Satyam

Satyam

Banner: Ari Annapurna Studios

Cast: Sumanth, Genelia D'Souza, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Brahmanandam, Tanikella Bharani, Sridhar, Rajesh, Malladi Raghava, Nirmala Reddy, Varsha, Prakash, Naveen, Chakri, Apoorva, Kondavala Lakshmana Rao, Jenny, Gowtam Raju

Genre: Love

Music: Chakri

Cinematography: Sameer Reddy - Raja

Fights: Vijay

Choreography: Lawrence, Shankar, Ashok Raj, Vidya

Art: JK Murthy

Editing: Nandamuri Hari

Dialogues: Sateesh - Ravi

Costumes: Sekhar

Presents: Smt Akkineni Annapurna

Producer: Akkineni Nagarjuna

Story - screenplay - direction: Surya Kiran

Release date: 19th December 2003

Review:

Story

Satyam (Sumanth) is a sweet and too-good-to-believe kind of guy. Everybody likes him except for the two he loves the most. One is his father (Malladi Raghava) and other one is the girl with whom he is in love with. And she is the cute girl Ankita (Genelia). Sathyam comes out of his house and start living with friends because he is misunderstood by his father.

Sathyam is also a sensitive man and sensible writer. He ghost writers lyrics for a popular film lyricist. He wants to prove himself as lyricist before meeting Ankita to express his love. Mean while, a flamboyant classmate of Ankita proposes her. Would Satyam be able to propose to Ankita? Would he win her love? To know these two things, you need to watch 'Sathyam' on a big screen.

Artists Performance

Sumanth: Sumanth performed like a professional in this film. He succeeds in generating sympathies for his characterization. His strengths are assets are his pure eyes and good diction. And the same purity made him the best suitable guy for that character. His dialogue delivery has good clarity and his voice is good. There is not event a single moment on screen where you can find any shortcomings in his histrionics.

Genelia: Genelia is very fresh and adorable. The entire story is told from hero's point of view. Hence you can see heroine coming in flashes and in the imagination of hero. If you had seen Genelia in a aggressive and contemporary kind of teenage character in 'Boys', you are going to see the tender and poetic side Genelia in this film.

Others: Sridhar did OK job as the villain in this film. Comedy actor Rajesh is given a good footage in this film and he proved himself by performing comedy scenes with good timing. The 'puliraja' episode involving him is hilarious. Brahmanandam play another comical role and his get up resembles that of our president Abdul Kalam. Kota Srinivasa Rao did a well rounded character in Telugu after a long time. Varsha played the role of sister to hero and she did well. Lawrence did an item song in this film along with Genelia. Kondavalasa did a comedy role. Music director Chakri played his realself in this film. Tanikella Bharani is good as the plagiaristic lyricist.

Technical Departments:

Story: The story of the film is pretty soft one. And it has similarities to Vikraman's stories where hero is misunderstood by the people who mattered the most.

Screenplay - direction: Screenplay and direction of debutant Soorya Kiran is neat. The taking of the film is sophisticated. Framing of the film is rich. The screenplay has similarities to that of Vikraman's films. Narration of the film is little slow. The director succeeded in making this film appear fresh as well. There is lots of poetic way of picturization of tender feelings. The climax resembles the Vikraman style where all the misunderstandings are cleared in one situational lead song to climax.

Music: Music by Chakri is excellent. Music would remain as highlight of the film. Credit should also be given to the cinematographer and director make the song come very rich on the screen. Background score is amply supported by the humming of popular tunes in this film (SA Raj Kumar style).

Other departments: Cinematography by Sameer Reddy and Raja is first rate. Framing of the shots, altering of lens focus and lighting schemes in this film are brilliant. Dialogues are pretty good. The lyrics of the film are efficiently used as dialogues in important scenes. Editing by Nandamuri Hari is worth an applause for doing a few cool editing effects. Choreography of the songs is apt. Stunts by Vijay are effective. The stunts are composed in such a style that they does not appear too lengthy, but at the same time they give perfect results. Producer Nagarjuna has spent lavishly on the film and all the money spent on this film could be visualized in the rich frames of the film.

Analysis: 'Sathyam' - a technically rich one - is a well made film. Strengths of the film are perfect casting, good music, sophisticated taking and rich frames. The weakness of the film is slow narration and class-orientation. Though the hero and heroine in this film belong to middle class family, the presentation of the film is made to suit the tastes of urbane viewers. Producer Nagarjuna should be appreciated for making a clean and family oriented film. Director Soorya Kiran makes a mark for himself through 'Sathyam'. Hero Sumanth's proves himself as a perfectionist.

