Movie Name	Manmadhudu-2
Cast	Nagarjuna Akkineni, Rakul Preet Singh, Vennala Kishore, Rao Ramesh, Nassar, Lakshmi, Jhansi, Samantha Akkineni
Director	Rahul Ravindran
Music Director	Chaitan Bharadwaj
Screenplay	Satyanand
Cinematography	M. Sukumar
Producers	Akkineni Nagarjuna, Gemini Kiran

Nagarjuna Akkineni and Rakul Preet Singh played the lead roles in the movie Manmadhudu 2 which is in the theatres from today. The film was promoted well. Rahul Ravindran is the director of the movie, and this is his second movie as a director. Annapurna Studios produced the movie. The movie is the official remake of a French film. The film’s review is here. Read on!

Story:

Sam (Nagarjuna Akkineni) is a perfumer who hates marriage. He likes to make love to women. One day, Sam’s mother plays emotional blackmail to convince Sam for marriage but Nag plans something different. What is it? Did Sam agree to marriage? What happens in the end? Forms the story of the film.

Performances:

Nagarjuna Akkineni looked young and stylish in the film. His effortless and outstanding performance can be considered as one of the major highlights of this film. Nagarjuna is truly an asset for this movie, and we can say that no one can pull off the role with such ease as Nagarjuna did. Rakul Preet got an exciting role in this film. She has delivered her best performance in this movie. Also, her chemistry with Nagarjuna is decent. Vennela Kishore will evoke some good laughs in the theatres. Almost every scene of Vennela Kishore will make the audience laugh. Rao Ramesh and Lakshmi delivered honest performances. Devadarshini and Jhansi also justified the roles. Samantha Akkineni and Keerthi Suresh’s guest appearance is too good.

Writing Department:

Rahul Ravindran failed to handle the story well. His pace of narration is also bad and he could not engage the audiences with the narrative structure and the story. The movie starts off on an uninteresting note and it never picks up from there. Dialogues by Kittu Vissapragada are okay and there are a lot of double meaning dialogues in the film. Though the title is suggesting that the movie is the sequel of ‘Manmadhudu,’ there is no connection between these two stories.

Technical Aspects:

The production values by Nagarjuna Akkineni are vibrant. Most of the movie shooting took place in Portugal, and he has not compromised in terms of quality. Cinematographer M Sukumar’s camera angles also added more beauty for the film. Music by Chaitan Bhardwaj is bad. It hardly makes any impression and so is the background score. The editing is just okay.

 

Verdict:

The refreshing comedy, beautiful locales and the performances are the only plus points in the movie and everything else is a minus point for this film. The movie lacks freshness in the story. There are a lot of dragged scenes in the movie that are proved to be the minus points.. The pre-climax and climax are not handled well. The first half is hugely entertaining, and the second half is completely dull. Overall, ‘Manmadhudu-2’ is a movie that falls short of expectations.

Movie Name	Kalki
Cast	Doctor Rajasekhar, Adah Sharma, Ashutosh Rana, and Nandita Shweta
Director	Prasanth Varma
Music Director	Sravan Bharadwaj
Cinematographer	Dasaradhi Shivendra

There are a lot number of directors who impressed the audience with greater content and wonderful debut film. They got their name echo with the result of the blockbuster result of their first film. VV Vinayak, SS Rajamouli, Koratala Siva, Puri Jagannadh are the current top directors of the Telugu film industry who impressed the audience with their first film itself. Tarun Bhasker, Sandeep Vanga and Prasanth Varma are the recent directors who made it big with their debut film. Prasanth Varma made his debut with “Awe” which was produced by Natural star Nani and it went on to become one of the best films of the previous year. He is now coming with his second film “Kalki” which stars Rajasekhar and Adah Sharma in lead roles. The promos of the film had already created a buzz around the movie to make it one of the awaited movies. Let’s see how it works as it is releasing today into the theatres.

Story

Kolhapur is a place in rural Telangana which is being dominated by some powerful people there. The brother of the local MLA Sekhar gets murdered there and things take different turns. Kalki (Rajasekhar) is transferred to Kolhapur and appointed to investigate the murder case. When he comes to investigate this, some unexpected things come up and he gets involved in the case. How he solved the murder mystery of Sekhar is the remaining story.

