Mr. Medhavi – 7/10

An another interesting ’show’ from Neelakanta. With past two set backs, he strikes back with impressive work this time concentrating on finer, feel good elements in story writing. This will surely stand as another feather in his wonderful works.

What is it all about ?

Intelli’gent’ vs Intelli’girl’

Highlights:

– Mr. Medhavi – Impressive title. As the name depicts, there is good dose of mind game in the film, justifying the title.– Story-Screenplay: It is a nice theme for a writer to play with and Neelakanta has done a fab job in this area. He is a specialist in screenplay department and so laced interesting scenes here and there and packaged the film well. He has shown brilliant creativity in some scenes. The message given through this film: “manishini manishilaa choodu vastuvulaa kaadu” and stressing on the point that one should not play with human emotions is good. This film also says that human relations are very important.

– Characterisations:

1) Raja: His character is very good. The way he comes up in life is a different thought. On seeing the power of his thoughts he becomes calculative in everything especially human emotions. He succeeds in almost everything that he does until he tries his logic on Genelia. His, Miss calcuation results in mis-calculation and it gets him into troubles. He feels guilty about his doings and at last realises his mistakes when the Miss takes upon his intelligence completely. There is good justification even for his wrong doings.

2) Genelia: Her character is a bit similar to Bhoomika’s role in Missamma. Playing with hero in a funny way till climax and later revealing her plan is used here too. The way she uses, Sonu sood as a mirror to teach a lesson to Raja is good.

3) MS Narayana, DS (Dharmavarapu Subramanyam) characters are crafted very well. Their precision in comedy timing has reached to next levels.

– Inter(never)resting things:

The following ideas standout and win viewer’s hearts right away:1) Usage of buffalo as black board by a poor kid.2) The target of Raja to make Genelia propose herself to him is interesting.2) Interval bang: Usage of “chetilo cheyyesi cheppu bava” song tune as background in a different way is good.

3) The way Raja traps DS and MS to get project manager post is too good.

– He tackles DS intelligently as DS, he himself feels as an intelligent fellow. The way Raja predicts the exact sequence which DS follows in analysing the situation is brilliantly shown.

– Trapping MS is also a good scene though a bit lengthy one. MS histrionics, dialogue delivery need a special mention here. Though similar idea is used in other films still it sounds to be a good one to go with in this context.

4) Raja giving tip to Peon on his first day in office itself and justifying it by saying that – “adakkundaane itarulagurinchi cheppaadu, repu naa gurinchi cheppadani guarantee yenti ?” is an intelligent move.

5) HR-SWOT(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis scene is hilarious. At first it seems like many audience might not connect with the scene as it is an alien topic to many but the way it is used to spill humour should be commended. Neelakanta used Suman, DS, MS very well in the scene.

When MS says “meeru yeppudoo hmmmmm ani vuntaaru sir”, it is very difficult to control our smile. Such is the timing and execution of that dialogue.

6) The college scene in which Raja realises the throughput of his intelligence by clearing obstacles in a love interest is shot well.

7) The Lifestyle shopping scene, in which Raja and a girl try to fool Genelia, the way Gundu Hanumanta Rao enters as Police and spoils their plan is excellently written and canned. This is one great creation from the writer.

– Child artists who played Raja, Genelia characters in their early ages are excellent.

– Almost all artists performed well. Raja suited well to his character. His character demanded varied emotions like jealousy, guilty, cunningness…and he did justice to the role. Genelia had a couple of challenging scenes. The scene in which she receives Sonu Sood in her house shows her acting prowess. Suman did well in one of his best scenes in the film…HR SWOT analysis one. MS, DS are too good in the film.

– Dialogues:
They are decent. Some dialogues in the film are noteworthy.
1) MS regarding DS: pellaam odilesinaa, taane odilesaadu ani cheppukuntaadu.
2) DS regarding MS: Shivaji kattanta ledu veedu Chatrapati Sivaji role veyyadamanta.
3) DS to MS: nuvvu officeku moola virat kaadu moola shanka.
4) Raja:
1+1=2
2+2=4….

Life is a calculation…jeevitamlo prateedaanikee oka lekka vuntundi. Human emotions ni correct gaa calculate cheyyagaligitey dennainaa saadhinchochchu.

5) Raja: lifelo yento dooram vellaanu, kaani Swetha(Genelia) maatram dooram gaane vundipoyindi.

6) Suman setty with Raja: anta dooram nunchi ikkadaku vachchindi, ippudu ee konchem dooram raaledaa ?

– Music:

1) The initial background song which is also used for titles rollover is excellent. It carries a great feel when watched on screen.

2) “kallu kallato” is very good. Kala Kaaduga and Ningi Nela are good.

Except first song the remaining ones are not that visually appealing.

Background score is good at parts. At some instances it helped a lot in lifting the emotions.

Lowlights:

Though this film is good in many departments and scores well on overall basis, it still falls short of some things.

– Some tactics that Raja uses to trap people are rotten ideas. Especially the one Raja uses to show Rajesh as bakara infront of Genelia’s family is an age old idea. There is good scope for better ideas in these scenes.

– Though the film plot is appealing, it goes on predictable lines. Even a mamoolu Medhavi can also predict the twist in the movie. In the climax the way Raja traces out the girl who writes letters to Genelia is not a great idea. There is no spark in it though it provided the scope for it. The only enticing point here is the way Raja comes to know that the letter is written by a girl.

– New narration pattern is used by making the lead roles narrate their characters themselves. It is Raja in the first part of the film and it is Genelia in the end. It is a mixed feeling, on this usage as it disturbs the normal flow but also shows a new way of story telling.

This might not sound good for many.

– There are some traces of Neelakanta’s old films in this story. Eg: In Missamma, Sivaji does some works of others and collects small amount of money. Here, hero helps others with his tricks and gets money from them. These minute similarities might go unnoticed as this film has much good things to concentrate but if such things are ignored they might give big blow in future. So Neelakanta should checkout such aspects.

– Genelia’s makeup is awful in many scenes. The brown lipstick used for her puts off all Genelia’s fans. She is at her career best, bad looks in some scenes. Only in some songs she looks as normal ravishing Genelia. This movie is a perfect example on how worst a person can be shown with bad makeup. Genelia’s character is a bit similar to Bhoomika’s in Missamma. Though she is good in the role but it seems she is not 100% perfect casting for the role. Bhoomika might have been a nice fit but the director would have thought of having a change.

– Raja is a handsome guy when viewed from distance. His looks are not that impressive in close shots. But in this film, many of his shots are taken in close angles.

– The song in the beach is not canned upto the mark.

– Brahmi’s character, though nice didn’t capitalise it well.

Final Touch:

Right from naming Raja’s character as Vishwaksen with a bit background, to end titles rollover scenes, it is vivid that Neelakanta has done enough home work on the script. It is a clean film and can be watched without hesitation when we are in relaxed mood. After the stupendous success of Bommarillu, Genelia denied many offers and zeroed on this film after getting impressed with the script. There seems to be excellent planning in production phase too. This film was shot in less than 50 days. Neelakanta is one of the best contemporary meticulous directors. But he should still improve in narrating a point succinctly.

This film inspite of many pros, might not appeal to mass audience but it will surely lift the real, Mr. Medhavi Neelakanta’s image as a story-screenplay-dialogue writer and as a director.

‘Re’-'view’ing is the case with some people after a r(s)easonable gap.

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