Movie: Mouna Raagam
My Rating: 2/5
Banner: Sri Saideva Productions
Music: S A Rajkumar
Cinematography: Shaman Mitru
Editing: Goutham Raju
Producers: N V Prasad, S. Naga Ashok Kumar
Story,Screenplay & Direction: Vijay Balaji
Cast: Tanish, Madhurima, Suhasini, Venu, Chandramohan, M S, Ali, Jeeva, AVS, Dharmavarapu, Hema, Madhavi etc
Release Date: 8th Apr 2010

Review

Story

Chandu (Tanish) is in deep love with his maradalu Kaveri (Suhasini) and does many sacrifices for her since childhood. She grows up, gets a job but dumps Chandu because of his poor status. In between this comes Sandhya (Madhurima) who has got a flashback of her own and she stays with Chandu due to unavoidable circumstances. When Chandu is shattered due to Kaveri’s words, Sandhya gives him strength and together they decide to beat the odds in life. Whether they are successful or not forms the rest of the story.

Artists Performance:

Tanish has emoted well at many places and fits the role to gain sympathy but then he has to improvise on his dubbing. The voice still sounds childish; Tanish must modulate it and make it sound like a man’s voice.

Madhurima looks absolutely stunning and has a lot of oomph and appeal. Her comfort in front of the camera is also high. All she needs is a break with a big banner and she has bright future. Telugu Movie Reviews

Suhasini has a very high dose of homely sex appeal and has made good use of her presence.

Venu tried his best to bring few laughs, Ali was brief, Dharmavarapu had a serious role, M S Narayana was regular, Hema, Ramaprabha, Madhavi and others did their bit as required. The youngster doing the role of Gautam has good personality but not the right kind of looks. Jeeva was effective. Kasi Viswanath came and went.

Final Analysis:

There was a bike sentient in the movie ‘Ride’ that brought success for Tanish. Now there is bike concept in this movie’s script as well (with heroine Madurima’s character) and that might have inspired Tanish to some extent to sign on this film.

The film is more of a ‘pulisina perugu’ theme. The director realizes the importance of sentiment and heart feeling and refers it as Curd rice. Undoubtedly, he was right in that and he gets that on the screen through one of his character but then he must realize that the curd has to be fresh and not 3-4 days old.

Looking at the film, one gets a feeling of the late 90s. We have seen that in movies like ‘Raja’ and the other one with Srikanth and Soundarya. Secondly, the film was dragged at unwanted places due to which the feel at the right scene got missed.

For instance, the climax scene where the bike is launched, it looks like a sentimental skit of entertainment before the real program begins. It doesn’t fit the climax part and loses momentum.

Overall, the film was good at few places and had a message to convey but the depth was missing in it. Lyrics were good, cinematography was ok, dialogues were plain, screenplay was average. Commercially, the presence of Madhurima will pull some crowds and few sequences will touch few young hearts but overall, it will require a great deal of publicity to take it to the success mark.

VERDICT : Below Average

Movie: Maro Charitra
My Rating: 2.75/5
Banner: Sri Venkateshwara Creations
Music: Mickey J Meyer
Story : K Balachander
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Producers: Dil Raju, Sirish
Screenplay, Cinematography & Direction: Kodi Rama Krishna
Cast: Varun Sandesh, Anita, Shraddha Das, Adarsh, Prathap Pothan, Urvashi, Naresh, Kota, Venu etc
Release Date: 25th Mar 2010

Review

Story

Set on the backdrop of US, Balu (Varun) comes home discontinuing his course at college and chances upon his neighbor girl Swapna (Anita).

It is love at first sight for both but trouble is with Balu’s father (Prathap) and Swapna’s mother, America Durga (Urvasi). Anyhow, both of them come to a formal agreement in front of their parents that they will not see, talk, meet each other for one full year to prove their love.

What happens in that year, whether they are successful in their love test or not forms the rest of the story. Telugu Movie Reviews

Artists Performance:

Varun Sandesh is energetic as usual and fits the bill of a desi US lad. However, he must put on some flesh to get that manly look and that will help him for the future. He must also control his body language during emotional scenes to show maturity.

Anita is sweet looking and has a natural sex appeal in her. She has the potential to grow but she has to change her dubbing artist. Performance and glamour is proportionate to her in this movie but her character was not etched out strongly.

Shraddha Das has a meaty role and she has shown the actress inside her unlike the regular sex doll image. She looked elegant and level headed.

Adarsh is an apt choice for a negative role, he has the right kind of attitude for such roles. One can see more of him in the coming days.

Prathap Pothan was standard, Urvashi did her bit as required but something is not right about her dubbing artist, Thalaivasal Vijay was not used to the fullest, Kota was as usual, Venu was brief, the lady doing Varun’s mother’s role was neat and timing was good.

Highlights:
Cinematography
Music (although ‘ye teega poovuno..’ and ‘bhale bhale magaadivoy..’ are inferior to original tracks)
Heroine (credit goes to make up, costume and camera departments)

Disappointments:
Mishandling second half
Screenplay hiccups in maintaining emotion graph
Dubbing given to heroine and Urvasi

Final Analysis:

The movie fails to bring in the emotional depth that is required. The audiences get connected to the scenic beauty on screen and the quality presentation but not to the spirit of content.

Certainly, this movie is not for masses. The youth audiences try to connect to some extent but the last few minutes make them laugh at the emotion that is depicted instead of shedding tears. Here are a few scenes those make audience crack jokes and get digressed from the narration.

Hero and heroine recognize each other with heart beat. The scene can be used for perfume Ad but not so fitting here.

Heroine’s father starts giving a speech when he sees her daughter jumping into Niagara along with her boy friend. After his speech, he starts weeping….(audiences laughed at this scene conception).

Shradhdha Das’ character got elevated when she sacrifices her love. Audiences got connected to her grief. But immediately when Babu (Kota Sreenivasa Rao) expresses his feeling with a dramatic liner, the graph has fallen down.

On a whole, the first half of the movie sounds normal and second half suffers with many ups and downs in graph.

The movie can be watched just for witnessing some quality presentation and well canned songs but not for an emotional ride. Locations in USA are rightly exploited by camera.

VERDICT : Disappointment