Virupaksha - Movie Review

Sai Dharam Tej has teamed up with debutant Karthik Varma, who is an assistant of Sukumar for Virupaksha, under the production of BVSN Prasad and Sukumar. This is Tej's first outing in 2 years after the dreadful accident.

Story :- Surya (Tej) along with his mother comes to his ancestral village Rudravanam for the first time, to give their land for school building. Exactly then the villages local.god festival Jaatara is scheduled and they plan to stay till it's over. During this time he meets Nandini (Samyukta), who is the daughter of village's sarpanch Harishchandra Prasad (Rajeev Kanakala). Just when the Jaatara is about to start, a bad omen happens in temple and the poojari (Sai Chand) tells that the village's to and fro movement has to be restricted to come out of the bad omen. During this time, suspicious deaths start to happen. How these deaths happen? Would Surya be able to resolve it? Who caused the bad omen? Forms the rest of the story. 

Performances :- Tej is decent in the protagonist role, though his natural act and ease was missing. He has become a bit chubby and is visible during action sequences, especially when running. Samyukta had a meatier role and she was good. Almost all the character artists had scope to perform and they did well, be it Sai Chand, Rajeev Kanakala, Brahmaji, Sunil, Shyamala, Ravi Krishna etc.,

Technicians :- Debutant Karthik didn't go for a regular scares of a horror film, which is refreshing. More than a horror film, this is a thriller with lot of surprise elements thrown in the 2nd half of the story. Execution by director is well done, but Sukumar's screenplay gets the major credit. Avoiding songs, comedy scenes, over the board action scenes or graphics is a good choice. Sticking to the story line only and narrating it is a great job. Background score and cinematography are well done.

Positives :-

Screenplay

Surprise elements

Story

Negatives :- 

Climax

Summary :- Virupaksha can be watched for the suspense elements and different story line. 

Rating :- 3/5 (Watchable thriller)

Dasara - Movie Review

Nani has teamed up with debutant Srikant Odela for a village backdrop story of "Dasara". Nani's last outing "Ante Sundaraniki" had mixed response at box office. Despite that, Dasara was a high budget flick when compared to Nani's regular films. That too with a debutant. 

Story :- Dharani (Nani), Suri (Deekshit) & Vennela (Keerthy) are childhood friends who live in Veerlapalli village, which is in the midst for coal mine. Dharani shall do anything for Suri and shall not leave if anyone goes against Suri. Majority of the villagers are addicted to alcohol and Silk bar in their village is their hub. Upper caste sit inside the bar and lower caste drink outside. After prohibition imposed by NTR, the bar gets closed. The village sarpanch decides that whoever wins as Sarpanch shall has the right to run the bar. After the death of Sarpanch, his sons Rajanna (Sai Kumar) and Shivanna (Samuthrakani) contest in elections against each other regularly. Shivanna's son Nambi (Shine Tom Chaco), who is evil to the core, ensures his father keeps the bar through which he wins elections easily. As part of these elections strategy, they conduct a cricket tournament and announces a special price for the winner. The result of the match turns the entire story. Dharani & Suri get into loggerheads with Nambi and what happens next is rest? What can Dharani do for Suri? Why Nambi targets Dharani & Suri?

Performances :- Nani lived the in the character of Dharani. This is one of his finest performances. His dialogues, attitude, antics, everything was perfect. Be it emotional scenes, action episodes, elevations, he was spot on.  Keerthy had a crucial role and she portrayed it well. Deekshit was fine in the limited scope. Chaco was menacing as the evil, his performance was subtle yet effective. Sai Kumar has couple of good scenes and he was as usual natural. Samuthrakani was wasted in the role. Not much of scope to do. Hero friends, their families, other villagers all did well. 

Technicians :- Cinematographer needs to be applauded for the colour tone maintained throughout the film. It's in line with the tone and backdrop of the movie, greyish. The night episodes were also well shot. Production design and art work were well captured, taking us to the world of Veerlapalli. Same is the case with costumes also. There 2 major action episodes, one before interval and one during climax. Hero introduction fight went a bit overboard with poor graphics. Climax fight is good. But interval fight is fabulous. It's well conceived. Actors also did a terrific job. Background score of Santosh Narayanan is an asset. It elevated the movie, at the same time it didn't sound regular. Songs were not conventional, but suited the story. Dialogues of pure rural Telangana accent were tough to understand. Director has done a stupendous job as a debutant. Though story wise it's not a fresh idea, the premise, dialogues, execution and standout performances made the film work. He maintained the suspense well till later part of 2nd half, why Nambi is targeting Dharani & Suri. I could relate to Rangasthalam at multiple junctures, in terms of story, some episodes, drama. Being protege of Sukumar, that's bound to happen. 

Positives :-

Nani

Premise

Drama

Interval action episodes

Negatives :-

Run time

Old story

Less emotionally high moments

Analysis :-  Dasara works for major part of the movie, with brilliant acting, good action episodes, background score and conflicts. It transforms you into their world. Crisp runtime and few more charging moments would have made it even better. 

Rating :- 3/5. It's a theatre movie, not an OTT one.