'Eenadu' Review: Unexpected Outcome

[psycopk]

Film: Eenadu

Rating: 2.75/5

Banners: Raajkamal International, UTV

Cast: Kamal Haasan, Venkatesh, Lakshmi, Ganesh Venkatraman, Anuja Iyer, Poonam Kaur, Santhanam, Mahesh Jayee etc

Music: Shruti Haasan

PRO: BA Raju

Cinematography: Manoj Soni

Dialogues: Neelakanta

Director: Chakri Toleti

Producer: Kamal Haasan

Release date: 18th Sep 2009

The sensational movie that shook the heads of many critics, film lovers on a whole ‘A Wednesday’ was brought into Telugu as ‘Eenadu’ today. Has it shaken the heads again? Let us go into the details.

Story:

Police Commissioner Eeshwar Prasad (Venkatesh) gets a threatening call from an anonymous caller (Kamal Hasan) who states that he planted 5 RDX explosives in city which would explode by 6PM. Terror starts from then. Eeshwar Prasad handles the issue by reporting to Chief Secretary (Lakshmi) and Chief Minister. His missions are two.

1. Safeguarding that city from blasts and

2. Smoking out the anonymous caller.

And why that caller threatens? His demands are to release 4 terrorists those are linked up to Gokul Chat and Lumbini blasts.

Eeshwar Prasad releases them and sends to the place suggested by that anonymous caller. What happens after that? Has Eshwar Prasad succeeded in his missions?

That has to be watched on screen.

Performances:

Venkatesh- He is the only saving grace in the movie. Audience found relaxed and pleasant watching him. He suited perfect to the role of Police Commissioner. He looked more convincing than Anupam Kher, who played same role in original ‘A Wednesday’. He never smiles through out the narration and his serious portrayal is laudable. He kept all sorts of star-hero image and airs aside and performed very subtly. That is highly commendable.

Kamal Hasan- He hasn’t shown the conviction that was shown by Naseeruddin Shah in original. There is no scope for performance in this role, but still Naseeruddin could show some glitters drawing the attention of audiences completely. But here the director spoiled the character by not suggesting anything about the timing in dialogue delivery and expressions to Kamal. Kamal is the biggest disappointment as audience expect more than what they have actually watched from him.

Ganesh Venkataraman: He is perfect in cop’s role. He is the one who stole the attention of audiences with his macho look as Cop Arif. He is far better than Jimmy Shergill who played same role in original.

Bharat Reddy: He played subtly as Cop Goutham Reddy with bits of humor in a couple of scenes.

Lakshmi is a waste. Technically, this is the first full length film in Telugu that’s made with Red-One digital camera. The output is good. Sruthi Hasan’s music could have been better. Dialogues are good. Editing is ok.

Highlights:

Venkatesh’s presence

Ganesh Venkatraman’s performance

Disappointments:

Kamal Hasan

Chakry Toleti’s direction

Lakshmi’s character

RR

Analysis:

A few said that Kamal wouldn’t have chosen to work in this movie as his performance is not up to the mark. Some from back seats murmured, Prakash Raj would be a better choice than Kamal Hasan for this role.

Audiences find a kind of terror watching Naseeruddin Shah’s performance in ‘A Wednesday’. But Kamal couldn’t bring that. And Chakry Toleti is successful in copying the film from original but failed with some senseless additions.

Directorial Flaws:

    * Kamal Hasan talking about a pregnant woman getting raped nude in public, while dealing with terrorists, on phone with Police Commissioner is out of the box. That has confused audiences.

    * And there is no reasonable conclusion to Poonam Kour’s role. Has she got down from train? The circle hasn’t completed.

    * Showing Lakshmi in the role of Chief Secretary in not in tune with requirement (although director tried to depict the ego clashes between IAS and IPS officers in general)

The movie lacks luster with respect to boosting up the adrenaline of audience. The best part is that the movie has got no extra-peripherals like songs and hence saved time and energies of audience. First half has picked up slowly and caused some stir before interval. The intensity in second half could be better to fit into the requirement.

Mass audiences may not relish this film. Majority of multiplex audiences already watched ‘A Wednesday’ and comparison mars it. Rural audiences may feel it a documentary sort of film and finds hard to understand what is happening on screen. Hence it’s difficult for this film to continue its odyssey at box office. This is an unexpected outcome.

Bottom Line: Whatever copied is not bad. And what ever added is not good

[ganesh]

hammernd jai kamal

[googledude]

How can it go wrong?????

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"

[urspeeaar]

eevi rating: 3/5

Punchline: should have been better

Genre: Thriller

Type: Remake (A Wednesday)

Banner: Raaj Kamal International

Cast: Kamal Hassan, Venkatesh, Lakshmi, Venkat Raghavan, Dr. Bharat Reddy, Anuja Iyer etc

Music: Shruthi Hassan

Cinematography: Manoj Soni

Dialogues: Neelakanta

Art: Thota Tharani

Story: Neeraj Pandey

Direction: Chakri Toleti

Producer: Kamal Hassan & Rani Screwvala

Release date: 18 September 2009

Review

Story

eenadu Eeswar Prasad (Venkatesh) is the commissioner of police of Hyderabad. One day he receives a call from a stranger (Kamal Haasan) that he has planted bombs in various cities and they will be trigged off at 6 pm if Eeswar Prasad does not release four most dreaded terrorists from the police custody. Eeswar alerts his team and makes arrangement to release the terrorists and at the same time he tries to trace the stranger. The rest of the story is all about whether Eeswar finds who the stranger is or not.

