Cast: Rana Daggubati, Priya Anandh, Richa Gangopadhyay,  Kota Srinivasan Rao, Suhasini Mani Ratnam, Tanikella Bharani
Crew: Director – Shekhar Kammula, Producer – AVM Productions, Music – Mickey J Meyar, Lyricst – Veturi Sundararama Murthy

To start with, the theme used for the titles was interesting. We see a vague sketch taking shape in the background and by the time the director’s name appears, it unfolds to being the state assembly.

The movie opens with a bang, not a very exciting one though. The bang came from a bomb blast, an attempt to assassinate the CM. I would not uncover the plot here but would comment on what I liked and what could be better amidst the hype and the wait for the movie.

The lead role: Rana looked to have a mature stance and his dialogue delivery is a big plus. But he lacked the sensitivity and expression that one would expect from a ‘Leader’. He is good given that he is a debutant, but the debutants that featured in ‘happy days’ (another of Shekar Kammula’s movie) were so much better. In fact there were many scenes/situations in Leader where one would expect a dialogue or a fitting expression from the role (Arjun Prasad, son of assassinated CM). I would not say the actor was not capable, but the skill was not demanded and exploited by the director.

The actresses: I’m guessing that they are both are debutants. Priya Anand’s role (Ratna Prabha a TV reporter) was not only completely unnecessary & irrelevant, it was also irritating to see her inappropriate and untimely dialogues. Ratna Prabha disappears without a hint or a reason in the middle of the second half. Richa Gangopadhyayv (I cant recall her role’s name) also happens to be a media person (owns  a TV channel I guess..) who stays alone as she doesn’t like her politician father. While she looks pretty and carried herself well through the movie, her role has not much to contribute to the plot. All in all, the girls were only there to fill in.

The others: While Kota Srinivasan Rao is a high capability actor, his role too in the movie as a political party head was mere. Tanikella Bharini another veteran actor, did well as CM’s chief secretary but again, his capabilities were not exploited. The only role I thought was well pictured was Suhasini’s. She played Raajamma, Arjun Prasad’s mom. But then, the director killed her towards the end without a reason or a purpose.

The Plot: Arjun Prasad becomes CM with an aim of removing ‘corruption’ and ‘caste system’ in the state. He decides that solely on the request of his mother and a dying father. The plan is to play politics and gain power and then use that power to bring back money from corrupt politicians and distribute it to the people. If you thought that this was a serious affair and expected to see some genuine activity in that direction, wait, you’re in for disappointment. There is so much inappropriate sentiment, drama, insensitively put in romance. Udhaya Bhanu’s item number, the extended romance with a TV reporter, the vague and lack luster political discussions, are clear examples of attempts to drag the movie on.Towards the end however, the movie seemed to have gained some pace, but only to end abruptly. One doesn’t realize really why was Arjun Prasad a Leader? And where did the idea of removing ‘caste system’ go?

The closest comparison I could draw for this sort of a movie would be ‘Oke Okkadu’ (one-day-CM movie starring Arjun, made by Shankar). On comparison Oke Okkadu outshines Leader in every department, especially in the plot.

The Music: Micky J Mayer proves once again that he is an outstanding music composer. Add to this the beautiful lyrics by Veturi. The remake (sort of) of Maa telugu talli ki was path breaking, and the title song was equally as brilliant. My personl favorite is ‘Sreelu Pongina’, but I did not find it appropriate for where it was used in the movie (When Raajamma dies). Vandematarm makes for a great listening but was again used at inappropriate places. In fact I believe music from ‘Leader’ is great as a music album rather than film track. Perhaps the movie did not have enough scope to employ such stirring music.

Cinematography: I consider cinematography a very important factor in determining the visual quality of a movie. While most of the movie was pretty ordinary in this aspect, I found the slow-motion scenes in while Arjun Prasad walks are far too many. They fail to create the effect since the theme surrounding them did not call for a slow motion sequence. If one observes the assembly scenes, shots from the rear show not more than five seat columns while those from the front show more than a dozen. While the CM spoke, they were looking at an angle away from where the CM was looking while all of them faced the Speaker. This was probably a result of a flimsy attempt to create the scenes artificially instead of shooting for real.

