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Movie review - Manmadhudu
Nagarjuna
Manmadhudu
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Credits

Jeevi rating: 4.5/5
Punchline
: Hilarious comedy
Genre: Love
Banner: Annapurna Studios
Cast
: Nagarjuna Akkineni, Sonali Bendre, Anshu, Chandra Mohan, Tanikella Bharani, Brahmanandam, Sunil, Balayya, Ranganath, Jaya Prakash Reddy, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam, Ananth, Melkote, Sudha & Swapna Madhuri
Story - Dialogues: Trivikram
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Songs: Sirivennela Seetarama Sastry
Art: V Srinivasa Raju
Choreography: Raja Sekhar, Raju Sundaram, Shankar
Cinematography: Sameer Reddy
Editing: Sreekar Prasad
Co-director: B Subbarao
Producer: Nagarjuna Akkineni
Screenplay - Direction: K Vijaya Bhaskar
Probable release date: 20th December 2002

Review

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Story

Abhiram (Nagarjuna) is a manager in his own ad agency. He hates women and he feels that all women are traitors. Abhiram's uncle (Tanikella Bharani), who is the chairman of the ad agency, appoints Harika (Sonali Bendre) as an assistant manager. Though Abhiram does not like a girl joining his company, he has to live with it as the appointment is made by his uncle (Tanikella Bharani). He starts mistreating her. Harika, vexed by Abhiram's acts, submits her resignation to Abhi's uncle, who then narrates the flashback of Abhiram to Harika.

Abhi is born with a golden spoon. Abhi is raised by his grandfather (Balayya) as his parents die soon after the birth of Abhi. Abhi falls in love with Maheswari (Anshu), who is the niece of an employee (Chandra Mohan) in Abhi's grandfather's company. Alarmed by this, Chandra Mohan takes her away to his home town and arranges pelli choopulu with another guy. Abhi travels all the way to the venue and takes Maheswari away. While traveling back, they met with an accident. After 10 days, when Abhi comes out of coma, he is told that Maheswari is about to marry some other guy. Shocked by this news, Abhi develops hatred towards women.

After narrating the flashback, Abhi's uncle promotes Harika to Manager position and demotes Abhi to Assistant Manager position. The rest of the story is all about how Abhi falls in love with Harika.

Artists:

Nagarjuna: Nagarjuna is extremely gorgeous in this film. He looks very elegant in those business outfits. He looks strikingly attractive and youthful in the flashback episode. The costumes for the flashback episode for Nagarjuna are of two types. One type is the khaadi/silk kind of modern shirts on jeans. The other type is the ones he used to wear for films like Shiva. Nagarjuna has gone a step ahead in terms of handling comedy scenes. His body language, gestures, mannerisms are very well utilized to generate comedy. Nagarjuna single-handedly generated comedy in first half. Brahmanandam and Sunil come in second half for a few scenes. He did extremely well in a couple of pathos scenes as well. This charmer of Charminar mesmerizes you with his enchanting presence on the screen.

Sonali Bendre: Sonali Bendre is pretty good and she is a perfect match for Nagarjuna in terms of screen presence. She exhibited her ease in doing the role of a working woman. Her histrionics are just perfect. Sunitha's dubbing suited her.

Anshu: The London based NRI girl looks OK. But director's tender characterization for her role takes her performance to new heights. There is innocence in her character and she suited well to that role. The voice dubbed for her role is very much similar to that of Laya's voice and its very apt.

Other Cast: Tanikella Bharani has got an excellent character of a supporting uncle in this film. He exhibited a fine balance in voice modulation and emotions. Brahmanandam did a cameo role of 'Lavanga' (a French NRI). The episodes featuring him and Nag together are extremely hilarious. Sunil has done another wonderful character. He acted as 'Banku Seenu' and his serious gestures and underplayed dialogue delivery makes us laugh our heart out. Chandra Mohan donned the role of a loyal manager. Dharmavarapu Subramanyan played another hilarious 3-scene role in this film as a seller of secret-mike devices. All artists in the film are utilized for generating optimal output.

