Recent Reviews by Sangeetha Devi Dundoo
The Hindu
Sangeetha Devi Dundoo is a journalist and film critic with The Hindu, Hyderabad, with a focus on Telugu cinema. She has been reviewing films for nearly 13 years in her 25-year journalism career. She was part of the founding team of The Times of India, Hyderabad, and worked in the features section for nearly six years before moving to The Hindu.
Films reviewed on this Page
Matka
Rahasyam Idham Jagath
Lucky Baskhar
Viswam
Maa Nanna Superhero
Devara Part 1
Swag
Matka
A sincere Varun Tej cannot salvage this boring drama
Director Karuna Kumar’s Telugu film ‘Matka’ scores in its attention to the period setting but falls way short of leveraging its potential to be a soaring drama
How does a business venture that does not require much investment work, a character wonders in director Karuna Kumar’s Telugu film Matka. We sell hope and buy people’s trust, explains the protagonist (Varun Tej as Vasu) whose character is inspired by gambler Ratan Khatri, also known as the ‘matka’ king. His statement and the scenes on a train that precede it, showing the potential for gambling and how it can turn ordinary citizens into addicts, perk up an otherwise predictable narrative.
Rahasyam Idham Jagath
Earnest but far from engrossing
Director Komal R Bharadwaj’s Telugu indie ‘Rahasyam Idham Jagath’ is ambitious in using science, technology and stories from the Indian epics for an adventure drama, but falls short in its execution
How far would you go to help your loved ones? This question is oft explored in books and cinema. If done well, it can be an emotionally moving drama. Komal R Bharadwaj, who has written and directed the Telugu indie film Rahasyam Idham Jagath, gives this idea a different spin, interspersing elements of science fiction and mythology. There is romance, a bitter past, a possibility of revenge, unexplained murky happenings in an eerie setting and the possibility of time travel through a wormhole. It is an ambitious, interesting idea on paper but does not translate to an engrossing adventurous ride, despite the earnest execution of the film.
Lucky Baskhar
Venky Atluri, Dulquer Salmaan deliver an entertaining drama
Director Venky Atluri strikes a fine balance between exploring financial scam and relationships in ‘Lucky Baskhar’, headlined by a superb Dulquer Salmaan
Lucky Baskhar, the Telugu film written and directed by Venky Atluri, employs the narrative technique of creating tense moments before a twist, then retracing a few steps to reveal the events that led to it, at sporadic intervals. The first time this happens, it is an indication of what the titular character is capable of. When this technique is repeated, there is the danger of it falling flat. There are occasions when we can pre-empt a twist, but the manner in which it unfolds brings a smile. This relationship drama woven around a financial scam is Atluri’s best work till date and is anchored by a powerhouse Dulquer Salmaan, who shifts seamlessly from a common man struggling to make ends meet to a shrewd banker driven by the need to make quick money.
All 3 reviews of Lucky Baskhar here
Viswam
Sreenu Vaitla and Gopichand’s film is marred by an outdated, meandering narrative
Director Sreenu Vaitla’s Telugu film ‘Viswam’ is a tiresome mishmash of subplots and characters that feels dated by at least two decades
Viswam, directed by Sreenu Vaitla, is a reminder that not everything has changed for the better with mainstream Telugu cinema. In terms of narrative style, character arcs and the plot itself, this Gopichand and Kavya Thapar starrer feels redundant. The film teems with dozen of characters and a handful of sub plots — in the name of offering wholesome entertainment — with action episodes, romance, emotional drama and mindless comedy; it can get tiresome to sit through 155 minutes of an incoherence narrative, even if one does not look for logical reasoning.
Maa Nanna Superhero
Sudheer Babu shoulders a patchy relationship drama
Sudheer Babu and Saichand’s performances anchor ‘Maa Nanna Superhero’, an uneven relationship drama that scores in a few segments
A scene in director Abhilash Reddy Kankara’s Telugu film Maa Nanna Superhero (my dad is a superhero) shows the protagonist Johnny (Sudheer Babu) taking his house owner to task and abruptly pausing when the latter’s daughter comes into the picture. He does not want to make the man seem a lesser mortal to his child. The narrative attempts to ride on the universal emotion of children seeing their father as a superhero. Abhilash wonders how far a son would go to save his father, with whom he shares a tumultuous relationship. The plot becomes more complex as it involves a father Srinivas (Sayaji Shinde) and his adopted son Johnny, and later, the biological father also returns. This idea might seem intriguing at the script level, but the film seems uneven and is held together by a few endearing moments.
Devara Part 1
NTR and Anirudh amp up the intensity in an overstretched action drama
Director Koratala Siva and NTR mount an intense action drama, with huge help from Anirudh Ravichander, only for the later portions to lose steam in the over-zealousness to stretch the story for a sequel
Nine years after SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali – The Beginning left viewers curious about why Kattappa killed Baahubali, a spate of films have been mounted ambitiously, with scope for sequels. This has turned out to be a double-edged sword. While filmmakers get the scope to present in-depth character delineations and build the world in which the story unfolds, there has also been a tendency to overstretch the narrative. A few questions are left unanswered, with the hope that the audience will wait in anticipation of a sequel.
All 4 reviews of Devara Part 1 here
Swag
Hasith Goli and a brilliant Sree Vishnu strike again with a deceptive, layered satire
Director Hasith Goli’s Telugu film ‘Swag’ is a lot more than a satire on the battle of the sexes and he is helped immensely by the performances of Sree Vishnu, Ritu Varma and Meera Jasmine
When a man who wears his masculinity on his sleeve laments at how his son is growing up, displaying feminine traits, his wife tries to make him understand the importance of accepting an individual’s natural expression of gender. This segment and the portion that follows gives writer-director Hasith Goli’s Telugu film Swag the much-needed emotional anchor. Until then, the narrative is like a satire, with elements of farce and ‘absurd theatre’ as the several characters played by Sree Vishnu and the dual characters of Ritu Varma slug it out to assert the power of male versus female.