Chukkallo Chandrudu Movie Reviews

You might be wondering what is this Pournami and Amavasya.Since this movie's title is named as Chukkallo Chandrudu(something like The moon among the Stars,mind you i'm not good at translating telugu to english),i'm comparing it with Pournami and.....oops sorry,Pournami means full moon day and Amavasya means no moon day,The starting of the movie is like full moon day,interval is like half moon day and climax.....yawn..like a no moon day.The songs were pretty impressive and there was Siddharth,who shot fame with Boys,Yuva,Nuvvostaanante Nenoddantaanaa?,and finally,Rang De Basanti and 3 heroines,Sada,Charmi,Saloni.There are also veteran actors like Akkineni Nageshwara Rao,Vaheeda Rahman,K.R.Vijaya and finally Prathap Pothan.Music is by Chakri,Story and Screenplay by Siddharth himself,and direction by Siddharth's buddy Siva Kumar.Story:Arjun(Sid...th)is a Germany based NRI.He loses his parents in a flight crash when he was a child and lives with his grandparents, A.N.R and Vaheeda Rahman.His grandparents have only one wish...to see Arjun as a married man.One day as usual,his g.parents ask him to marry,particularly his Grandmom makes some more pressure.but he says simply no.The same night his grandmom passes away(may be due to the pressure).Then his granddad requests him to marry.Again,a no.He gets fed up and secretly goes away to india.Arjun gets tensed but finally he comes to know that the old man is in his village in A.P and goes there and asks him to come back to germany.this time the,old man says a 'no'.He acts as if his health is getting deteriorating in indian climate and finally....phew,convinces him to marry.Arjun goes to Hyderabad and meets his childhood friend ??(Sunil),sorry,forgot his name.He has 3 childhood girlfriends,Shalini Rao-whom he used to play tennis,Sandhya-his classmate,Sravani-His granddads car drivers daughter.He enquires and finds out that the 3 have grown into Shalini Rao(Saloni)-a star tennis player(like our Sania Mirza),Sandhya(a social activist and a firebrand),Sravani(Sada),a medico cum cry baby,who cries all the time).He meets them and introduces himself as Krishna,as they know about Arjun and they may easily fall for him.He meets Shalini as a business man and she falls for him.Then as a P.H.D student for Sandhya and she falls for him.Then as a Hutch company employee for Sravani and she too falls for him.And the twist is that he too falls for 3 of them and gets confused......-Interval-I too confused???Then he asks his granddad and he advices him to marry his true love??Shalini goes to Swiss to play Wimbledon tourney,she calls him there and expresses her love.Both roam in a bike and sing a duet.But suddenly our hero remembers that she is a tennis player and has bright future.he thinks that his love may spoil her career and confesses that he is Arjun and rejects her love.He comes to hyderabad and Sandhya comes to know that he is Arjun and asks him to marry her.But here too,there's a problem-she had a lover Sharath(Prabhu Deva, to save the day)with whom she separated due to ego problem.Our kind hearted hero unites them and his third option,the cry baby Sravani is getting married to another man,coz she loved Krishna and came to know that he cheated her.But she does not know that he is Arjun.He goes to her marriage to wish her and comes to know that the person who is going to marry the cry baby is a cheat(common thing in telugu cinema)he gets into fight with him and his friends bash him.Then comes our A.N.R and tells Sravani that he's none other that Arjun.She understands that she has mistaken him and marries him.......aahhh finally this movie gets over.First half is filled with good humor and songs.Second half is very boring because the secret of whom the hero loved is revealed.and there is a song when Sharath(Prabhu Deva)is introduced which is just included for a dancing practice for him.I think the screenplay by Sid....th is influenced by Rang De Basanti,which is awkward, as he wrote the story and screen when in Rang De.. shooting.Story,direction is excellent but screenplay harmed the movie.

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For quite some time, I am confused about which sex the Moon belongs to, in Telugu language. Poetically, it’s called ‘Chandamama’, personifying it as feminine; on the other hand, dramatically, it’s called ‘Chandrudu’, indicating it as masculine. I am so confused of this anomaly, that I most of the times wonder why I think of it. Ok! Let’s leave it! Let’s talk about the latest Telugu film: Chukkallo Chandrudu (The Moon Among the Stars).

Confusion: Oh! Sorry! I meant the story!

The Story:

On a negative scale, confusion is an Inability --- an inability to choose! But on a positive note, confusion is a Natural --- a natural among youth. Digging deeper, Confusion is the successor of Existence of options. And anyone who has enough options on his hands is never a loser. The choice he makes decides his destiny. Confusion just makes him think twice before choosing the right option. No doubt, destiny deserves a long thought!

This story is that of a young guy, who has got nothing to Lose; but just has got to choose among the existing options so as to Gain his better-half. He has three girls in his mind: one is beautiful and ambitious, the second is smart and arrogant, and the third is hard-working and soft. On his quest to choose his life-partner, the young guy takes us through his journey of Fun, Friendship, Love and, most of all, Confusion.

The Young Guy:

In the film, his name is Arjun. He is smart, fun-loving and rich. Away from the screen, he is called Sidharth. This film totally rests on this one man. He is capable; and proved it by putting up a brilliant performance. He looks exactly the character. Fun, Romance or Melodrama --- he is perfect in every expression. And most important fact of his performance is his spontaneity. No expression has been rehearsed for long. All are at-the-go expressions. Watch his grace when he flirts with the girls --- absolutely entertaining!

The Three Women:

They represent the three shades of women ---- beauty, arrogance and innocence. On the screen the three actresses --- Saloni(playing Shalini), Charmi (playing Sandhya) and Sadaf(playing Sravani), have lived up to their characterizations. It’s Charmi’s role that got more life and in-depth characterizations among the three; and her performance was equally appealing. And luckily, for the family audience, there is no skin-show.

… and the Rest:

Veteran actor ANR has done a great job, especially with his unique style of dancing! Thanks for his energy levels even in his eighties. Waheeda Rehman, Tanikella Bharini, and others have done their jobs decently. Fortunately, in this film, there is only one comedian --- Sunil, and he is sure to bring about a lot of laughs.

Off the screen, the dominance is, obviously, of Sidharth. His story is a welcomingly new one. It’s about confusion; but it no where got confused. Thus, Sidharth succeeds! His screenplay is interesting. It goes in a cyclic fashion --- one character to another. And the script --- is thoroughly enjoyable; and, it mostly keeps away itself from the typical formula. It sounds fresh and smooth. Kona Venkat’s dialogues and Siva Kumar’s direction add more essence. Though there are some lapses in terms of pace of the film, they don’t shadow the charm of the film.

Music (Chakri), though uninteresting on listening, is good on screen. Anyway, avoiding a couple of songs in the second half could have helped the pace of the film. Choreography was brilliant. It wasn’t like any of those pretentious hip twisting steps done by some star-actors; Sidharth just enjoyed his work and that was evident in his dance. Cinematography and other technical aspects are good. The production values are adequate.

A Commercial Interpretation:

The Telugu audience is used to watching linear stories. But this film goes a bit zig-zag way. Though narrated in a convincing style, some audience may get impatient with the twists in the second half (Till the last five minutes, one cannot predict the end). And song or two, though necessary for logical balance, will seem uncalled for. The fate of this film depends on how the audience will accept this new screenplay. Favoring the film are some aspects like, healthy comedy, almost fully-decked heroines, timely cameo by PrabuDeva, ANR’s histrionics and Sidharth’s all-round performance. The female and family audiences are most likely to appreciate this film.

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