Aravind & Vinayak in 'Matti' publicity

Looks like Allu Aravind’s brain is working double refined when it comes to promoting his home flick ‘badrinath.’ In spite of the divided talk film has generated in public, collections are known to be showing a steady trend which might pull producer, distributors and exhibitors to safe shores by end of third week. Everything is the result of magic of Geetha Arts compound. Not to leave any element of ‘badrinath’ escape from promotion, Allu Aravind is planning to send few lucky winners to a badrinath pilgrim trip while Vinayak got an idea of bringing the divine soil (Matti) of badrinath to all theatres screening the film. As shown in the movie, soil of badrinath is assumed to be very powerful with medicinal values that can heal many illnesses.

Badrinadh... the Truth

Badrinadh... the Truth

Audience scratching heads @ 'Badrinath'

When a movie collects whopping Rs.17 Crores by the end of third day of release, what should we this, either a hit or a flop? This question is teasing the brains of Telugu audience ever since Allu Aravind released the record figures of ‘badrinath’ to media and public. While talk for the film in market is still divided yet the reports shown by Allu are quite interesting. Apparently duty of viewers is to watch the film and forget the rest but when something of this kind of arguable numbers are dropped into public, debates are prone to increase and movie is to get extra publicity. One of the close observers of these movie collections is heard saying, ‘these days none of the collection reports released by producers are authentic. This has become a game for each individual to show their superiority in industry. Contrary to this, we even have genuine hits from small and medium producers whose records never come out. Audience have to just scratch their heads seeing this entire ham buck.’

Can 'Badrinath' be another 'Veera'?

An obvious, open fact everybody has to accept is that remarks of critics and ratings of reviewers have become irrelevant in deciding fate of movies these days. Audiences are final judges and collections are final reports that would settle the final destiny of a film and people connected to it financially. True that ‘Veera’ was given very bad ratings and a disaster talk was forecasted mercilessly (thanks to the film’s pathetic content).

Instead Mass Maharaja repeated his magic with good revenues still sustaining in B & C Centres thus making movie reach safe shores irrespective of the budget kept. Now, ‘badrinath’ which has got similar bad talk is also expected to take same route given the long gap available for next big release and the kind of action episodes picturized by VV Vinayak. Let us see, how far Geetha Arts and Allu Aravind will succeed in this as we get the first and second week collections.

Why 'Badrinath' Failed At Box Office?

Well, the final result is out. The much awaited and most talked about film ‘Badrinath’ has hit the screens and the result from box office is a thumbs down. Here are few reasons being pointed out by many which led to the disaster from this highly promising movie.

Though the technical standards such as music, cinematography, art department received high marks, the film suffered majorly due to Chinni Krishna’s illogical story and very bad screenplay.

The weak climax due to abrupt chopping of action scenes by the censor board and getting certified with an 'A' added to the woes. While Allu Arjun scored in dance and fights, he could not do much in emotional scenes. Tamannah scored in sex appeal.

However, the comedy was poorly rehashed by the scriptwriter more on a need basis and taking cue from Chiranjeevi's 'Indra'. The spineless performances from Brahmanandam, Dharmavarapu didn’t help. The boneless and hackneyed script and large attention on the visual appeal than content contributed to the film’s poor performance. The film is only for watching Bunny’s dances and Tamannah’s visual feast.

Allu Aravind's 'Viagra' @ Shaktinath

If you are wondering what Shaktinath is then this happens to be the new name for ‘Badrinath. Already, many are calling ‘Badrinath’ as ‘Shakti’nath and say that it is a big rod with high torture quotient. However, it appears that producer Allu Aravind thinks differently about it.

Apparently, he has been doing his best to ‘lift’ the film by releasing pressnotes showing thumping collections. As if that is not enough, even his son Allu Sirish has joined the ‘band’wagon on his twitter account stating the film is getting ‘mind blowing’ (??!!) collections.

Truth according to theatre owners is, even Sunday also tickets are available and except first show which is showing some occupancy, the rest of the shows are going empty. The cine folks are quipping that Allu Aravind’s Viagra is not helping much for his son’s career upliftment.

VV Vinayak Missed His Sentiment

Sentiments and success of films have a strong belief in the Tollywood circuit. So, there are many filmmakers who make it a point to have few actors, locations compulsory in every film of theirs. However, it appears that director V V Vinayak has missed out on his sentiment.

And this seems to have resulted in the poor show of his latest ‘Badrinath’. Apparently, there is always this actor in the picture who is seen in every V V Vinayak movie. However, he was not there in ‘Badrinath’ and many in film nagar are saying that he was not there that’s why the sentiment didn’t work.

The actor whose name is to be known speaks in distinct Telangana accent and entertains as villain’s sidekick. Lately, his presence has increased in many films owing to his style. Well, only Vinayak will know if the result of ‘Badrinath’ was due to the absence of his sentiment actor or any other reason.

'Badrinath' Review: Just Better Than Shakti!

Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: Geetha Arts
Cast: Allu Arjun, Tamannah, Prakash Raj, Kelly Dorjee and others
Music: M M Keeravani
Cinematographer: S Ravi Varman
Story: Chinni Krishna
Editor: Gautham Raju
Screenplay, direction: V V Vinayak
Producer: Allu Aravind
Release date: 10/06/2011

Allu Arjun is back and this time he has teamed up with the mass masala movie maker V V Vinayak with a different concept. Let us see how this is.

