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Reviews
Custody (2023)
Good concept, but very poorly written and directed.
Positives.
1. Story.
Though this movie's concept is familiar, the potential of some characters such as Nataraj (played by Sarathkumar) and Raju aka Raazu (played by Aravind Swamy), and their arcs make this a great story on paper. However, due to the messy, half-baked screenplay and the poor execution by Venkat Prabhu, the potential of this movie gets diluted making this movie feel like lost potential.
2. Visuals.
Despite the cinematography not enhancing the movie and even though there are some aspects of the production design, setting, and the lighting in some parts of the movie that are out of place, the visuals, for the most part the visuals look good.
Negatives.
1. Music.
The music of the movie is very mediocre. Neither does it sound good nor does it help enhance the emotions of the movie. Along with that, apart from Timeless Love-which was beautifully and aptly picturized IMO-none of the other songs are picturized well as the choreography was normal, the cinematography, specifically the blocking-there was a lot of generic and still blocking in the songs-was mediocre, and the editing-although was slightly different some times-was also generic so much so that it'll probably remind you of intro and duet songs of many movie set in a college backdrop. Due to this, the song picturizations were very generic and boring, Coupled with this, due to the director adding many unnecessary commercial elements to this movie, pretty much all the songs were unnecessary in the proceedings. Coming to the BGM, the BGM wasn't great at all. It didn't sound great or make the audience feel tensed throughout the movie, which it should've done for an action movie like this. And what do great mass BGMs do? They make the audience feel like badasses too, but none of the movie's BGMs did that.
2. Editing.
Due to the bad editing, there isn't an organic flow between many scenes, especially in the first 45 minutes. Along with that, in the action sequences, the editing could've helped made the movie more exhilarating if there were more quick cuts instead of just the usual slo-mo shots, but since that's not the case, the movie's action sequences seem boring and generic.
3. Screenplay.
The structure of this movie goes like this. The director introduces the movie's main character, Shiva (played by Naga Chaitanya), then shows us his life, who he loves, and the conflicts and relationships between him and other characters before introducing the main conflict of the movie. Though it's understandable that the director took this decision to get us to care about Shiva and Revathi (played by Krithi Shetty), the director stretches this part of the movie for around 30-45 min. When it should've been shorter. Due to the length of the first act, we don't care about the aforementioned characters enough to be engaged in the movie later on. Later on into the movie, there are many logical issues throughout the screenplay and some stupid jokes that dilute the tension. Along with that, Venkat Prabhu stretches some scenes for way too long slowing down the pacing even more making the screenplay of the movie even messier. Coming to the characters, Nataraj and Raju are characters that I thought were different than your usual antagonists, but that's only on paper, Shiva and Revathi were characters which needed more emotional connect for us to be engaged with them on their journey, as they're generically written, and other important characters such as CM Dakshayani (played by Priyamani) and Shiva's father (played by Gopuraju Ramana) were very underwritten and as a result, some scenes become diluted. Also, there were many unnecessary commercial elements in the movie that became speed-breakers and made the slightly unbearable at times.
4. Direction.
Despite the poorly written screenplay, if Venkat Prabhu had directed the movie well, the movie probably would've been an average watch if not a decent one. However, that's not the case. Due to many decisions he took throughout the movie, such as the decision to not cut too much in action sequences, add commercial elements in the story, and to get Sarathkumar to dub with his own voice, ruined the movie quite a bit. If you want to go about it a bit deeper, many action sequences could've used better direction and editing, but due to the decision aforementioned, the action sequences become less exhilarating and a bit boring. Coming to the performances, the director brought mediocre performances from pretty much everyone, including Aravind Swamy. Though this may be due to the writing, everybody gave average performances that weren't good enough to engage us in the movie or even try to save it.
Overall: This movie, which is probably one of Venkat Prabhu's weakest works, could've been a lot better if the writing and technical aspects were as good as the visuals.
Waltair Veerayya (2023)
Decent, but could've brought back the legend that was vintage Chiru if only it was written and executed better.
Positives.
1. Chiru sir and Ravanna.
Chiru sir was great as Veerayya. It almost felt like I was vintage Chiru be honest. He was very lively, likable, and after a point, sympathetic and gets us to emotionally connect with his character. Along with Chiru sir, Ravanna was also great and got us to connect with him in the minimal time he had. The scenes between them weren't written well, but it was still engaging due to their performances. The only bad thing in their performances though is their slang. Veerayya's Vizag slang and Vikram's Telengana slang were unnecessary and the director shouldn't have added it into the movie.
2. DSP BGM.
Though the songs were forgettable, I have to go it to DSP anna. Even though some BGMs were mediocre. Without his BGM, some scenes wouldn't have been that memorable. Especially the pre-climax scene.
3. Interval Bang.
For people who haven't seen it, see the movie at least for that scene. It's the peak of the movie, and everything was great in that scene be it the direction, cinematography, especially DSP anna's BGM.
4. Basic Story.
The basic story of the character Veerayya was good albeit it's routine. It had the potential to become a classic commercial movie. It had space for good comedy, good action scenes, good emotional scenes, good scenes with Sruthi Hassan, etc. Etc., but unfortunately the reason with movie ends up being only decent and not great is only because of one person and that person is...