A few bits ‘walk into the public’ towards the end of the movie were good. At the same time, the shot that shows a campaign meeting in Warangal was absolutely artificial and visible so; and so was the swear in ceremony where the public was completely artificial, in white clothes as it would be if it were shot in the fifties. This I would say killed the spirit of film making in the cinematography department.

What I liked in the movie was that the ’songs’ were a part of the movie rather than separate bits that are plugged in as in most Indian movies. The movie publicity campaigns on TV and Radio are innovative and encouraging.

Recommendations: If you want to see Leader, go with no expectations. Its difficult not to have expectations because its a Shekar Kammula movie and the music is wonderful. but if you expect to see something revolutionary/outstanding/intellectually pleasing, you’d be disappointed.

Conclusions:

• Mikey J Mayer is one good talent.
• Rana can do better. What is proven is that he is capable and we can look forward to his next.
• In Leader, Shekar Kammula completely misses on the elegance, the story line and the clarity in screenplay that we saw in Happy Days or Anand.
• Leader is not much of a Leader.

LOST – Season 1: 05/04/10: Started watching LOST. Survivors of a plane crash on an island, a thousand miles off course. No one to find them for a week already. This series is drama, action, thrill, romance, comedy, amazing photography, great background score, psychology, inspiration, leadership, survival, dread, sentiment, belief…. and what not. I already know why its rated 9.1 on IMDB. I’ll write more as I see.

Into The Wild: 12AM 27/03/10: Man this is one movie I guess I can write a book on. But currently, its beyond my humble little vocabulary to describe both the movie and what I felt about it. May be I’ll write more on it soon. But many thanks to the friend who suggested. I won’t forget this one all my life.

Karteek Calling Karteek 26/03/10: Not a bad one at that for Farhan Akthar. Not just yet another Schizophrenia concept. But not an outstanding one either. The movie sure reinforces my belief that Indian Cinema (I don’t like calling it Bollywood!) is going places. They’re getting a lot better than making formula movies. Shankar Ehsaan Loy + Javed Akthar make the music sound ‘wow’ as always. Not much to see of Deepika Padukone (got the spelling worong?). Farhan Akthar could use some voice modulation I thought, he did not sound any different than he did in ‘Rock On’ (one of my al time fav movies). Guess he should join Toastmasters!

The Hurt Locker 20/03/10 – Good one. Story of a bomb disposal squad that’s out to work on war missions – Iraq as you might have guessed. Their daily routine is to take stroll on knife’s edge (or do I call it bomb’s proximity) and check if they’d be alive. What I liked is the simplicity, realism of the plot and screenplay, and more than anything else, this dialogue when the Sergeant is back home and is talking to his little kid “yeah…you think you love playing with that… your love all your stuffed animals, you like your mommy, your daddy, your pajamas, you love everything don’t you? but you know what buddy… as you get older… so many things you love, might not seem special anymore… like your checker box…may be you realize that its just a piece of tin nothing more…and only just a few things that you really love. And when you’re of my age its only one or two things.” The next moment you see helicopters taking the Sergent on yet another die-n-be-born-each-day missions. I like the movie.

Treasure of the Sierra Madre 13/03/10 – What a movie! It teaches you how the very basics of human nature tend to change when disbelief and doubt takes over intellect, compassion and belief. Three men set out in search of gold. They almost get killed thrice, but they survive for months together to make enough gold for the rest of their lives. On their way back the worst of them (in human nature of course) gets killed in the most awkward of the remaining two, the older one gets to stay in the country side and the younger one returns to another man’s family. By the way the gold is lost to the wind.

This is a great movie that also teaches you that a little bit of humor and grit is all that one needs to lead a meaningful life, not gold not the riches can compensate the lack the them.

Blue 14/03/10 – What a waste! Despite wonderful music & background score by ARR, some great underwater visuals, some seemingly hot girls, the movie lacks hugely in terms of the plot and screenplay. Again a musical that cant find a match between whats heard and whats shown. If you did not see it, don’t see it!

