- Sreya Sunil

Rebel Star Krishnam Raju's brother's son Prabhas and yesteryear's damsel Manjula's youngest daughter Sreedevi, who acted as a child artiste in a couple of movies, make their debut as hero and heroine with Eeswar under the direction of Jayanth C Paranjee. Jayanth, who has earlier introduced Anjala Zhaveri [Preminchukundam Raa], Preity Zinta [Premante Idera], Lisa Ray and Bipasha Basu [Takkari Donga] to the Telugu screen, now launches Prabhas and Sreedevi. His last movie Takkari Donga, in spite of being a different [cowboy genre] movie collapsed miserably at the box office. One hopes to see Jayanth return with a renewed vigor in this movie produced by K Ashok Kumar.

RP Patnaik teams for the first time with Jayanth to deliver music for Sirivennela's lyrics in this album. If RP's last album Nee Sneham displayed the brilliance of both Sirivennela and RP in almost equal proportions, this album has RP taking a back seat compared to Sirivennela's lyrics. While most of the tunes can be termed as above average, some songs stand out mainly because of Sirivennela's lyrics that convey a lot of emotions in simple words.

1. Ameer Peta (Listen)
Sirivennela's lyrics talk about the freedom and joy of a common man's life juxtaposing it with the constrained life of the great and even the God. The hero is based in Dhool pet [in the old city area of Hyderabad] and hence Sirivennela makes a liberal usage of Hindi words in this song where the hero seems to be giving a piece of his mind to a stubborn someone. RP packs this song with many beats including the beats of 'bonalu' festival celebrated in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. When not going over board at times, RP seems to have done an okay job as the singer.

2. Gundello Vaalana (Listen)
A hearty song with the sound of heartbeat laced throughout the song. While the hero is not able to express his love directly to the girl, the girl prods him to 'open up'. Sirivennela's words beautifully express the helplessness of the hero and at the same time brings out the mischief loving attitude of the heroine aptly. Allow Rajesh and Usha to take you on a pleasant journey to love land and while you are aboard, don't forget to pay attention to Sirivennela's words, especially in the stanzas.

3. Dhindhirana (Listen)
A love duet that sounds like a fusion of semi-classical music and beat based music. Rajesh and Usha are at their best in this song. Sirivennela writes about the excitement of two lovers with ease. RP does a good job of combining the richness of semi classical music and the style of beat based western music in this song.

4. Innaallu (Listen)
Another love duet which sounds like an extension of RP's earlier soft love duets. Rajesh and Usha do their job well. Sirivennela's words are okay. The popularity of this song is directly dependent on its picturization and placement in the movie.

5. Kotaloni Rani (Listen)
This song sounds so much like 'Seetakoka Chiluka' song of Avunu Valliddaru Istapaddaru. The original was not popular and one wonders why RP had to copy such a song than coming up with an original tune. Rajesh, Usha, Kousalya, Lenina, Nihal and RP sing this one. Apart from Rajesh's and Usha's good rendition, its Sirivennela's lyrics that push this one to a higher rating. Though the situation [Hero, living in penury, falling for a girl whose life is all flowery; Heroine's parents opposing their love; Heroine walking out of her palace into the poor basti of the hero; Hero and Heroine's reason for love becoming a reason for rejoice to the basti people] is clichéd, Sirivennela's words are far from being clichéd.

6. Olammo Olammo (Listen)
This time RP borrows from one of his own compositions. This one sounds like the 'Bandi bandi railubandi' song from Jayam. RP and Usha lend voices in this song, which is sung by the basti residents [on screen] during the marriage celebrations of the hero and the heroine in the basti of the hero. This song again has Sirivennela making a justifiable usage of Hindi words.

Apart from the above songs, there is one music bit titled Thillana, in the album.

Yet another star kid makes his 'faithful' entry into the magical world of movies accompanied by the daughter of yesteryear's popular heroine with this movie. Before you get the tone in those words wrong, let me make one thing clear. That statement was not a complaint. Rather, it was a statement enunciating the kind of consortium the film industry has become of stars, their kith and kin (read kids). Doctors and Cine actors, I guess, induce in the minds of their kids (right from their childhood) a predilection towards their professions. As you sow so shall you reap. So the star kids (irrespective of a proper honing and perfect tuning) march into the field aiming at the boundaries. Some of them score, and some don't. But what matters the most is playing than scoring, right? So here's wishing Prabhas and Sreedevi a good luck from all of us at idlebrain.com.

Sreya's Picks: Gundello Vaalana, Dhindhirana

Click here to read the other articles by Sreya Sunil

Other audio reviews by Sreya Sunil
Nee Sneham
Bobby
Nuvve Nuvve
Gemini
Chenna Kesava Reddy
Okato Number Kurraadu
Sontham
Baba
Holi
Avunu Valliddaru Ista Paddaru
Allari Ramudu
Indra
Jayam
Sreeram
Kanulu Moosina Neevaye
Vasu
Santosham

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