It’s Arundhati fever for the Telugu Film Audience
Print
iView Author: Sethumadhavan (Chennai, India)
Email: sethumadhavan.n [at] gmail [dot] com
It’s Arundhati fever for the Telugu Film Audience
The Telugu film industry has been at the cross roads for sometime. While on the one hand you have the big movies with the big stars, producers & directors who mainly try to cater to the fans of the stars, you also have a new set of filmmakers who have started getting noticed with their small movies. The New Year 2009 started off mainly for the Telugu film industry in the middle of January with Pongal/Sankranti – an important festival. This year’s Pongal releases were mainly veteran producer M.S.Raju’s Maska- directed by B.Gopal ,starring Ram,Hansika & Sheela, Allari Naresh’s Fitting Master and director Kodi Ramarishna’s Arundhati with Anushka,Sonu Sood & Sayaji Shinde.
Maska was supposed to carry good reports with Ram on a high after last year’s big hit- Ready & Hansika being quite popular as well. Fitting Master is a trademark Allari Naresh movie & was expected to make money as it was a low budget movie. But Arundhati was a surprise element. People were not sure about its prospects. At a budget of 13 crores it was a big risk considering it was a female oriented movie & belonged to the horror/thriller genre. But as the festival drew nearer more & more screens seemed to be getting added for Arundhati & the speculative talk was good based on the promos.
On Pongal day-14th Jan, the verdict was out. Maska the popular choice was struggling to stay in the race, Fitting Master was not as good as the last few Allari Naresh’s movies but Arundhati was a winner & a gigantic one at that. People of all kinds seemed to throng the theatres to watch the movie. The direction by Kodi Ramakrishna & the acting by Anushka, Sonu Sood & Sayaji Shinde is getting appreciated by one & all. The movie begins with Anushka’s wedding preparations in Hyderabad. She is supposed to get married to Arjun Bajwa (of Fashion fame) & all of a sudden a turn of events brings her to her native place in Gadwal Samasthanam.
There in a dilapidated old palace lies the spirit of Pasupathy ( Sonu Sood) who was a very wicked man & the brother in law of Arundhati ( Anushka again) the queen of Gadwal 3 generations ago. The present Arundhati is supposed to be the re-incarnation of the previous queen & since Pasupathy’s spirit wants revenge against Arundhati, it now unleashes terror upon the area. Sayaji Shinde plays a Fakir- Anwar, who helps Arundhati in this crusade. Watch the movie to know what exactly happened to Arundhati & Pasupathy in the past and how Arundhati faces up to the challenge of Pasupathy in the present.
At times the special effects do look tacky but overall the sets look very grand and the canvas of the movie looks quite impressive. But mind you the movie is not a feel good fun loving movie, nor is it any realistic portrayal. It’s escapist cinema with its share of chills and thrills. And yes with an A certificate its better to keep children away from the movie as some of the scenes are indeed gory.
Kodi Ramakrishna who shot into prominence with Ammoru (Amman in Tamil) had a major disaster with Chiranjeevi’s Anji & is back to top form. Anushka couldn’t have asked for a better project as she’s seized the opportunity with both hands & delivered a great performance. Sonu Sood is outstanding – he continues to improve with each movie, Sayaji Shinde finally manages to get something different from his stereotypical roles & does well. Shyam Prasad Reddy the producer has lots to cheer from the movie as its getting dubbed in a few other languages & there are talks of remaking it in Hindi.
Though Charmee ( Anukokunda Oka Roju, Mantra ), Bhoomika ( Missama, Anasuya) & Mumait Khan ( Maisamma IPS) have done a few noticeable female oriented movies, they have all been either movies catering to the A centers ( AOR, Mantra,Missama & Anasuya) or to the B& C centers ( Maisamma IPS). But Arundhati is a universal hit & that makes the success of the movie even more special. Well into the 4th week of its run, the movie is still attracting its audiences. It’s truly Arundhati fever for the Telugu film audience.
Tags: Telugu
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Is this film worth all the accolades its getting? Any day I would prefer Ammoru to this flick, which was thoroughly engaging. I have read in an interview with the creative director of this movie Rahul Nambiar who directed more than 60 percent of the movie. They shot the entire movie and the product seemed hopeless, so this guy re-shot the entire movie again. http://idlebrain.com/celeb/interview/rahulnambiar.html
I found this movie entirely hopeless in terms of story, though special effects saved the film. Coming to sound design, its all cacophonous and it is head-ache causing. Though I have sympathies for the passionate producer Shyam Prasad Reddy and feel happy for him getting profits, I would rate this movie as a very gimmick average movie.