Life in a metro 13/03/10 – An intense movie, though a lot emotional, this is one movie that shows how lives of the general people are seldom complete and how they’re after finding something that might bring in more meaning their otherwise lifeless lives.

Four Brothers 13/03/10 - Not a great movie but yet watchable for pastime. Revenge and some sentiment Hollywood istyle.

Rocket singh 13/03/10 – Wow! I love this one. Simple plot yet played out taut. Some great music by Salim-Sulaiman. This is a must watch for all those who believe life is a lot more beautiful if one could believe in him/her self and at the same time have courage to confront money & power and win the war within ones self first and then out there in the world.

Final destination 12/12/09

Citizen Kane 13/12/09

Considering the fact that the movie was a remake of ‘A Wednesday’ starring Naseer-Uddin-Shah, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Sheirgill among others, one would anticipate that Eenadu not only matched the finesse of ‘A Wednesday’ but surpassed it in areas where the latter fell short of. But alas, I would not have to think twice to mention that ‘Eenadu’ was a damp squib in all departments of film making.

Cast: Kamal Hassan (The Common Man), Venkatesh (Police Commissioner), Lakshmi (CM’s Chief Secretary), Ganesh Venkatram (Arif), Bharat Reddy(Gautam).

Story: Neeraj Pandey (original for A Wednesday).

Music: Shruthi Hassan (Debut).

Screenplay & Direction: Chakri Toleti.

Story: The plot was more or less the same as that in A Wednesday, but for a few changes that make it native to Hyderabad (Mumbai for ‘A Wednesday’). The story opens with the introduction of a ‘Common Man’ who drops in at the police station to report his missing purse. The story also ends with the police commissioner meeting this common man in person and letting him go after what he has done.

But what disappointed me was the fact that though Kamal and Venkatesh are capable of cutting edge performances, this movie harnessed less than 50% of the grace they could lend to their respective characters.

What was more disappointing?

1. Background score:
   • Shruthi Hassan, who has been hyped lately as one starlet who is multi talented (movie direction, writing, acting, modeling and now music making) could not render much character to Eenadu. This was one area where I thought ‘A Wednesday’ could take improvement. But compared to what was on Eenadu, music on ‘A Wednesday’ was far better.
   • At places, the music felt very immature and inappropriate. For example, near the climax when the commissioner goes out of his office to meet the so called Common Man, the music attempts to glorify the authority of the character and the triumph it just achieved. But it fails miserably.
2. Though it is only a 1.5hr movie, I see that there was a lot of time wasted.
   • For example, the arguments with the Chief Secretary about red tape and –who’s-to-take-the-blame if the situation goes out of hand — discussion.
3. Bringing in irrelevant and unnecessary aspects:
   • I felt that showing people in the government as cowards and that a police commissioner is no more than a glorified watchman was completely unnecessary. This aspect of either character did neither add value not take away any merit from the situation central to the story line.
4. Arif the tough police man:
   • ‘A Wednesday’ depicts Arif as a maverick policeman who cares less for anything else other than his ways of getting things done. The first scene where Arif (Jimmy Sheirgill) is introduced in ‘A Wednesday’ was enough to clearly depict what this fellow was. On the other hand, Arif (Venkatram) in Eenadu was far from convincing. The guy appeared mad.
5. Misses and gaps in the story-telling:
   • Arif chases the fellow who supplies RDX and reaches the address of the buyer only to find that there was none there. We had no idea that the commissioner was fallowing this operation, but Arif calls him up and says ‘There’s none here’. Where?
6. The TV crew has no role to play:
   • ‘A Wednesday’ shows the news reporter as a potential accessory for the perpetrator to follow how his scheme was materializing. So was she shown in Eenadu. What was so unlikely for a TV9 reporter here was the confidence this lady exhibits. Diction especially was poor by any standards.

To sum it up, as a movie goer, I was completely disappointed with Eenadu in all aspects. Kamal Hassan is a fine actor, and so is Naseer. The grace Naseer lends to the character in ‘A Wednesday’ is no where to be seen from Kamal in Eenadu. Anupam Kher did his homework well; he was the closest fit for the role of a commissioner, graceful and authoritative. Venkatesh’s role was rather dramatic and lacked the vigor and command that a Police Commissioner exhibits; or perhaps this was not his cup of tea. If I were to choose, I would put Prakash Raj for the role.

