Sunday 25 September 2011

Dookudu (2011) - Telugu Movie Review

Dookudu (2011) - Telugu Movie Review

Cast :
  • Mahesh Babu
  • Samantha Ruth Prabhu
  • Abhimanyu Singh
  • Kota Srinivasa Rao
  • Vennela Kishore
  • Chandramohan
  • Prakash Raj
  • Rajiv Kanakala
  • Sayaji Shinde
  • Supreet
  • Adithya
Directed by : Srinu Vaitla
Produced by : Ram Achanta
Written by : Gopimohan
Singers : Shankar Mahadevan, Rahul Nambiar, Karthik, Rita, Ramya N.S., Navin Madhav, Ranjith, Divya, Koti, Ramajogayya Sastry, Vardhini, Ranini Reddy, Megha
Lyricist : Ramajogayya Sastry, Viswa, Bhaskarbhatla
Music by : Thaman
Editing by : M. R. Varma
Distributed by : 14 Reels Entertainment Pvt Ltd


There are two types of films, type one..there is something called substance, the result could be good or bad at the box-office but people will talk about it and the actors cum technicians can flaunt with pride to the future generation. Type two is kitsch, it could be taken from one's own films or be inspired from some other language movie, modified and altered with entertainment and requirement of the audiences in such a way that the result will be spoken of and measured only in money terms. It can mint huge money or it might not.

Dookudu falls in that type two category, the movie has had fantastic openings obviously because of Mahesh but does that mean it is a good story? Dhee, a film by the same director had freshness, the comedians carried it on their shoulders, it would have worked with any actor as it's hero. As the director's success rate improved so has there been a change in star heroes but along with that the pressure on him to churn out a variety in comedy tripled.

One can see the director suffering from a delusion that a character like Solomon Raj by MS Narayana could whip up something far more light and extensive here. The most proved and accepted part of entertaining audiences is by performing mimicry or actually making a spoof of film stars but if you keep watching it more than once it ends up being like Siva Reddy imitating Rajasekhar and you begging him to give you something novel.

Very clearly the onus was on Brahmanandam and MS Narayana to provide the laughs though it was in their humility to say that they need padding. MS Narayana looked and behaved like a worn-out and extremely fatigued horse and through him the director fulfilled the target of eliciting laughs from aiming all the heroes and their fans. Brahmanandam wasn't spectacular though he got a lot of screen space.

What about the story? The first few minutes which focused on the character played by Prakash Raj shows he is not going to vanish so fast or an actor like Prakash Raj will not be wasted in some inconsequential scenes. The father-son sentiment ruled throughout the film and romance takes a back seat in the second part of the story. The seriousness of the story is lost with villain Sonu Sood listening to Ghantasala's song and you know from here on they are going to end up as dummies.

The film has too many plots, too many characters and very soon you give up the job of joining the threads together and would want to just sit back and not bother about the story but just follow the tamasha. Not that there are any pluses in the film, you genuinely feel the emotion when the son and father embrace each other in the last scene. The Telangana dialect by Mahesh worked but one sees no reason why he suddenly has to change his style of speaking.

However uninteresting the story is the confidence and energy levels, the body language and the speed with which Mahesh said his dialogues is commendable. However none of the songs or dances made any lasting impact. As usual the lines given to him are traditionally characteristic especially when it came to describing the heroine her looks and reminded one of Athadu, how he is never direct in wooing girls.

Samantha's make-up was bad, she was painted to be on par with Mahesh's colour. There is one scene in which she whispers and convinces Nasser about Mahesh being the right guy for her. Mahesh giving a blank stare and her dialogue having no extension in the second half of the story seemed very functional. The pairing was fresh but there wasn't enough scope to show the chemistry they shared, the romance ends abruptly however Samantha freaked out on the dances and seemed to enjoy every move.

The movie appeared disjointed with Mahesh appearing, walking in and out of roles and costumes and rounding up with a cop's dress in the finale. He's had some sparkling dialogues here and there that would make his fans go berserk but that's about it. Parvati Melton makes an entry in a fabulous figure and Vennela Kishore's character is interesting amongst the rest of the comedians.

Dookudu is too lengthy a movie, the story is again the same old (in caps) bundle of sugarcane sticks that has been folded with difficulty (in caps) and squeezed into the machine to extract juice.

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