Jeevi rating: 3.25/5
Punchline: Chandamama Katha
Genre: Adventure/Fantasy
Type: Straight
Banner: ABODE Entertainment & Walt Disney
Cast: Siddharth, Shruti Hassan, Lakshmi Manchu, Baby Harshita, Ravi Babu, Brahmanandam, Tanikella Bharani, Ali, Subbaraya Sharma etc.
Music: M M Keeravani, Koti, Mickey J Meyer, Salim-Sulaiman
Background Music: Salim-Sulaiman
Dialogues: T Sasi Rajasimha
Cinematography: S Soundar Rajan
Editor: Shravan Katikaneni
Stunts and action: Dee Dee Ku, William Ong, Selva & Vijay
Art: Bhupesh R. Bhupathi
Visual Effects: Firefly
Production design: Raj Golay
Presented by: Walt Disney Pictures and K Raghavendra Rao
Story - screenplay - direction: Prakash Kovelamudi
Producer: Prasad Devineni and Prakash Kovelamudi
Release date: 14 January 2011
Theater watched: Screen 3, Prasads, Hyderabad
Review
Story
Irendri (Lakshmi Manchu) is a witch who takes over the world from her place - Angarajyam. Moksha (Baby Harshita) is a small girl who has special divine powers. Yodha (Siddharth) is a blind warrior. Irendri wants to kill Moksha and Yodha is entrusted with the job of gaurding Moksha. The rest of the story is all about how Moksha gets rid of Irendri with the help of Yodha. There is also a love story for Yodha.
Artists Performance
It is virtually impossible for any young hero in Telugu cinema to accept a blind man’s role. Siddharth is very brave to brace this character that flows with the narration of the movie. Siddharth is fabulous. Shruti Hassan is glamorous with her exotic looks. However, it is Lakshmi Manchu who steals the show. Her make-up, dialogue delivery and screen presence is terrific. Baby Harshita is impressive with her work. Ravi Babu is nice as the lieutenant of witch with the funny oneliner ‘nimma daanimma’. Brahmanandam and Ali have a few funny scenes.
Technical departments
Story - screenplay - direction: Story of the film is like Chandamama katha (fairy tale). The director didn’t succumb to the commercial trap and narrated it in a way it should be. Prakash Kovelamudi is excellent with visuals and presentation. He is highly imaginative. He introduced all the characters excellently. However, the movie has only one orientation throughout the movie - witch seeking the kid. A couple of secrets revealed in the second half are interesting. But, he couldn’t get the emotions strong enough on the screen to rise the tempo.
Other departments: Songs are composed by 4 different music directors and all the songs are good. Background music composed by Salim Sulaiman is excellent. Visuals in this movie are of extraordinary quality. It is the result of collective team work by the cinematographer (Sounder Rajan) and visual effects team (Firefly). There are many visual effects that doesn’t appear like effects to naked eyes. There are graphics worth 72 minutes in this movie (half of the total runtime). Art direction by Bhupesh Bhupathi is superb. The costumes, make-up and get-ups are of top-notch. Dialogues by T Rajasimha are pretty good and they might sound odd for the regular moviegoers because the dialogues were written in pristine Telugu though he used contemporary cheap words like jaffa. Production values of the movie are humongous. Disney has made sure that their first Indian production is at par with their Hollywood projects in terms of technical and production values.
Analysis: When was the last time we have the hero playing the role of a blind man? When was the last time a Telugu movie had a young woman as a villain? Anaganaga O Dheerudu is a brave attempt that defies many stereotypes and cliches of Telugu cinema. But at the same time, it is extremely important for any director to get the emotions flared up at the crux moments. Prakash Kovelamudi who stuck with the script made sure that the story is narrated like a fairy tale, but he couldn't get the right emotions/tempo (suspense or utkantha) towards the climax of the movie. The plus points of the movie are extraordinary visuals, lead performances (especially Lakshmi Manchu) and classic style of story-telling. The negative point of the movie is the lack of emotional depth/connect. On a whole, Anaganaga O Dheerudu is a universal movie that aims at kids in the family and the kid inside you.
