Legend Is Entertaining

This Roar Is Entertaining

Rating : 3.5/5

NBK is back and with a bang! Boyapati Sreenu's Legend is an action filled emotional drama that has everything for Balakrishna fans and is a decent watch for those who are not. Unlike Boyapati Srinu's earlier film with NBK, Simha, this movie hinges more on the narrative than action. The first half is relatively slower, but post-interval the movie picks up pace and delivers. The movie takes place in India as well as Dubai.

Balakrishna has done a good job, appearing in two roles as brothers. The director has worked on giving a superb look to both the characters played by NBK. The white and white attire that NBK adorns towards the end has come as welcome surprise to his fans and conveys a lot at a time when elections are just around the corner. The punch dialogues are bombastic and Balakrishna delivers it powerfully.

Jagapathi Babu's antogonist, Jithendra, is one of the best roles of the actor in recent memory apart from being super-stylish. Radhika Apte has delivered a superb performance thanks to her brilliant characterization while Sonal Chauhan's character could have been developed more. The music and BGM by Devi Sri Prasad is brilliantly done and will be one of the major highlights of the movie. Cinematography by Ram Prasad should also be mentioned for setting up some brilliant shots as well as giving the movie a warm visual feel.

Jagapati Babu Interview

Making of A Villain

M K Sinu

For 25 years now, he has played roles as hero validated purely by audience. From heavy duty drama to breezy dramedies, punctuating occasionally with powerhouse performance in movies like Gayam & Anthapuram. Though Jagapati Babu himself endorses that he cannot dance like other heroes of his times, he was clearly unsophisticated, in the sense that he would not fit into mass hero image. His image of ‘Family Hero’ resonates even today – pick up any of his films of yore and you’ll know. Keep aside the qualitative factors of film making, Jagapati Babu’s films never failed to entertain.

In the past 5 years or so, he has committed to some trite cinema thereby plummeting his stock as a bankable star. By his own admission, he was waiting for chances and producers looked northwards. There was no work. But destiny and providence had something else in store. He signed on as antagonist in Legend opposite Balakrishna. Jagapati probably sensed he could start his second innings as villain after his act in 2012 release Thaandavam.

He is in all likelihood, true. Below is a freewheeling chat with Jagapati Babu where he talks about movies, mistakes, & his future plans.  

Click the links below to watch the full interview.

Aashiq Abu's Gangster Trailer Released

Aashiq' Big G

Saumesh Thimbath

Ever since Aashiq Abu saw Big B, the 2007 Malayalam action flick directed by his budddy Amal Neerad, he was secretly wishing to be its director. The trailer of Abu's upcoming Gangster makes one feel that he has finally made his Big B, without making too many unnecessary changes. The one minute forty five second trailer has many spots on its body that give away its antecedents. Both the movies have Mammooty playing the lead and the most apparent difference is that the brooding and calm Bilal of Big B has become the brooding and calm Ali Akbar Khan (or something similar) of Gangster. Gangster, just like the Amal Neerad's debut venture, is in all probability a gangster-called-back-out-of-retirement story. If it was the death of the mother-figure, played by Nafisa Ali, that prompts Bilal's return to his yesteryear bastion, Akbar Khan is called back by the character played by famous scriptwriter John Paul, who could well be his godfather, an ageing do-gooder gangster or a great soul who rehabilitates slum children. Some of the shots, especially the aerial shot of the SUV and the one that shows Mammooty getting out of the car, remind too much of Big B that the makers should atleast have had the good sense of not including them in the trailer.

Big B had a not-so-bad run at the BO just because it was in many ways a refreshing change from the usual action movie fare in Malayalam. But the movie industry and audience choices have changed and Amal Neerad has replicated the visual style in Big B many times over to the extend that people have genuine repulsion towards it. So the question remains as to why the most celebrated young director in Malayalam should devote his time and energy for a movie like this. Well, may be it's too early to comment, may be the movie has something that none of us have ever seen, may be the trailer was intentionally misleading. You have no idea how much I want to be proved wrong about my points. As they say, let's wait and watch.