Cast and performance

Rajasekhar has done good work in the role of Kalki but the dubbing for his role is done by some other dubbing artist which is a big let down as the power factor that comes with his role is missing. Adah Sharma is good in the limited role and looks good. Nandita Shweta is fine. Rahul Ramakrishna has once again done a nice job in his role. Ashutosh Rana and all other actors who did as baddies have done a good job.

Writing Department

The story of Kalki is good but the screenplay made it a forgettable one. The dialogues are written according to the screenplay.

Technical Departments

The songs composed by Sravan Bharadwaj are okay but he has done terrific work in composing the background score. It is one of the positive things that has happened to the movie. The cinematography by Dasaradhi Shivendra is superb. The visuals of the movie are eye appealing and a lot of work has gone into it. The editing could have been better to make the movie racy. The fantastic work by the art department is clearly seen in the movie. The stunts and action sequences are composed well. The production values are grand.

Highlights

Cinematography by Dasaradhi Shivendra

Background score by Sravan Baradwaj

Minus

Rajasekhar’s dubbing

Screenplay

Verdict

Kalki is a murder mystery set in olden times where a police officer from another area comes to solve the crime. The storyline has a lot of scope to be an interesting and engaging one if the screenplay is written properly. This movie lacks proper screenplay and tests the patience of the movie. The first half of the movie starts slow and makes the audience uncomfortable until and a few twists. The second half of the movie is better compared to the first half but this half to doesn’t make up for the experience we have had with the first half. The voice by Sai Kumar for Rajasekhar adds up a layer to the performance and power factor to his face but the decision to go for the voice of another dubbing artist works badly. Prasanth Varma who surprised the audience with his debut film has disappointed this time with Kalki.

Movie Name	Agent Sai Srinavasa Athreya
Cast	Naveen Polishetty and Shruti Sharma
Director	Swaroop RSJ
Music Director	Mark K Robin
Producer	Rahul Yadav Nakka
Editor	Amit Tripathi
Cinematographer	Sunny Kurapati
Banner	Swadharm Entertainment

Story:

Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya (Naveen Polishetty) leads a happy-go-lucky life in Nellore. He makes living with small cases he gets and waits for a bigger one. But, one day, things change and Athreya ends up in prison. While staying at the jail, he learns that his prison mate’s daughter goes missing. Athreya decides to solve the mystery. Why Athreya ended up in Jail? How he solves the mystery around him? What happens then? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Despite being a debutant, Naveen Polishetty will definitely impress the audience with his outstanding performance in this film. Especially, his dialogue delivery and facial expressions are also really good. Shruti Sharma looked gorgeous in the film. The actress will definitely leave an impact on the audience not only with her beauty but also with her cute and honest performance. Also, her chemistry with Naveen Polishetty is beautiful to watch. Suhas has got an interesting role in this film and the actor breathes life into his character. Suhas delivered a decent performance in the film. Sandeep Raj also justified his role and acted naturally in the film. The rest of the cast also made their presence felt.

Technical Aspects:

Director Swaroop RSJ has prepared an interesting story with a comical touch for this film. The film will have some light-hearted and funny moments as well as some emotional and heart touching scenes and the director has handled them both really well. Even his pace of narration is also really good when compared to the first half. The director has succeeded in making the second half as interesting as possible. Production values by Rahul Yadav Nakka under Swadharm Entertainments banner are very high. We can see the producers have invested decent amounts without compromising in terms of quality. Music by Mark K Robin is outstanding. His catchy tunes made the movie even more beautiful. Cinematographer Sunny Kurapati has produced some sleek and bright visuals for this film. Editing by Amit Tripathi is also clean and neat.

Verdict:

The story itself is the highlight of this film. The solid story makes the audience engaged throughout the film. The movie starts off on an interesting note. The entire first half is light-hearted and extremely funny at times. The interval twist will also grab the attention of the audience. When compared to the first half, the second half is a bit serious and yet engaging. Good performances, interesting story, and engaging screenplay are the plus points whereas some scenes in the first half will be the minus points in the film. Overall, ‘Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya’ is a watchable suspense flick.

Punch Line: A Watchable Suspense Flick – 3/5