Sye

Sye

Banner: Sri Bharati Enterprises

Cast: Nitin, Genelia D'Souza, Pradeep Rawat, Nassar, Sashank, Rajiv Kanakala, Tanikella Bharani, Indu, Venu Madhav

Genre: Action

Story: Vijayendra Prasad

Dialogues: M Ratnam

Music: MM Keeravani

Camera: Senthil

Stunts: Ram-Lakshman, Vijay

Costumes: Rama Rajamouli

Editing: Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao

Art: Anand Sai

Screenplay - Direction: SS Rajamouli

Producer: A Bharati

Theatrical release date: 23rd September 2004

Review:

Story

Pruthvi (Nitin) & Sashank (Sashank) are the leaders of two warring students groups in a Hyderabad college. They are fond of Rugby game and they sort the things out between them by playing Rugby to prove superiority. One fine day, a local mafia leader Bhikshu Yadav (Pradeep Rawat) gets a court notice that he has purchased the land of college from its legal heirs. The groups of Pruthvi and Sashank unite together by forgetting differences to fight an united cause of winning back the land for college. After getting affected by assaults of students, Bhikshu Yadav throws a challenge to defeat his team in Rugby play to win back the land for their college. The rest of the story is all about how Pruthvi leads his team to the victory.

Artists Performance:

Nitin looks pretty hip with sophisticated looks and different hair-do. He did well in the role of protagonist. But he needs to work harder on his dubbing. Genelia is cool as teen college going girl. She is a treat to watch, but unfortunately has no role to play in story. Sashank is competent as the gang leader. Pradeep Rawat is impressive (credit also should be given for the characterization). Rajiv Kanakala is good in an inspiring role of Rugby coach. Venu Madhav's comedy is hilarious. Tanikella Bharani and Nassar are adequate. Director Rajamouli did a guest appearance.

Technical Departments:

Story: First half of the story deals with gang wars (a la The Westside Story). If Aamir Khan and his team wins cricket match to abolish tax in Lagaan, Nitin and his team win Rugby game to get back the land for their college in Sye. Vijayendra Prasad provided story for Sye.

Screenplay - direction: Taking style of Rajamouli is stylish and trendy. Direction of the film is decent. He is exceptionally good in the introduction scene of the film and canning the Rugby fight at the climax. Rajamouli succeeded in canning all the episodes of Rugby game in a way where everybody can understand the basics of the game. However, Rajamouli could not establish the following points strong enough

1. Why do these two groups (Arts and Science) clash without any proper provocation? The rivalry emotions could not be established.

2. The love thread between hero and heroine.

3. How silly follies by student's gang would trick a big mafia leader.

Music: Music by MM Keeravani is good, as usual. He liberally used various English tunes (including that of 'We Will Rock You - Queen' and 'Miss Lova - Shaggy') in background music. All the songs in this film offer wide variety of tunes that range from extreme class (Ganga A/C) to extreme mass (Gutlo Vundi Bellam Mukka). From extreme melodious (Nalla Nallani) to extreme racy (Chantaina Bujjaina)! Picturization of the songs is also good. However, there are no strong situations to place the songs.

Dialogues: Dialogues by M Ratnam are adequate. There is one good inspirational dialogue in this film that lifts up the mood and spirits of climax - Otami satruvu rupamlo raadu. Bhayam roopamlo manalonunde vastundi.

Other departments: Senthil Kumar (who worked for Aithe earlier) did a tremendous job again for this film as the cinematographer. Artwork by Anand Sai is excellent. The locations chosen are good. Producer Giri has produced this film on a vast and lavish scale. Color grading is good. Editing by Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao is adequate.

Hip Stuff: This film definitely broke some barriers (with the help of censor board, ofcourse) by having certain gestures that are unheard/unseen in past telugu films

1. The 'Chantaina' song ends with chorus - Wham bham: thank you maam

2. There are quite a few scenes that have hero and his buddies showing middle fingers.

3. Use the f word directly (Rajiv Kanakala saying ****ing difficult)

Analysis: The film starts with a terrific episode. First half of the film is slow and little boring. The second half is better. Climax is good. Plus points of the film are Raja Mouli's stylish taking and MM Keeravani music. The main negative point in the film is failing in getting the emotions right till the climax of the film. The box office prospects of this film would depend on how youth embrace this film. This film opened with terrific collections.

Samba

Samba

Banner: Kodali Movies Private Limited

Cast: NTR, Bhumika Chawla, Genelia D'Souza, Prakash Raj, Vijay Kumar, Tanikella Bharani, Chalapati Rao, Ahuti Prasad, Mansoor Ali Khan, Hemanth Ravan, GV, Jessy Singh, Ali, Venu Madhav, LB Sriram, Krishna Bhagavan, Malladi Raghava, Prasanna Kumar, Brahmaji, Subbaraju, Nutan Kumar, Sameer, Master Teja, Vijay, Sitara, Sukanya, Sukumari, Vijaya Singh, Pragati, Kalyani, Shirmili, Saraswatamma, Reshmi, Baby Greeshma, Baby Abhinaya