Technical Departments:

Story: Its a typical Trivikram story i.e. heroine falls in with hero only after her engagement is completed. Another striking similarity in Trivikram's stories is that all the climaxes involve the hero getting heroine back when she is getting married to another guy. The story has ANR trademark in it. (ANR is shown as playboy in films who later falls in love with a single girl)

Screenplay - Direction: The hallmark in Vijaya Bhaskar's direction is completeness and sensibility. He is as good as Yash Chopra for handling sensible films involving human relations glorifying cinematic grammar. The way he portrays Teluguness in characterizations makes you feel that the story is happening in your home/neighborhood. Vijaya Bhaskar proved his mettle again with 'Manmadhudu'.

Dialogues: Trivikram infused life and abundant comedy into film with his witty dialogues. At the same time, there are gems of dialogues that tell you the facts of life. He knows how to play with the words and he writes repartee dialogues with nice rhyme.

Music: Music by Devi Sri Prasad is excellent. Even the background score is pretty good. The picturization of the songs have elevated the audio of Manmadhudu.

Costumes: Costimes by Asmita (photo) for Nagarjuna are awesome. She has also provided costumes for Nagarjuna in 'Santosham'.

Songs: Songs in this film come in the following order

1. Dont Marry: This song comes at a marriage function. Nagarjuna attends the marriage of his employee and exposes the perils of getting married. It's a group song with Nagarjuna being the center of attraction. A highlight in this song is when nag talks about his old friend 'shiva', Nagarjuna appears in Shiva getup with a cycle chain and acts in a skit with Rekha (Anandam fame) as his wife. He again appears in the combination of Keerti Chawla (Aadi fame) when he says 'aa malli gadu'. Overall it's an exciting song that preaches the philosophy behind Nag's hatred for women.

2. Nenu nenuga lene: This song comes at a birthday party of hero in the flashback. Nagarjuna expresses his tender feelings of love for Anshu at this party. Nag teases Anshu in his demure style. Anshu is lovely in this song as a girl smitten by love bug.

3. Gundello Emundo: This song comes when Nag invites Anshu for a midnight meet. This song is shot in the lush greenery of France. A slow song with stylish steps.(photo)

4. Naa Manasune: This song comes when Nagarjuna and Sonali realize that they have feelings for each other when they are in Paris. Another melodious song with slow steps. (photo)

5. Andamaina Bhamalu: This is the best song of the film when it comes to the kind of whistles it got from frontbenchers. This song is placed at an apt situation. This song comes when Nagarjuna is upset with Sonali. He wants to show his indifference to Sonali by dancing with other damsels in his office.(photo)

6. Chelia Chelia: This song comes as a lead to climax. This song has two different things twined. One is about hero traveling to heroine's marriage venue by using all kind of vehicles (ranging from a posh car to a bullock cart). The other one is a romantic fast dance between Nagarjuna and Sonali dressed in black.(photo)

Photography: Photography of Sameer Reddy is excellent. And credit goes to him for showing Nagarjuna extra-glamorous. The lighting in this film is very consistent.

Production: The return of Annapurna Studios in to film production turned out to be a successful one. The total credit goes to Nagarjuna Akkineni for hiring the right people and selecting the right script.

Analysis:
First half of the film is extremely entertaining (total comedy + flashback romance). And second half (comedy + story) is better than first half. If I had to write anything disturbing about this film, there is only one point. The climax of the film is shown in a very simple way with a single Sunil dialogue on cell phone 'Nanna! Nenu Banku. Pellikuthuru Jumpu'. People, expecting a prolonged climax might find this one to be an abrupt one. Other than this single remark, the entire film is excellent. 95% of the scenes in the film are comedy dialogues. There are few sentiment scenes. But these very few sentiment scenes are bound to leave impact on you. Nagarjuna dominated the show and won accolades from audiences. It's a must recommended hilarious film for all Telugu film lovers.

Comparison: When director and hero have latest hits behind their back, the comparison is inevitable. This film is definitely better than Santosham (Nagarjuna's earlier film). Manmadhudu is as good as Nuvvu Naaku Nachav (Vijaya Bhaskar's earlier film).

Trade Talk: This film has got hit talk from the word 'go'. Classes and female audiences would love this film. But we have to wait and see how masses from B and C centers receive it.

Related Links:
Trailers
Juke Box
Sreya Audio review
Photo Gallery
Wall Papers
Mega Posters
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Press Meet details on 7th November
Press Meet details on 5th December

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>End of Manmadhudu Review
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