Negatives
1. Bobby.
Yes, Bobby himself. Note that I said Bobby and not story, screenplay, dialogues, direction. It's all because he was the one who did everything with everything to make a great movie and handled it like an amateur. Even though I liked the basic story, he could've done many things to make it less predictable and more entertaining. Even though he didn't write the screenplay by himself (he had help from Kona Venkat and K. Chakravathy Reddy), he had a hand in it and could've somehow convinced his aides and vice versa to make the screenplay way better. Seriously, there too many unneccessary points in the script of the movie which should've been removed such as some side characters like poor Vennela Kishore, Pradeep Rawat and Anish Kuruvilla and some unnecessary reactions and songs and replaced them with more scenes that try to get us to emotionally connect with the gang and Shruti Hassan. It would've made things more fun. Along with that, even though I liked how he introduced some more emotional depth and flaws to Veerayya in the second half, it was completely predictable and would've been better if he took care of it. Along with that, he should've written the pre-climax and climax scene of the movie way better. The only reason why the pre-climax is better than the climax is the BGM and the climax is too 80s-level melodramatic and the screenplay could've been way better in this parts. It was so mediocre that Neekemo and the scene before it comes out of nowhere and should've been edited out. Coming to the direction, he should've used many things in this movie way better. For example, DSP. The songs are mediocre and as a Chiru fan, he should've at least made DSP give a good album--especially since Chiru-DSP is a famous combo known for great albums like Shankar Dada MBBS, Shankar Dada Zindabad, and Andarivaadu--,but what we got was completely mediocre, except the title track which I loved. But nevertheless, along with DSP, he should've used his other technicians to make the movie look better from a CGI and cinematography POV, and along with that, he should've directed the movie how the scenes demanded. It would've made the movie an actual good movie.
Overall, I think that this movie had the potential to become a classic in Chiru sir's career, but was spoiled due to Bobby.
An Action Hero (2022)
A great satire. Not a great action movie.
Positives
1. Ayushmann Khurrana & Jaideep Ahlawat.
They were great, especially Ayushmann Khurrana. He was brilliant with what he was given and performed wonderfully in both action scenes and comedy scenes. Jaideep Ahlawat was also menacing, even though his character could've been better. Not just that, one thing I loved about him in this movie were his dialogues. They were funny as heck. Overall, I loved them in this movie and wish they do more movies like this.
2. Comedy
Like I said, this movie is a great comedy movie. The comedic dialogues were brilliant in this movie and the satire involving Bollywood was wonderfully written and directed. Due to this, the climax ends up feeling a bit bittersweet.
3. Technical Aspects (mostly)
The technical aspects of this movie were great. The cinematography and production values were colorful and rich and although I would usually say that a music album like this is OK--the theme song and Ghere were great unlike the remixes of Jehda Nasha and Aap Jaisa Koi--even the bad songs were necessarily bad, so I'm giving it a pass. Along with them, the action sequences were great (even though I personally felt that they could've been directed to be more tense), and the direction was good in the first 15 minutes of the movie, the comedy scenes, and in scenes that convey Maanav's emotions. The editing is something I will have to talk about later.
4. Concept and Basic Storyline
I think the concept and the story of a actor stuck in a scandal that forces him to fight through it (quite literally) were great. Original, Funny, and Brilliant, however it could've been better executed. This brings me to...
Negatives
1. Pacing
The biggest reason why this movie is strictly ok and why it fails as an action movie is its slow pacing and I think the main reasons why is because of the writing, editing, and direction. Besides the parts I mentioned above, the director Anirudh Iyer unfortunately did a mediocre job with rest of the movie. He decided to take this movie in a realistic route through shots that linger for a long time and tracking shots that unfortunately ruined the movie because I like I said, it's not a great action movie which unfortunately was what I looked like in the surface. Then comes the writing of the movie. While the dialogues of this movie weren't bad per se, they could've been written in a way so that it conveys what it wants to and is brief enough so that they screenplay doesn't suffer from terrible pacing. Even then, could the editing have made the movie faster. Yes? The director should've realized that he shouldn't have lingered on shots for too long in this movie and even if it was too late by then, he should've fixed it in the editing stage of the movie.
2. Writing of characters and a subplot.
Though the portrayal of these characters were good, I think that the writing of Maanav and Boora were mediocre. Maanav is a very convoluted character who isn't written as a hero or villain or an anti-hero or a freaking person. Nobody knows what the heck that man is. His writing is that bad and if he was written as a particular character, like the villain he should've been to convey this movie's theme properly, this movie would've been way better and even though his writing wasn't bad as Maanav's, Boora was written as a very generic and one-note comedic villain that could've been much more menacing and funny if good writing was coupled with Jaideep Ahlawat's great performance,
Overall, I think that this is an OK movie that had great potential to be a classic satirical action movie but ends up becoming just a good satire movie due to terrible pacing and poorly-written main characters.
P. S. Despite this being not that great, I still think that Anirudh Iyer is someone who has a lot of potential and can do lot of good for Bollywood and I hope Ayushmann Khurrana does more inventive and experimental movies like this and introduce new talent instead of doing just the slice-of-life movies he always does.