Genre: Action

Story: GS Rao

Dialogues: Kona Venkat

Cinematography: K Ravindra Babu

Music: Mani Sharma

Art: Srinivasa Raju

Fights: Vijay

Editing: Gowtam Raju

Lyrics: Bhuvana Chandra, Chandra Bose, Sahiti & Suddala Ashok Teja

Choreography: Prabhudeva, Lawrence, Raja Sekhar, Ashok Raj

Executive producer: Arikepudi Sivaji

Producer: Kodali Nani

Screenplay - direction: VV Vinayak

Release date: 9th June 2004

Review:

Story

Dharmayya Naidu (Vijaya Kumar) lost his wife because he is uneducated. Hence he wants to felicitate education in his seema area by constructing schools. He realizes that the quarry he owns has good quality granite deposits. Samba (NTR) is the son of Dharmayya Naidu. Prakash (Prakash Raj) is the son-in-law of Dharmayya Naidu. Prakash plays the game in such a way that Dharmayya Naidu is forced to give granite quarry as a dowry to Prakash's family, due to which Dharmayya Naidu's daughter commits suicide. When Samba comes to know the reason behind his sister's suicide, he occupies the quarry and kills the brothers of Prakash. Prakash kills everybody in the house of Samba in retaliation.

Samba and his nemesis Prakash take shelter in Kanchi and Amritsir respectively as police ban them from entering AP for a year. Samba settles as a saree manufacturer and trader in Kanchi (Tamil Nadu). The rest of the story is all about how he returns to Seema and takes vengeance against Prakash and then starts serving in educational field.

Artists Performance

NTR: NTR performed extraordinarily well in emotional episodes that require tremendous screen presence and towering mass persona. His dances are peppy and are full of enthusiasm, as usual. His style of groaning when he lost his dear ones is good. His demeanor has class orientation in the first half and mass orientation in the second half. However, NTR should 'seriously' consider reducing his weight now, as it's started showing negative effect on his grace/style while doing dances.

Heroines: When NTR is the hero, the heroines do not have much role to play unless they are related to villain. Since both Bhumika Chawla and Genelia are not related to villain in this film, they do not have much to perform while sharing the screen with NTR. Bhumika is pretty good, but has a very short role. Genelia is naughty. She looked sexy while donning rose color outfits in the first dance bit of 3rd song (Tagilindirabba).

Others: There is heavy star cast in this film. Prakash Raj is good as villain. The way he pricks on the dead body of Dharmayya Naidu with knife is ghastly. Mansur Ali Khan is authentic as McDowell Mani (an evil man in Kanchi). It was Venu Madhav who created good comedy in the 1st half and Krishna Bhagawan in the second half. These guys are sidekicks of villains (Like Allu Ramalingaiah for Rao Gopal Rao in old films). Vijay Kumar, Malladi Raghava and Tanikella Bharani are adequate.

Technical Departments:

Story: The basic point of the film is about the hero fighting it out for establishing educational institutes in Rayalaseema so that the land of factionists could become the land of humanists with better education and wisdom.

Screenplay - direction: First things first! VV Vinayak has handled 6-7 episodes of the film extraordinarily. These scenes would exhilarate the crowds a lot. He managed enough to make the movie in such way that the audiences would come out of the theater in a positive mood. The direction is cool in few scenes and wild in some other scenes. He opted for ruthless bloodshed to feast the eyes of mass audiences. He also neglected the family audiences while conceiving the second half. VV Vinayak should improve his taste for the music, as music has been a weakling in most of his films. He should also concentrate on making movies that entertain all section of audiences equally good than concentrating too much on mass episodes.

Dialogues: Dialogues by Kona Venkat are good. Here are few dialogues in the film

NTR to goons (Kanchi): Cheeralu ammukune vallu kada ani cheap gaa chooste cheeresta.

NTR to Mansur Ali Khan (Kanchi): Nipputho pettukunte tagalapadi pothav. Neetitho pettukunte munigi pothav. Sambatho pettukunte chachipothav. (This is a very powerful dialogue and it would have been used more than once in this film)

Bhumika to NTR: Yesey bava! (asking NTR to hit out rowdies)

NTR to Bhumika: ardharathri peratloki raa. Muddista. Paipai chesukundam. (when NTR said paipaina twice there is very good response)

NTR: Chaduvuto rayalaseema lo factionists ni humanists chestaanu.

Other departments: Music by Mani Sharma is average. Songs picturization is good. Quality of photography by Ravindra Babu is short of what we expect from films of big stars. Luxemburg Lux Sundari song got great response as it appears when the movie is going through great tempo. Artwork by Srinivasa Raju is OK. But the colors used in the sets he erected for songs are gaudy. Fights by Vijay are good. The production values are good. However, the cost incurred to make this film is not transferred on the screen.

Analysis: First half of the film helps as a foundation for the flashback in the second half followed by subsequent climax. There is suspense value. It is the latter half of second half that unleashes the bloodbath. Second half is too heavy for normal audiences and is exhilarating for the mass audiences. There is comedy in this film, but most of it is not done by NTR, who has excellent comedy timing. The director made hero use the path of bloodbath to achieve his goal of educating people instead of choosing a soft method. Over all, Samba is a good film for masses and is a definite hit. The range of hit would be known depending on how all section of audiences receive it.