OY! Soundtrack Review (2009)

After quite some time i am listening to the tunes of Yuvan Shankar Raja.The first thing i see when i buy a music CD is the back cover to have a look at the names of singers and lyricists.The first track is sung by Siddharth and it was not a surprise to me and i am very much sure that we will see it a lot more of this in the future,weather we like it or not is an secondary issue.

Oy! Oy! :This song is written by Chandrabose and sung by Siddharth.This song gives a good instigation to the album but it is devoid of a good singer.The song could have been much better if it was sung by a professional singer rather than by Siddharth.The lyrics of this song is a disappointment as it shows the mediocre side of Chandrabose,he uses many of the catchy English words which didn’t impress me.The pace and beat of Oy! Oy! does give you some energy to listen for the next song.

..beach house lo prema devatha,
yellow chudi daar white chunni to doche naa yada..

Oy! Oy! antoo casual ga pilichero,
Oy! Oy! twenty saarlu kalalo kalisero,

Oy! Oy! Empty gunde ninda nilichero.

Oy! Oy!..Oye.Oye…..

Love at First Sight….
Naalo kalige Love at First Sight…

Saradaga :Saradaga track is sung by Karthik and Sunidhi Chauhan.This song is written by ‘Anantha Sriram’ who gives decent words.The composition by Yuvan Shankar Raja is good and shockingly Sunidhi Chauhan’s telugu has improved,she succesfully traslates the tune and her voice so elegantly that we can forget her previous telugu songs.The only thing which i cant digest is bringing Karthik and Sunidhi Chauhan together for a duet.

Waiting For You : Don’t get mislead by the title of the song,it does not contain English lyrics except ‘Waiting for you’ with good lyrics by Vanamaali.We can hear the real K.K in this song.

Anukoledenadu : Shreya Ghoshal is allowed to sing the type of song which she deserves,this solo song which is predominantly a vocal based is totally engineered by voice of Shreya Ghoshal.Vanamaali does not impress me as he writes the same old stereo-type lyrics to this song.

Povodhe Prema: After multiple hearings of ‘Povodhe Prema’ i get the feeling that Yuvan Shankar Raja composed this song for himself.The song is perfect for his voice,during the initial stage of the song he uses the piano and the guitar in the background but later he the guitar and the drums to elevate the pitch of the song.Vanamaali’s beautiful lyrics are like these…

Nannu Vadili Needa Vellipotunda…

Kannu Vadili Choopu Vellipotunda..

Vekuvane Sandhya valipotunde..

Chikatilo Udayam undi Poyinde..

…………………………..
…………………………..

Nuvvunte Nenunta Prema..
Povadhe Povadhe Prema..
…………………………

Seheri: This is the last track of ‘Oy!’ sung by Toshi and Priya.I guess this song is deliberately placed in the end of the album as to lift our spirits.If i am not wrong the lyrics are provided by Surendra Krishna and Krishna Chaitanya which contain some amount of rap in it.

The CD of ‘Oy!’ is worth its money but don’t expect much.Though ‘Oy!’ does not come any near to Yuvan Shankar Raja’s best works but definitely a good oneand i am sure that you will not be disappointed after buying the CD.

Originally published on Passionforcinema.com

BILLA(2009)

Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Don’ was madeinto Telugu and Tamil by legends N.T.Rama Rao and Rajni Kanth, recently it was again made in Tamil by Ajith as ‘Billa’ and now in telugu we see it again as BILLA starring Prabhas. From the above mentioned facts it’s clear that the script of DON by ‘Salim-Javed’ doesn’t grow by time and is acceptable by any generation.

Prabhas looks apt for the role of a Don in BILLA and the only one in Telugu Film Industry who can this role. Looks like Meher Ramesh is inspired by Farhan Akthar’s DON rather than original one. Most of BILLA is directed in Malaysia and many scenes are quite similar to Farhan Akthar’s DON.

We have an introduction scene of Prabhas where he carries a suitcase which is in slow motion, even after the introduction scene we see many slow motion scenes and the adjective behind them is quite understandable. Prabhas(Billa) is very fond of Sun Glasses and always likes to wear them and if he doesn’t have one, he picks it from his body guard. The six-pack body of Prabhas is illustrated in the film and even during the six pack scene we see sun glasses on Prabhas eyes. 

In Billa we can watch many Mirrors being broken, lot of bullets being shot and only one hits the target, Cars being blown up and fly into the air, Polices bikes and Cars perform Circus stunts, small exhibition of guns ,A Ferrari is thrown into a lake , etc…

Prabhas who carried some flavor of originality in his previous film ‘Bujjigadu’ does try to make his impression and succeeds in making it but it’s the character and the slang of ‘Bujjigadu’ helps him rather than the character of Billa. Meher Ramesh added some comedy in the film and Prabhas is very good at the execution of the comedy which is some sought of relief. Krishnam Raju makes an OK kind of justification to his role as a police officer and the twists in the film are not hidden very well.

