Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana

film: Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana (2005)
language: Telugu
DVD

synopsis: Siri (Trisha) and her older brother Krishna (Srihari) grew up as orphans, making their way as farmers in the countryside. When one of Siri's childhood best friends is getting married, she meets Santosh (Siddharth) a wealthy NRI from London who drives her crazy. As the wedding draws near, Siri realizes that she feels 'something something' towards Santosh. In order for him to be with her, Krishna challenges Santosh to grow his own crop and have a better harvest than himself. Will he be able to do it with so many friends and family working against him?

The Good
+ Fantastic cast! All have excellent comedic timing and there was no flat acting anywhere.
+ This movie was hilarious - especially the usage of the American pop song Who Let the Dogs Out, and Siddharth's extremely expressive face.
+ Speaking of expressive faces, I like in the song picturizations how much they did use facial expressions to play off each other.
+ The characters were relate-able

The Bad
+ This isn't bad, just there were some gestures made and references to things non-Indian audiences (such as myself) wouldn't understand. But it never hindered the film.
+ There's one actor's voice that gets quite annoying. I felt sorry for the actor for having such a horrible voice more than anything.
+ Be prepared for lots of cow poop.

Final Thoughts: Was this movie worth watching? Yes! I'm beginning to think South Indian films > Bollywood, or maybe I'm just watching all the correct films. This movie was highly entertaining and I love the chemistry between Siddharth and Trisha. I've only seen Siddharth in dramatic roles (Rang De Basanti, Aayutha Ezhuthu), but I have a feeling comedic roles are his thing. My friend who is brand new to Indian cinema adored this film as well. Magadheera is the only other Telugu film I've seen, so it was kind of funny seeing some of the same actors.

Rating: 4/5


Favorite Song Adire Adire - c'mon COWS AND PUPPETS! Love it! (btw, this video has Slavic subtitles, so um... yeah) I love the costumes too

Magadheera

Film: Magadheera (2009)
Language: Telugu
youtube link

Synopsis: In the 17th century, there is a warrior that swears to protect a princess, and shortly afterwards they fall in love. A war breaks out and both are killed only to be reincarnated 400 years later. Harsha is a bike racer and one day out on the town with his buddy, he happens to touch the hand of a woman who sparks strange memories within him. Determined to find her (he didn't see her face), he stops the rickshaw to try meet this girl, only to meet Indu who says she can help him, knowing she is the one he is looking for. They couple starts spending alot of time together, only to have things grow extremely complicated when Raghuveer, Indu's cousin, enters the picture.

The Good
- The music. Very catchy, fun, and able to easily become stuck in your head.
- The story. The way they edited it, it seems confusing at first, but as events play out, you start to understand more and more.
- Again, the story - alot of masala as they say. Comedy, drama, romance, action... there's really no genre that was left untouched.


The Bad
- There were a couple times I believe the subtitles were off or incorrect, but it didn't deter from the story.
- Many loopholes in the editing, but can be overlooked if you're not paying alot of attention.
- There was a small dance scene towards the beginning of the film was so strange, yet hilariously bad. An older male actor was cartoon-ized to allow him to be an impressive dancer. It was just weird...
- I'm not sure if it was due to translation errors or what, but some things, such as the characters' relationships, were undefined. I was left confused trying to figure out if the man after Indu was really her cousin or not.

Final Thoughts: Was this movie worth watching? A million times yes! The end of the movie has been going somewhat viral lately on youtube which is what inspired me to watch it in the first place. There were so many hilarious parts, good action, and an interesting story. I ended up staying up to 3am watching it (It's a LONG movie). This is definitely a movie worth watching with a group of friends.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite song: Bangaru Kodi Petta