappointed at this 'unexpected and unwanted' treatment meted out (!!) to these two heroines. But, I am happy.

Manoj...the protagonist! This is the first movie of this guy I have seen. I was in a state of being surprised wondering at the ease he has shown there, till my cousin, the unfortunate one who accompanied me to this movie at my bidding, told me that this is not his first movie. Boy! This guy is really good. He, sure, has some future, if only he can deal with the politics of Tollywood and the vise-grip of his father.

Brahmanandam...meant to be a comedian. Named Barmani, brother of Armani (!!!), a fashion designer by profession. His acting prowess need not be doubted. But, what needs to be pooh-poohed is the creation of such a role itself. It is revealed to you suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, that this Barmani is none other than the software engineer who was very much troubled by these beggars (Ali&Co) in the movie Pokiri. Since his life was literally screwed up there, he suddenly resurfaces here in this movie as a fashion designer! What an idea!! An idea can sure change lives! I personally know that a very vital part of the crew of this movie is very much at ease with explicit language and that tendency is latched onto this comedian here. In one frame he is made to say.. "I don't like this frock." And, there after on many an occasion in the movie, he keeps saying the same...but pronouncing the word 'frock' as 'f**k.' And it is meant to elicit laughter from the audience! My sense of humour is certainly very inferior. I could not be upto the expectations.

THE SONGS

The single card lyricist is Seetarama Sastry. There is many an occasion, when I felt bad for the fact that some of the lyrics he had written were not from the pen of Dear Veturi. It is not that I like Seetarama Sastry less but it is just that I like Veturi more. The lyrics he has contributed to this movie are really nice, particularly the lyric of the first song. It is just AMAZING. But, when it comes to the picturisation...again...the director is not upto the expectations.

Then there is this remix song, not from Seetarama Sastry, but from Arudra. It was from a 1978 movie titled "Vayasu Pilichindi." This song is one of the very popular songs in Telugu. The Maestro Illayaraja was the music director for this one.

The way this song is treated in this movie is just ATROCIOUS. As the saying goes...there is a very thin line separating creativity from perversion. One witnesses the manifestation of an act of separation of these two here.

The original song carries a mood with it. The protagonist there is about to make love to his beloved, who is very shy about that virgin experience. Though it is a maiden attempt to the protagonist too, he realises that he has to take the initiative to convince the already-convinced but hesitating, for reasons known only to her, heroine for their love-making. It is in this context that the lyric is written. The protagonist sings an anthology of allusions to convince her saying that what they are to do is quite natural and not bad. The lyric, the picturisation and the music by the Maestro himself...Ah! It was, is and will be considered a symphony whose constituent elements are language, meaning, sense, music, feeling and emotion. The catharsis is just how it ought to be.

And this remix of that song in this movie!!! It is a PERFECT EXAMPLE for antithesis. Imagine a group of dancers with a lead male and female dancer. All of them are herpetophobic. This dance floor infested with reptiles and reptiles and reptiles of all sorts. All these dancers, with their lead male and female dancer, desperately trying to jump to a safer location in vain...

If you could see, in your mind's eye, what I have described just above as vividly as I can see it, you understand...how the song is picturised.

The lead female dancer in this song is a girl named Kausha. Do you remember the song picturised on her in the movie Mantra? Not the one picturised on the h***s of Charmie...but the other one. What a colossal waste of an opportunity to recreate a replica of the emotional bond the original song could create in the minds of all those that watched that and could emote aptly!

If only Arudra and the Maestro could watch this movie together...I shudder at the very thought.

THE DENOUEMENT

And then, the climax. The protagonist dons the role of a James Bond to find out the culprit. Bingo! In just some four to five frames...she is caught. By the time you know what is happening around, everything is over. The climax is soooooo suddddden that it does not provide you with any time to feel and emote. But then, you are already more pachyderm now than when you were, when you were watching the first frame of the movie. Hence, very quickly you struggle yourself out of the chords of disappointment, yet again, and you sigh in relief thinking that everything is over and you can have your peace of mind back.

(This reminds me of the attitude of all those that are bored with what they are doing at their office. They try to give an impression that they are working very hard and they continue to do the same till 5.30 in the evening. Then they suddenly start working on what they have to work on and finish it by 6 O’clock. Work never completes. It is FINISHED!! The Director seems to be in a hurry to put an end to this ordeal of directing this movie. Bad…very bad.)

But, wait. You are not that lucky. There is Barmani, the fashion designer, again appears and starts rattling...virtually quite acontextual dialogues. The whole scene almost borders on the highest degree of perversion.

What I had hoped to see and what I had seen?? They do not match, except here and there. The happy thing about the whole issue is that I do not need to write him off, since there are some flashes of brilliance, YES, REAL FLASHES OF BRILLIANCE. I only hope that he sits and introspects and comes up with a better one. I am, here, waiting for his second one. But then, I am, now, also brooding over the loss of two hundred and thirty rupees, as of now. (I have paid for my cousin’s ticket too!)

My first impression on his public speaking skills, way back in 1996, was…THAT’S IT??!! And my first impression on his directorial skills in 2008 is…THAT’S IT??

I congratulate him on his success of becoming a Director and wish him, wholeheartedly, become a real good one, AS SOON AS HE CAN MAKE IT POSSIBLE.

I inform all the readers that the tone of this blog-up is one of concern, but not of condemnation.

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