Weekend movies - Anukokunda Oka Roju and Azhwar

Anukokunda Oka Roju - This was a movie that has been in my to-be-watched list for a while. I first read about the movie in Teakada where it had gotten a glowing review. Then, one of my Telugu friends, when I asked him to suggest a couple of good Telugu movies to watch, he mentioned Athadu and this one. Athadu did not disappoint me, since I loved the rich production quality of the movie and Prince Mahesh Babu's action in it. So, when I started watching this one, I was in my 'this is going to be a great movie' mood and after watching it, this movie had blown me away. This movie had everything that I love about watching a movie. Highest quality in every aspect of film-making, catchy music, commendable acting by everyone involved, tightly knit screenplay and well-defined characterizations. The last point in particular was what I loved the movie, more than anything. There is this huge plethora of characters in the movie but every single character has been so well etched out that every single character remained consistent throughout the movie. The suspense in the movie is beautifully handled almost till the final shot in the movie, which also ends with a short message. Not the usual in your face message but a subtle reminder to the audience that the whole plot of the movie was bcos of that one issue of drugs. The screenplay belongs to the ones we have seen in movies like Flavors and Crash where there are parallel threads going on simultaneously in the movie and at the end of it all, each one of the dots are connected in a very convincing manner. The songs in the movie were another plus. Except for one song, all the others were neatly woven into the screenplay. Simply loved them. Charmi does a great job, except in the scenes where she acts drunk in which she is absolutely mediocre. The guy who comes in as the Police inspector is such an interesting character, what with himself carrying juice packs all through the movie. Cinematography is excellent, with the mood of the scenes captured brilliantly by the cameraman. On the whole, a highly satisfying movie and As far as I am concerned, this is one movie whose DVD will go surely go into my DVD collection. So, if you are a non-Telugu speaking person like me on the lookout for some good Telugu movies, then this is a good one to start with.

Azhwar - Well, we all have our differences of opinion when it comes to a movie. Some of us like a given movie while some of us don't. For example, most of us liked 7GRC whereas there are some of us (like me) who simply hated the movie. The same can be said about a whole list of movies where people's opinion on a movie has differed. But rarely has it happened that the only 2 opinions that all of us have about a particular movie are these – bad and very very bad. Azhwar bags the coveted prize of being such a movie. The movie is a complete joke, rivaling even of some our captain's movies on the entertainment value scale. Ajith could have stopped this movie so much before the shooting of the movie actually started. For example, had he asked the simple question to the director as to why the movie has been named so, the director's answer should have been reason enough to abandon the movie. OK, so he didn’t ask that question and the shooting of the movie started. Ajith gets to wear the God make-up. If he had only seen himself in the mirror, he would have had another opportunity to stop the movie, right then and there. OK, lets take it that he didn’t see himself in the mirror. What next? If he had gone through the so-called script which has downright funny dialogues like Namma oor-la irukka ellaa maaru vesham pottavangaluyam pidichittu vaanga, he could have stopped the movie then. I seriously can’t understand how Ajith was unable to realize what a disaster of a movie this will turn out to be. Asin walks away with the most stupidest, irritating and annoying role ever done by her. Again can't understand the logic behind her agreeing to do this role. The film was so bad that Vivek's below-par comedy was the only relief now and then. One good (and bad) thing about Ajith is that he gives chances to a lot of debut directors to direct him. Though it has produced a Murugadoss here and Durai there, most of the other attempts have resulted in utterly pointless movies (like this one). Well, Ajith can do something better to help these debut directors – stop giving offers to directors like this guy who are clearly not ready to make a movie of their own, so that they can go back to the drawing board as an assistant director and learn more about the basic things in film-making before returning to making films on their own. By not doing that and accepting stupid movies like these, he is only ruining the careers of some of these budding directors bcos the first movie of any director is their litmus test and if they fail that, it is going to be one uphill battle from then on. Bottom-line – watch it with friends to get the most laughs out of this supposedly serious movie. Worst movie in recent times, beating Vallavan and Chennai Kaadhal