Movie: Nenu Naa Rakshasi
Cast: Rana, Ileana, Subbaraju, Mumait Khan, Abhimanyu Singh, Ali, Mukthar Khan and Kota others
Music: Viswa and Rehman
Cinematography: Amol Rathod
Editing: S R Sekhar
Action: Vijay, Selva and Ganesh
Art: Chinna
Choreography: Raju Sundaram, Pradeep Anthony
Produced by: Nallamalupu Srinivas (Bujji)
Story, dialogue, screenplay and directed by: Puri Jagannadh
CBFC Rating: U/A
Release date: April 29, 2011
What's it about!
A professional killer Abhi (Rana) falls off for the charms of a beauty Meenkashi (Ileana) who works at a cafeteria. A rowdy harasses her and Abhi kills the guy too. On the other hand, a person is secretly uploading videos of people who kill themselves on to you tube. The person turns out to be Meenakshi. And a police officer (Subbaraju) is on the look out for the person who is uploading these videos. What makes Abhi turn into a professional killer? And what prompts Meenakshi to upload these videos? And how does their love story begin? These questions are revealed in the later part of the story.
Analysis
Nenu Naa Rakshasi is an experimental movie with eccentric storyline. Puri Jagannadh who is known for churning out masala potboilers has chosen a subject that is hardly digestible to regular movie going audiences. It starts off well but post interval scenes really test the patience.
Suicides are topical issues. But heroine putting up videos of suicide attempts onto Youtube completely sidelines the issue, whatever be the director's intention.
A professional killer falling in love with a girl who records the suicides and herself is planning to end life is pretty novel idea. There is right conflict and lot of scope to weave a different love story. Freshness in the subject is clearly evident and he fairly succeeds in presenting it novel way till the interval, but the director soon falls into his regular mode. That kills the movie. Puri Jagannadh holds the audiences' interest till the interval, as the reason for such unusual behavior of the lead characters was kept in secret. Once the lid is off, it pretty soon falters. To just fill the run time, the director (and he's writer too) has filled up with clichéd scenes, and cheap comedy sequences in the second half. As the film progresses, you feel boredom. Added to that cheap and vulgar comedy track between Ali and Mumait Khan further irritates. Climax, again, is pretty predictable.
Performances
Rana has tall body and is easy on eyes but he lacks performance skills. He looked good in his debut movie Leader because of that subtle characterization whereas this role requires high energy levels, which he lacks. Style wise, he's okay.
Ileana looks gorgeous in songs and she also performs well in some key scenes. Abhimanyu Singh as villain, Subbaraju as cop, and Kota in a cameo appearance do justice to their roles.
Amol Rathod's cinematography is splendid. His hues and blurrs are fantastic. Viswa and Rehman have composed songs, they are catchy but rip-off old western songs. Not much to say about other technical departments.
As a director, Puri shows his maturity in handling of several scenes. He pens equally interesting dialogue. Yet, he is letdown by his own screenplay post interval.
Bottom-line
Though Puri picks up novel storyline, the movie is hardly digestible to regular audiences. Discerning audiences can see the merits in the first half, but again the second half spoils all the brownie points it has in the beginning. As the film progresses, Nenu Naa Rakashasi gets dreary and monotonous. A very eccentric thought told in bad way.
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewed by JP
Cast: Rana, Ileana, Subbaraju, Mumait Khan, Abhimanyu Singh, Ali, Mukthar Khan and Kota others
Music: Viswa and Rehman
Cinematography: Amol Rathod
Editing: S R Sekhar
Action: Vijay, Selva and Ganesh
Art: Chinna
Choreography: Raju Sundaram, Pradeep Anthony
Produced by: Nallamalupu Srinivas (Bujji)
Story, dialogue, screenplay and directed by: Puri Jagannadh
CBFC Rating: U/A
Release date: April 29, 2011
What's it about!
A professional killer Abhi (Rana) falls off for the charms of a beauty Meenkashi (Ileana) who works at a cafeteria. A rowdy harasses her and Abhi kills the guy too. On the other hand, a person is secretly uploading videos of people who kill themselves on to you tube. The person turns out to be Meenakshi. And a police officer (Subbaraju) is on the look out for the person who is uploading these videos. What makes Abhi turn into a professional killer? And what prompts Meenakshi to upload these videos? And how does their love story begin? These questions are revealed in the later part of the story.
Analysis
Nenu Naa Rakshasi is an experimental movie with eccentric storyline. Puri Jagannadh who is known for churning out masala potboilers has chosen a subject that is hardly digestible to regular movie going audiences. It starts off well but post interval scenes really test the patience.
Suicides are topical issues. But heroine putting up videos of suicide attempts onto Youtube completely sidelines the issue, whatever be the director's intention.
A professional killer falling in love with a girl who records the suicides and herself is planning to end life is pretty novel idea. There is right conflict and lot of scope to weave a different love story. Freshness in the subject is clearly evident and he fairly succeeds in presenting it novel way till the interval, but the director soon falls into his regular mode. That kills the movie. Puri Jagannadh holds the audiences' interest till the interval, as the reason for such unusual behavior of the lead characters was kept in secret. Once the lid is off, it pretty soon falters. To just fill the run time, the director (and he's writer too) has filled up with clichéd scenes, and cheap comedy sequences in the second half. As the film progresses, you feel boredom. Added to that cheap and vulgar comedy track between Ali and Mumait Khan further irritates. Climax, again, is pretty predictable.
Performances
Rana has tall body and is easy on eyes but he lacks performance skills. He looked good in his debut movie Leader because of that subtle characterization whereas this role requires high energy levels, which he lacks. Style wise, he's okay.
Ileana looks gorgeous in songs and she also performs well in some key scenes. Abhimanyu Singh as villain, Subbaraju as cop, and Kota in a cameo appearance do justice to their roles.
Amol Rathod's cinematography is splendid. His hues and blurrs are fantastic. Viswa and Rehman have composed songs, they are catchy but rip-off old western songs. Not much to say about other technical departments.
As a director, Puri shows his maturity in handling of several scenes. He pens equally interesting dialogue. Yet, he is letdown by his own screenplay post interval.
Bottom-line
Though Puri picks up novel storyline, the movie is hardly digestible to regular audiences. Discerning audiences can see the merits in the first half, but again the second half spoils all the brownie points it has in the beginning. As the film progresses, Nenu Naa Rakashasi gets dreary and monotonous. A very eccentric thought told in bad way.
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewed by JP