The plot and the characters are well known and the direction of Meher Ramesh is mediocre as he could not totally understand the essence of Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Don’. The fights do not come at the right time and are tedious and the songs are just a vanilla flavor addition to the film. The music of Mani Sharma is disappointing. Namita and Anushka are character fillers and surprisingly we see Prabhas taking about the excess weight of Namita in the film.

There are two very good and genuine scenes in BILLA apart from that BILLA is an average film, the one guy who gains from BILLA is Prabhas for his comic sense and he is only one who can fit into the character.

Originally published on Passionforcinema.com

BOMMARILLU and its Side Effects

Whenever i watch a movie with my friends in a DVD player,laptop or in a PC something intresting comes for us to discuss as we have the liberty to pause while watching the movie,the discussions which we have range from casual conversations to high degree altercations.Sometimes i wonder,how many interjections and perceptions can be drawn from a single movie.

Yesterday i was watching a Telugu film BOMMARILLU with some of my friends and one of them was a Bengali who hardly speaks telugu,after watching he said that to me “the best film i have seen in the recent past”.BOMMARILLU without any doubt breaks the boundary of language .In this article i am not writing a review of BOMMARILLU instead i am trying to point some unfortunate side effects of the film.Curiosity in me asked to search articles on BOMMARILLU in PFC and surprisingly i did not find any article and my thought of writing an article on BOMMARILLU started to take a shape.BOMMARILLU lovers may hate this article,if you guys feel that you might be offended then DO NOT PROCEED.

Every telugu guy and girl LOVE BOMMARILLU and its very much possible that most of the parents HATE BOMMARILLU for obvious reasons.The heart and core of BOMMARILLU is the relationship between a father and his son played Prakash Raj (Aravind) and Siddharth Narayan (Siddu) respectively,Genelia D’Souza (Hasini) plays the love interest of Siddu.

The character ‘Siddu’ looks slightly complicated when we observe it meticulously but trying to understand the directors point of view is very important,Siddu is provided with all the resources but at the cost of his fathers taste.As we see in the film that every decision,even the decision of his marriage is taken by his father.and as Siddu does not have the freedom of expression he is obviously not happy happy with his father but he does not hate his father because Siddu is aware of the fact that even though he is not allowed to chose anything in his life but his father is trying to give him the best without considering his son’s opinions.Apart from the fear which he has towards his father,Siddu has the audacity in him to tell his father about his girl friend and eventually makes her stay in his house for one week and Siddu is concious that he is engaged to another girl.Siddu could have eloped with Hasini but he didn’t because he has some amount of confidence somewhere in his heart and some RESPECT towards his father.

The character ‘Hasini’ which is loved and adored by almost everyone who have seen BOMMARILLU and it is not as simple as it seems to be. Hasini is a Happy-go-Lucky girl and likes to mingle with everyone.The greatest ingredient which Hasini possess is Innocence which has been wonderfully played by Genelia D’Souza.When Hasini comes to know that Siddu is engaged to another women she does not accept him directly but instead she has her own doubts in her mind about Siddu and when she is aware of the fact that Siddu is not accepting her as she used to be in the later part of the film she very explicitly and painfully rejects Siddu , Hasini is not only innocent but an Intelligent girl too and takes the right decisions at the right time.Innocence does not strictly mean that its the hybrid of childish and cool nature.Hasini is not a DUMB girl in BOMMARILLU ,but a girl who likes to her herself who does not want to be a artificial girl.

Both ‘Hasini’ and ‘Siddu’ respect their fathers and are very aware and concious of the situations.

UNFORTUNATE SIDE EFFECTS of BOMMARILLU :

Side Effects on BOYS:
# Eight out of Ten (8 out of 10) guys say that their father is like Prakash Raj (Aravind) which i don’t think its true.
# If a guy is not provided with a bike he tells his friends that his father is like Prakash Raj (Aravind).
# If a father asks his son to join a job rather than studying M.S in U.S.A he accuses him to be BOMMARILLU father without even thinking of the financial situation.

Side Effects on GIRLS:
# Most of the girls after watching BOMMARILLU are trying to wear the same type of costumes,bands,etc… like Hasini , which makes me feel ‘how can these girls have such a bad dressing sense’.
# Some girls who hardly used to talk have started talking a lot.Sometimes i wonder ‘What the hell is she talking?’
# Some girls are trying to exude innocence which they don’t have and they make fool of themselves.
# ‘Hasini’ likes to be natural and hates to be artificial,but most of the girls are leaving their natural presence and are trying to be artificial by emulating ‘Hasini’.Whenever i see such a women i feel that ‘Why is she making a JACKASS of herself’?.

Even after almost 1000 days of its release,the film BOMMARILLU makes me feel that it is released yesterday .Many say that script is the real hero for a successful film,in BOMMARILLU apart from the wonderful script we feel the freshness in the narration and direction.The honesty in the film is also an important aspect as it touches all the emotional structures of a family and an individual without any compromise formula.After BOMMARILLU got released in telugu it was made in Tamil,Bengali and Oriya due to my convictions i did not watch any of the other versions and i am now eagerly waiting to watch it as ‘It’s My Life’ starring ‘Harman Baweja’ and ‘Genelia D’Souza’.

Originally Published on Passionforcinema.com