Story:
The age old ritual of ‘Kshetra Palakudu’ is revived among the Hindu saints and gurus. They approach the veteran Bheeshma Narayana (Prakash Raj) and he decides to mould one child to be the protector of Badrinath.

This is Badri (Allu Arjun) and as fate would have it, he is chosen to be the protector of the Badrinath shrine. The story takes a turn with the arrival of Alakananda (Tamannah) an atheist due to her reasons. Few sequences revive her faith in the god and also trigger love in her for Badri.

However, Bheeshma wants Badri to take over as his successor and the condition is that he must remain a ‘Brahmachari’ for the rest of his life. On the other hand, there is the evil Sarkar (Kelly Dorjee) along with his wife (Ashwini) who want to get Alakananda married to their son so that they can grab her property. What happens after that forms the rest of the story.

Performances:
Allu Arjun looks perfect in physique, riveting in dance performance, apt in emotional scenes. He did his best to do justice but then his character should have been etched with more conviction.

Tamannah is a visual feast and she has given a literal Abhishekam with her milky white oomph factor. Her screen presence is significant and she delivered well during emotional sequences.

Prakash Raj did his bit as required. However, his role was not as powerful as it was hyped. His face was hidden in white beard and hair. Only eyes and nose are visible. Worst make up.

Kelly Dorjee was spineless as a villain, all that hungama about his profile looks hollow. Ashwini (the police cop in Rakta Charitra who gets her revolver licked by Bukka Reddy) is a talented actress but she got stiff in few scenes. Brahmanandam was okay, Krishna Bhagawan gave his regular satires, Dharmavarapu was regular, the lad doing Ashwini’s son’s role was dull. Venu Madhav came and went.

Highlights:

• Visual grandeur
• Tamannah’s glamour feast
• Bunny’s sincere efforts in action and dance
• Pace of the film

Drawbacks:

• Significant directorial flaws
• Weak climax
• Non-situational songs
• Weak comedy
• Average cinematography
• Abrupt censoring

Analysis: The film came in with various publicity stints such as

• The costliest film ever made in Tollywood
• Allu Arjun’s Indian Samurai role and his training in Vietnam
• Chinni Krishna’s statement that this screenplay has never been seen before

Well, coming to the point. There is hardly any impact to say that the film was made at a budget of Rs 40 crores. If that is true then it must be said that the director didn’t utilize it in the right way. Given the buzz about Bunny’s training, the action and fight sequences should have been mind blowing but they were regular Peter Heinz product which we have seen before. As far as screenplay goes, guess Chinni Krishna meant it literally, nothing great about the screenplay. When subjects like Hindu shrines and customs are spoken, basic fundamentals must be followed.
Here is something for Vinayak-

• If Allu Arjun is the protector of a holy temple, he should at least have a thilakam on his forehead
• Tamannah lights the oil lamps with match sticks. That is unacceptable and grave mistake as per Hindu tradition. The custom requires it to be lit with incense sticks and not match sticks.
• In the ‘Vasudhara’ scene, there is a temple deity and everyone is walking coolly with slippers, shoes, long boots etc
• Allu Arjun gets upanayanam performed by Prakash Raj and he also drops a ‘jandhyam’ on his body. But that ‘jandhyam’ is never seen again in the film. Is that the value Allu Arjun’s character gives for religion and piousness?!
• In the last fight, Allu Arjun jumps out from temple barefoot but by the time he lands at villains he has shoes.
• If Brad Pitt kills the opponent by piercing a sword on the shoulder in ‘Troy’, our Allu Arjun pierces and kills merely with two fingers. Why is this silly copying?
• If Ram Charan killed 100 soldiers in ‘Magadheera’, our Bunny killed 100+ here with no emotion packed. What’s this comparison?

That way, Vinayak has missed attention to detail and conviction in many scenes. The first half goes about in a mild manner and he shows his mettle before the interval bang with the idol fight. However, things gets a little quirky during the second half and it gets very predictable. Overall, the film will work strongly in the opening day due to Allu Arjun and Tamannah following along with the publicity hype but to be frank, the film has nothing extraordinary to be spoken about.

• It is a weak story line with Computer Graphics hungama. No grip in emotions
• Hero never connects with heroine’s love till the end. Then how the circle can be completed?
• The stubborn sage Prakash Raj gets convinced with three lines from Tamannah.
• Hero saves heroine by the word from his guru but not out of love.
• Is villain Kelly Dorjee good or bad? The confusion is glued to that character.
• Why the hero chops hundreds of heads and bodies? No emotion or sentiment packed in that as hero has no love towards heroine.

On a whole Badrinath ends up as much ado about nothing.

Bottomline: Nothing exciting

Badrinath raising the blood pressures

High budget movies are always the risk generators for producers, distributors and exhibitors. In domestic market we might see first and second week house fulls with advance bookings irrespective of talk but in overseas market, patrons are to make fool of exhibitors once the rating and verdict for the film is out in website reviews. Few such star examples which killed distributors in overseas are ‘Puli’ and ‘Shakti.’ Having paid exorbitant amounts to bag the exhibition rights of these movies, everybody went begging once the disaster talk is out with very first show.

Another blood pressure raising situation bothering overseas businessmen from past one week is of ‘Badrinath.’ Purchasing the rights of this highly anticipated flick at record prices, audiences and exhibitors are waiting for screening of first show with at most enthusiasm. One has to see, which way will ‘Badrinath’ go? Will this be another ‘Shakti’ or a profit making one like ‘Magadheera’?