Artists Performance

eenadu Kamal Hassan: Kamal Hassan has done a brilliant job as a stranger in the movie. However, the characterization in Telugu/Tamil version is too strong for Kamal. Kamal behaves as if he has upper hand over the commissioner right from the first scene. With that characterization, the sympathy we have for the common man character doesn't get created. Another point to note here is that the strengths and ability of the stranger is slowly revealed over a period of time till the interval in 'A Wednesday' and it adds up to thrill. Where as in Eenadu, they tried to show Kamal Hassan as a stud right in the first scene where he prepares a RDX bomb.

eenaduVenkatesh: Venkatesh is nice as a police commissioner and it is a welcome decision for him to shed his star image to do a different character. Except for a couple of small glitches in dialogue delivery, Venkatesh did well. Again the comparison with the original character is inevitable here. In the original Anupam Kher played the role of an officer who was almost on the verge of his retirement when he gets a call from a stranger. Where as Venkatesh's character in this movie is a middle aged. How an old man deals with such an unprecedented crisis situation is much more fascinating than a young guy dealing with it.

eenaduOthers: Anuja Iyer is alright as a TV journalist. Gowtami seems to have dubbed her voice. Ganesh Venkatraman (who did the role of Trisha's boyfriend in Aakasamantha movie) did the role of a hot-blooded cop and he is alright. Dr. Bharat Reddy is good as a sincere cop. Lakshmi did an important role of chief secretary to the CM. Poonam Kaur did a small role.

Technical departments

eenaduStory - screenplay - directon: Story of the movie has the right blend of thrilling elements coupled with nice message. Screenplay of the movie is adequate. Direction of Chakri Toleti is good in parts. However, the characterizations should have been much better. As I mentioned in artists performances, the director made Kamal Hassan's character too strong. A feeble guy like Nasiruddin Shah achieving such a huge task of planting bombs and taking the Government for ride was thrilling. Where as a person like Kamal Hassan who is shown as a great bomb assembler in the first scene doesn't give the same kind of effect. The characterization of hot-blooded cop played by Ganesh Venkatraghavan doesn't have the required precision. The character of Lakshmi is also little confusing. The conflict and friction between Venkatesh and Lakshmi looks too personal (like in between family members or friends) than between two top brass officials.

I had reviewed A Wednesday right on the day it was released (review here) and I enlisted seven scenes I loved in that movie. I am going to compare how those seven scenes fared in 'Eenadu'

    A Wednesday

    1. The scene in which police commissioner gets the CM to give all powers to him in order to negotiate with the stranger.

    2. The rowdy pissing in pants and telling the truth the moment he sees Arif Khan.

    3. The scene in which director dupes us into thinking that Arif Khan catches hold of the stranger on the top of the under-construction building (a similar screenplay technique was used in ‘The silence of the Lambs’ where the director dupes us to think that heroine surrounds the house of the killer)

    4. The way the stranger sips coffee and eats sandwich while negotiating with the police force.

    5. The final twist when terrorists are taken to Juhu air-strip.

    6. The scene in which the stranger reveals the cause behind his act.

    7. The terrific encounter between the two in the last scene

    Eenadu

    1. The characterization of Lakshmi diluted the required effect.

    2. Arif Khan's character is not properly etched and this scene in the movie is ineffective.

    3. This scene is also not effectively handled.

    4. This scene is alright.

    5. This is nice.

    6. The reason given by stranger is appears out of place. This movie is about terrorism and the reason given by stranger is irrelevant to terrorism.

    7. This is good. Finally I saw both Kamal and Venky in the same frame of the movie in the end.

eenaduOther departments: Music by Sruthi Hassan is nice and it suited with the tone of the movie. Dialogues by Neelakanta are adequate though I expected more powerful and realistic ones from him. Manoj Soni's cinematography is good. The usage of RED camera seems to have worked for the movie. Movie is slick and sophisticated on the technical aspects. And Chakri should be commended for assembling the right work from the technicians. Editing is fast.

eenaduAnalysis: Remaking a Hindi blockbuster featuring character actors with stars in Telugu/Tamil is always a risky proposition. A Wednesday worked purely on content with actors complementing it. By adding the stars to Telugu/Tamil version, the characterizations got changed. Hence the needed effect gets diluted. The plus points of the movie are Kamal Hassan, Venkatesh and technicians. The negative points are characterizations and script changes. Kamal Hassan and Venkatesh should be appreciated for doing this movie that has single costume, no songs and no romantic angle. Since I have seen the original and reviewed it too, I couldn't resist doing vital comparision. However, the fate of the Eenadu will depend on how people who haven't seen A Wednesday receive it.

[urspeeaar]

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