The cine-goers have been hankering for a ‘different’ movie. We were lapping up girl-meets-boy-running-around-trees storyline for decades.
But soon enough, the tired audience wanted different. And different is what the Telugu audiences are getting in abundance these days. Each of the films, especially the low budget ones, come up with stories so widely varied!
To name a few:
Falaknuma Das: A Malayalam remake, is adapted to fit into the image of Falaknuma, Hyderabad old city, its streets, its flavours, the botis, the payas, Irani chai, lassis, the street brawls et al. It is about how the hot-headed 23-year-old protagonist, VishwakSen, mellows down after many high-drama experiences in life. 3.5/5
Mallesham: Priyadarshi, who has only been playing the hero’s comic friend from the beginning of his career chooses to portray the true story of Mallesham and his travails in trying to improve the ilk of Pochampally weavers by inventing a machine to make weaving easier. Priyadarshi was brilliant in this movie slipping effortlessly between different moods and moments. The movie is a tad slow though, reminding you of the ‘art’ films of the yore. 3/5
Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya: Naveen Polishetty a relative novice, playing the role of a wannabe sleuth with some fixed, (unintentionally funny) ideas in his mind about how a detective ought to be and behave. A comic thriller that has you engaged with its myriad twists and turns as the hero gets inadvertently drawn into a 'big' case that he was hungering for. Brilliant acting by the hero. And some great comic scenes. 3.5/5
1st Rank Raju, a Kannada remake, speaks about the futility in the mad pursuit of people (parents) who measure success in terms of ranks in academics. About how important is an all-round development. 2.5/5
Brochevarevaru Ra: For me the best of the lot. This movie is a writer’s narration to a female lead. How the characters from the narration and reality interact and affect each other’s lives forms more than an engaging narrative. Sri Vishnu, Nivetha, Ramakrishna and Priyadarshi playing their roles brilliantly. 4/5
Make use of this weekend to view some of these movies with story lines as different from each other as possible.