We can give it to Shruthi Hassan because this was her debut as a music director. But in the department that most important for a movie of this kind, Screenplay and Direction, Chakri Toleti has a long way to go. For Eenadu, every thing in this department looked half baked.

Dubbing was patchy; lip sync takes a miss at several places.

Eenadu will disappoint if you have admired ‘A Wednesday’. Eenadu will still disappoint you even if you have not seen ‘A Wednesday’.

Story, Direction, Screen Play: Neeraj Pandey

Cinematography: Fuwad Khan

Editor: Shree Narayan Singh

Background score: Sanjay Chowdhury

The cast:

• Naseeruddin Shah (Anonymous common mumbaikar)
• Anupam Kher (Prakash Rathod – Commissioner of Police)
• Jimmy Sheirgill (Arif Khan of ATS)
• Amir Bashir (Police Inspector)
• Deepal Shaw (Naina Roy, UTV Reporter)

Theme : The common man has always been common after all; one man chose not to be. He braced himself to take charge. He proved brilliant.

India is attacked in one way or the other, be it bomb blasts, suicide attacks or a shoot out. Be it Delhi or be it Bangalore, Hyderabad or Mumbai that fell victim.  Either way, its the ‘common man’ who took the maximum impact. Some lost loved ones, some lost the only bread earner of the family, some lost lives and some lost limbs. But again, thanks to the  execrable support from the polity, the common man remains a mute spectator and is forced to get back to his daily chores, to earn his daily bread. This quick turn back is misinterpreted as ‘the spirit’ of the Mumbaikar or of the Delhiite, as a disguise. The common man seems to have done nothing to change it. This is one story of a seemingly unlikely common man who surpasses all imagination, who takes on the barbarities head on; so meticulously so.

Coming back to the movie, it’s the story of a Mumbaikar who thought it’s been enough. He did not stop at that but he went a step further, perhaps a lot more steps further to show his resentment. Its a story of this rare ‘common man’ who decides to kill four terrorists, all at once.  How this common man plans it all and executes is beyond anyone’s imagination, forms the gist. The way the plot unwinds itself is amazing.

The movie is technically brilliant through and through, unlike any other that I have seen in the recent times. The use of networking equipment, mobile phones and hacking! what not. This meant, for any other Hindi movie, a load of errors. But this one does it seamlessly.

Naseeruddin Shah – an actor of his stature is expected to do well, here is has done much more than just well. Anupam Kher is at his best, as a  never-give-up police commissioner, a very respectable performance. What came a revelation to me was the performance of Jimmy Sheirgil, a not-so-much-of-a-star. He fit the bill so damn right as a tough gun-friendly ATS officer, a maverick, very unlike his silly-boy romantic types we saw. Amir Bashir, we saw him more on the Ads than in the movies (I saw him in Pyar ke side effects and just one more), proves to be a cool actor himself too. Deepal Shaw (we saw her go to a bar in a skimpy school skirt in some music video), the TV reporter has not much to do though, but she did what she did well.

There are a few other aspects that make this movie special:

• For one, the Chief Minister’s role is shown as a much responsible and dignified one, doing his job just right, which is a complete contrast to how politicians are shown in the movies and by the media. This gives hope, that there can be (at least there is a possibility)  some politicians worth their salt.
• No naach-gana. The background score by Sanjay Chowdhury was so in sync with the theme of the movie. Never did it feel a little more or a little less.
• Short movie (96 minutes). So gripping a story, so no-nonsense that I never realized it was 90 minutes and it was climax time!

And lastly, all credit to Neeraj Pandey, the writer-director. He sure set out to make one hell of a movie! I did know that Naseeruddin Shah would make it worth for me to watch it but only after I watched the movie did I know, Anupum kher would not disappoint either. Jimmy Sheirgill was stunning. All in all, the best contemporary Bollywood movie I saw in a long time, an edge-of-the seat thriller!

If you’ve seen it, please share your ideas. If you haven’t yet, go check it out, you better not miss it.

Comments are welcome.