pulipaka_as

Full marks for trying to show Hindu values in good light. But the movie is painfully amateur, even to a normal viewer who is unfamiliar with the complexity of space missions. It's insulting not only to one's intellect but also to Hindu tradition, space scientists, and India. Dialogue and action were poor. The lead actors (space moms) were the silver lining.

I associate Kukunoor's movies mainly with contemporary characters and colloquial dialog. Maybe he's watching too many Ekta Kapoor soap operas nowadays, but I couldn't help but notice run-of-the-mill Bollywood style in this movie. Though the subject of the movie is inventive and not threadbare Bollywood bovine excrement, somehow he has failed to show the same inventiveness in direction. Though Talpade, Karnad, and Kukunoor himself tried their best to put life into their characters, the characters failed them. The background score was decent but appears non-synchronous with the movie many times.

Bottom line: This movie stands head and shoulders above usual Bollywood movies, not because the movie is exceptional but because Bollywood movies are usually unexceptional!

The other day when I was telling my mother how refreshing this movie was, she asked me why I thought it was so special. I said, "Imagine being out of hometown for a couple of weeks and living on junk food. When you return home and have simple homemade rice and curry, how do you feel?"

In addition to capturing life around the lifeline of Andhra, Godavari, in a laudable manner, the movie makers put together a good cast. Radhakrishna embellished the movie by wrapping Veturi's lyrics in melodious tunes. Godavari might not be remembered by Thelugus four or five decades down the line like how Lavakusa is, but it can make any given evening pleasant and memorable. Anyone who loved movies that were made by Baapu or Viswanath (or one of their ilk) will add Sekhar Kammula to their list after watching this movie.

Movies such as this salvage Thelugu cinema and rekindle hopes, in people like me, that there still are people who can make neat, simple, and straightforward Thelugu movies. Kudos to Kammula and his team!