17th May 2005

It is good to see two good movies “Athanokkade” and “Bhadra” released in a gap of one week. I watched both the movies during the last week and I wanted to write this article about both the movies.

Incidentally both of these movies were made by debutant directors and both the directors seem to have excellent shot making abilities. Surendar made “Athanokkade” and “Bhadra” was made by Boyapati Seenu. Whereas “Athanokkade” has been declared a super hit film right from day one, there is a bit of confusion regarding “Bhadra”. However the confusion has been cleared now and I would like to mention that both the films are well made films and both the films are unanimously emerging as box office hits.

Many believed that the hero of “Athanokkade” Kalyan Ram has it in him to become a big star and he was just waiting for the right film to come by his way. “Athanokkade” was the right film that came his way. Actually this film did not come his way…as Kalyan Ram made this film come his way by producing this film himself. Director Surendar carries great potential and seems to have a good penchant for making Action based movies. Sindhu Tolani was excellent in the movie. Cinematography by Ram Prasad was good. Good set work, Action sequences and slick editing helped the movie immensely.

The story for this film is not new, but the screenplay of the movie was very good and good amount of suspense was maintained in several scenes like the Heroine making her first kill and as to why Kalyan Ram was on a killing spree. However when compared to the first half the screenplay in the second half of the movie was not as strong.

It would be very important for Kalyan Ram to choose his future films. I would advise him to bear in mind that with a big mass image comes a huge liability on his forth coming films and he should take necessary steps so that he does not get entangled with mass image where his past films becomes his future’s films liabilities. Among the current young stars, we can see several live examples of this.

Coming to “Bhadra” this was the third successive hit delivered by Raju in a row after “Dil” and “Arya”. Raju has joined MS Raju (Okkadu, Varsham, Nuvvu Vasthanante Nenu Vadhdhantaana) in delivering three consecutive hits. Maybe the name “Raju” may prove lucky for producers. It was quite a while since the hero of the film Ravi Teja gave a confirmed super hit. The previous hit films of Ravi Teja that immediately comes to mind are “Itlu Sravani Subramanyam”, “Avunu Vallu Idhdharu Istapaddaru”, “Idiot” and “Amma Nanna Oka Tamil Ammayi”. Incidentally all of these movies except “Avunu Vallu idhdharu Istapaddaru” (Made by Vamsi) were made by Puri Jagannath. Some of his movies like “Dongodu”, “Veedey” and “Venki” were films that generated positive talk but finally ended up as average flicks. All of Ravi Teja’s previous hit films were backed by good story; screenplay, music and some fine treatment by the film’s director and one can say that Ravi Teja got immensely benefited from those movies. Bhadra might end up being his first super hit where one of the prime reasons for the film being hit is a highly stylized and spirited performance from Ravi Teja. Of course a single factor can never make a film hit. The other reasons for the film to become a hit are the slick screenplay and direction from Boyapati Seenu. The screenplay for Bhadra is very tight and generates enough suspense to keep the audience glued to their seats.

Of course when it comes to the story line for Bhadra, one can’t help compare this film’s storyline to that of Gunasekhar’s “Okkadu”, where the main point of the film is the Hero in the film rescuing the Heroine and the bad guys are on the look out for either the Hero (As in Bhadra) or the Heroine (As in Okkadu). But “Okkadu” is not the first movie where the Heroine runs (elopes) with the Hero. The classic tale of “Helen of Troy” is based on this plot only. The screenplay for Bhadra is done quite differently than Okkadu so that “Bhadra” gives a different feeling than “Okkadu”.

The stunts in the movie carried an emotional touch and were choreographed very effectively. Cinematography by Arthur A Wilson was very stylish. Makeup for Pradeep Rawat should have been slightly different so that one would not get a feeling that he walked directly from the film “Sye” into this film. Meera Jasmine, Prakash Raj, Deepak suited their roles perfectly.

Background music played an important part in the success of both the movies.

The film industry has been very thirsty for hits and these two movies are sure to quench the thirst to some extent. This year the summer has also been very hot and people are waiting for the first rains to fall. While we wait for the first rains to fall, we can all enjoy “Athanokkadey Bhadra”.

Sriram Thota
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