The Week That Was

Sinu & Saumesh

Matter of Heart and Heartless

This week Bollywood saw two releases. One, insane girl meets sane boy in the Dharma Productions Hasee Toh Phasee. Odd couple inviting trouble, batty Parineeti Chopra Vs loser Siddharth Malhotra. There are moments of brilliance in the proceeding and sometimes the narrative is whittled away. Be that as it may, save your admiration for the performances, especially Parineeti Chopra.

Shekhar Suman's Heartless deals with the subject of anesthesia awareness. Plot of a botched up heart surgery is at the heart of the matter. An attempt by Sekhar Suman to resuscitate Adhyayan Suman's career in Bollywood.  

Mani and Mummy Return

So it is more or less confirmed – Mani Ratnam's next will be a movie starring Telugu superstars Mahesh Babu and Nagarjuna, the first time the two actors would be coming together. The movie will be the comeback vehicle for Aiswarya Rai Bachchan after her pregnancy. It is reported that Sruthi Haasan is also cast in the movie. Not much about the movie is made public still. The movie would be released in Tamil and Telugu. Mani Ratnam's earlier outing Raavan/Raavanan could not create much of a ripple. The fact that Ms.Rai Bachchan is making a comeback is what makes the project important to the media. Lets hope that our own desi master has something new to offer and is not just fulfilling the duties as a Bachchan 'family director'.

Happily Engaged

The hot and happening couple of Malayalam Film Industry, Fahadh Fassil and Nazriya Nazeem got engaged today at a private function in Trivandrum. The marriage is fixed for August 21. The couple met the press and commented on the two questions that has been doing the rounds since the news of their affair became public – 1) will Nazriya continue to act in movies post-marriage? 2) isn't the age gap between them a cause for concern (for whom, we don't know)? Nazriya replied that she would continue acting after the marriage, but added the interesting caveat that 'family is the priority' (ahem!). For the second question, the answer was given by Fahadh who dismissed the possibility of any marital discord arising out of the age gap. Is there anybody else who feels that each answered to the question meant for the other?

Telugu movies to watch out for in 2014

Telugu Movies Bucket List - 2014


M K Sinu

A year with mix of masala and feel-good movies, topped by established stars and new comers, is by far the observed trend in the year gone by in Tollywood.

‘Grandeur’ – amongst other, is an oft-used term used by anyone who is someone in filimnagar to describe the movie of their choice in the glittering world of Telugu movies. As much as the term evokes a sense of fortune, but anything that is released in the tinsel town is worthier than anything one-dimensional and monochromatic. That’s Tollywood for you. Here’s our pick of must-watch for 2014.

Autonagar Surya – Nag Chaithanya's Autonagar Surya has been in the pipeline for quite sometime now. The movie was caught up in financial troubles and is finally ready for release on January 31. The movie has Samantha Ruth Prabhu as heroine and Rakul Preet Singh and Sai Kumar co-stars. Deva Katta, who has earlier directed Prasthanam and Vennela, has directed the movie.

Bhimavaram Bullodu – The movie stars comedian Sunil in the lead role and Esther Noronha is the heroine. The movie will be a comic caper and is directed by Uday Shankar. The music for the movie is composed by Anoop Rubens.

Heart Attack – Puri Jagannadh's next after Iddarammayilatho. Heart Attack has Nithiin and Adah Sharma in lead roles. The movie marks the first production venture of the director's company, Puri Jagannadh Touring Talkies.

Legend – Legend stars Nandamuri Balakrishna and has Radhika Apte and Sonal Chauhan as the heroines. The movie is produced by Ram Achanta, Gopichand Achanta and Anil Sunkara under 14 Reels Entertainment and Sai Korrapati will be presenting the film on Vaarahi Chalana Chitram. The bike used by Balakrishna in the movie has become a hit even before the release of the movie. Legend is expected to hit screens on March 28.

Race Gurram – Allu Arjun makes a comeback after the moderate fare Iddarammayilatho. The teaser of the movie was released a month back and the response has been good. Race Gurram is directed by Surender Reddy, who directed Kick and Athidhi. Shruthi Hassan is the heroine and Tamil actor Shaam and Saloni Aswani co-stars.

Manam – Manam brings together three generationn of actors from a family. Akkineni Nageshwar Rao will act with his son Nagarjuna and grandson Nag Chaithanya in this comedy family drama. Samantha and Sriya Saran are the heroines. Directed by Vikram Kumar, the movie is expected in the first week of April.

Apart from these movie many movies are under production, but has created enough hype even before the first look is released. Rabasa is the tentative title given to NTR Jr. - Santosh Srinivas project that is in production. The movie stars Samantha and Pranitha as heroines. Mahesh Babu's next after 1-Nenokkadine is Aagadu which is produced by 14 Reels Entertainment and is expected to hit screens by the end of May. Also in the pipeline are Kick 2 starring Ravi Teja, an Allu Arjun – Trivikram Srinivas project, NTR Jr – Sukumar project, Ramcharan – Krishna Vamsi project.