Lakshyam (2007)

I'm not sure what to say about this film, except that I enjoyed it and that I would hesitate to recommend it to most people.

Gopichand's character manages to be both mischievous and likable. His chemistry with Anushka is good, and their scenes together are adorable and very funny. The songs are also very good, with very fun picturizations, including one where Spiderman shows up as a backup dancer.

On the other hand, the film is quite violent, and I fast-forwarded some good chunks where the machetes were out meaning business. The plot was somewhat scattered, although on the whole not a bad version of a typical Telugu action storyline. Here is how the film opens:

In the midst of wedding preparations, Anushka is shown happily getting ready to be the bride. When she is dressed she wanders out and sweetly greets her groom, who seems a bit of a goober. She tricks him into helping her over the wall, and she gaily escapes on her scooty. A police officer recognizes her as they wait at a light and chases her out onto a lonely road, where Gopichand stands waiting for him. Gopichand blows up the policeman, hops on her scooty, and they ride off into the sunset. And then the movie goes back a few months and starts at the beginning, before Anushka and Gopichand have met.

As I said, I liked it, but I think I would only recommend it to those already familiar with Telugu action films.

Yuvakudu (2000)

Here's the back cover's take on this story, (spelling and grammatical errors preserved):

Siva (Sumanth) life long ambition had always been to join the Indian army. His father having died on the battle field serves to make his intention only stronger. However his attempts at getting into the army are not proving successful. When he meets sindhu (Bhoomika) and falls in love with her, he loses her by not declaring his love she treats him as she might any other friend. And when sindhu meets Padmavathi (Jaya Sudha) and agrees to marry her son, all hope for siva seems to be at an end. Will he ever realize any of his dreams?

Here's my take:

Padmavathi is a widowed mother who loves her son very much and is willing to do just about anything to make him happy. Her son, Shiva, is a spoiled, hot-tempered jerk who cares for nobody's feelings but his own. He falls for the beauty and compassionate heart of the neglected and love-starved Sindhu, but instead of trying to get to know her better or to win her favor, he arrogantly demands her hand in marriage. After she refuses to say yes immediately, he's barely civil to her, although he still likes her.* Padmavathi befriends Sindhu for the sake of her son's love, and Sindhu becomes attached enough to her to do anything for her. So Shiva lives happily ever after, sort of.

*I think his nastiness is supposed to show that he a tender heart that he's protecting with his arrogance. What he really has is a preoccupation with his own wants and a total lack of interest in what anyone else is thinking or feeling.

Why don't they hire me to write the back covers of these things?

Godavari (2006)

Anand wasn't exactly my cup of tea, (or coffee), and if I'd realized that this movie was by the same director I probably would have been less excited to watch it. Still, as it turned out, I rather enjoyed it. I also hadn't realized that this was the movie with the fabled animated talking dog, which I thought was rather pointless but wasn't bothered by.

My only beef with this movie was that although Sriram's self-absorbed cousin, Raji, isn't the most amazing person in the world, I didn't think she came close to deserving her fiance Ravi, who really is totally contemptible. I kept thinking, "Get out while you still can, girl!" So [*Spoiler!*] when she told Sriram that she wanted to elope with him, I thought that although that would of course be very sad for Seetha at first (who had a big crush on Sriram), in the end it would avoid much bigger heartaches. And I believe in maximizing total happiness. So I had mixed feelings about that not working out.

Still, on the whole, I thought it was a cute little romance. The pacing was slow, but it didn't drag too much. The characters were fun, and the ending was reasonably good.

Yamagola Malli Modalaindi (2007)

Indian religious films, I've been told, are always crazy, and this one was no exception. Luckily, I like crazy, so that suited me just fine. I really liked Srikanth and Vena when they were playing the parts of the gods Yama Jr. and Chitragupta Jr. (Yama is the god of hell and Chitragupta is his assistant.)


They were so wonderfully hammy. All the posturing and the crazy get-up suited them perfectly. I especially loved Srikanth's propensity to pull out the mustache twirling at every opportunity.


They come to earth to bring a soul into the next world and of course get caught up in all sorts of drama. One of my favorite episodes is when they go to a nightclub,


and decide to join in 70s style.


Which, in my opinion, was an excellent idea.



My other favorite episode happens when the heroine's aunt and uncle are out for a drive at night and a rascal tries to take off her aunt's sari. Yama Jr. decides to pull a Krishna, and the aunt is extremely pleased with the bundle of saris she gets out of it.


All of this happens in the first hour of the film. The next two hours of the film are much less entertaining, as there is a great dearth of Srikanth and Venu dressed up in god clothes posing. Srikanth occasionally still strokes his mustache, and they still ham it up a little, but it's just not the same. And the little romances do not make up for it.


The best part of the second half, sadly enough, is part of the comic subplot. This one is actually quite funny, though. The police had seen the last bit of the sari episode, decide that this rascal is a golden goose, and bring him to the inspector's house to pull the sari of the inspector's wife. Not such a bright idea.


It may have its faults, but I was entertained and found the ending reasonably emotionally satisfying. And that's all I ask for.