Jeevi of Idlebrain has written in his review that you can lend this DVD to Telugu non-speaking guys and recommend them to see this flick and rant about technical brilliance in Telugu movies, and I disagree on that suggestion.
loading...
I saw Arundhati the day it released in these parts. Went in on the premise that it is a strong female oriented re-incarnation drama. What I saw instead was a watered down version of a Vithalacharya creation, with downright tacky graphics. As a non-telugu speaker who went in for the cinema, it was a disappointment, more so because we kept hearing that the movie was a blockbuster in India. I can understand the casteist cinema in Andhra mirroring the popular sentiment, but this movie’s success, I can’t explain.
loading...
Narendra Bendi – In olden days, apparently, one of the Telugu Industry fads was to ape anything that’s a hit in Hindi. They had Andhra Dilip Kumars and Andhra Amitabh Bachchans (it’s a fact – aayi shappat). Now our friend Jeevi sees himself as Andhra Taran Adarsh (fact again). He even finishes his movie reviews with TA’s famous TA (tongue-in-ass) phrase “On The Whole”. (cue laughter).
loading...
And one question has been in my mind after I saw Kuselan last year and now this movie. Technicians in the industry, if someone is reading this, please answer this. Has the concept of scouting out locations for outdoor shoots gone out of fashion? Has “graphics use karengey” become the standard answer? Every wide angle shot of the mansion(s) in Arundhati seemed to be “enhanced” with “bluer than normal” skies and a few cartoonish birds flying in v-formation. Compared to Arundhati, the graphics in Kuselan (the dolphins and the waterfall overlooking a lake/reservoir, for e.g.) actually seemed a little more conceivable.
loading...
Anantha,Narendra & Kannan-
I do not in anyway feel this is a landmark or outstanding movie.But I’ve written about the movie to express my surprise on how the movie has exceeded everyone’s expectation & is turning out to be a complete blockbuster.Thanks Narendra for pointing out Rahul Nambiar’s contribution- I should have mentioned it myself, since his work is being discussed earnestly in film circles in A.P right now.
loading...
Anantha- if you’ve been keeping a tab on telugu movies of late you will know why the movie is a success.The people have just been wanting a change within the popular mainstream large canvas frame & in that way the movie seems to have caught the fancy of the people.
loading...
Sethumadhavan: Keeping tabs, I am not sure. But from conversations with movie watching buddies, I can sense that a lot of recent hits (for e.g., the chain of Siddarth starrers) in the past couple of years have been light on violence. That way, this movie is keeping up with the trend.
But I think my main grouse with Arundhati is with the so called cutting edge special effects. Some of “birds flying in the blue sky” effects reminded me of that old DD staple “ek chidiya” cartoon. After the show, I was so surprised because according to my friends who I went with (and who share my opinion about the movie), the reviews originating out of India went ga-ga on the special effects.
loading...
Sethu: The movie got released in Sathyam! Since I wasn’t too interested in any of the Pongal flicks I thought of going to this one(mainly due to the Sathyam factor). Had you posted this within a week of this movie getting released,it would have motivated me to go and watch it. Now its too late as the movie is no longer running in Chennai. Anyway, I’ll wait for the DVD now.
I believe Anushka is hot property now in Telugu and even Tamil filmmakers are trying to lure her..is it true? And one more question for you..whats the next of the Bommarilu director and Pokiri director and when are they getting released? I am quite eager to catch them in a theatre.
loading...
It is an ok film.. My cousins, family n friends are lovin it. They want this film to be sent to the oscars. The oscars have become a joke, any film which does well or slightly diff from the normal, it has to be sent to the oscars. Nothin great about it. After anji debacle, im really happy for the producer.
loading...
Anand- Sorry for the delay in posting this.I know the movie was played in Sathyam ( main screen)- was in Chennai myself when it ran for a week.It was pulled off after a week due to prior commitments of Sathyam & also since its being dubbed in tamil.
Yes Anushka is hot in telugu & tamil.She did the maximum # of movies ( 5) among the top heroines last year-2008 & is doing Vijay’s next movie- Vettaikaran.
loading...
anantha–birds flying in the blue sky effects might reminded u ek chidiya cartoon but generally our ancestors says that when devils n any wrong or bad happens to our or our places then the nature talks, roars n that happens mostly on Amavastya Day…..to show all these effects…they show owls flying n air winds…samething happened in Arundhati also
loading...
Chinna , nobody is doubting or making fun of these age old omens , we are just saying how tacky or below par these special effects looked in the movie
loading...