Genelia stills from boys movie

Boys

Boys

(for gals)

Banner: Sri Surya Movies

Cast: Siddardh, Genelia D'Souza, Nakul, Sai, Bharath, Manigandhan & Vivek

Genre: Love

Music: AR Rehman

Photography: Ravi K Chandran

Dialogues: Srirama Krishna

Lyrics: Siva Ganesh & AM Rathnam

Art Direction: Sabu Cyril

Editing: VT Vijayan

Stunts: Vikram Dharma

Producer: AM Rathnam

Story - screenplay - direction: Shankar

Release date: 29th August 2003

Review

Story

There are five teenage boys who are very thick friends. They have typical teen-boy fantasies - proposing to each and every chick they come across, touching women in crowded areas, boozing, browsing porn books, trying for call girls etc. In the process they meet a girl Harini (Genelia). A guy called Munna (Nakul) from these boys group fall in love with her and she also loves him. After coming to know about it, the parents separate the boy, girl and the friends. The boy and the girl get desperate and elope to Tirupati to get married.

The parents throw them out of their houses. The friends also come out to support this young couple. They all work together to make a living. They find their strengths and hidden talents. They form a band called 'Boys'. Sign a contract with Sony Music and win M TV awards. In the process, small differences crop up between the wedded couple and they fall out. The rest of the film is all about how they get united with the help of friends!

Artists Performance

The specialty of the guys selected for Boys is that all guys are normal looking. There are lean guys and fat guys as well. Everybody suited their character well. All the characters are established in a strong way. Siddardh is the hero of the film. He is sensible. Harini (Genelia D'souza) acts as the heroine and she has an array of emotions to go through in this film. She has the mannerism of showing finger to guys. But they have made her rise the other finger instead of the middle one to avoid the scissors of censor officers. Vivek did a meaty role as the mentor of the boys. He offered lots of comedy. Actor Rajendra Prasad did the dubbing for Vivek. And because of the good dubbing, the comedy timing of Vivek character worked out well.

Technical Departments:

Story:

The story of the film is a very typical one. Boy meets the girl. Parents reject their love and separate them. The boy-girl elope and get married. They come out and make a living and prove to the world that the word 'love' is not a taboo as projected by parents and one can do good career even when one fell in love.

Screenplay - direction: Shankar - who directed five consecutive super hits in a row - attempted his sixth film 'Boys'. Director Shankar has the habit of making social-message films and teen films alternatively. Checkout his filmography: Gentleman (social), Premikudu (love), Bharateeyudu (social), Jeans (love), Oke Okkadu (social) and Boys (love). And if you analyze, his social films have become sensational hits as his love films turned out to be just hits. Like his earlier love films, this film also has got good narration, great youth elements, much needed sentiment and interesting screenplay. But the narration of the film is little slow. Shankar's projection of deeds done boys is little embarrassing to look on the screen (in 1st half), though it happens in real life.

Music:

Music is the life of this film. AR Rehman came up with great tunes with rich percussion and orchestration. His background music is equally titillating. There are two more songs in the film which were not there in audio album. One is about making music using props like spoon, pot etc (without using musical instruments). But the scene-stealer is the 'please' song that aimed by 'boys' at wooing the manager of Sony Music.

Songs picturization:

All the songs in this film are picturised on a larger than life format by using lots of computer graphics and visual effects. The backdrop chosen for each song is excellent. The choreography adds to the beauty of the visuals.

Photography:

Photography by Ravi K Chandran is pleasing to our eyes. The colors, lighting effects, movement of the camera etc. are just perfect.

Dialogues:

Dialogues by Sri Rama Krishna are good, though some of the dialogues in the first half put the parents into embarrassment (youth likes it anyway).

Production:

AM Ratnam spent 24 crores in making this film. And all that money is efficiently transformed in to rich visuals and abundant music in cinema halls. This film would remain as one of the proud films produced by AM Ratnam.

Analysis:

'Boys' is an urbane and youth film. Taking a simple point, Shankar succeeded in narrating it with an interesting screenplay. The plus points in the film are good music, rich visuals and youth elements. The weakness of the film is slow narration and lack of mass elements. Though the film went in to weak mode at times, the director Shankar made sure that the narration is back on the wheels as the climax approached. The parents are shown in a bad light in this film (parents are shown as inflexible ones who does not understand their kids. There are good parents in real who understand, appreciate and encourage their kids to succeed in love and career). This film would definitely become a hit. This youth-rich film would do well in A centers. The question now is whether it does well in B and C centers or not!