Magadheera....not bad..!!!

First of all...'Sorry.! Rajamouli..!', 'Not bad...' are the words that came out of my mouth as i was walking out of new screen that recently opened in one of the biggest malls in Hyderabad. I donated mine and SP's share to the movie already.

Now, a little flashback. This paragraph is about how i, a sincere, hardworking, very very routine software engineer turned out to watch a movie at 10AM on a weekday in a week where production moves have made every beautiful night of mine quite busy and laborious.

August fifth being rakhi, i thought i would take my cousin sister to a movie as she always likes to watch one along with me and wanted to suprise her by booking tickets for Magadheera which turned out to be a blockbuster and everyones looking for tickets. Souji is quite a busy girl with lots of friends and commitments all over the city, french classes, gate classes, designing some vehicle for a presentation at IIT, cousins, other cousins and so on....of course her college classes being the last priority. Somehow she has to go to college because of some imp work and i had to bug Praveen to come instead of her and he agreed after i started swinging (u can guess).

Yaa yaa...i understand even i wanted to keep the story short.

My expectations were...'it will be fine..!!'
I already saw Gladiator and 300 n number of times and The Myth once.
The trailer made me believe most of the action sequences and sets were picked or atleast the theme was picked from one or all of these. I was proved wrong most part of it.

The story is quite Indian...hero..heroine...somehow some incomplete love story and revenge from the past and and a new bout of life with memories from the past to finally get a happy ending. Alls good till here.

The title graphics were quite good giving us an idea of what happened in the past and an opening scene that was quite good. Most part of the first half is in present day and is a bubbly love story with a not so good comedy track. I have a doubt i wanted to clear from a long time. Why does everyone laugh when Brahmanandam gets slapped? Well, maybe its his face. I am getting bored of that kind of track, i would call that Ram Babu track. Where a middle aged uncle gets hit by young men because he has been troubling them. The movies it worked quite well are Anandam, Venki, Dhee, Krishna and most recently Kick and King and i don't find it as funny anymore. Anyways, back to the review or whatever s**t i was writing.

I dont want to spoil the mood for those who havent watched, all in all, i liked the movie.
I could see a lot of hardwork put in by the whole team. Hats off to you all. The fights choreography was quite good and the locations (i guess it was some dried up salt lake) were quite good. The background score was quite good though i should say i heard a few tracks in some english and chineese movies. I guess Keeravani exhausted most of his resources there and couldnt make up for nice tunes for the songs. The songs were all below par except for two of them which were okay.

Bangarukodipetta...ha haa this song was fun...i enjoyed it and i too whistled when i saw my favourite childhood star, MEGASTAR. His presence on the screen and his grace are huge and Charan will take, may be, a decade to reach that point. Pawan Kalyan too has that kind of presence but not Charan and Arjun (allu) for sure.

I know i sound like every other critic but i must say these were my observations. Charan has some uneasy face expressions in the middle of the scenes and has to sort them out to succeed in being a better actor though it isn't needed for getting a bigger hit. That said..best of luck Charan.
The last song during titles was fun too.

Now, a few observations on the direction and editing departments. The flow in the story in first half wasnt that good. They should have taken one more step further and they could have made the blockbuster more fun and gripping to watch.

Well, what did i miss?

Yes...the reincarnations. After watching all the characters (hero, heroine, villain, hero's admirer and other king, the circumstances, love and enemity) from 400 years ago incarnated today i felt like i too was there 400 years ago and this movie was a street play/burrakatha then and the director was SSS Raja Rajamouli..he hee....

The other funny part was a different climax i and SP discussed where the hero misses the heroine and this time the villains jumps the cliff with her praying that the next turn heroine should love him and smiling at the hero to wait for another 400 years showing him his finger. The sequel would be something like starwars and not an epic from Udaigad...ha haa...

One more big joke was this dialogue, "Maharaja..!! vaallu inka raavatledu ee lopu manam 7 express aadadaama Rummy veyyamantaaraa..??"

My final opinion (i am no one to judge):

A nice movie (could have been better: a feeling most of us generally get these days after watching any movie), good technically and visually. A refreshing break for the telugu movie buffs and the heroine was very beautiful, i couldnt take my eyes off her. Charan's dancing and fights were good (songs were not that good). Chiru's entry was wow..!! (you should be a fan to feel this).

By the way, i got tickets for another show tonight :)

Here are my ratings:

1. Story 6/10
2. Direction/Screenplay 8/10
3. Songs 6/10
4. Background score 8/10
5. Cast 9/10
6. Acting 7/10
7. Art and Graphics 9/10 (for a telugu movie)
8. Choreography (songs) 7/10
9. Choreography (fights) 9/10 (for a telugu movie)
10. Camera work 9/10

TOTAL 78/100

I am waiting for 'QUICK GUN MURUGAN' now.......'MIND IT..!' ha haaa......