Sekhar Kammula is a brand of his own. Everyone likes his style of film making. He tries to escalate his characters to a new high, tries to make sure the story makes an impact, etc but in 'Life is Beautiful', he hasn't tried too hard, may be taking Telugu audience for granted.
How many of us watch Telugu soaps on TV? I doubt if there is anyone who would train their eyes on the idiot box except for followers of idiotic shows like Splitsville or Roadies? If you are seriously thinking of following a soap on TV, you need some prior training to watch them and what better way to get trained than watching Sekhar Kammula's 'Life is Beautiful'!
'Happy Days' didn't have a plot, it was only a narration of a college student and his gang of friends. Same way, 'Life is Beautiful' is a narration of a young engineering student who comes to Hyderabad and makes new friends. This story of the young lad, is replica of a tele-serial or soap in a time frame of three hours! The hero has a gang, all the guys find love, solve their problems, (yawn), yeah you can guess them all!
Technically, the movie is high on standards. Right from sets of a housing colony to visual effects, the movie is a visual delight thanks to the team behind cinematography led by Vijay. The director has a strong team in the form of Editor Marthand K Venkatesh, art by Thota Tharini and music by Mickey J Meyer. While the Editor would have had little choice in scissoring the length of the movie, art director Thota Tharini's team did an amazing job of creating a colony but Mickey J Meyer, the music director, seems to be beating around the bush, by mixing all his compositions from Happy Days, Kotha Bangaru Lokam, Leader. He tried to be different this time but it remains a try! The song that moved the audience was 'Amma', it is a simple composition and lyrics by Vanamali are touching.
It is not fair to compare two movies by the same director but Sekhar Kammula seems to be trying out the same Happy Days formula of highlighting friendship.This time he goes a little further by sprinkling family sentiment on the script. Even a few characters in 'Life is Beautiful' resemble characters from 'Happy Days'. Dialogues are not cinematic which is Sekhar's trademark. His dialogues are colloquial and we hear them in our neighbourhood.
The new actors do well yet they are just learning their baby steps. The chemistry among them has been captured well.
The movie has big names like Amala, returning to the big screen after a very long time. She seemed out of the cold storage initially on screen but the audience got used to her as the movie progressed. Nevertheless, a welcome sight to see her back. Lets hope we get to see more of her. Shriya and Anjala Zaveri spice it up on screen. They don't quite provide any value addition to the script, as a matter of fact, any actor in their characters could pull it off but their inclusion in the cast may prove a winner on the long run when the movie would struggle to continue running in theatres.
Entertainment quotient in the movie is minimal when compared to other Sekhar Kammula films yet the movie is neat. A few scenes have been well shot and the relationship between characters well shown. Even for a director with a high success percentage, without a strong plot you can't expect to taste success all the time. Watch it if you don't have any other activity to do and if you really want to watch it, then wait for a festival!(for the television premiere).
How many of us watch Telugu soaps on TV? I doubt if there is anyone who would train their eyes on the idiot box except for followers of idiotic shows like Splitsville or Roadies? If you are seriously thinking of following a soap on TV, you need some prior training to watch them and what better way to get trained than watching Sekhar Kammula's 'Life is Beautiful'!
'Happy Days' didn't have a plot, it was only a narration of a college student and his gang of friends. Same way, 'Life is Beautiful' is a narration of a young engineering student who comes to Hyderabad and makes new friends. This story of the young lad, is replica of a tele-serial or soap in a time frame of three hours! The hero has a gang, all the guys find love, solve their problems, (yawn), yeah you can guess them all!
Technically, the movie is high on standards. Right from sets of a housing colony to visual effects, the movie is a visual delight thanks to the team behind cinematography led by Vijay. The director has a strong team in the form of Editor Marthand K Venkatesh, art by Thota Tharini and music by Mickey J Meyer. While the Editor would have had little choice in scissoring the length of the movie, art director Thota Tharini's team did an amazing job of creating a colony but Mickey J Meyer, the music director, seems to be beating around the bush, by mixing all his compositions from Happy Days, Kotha Bangaru Lokam, Leader. He tried to be different this time but it remains a try! The song that moved the audience was 'Amma', it is a simple composition and lyrics by Vanamali are touching.
It is not fair to compare two movies by the same director but Sekhar Kammula seems to be trying out the same Happy Days formula of highlighting friendship.This time he goes a little further by sprinkling family sentiment on the script. Even a few characters in 'Life is Beautiful' resemble characters from 'Happy Days'. Dialogues are not cinematic which is Sekhar's trademark. His dialogues are colloquial and we hear them in our neighbourhood.
The new actors do well yet they are just learning their baby steps. The chemistry among them has been captured well.
The movie has big names like Amala, returning to the big screen after a very long time. She seemed out of the cold storage initially on screen but the audience got used to her as the movie progressed. Nevertheless, a welcome sight to see her back. Lets hope we get to see more of her. Shriya and Anjala Zaveri spice it up on screen. They don't quite provide any value addition to the script, as a matter of fact, any actor in their characters could pull it off but their inclusion in the cast may prove a winner on the long run when the movie would struggle to continue running in theatres.
Entertainment quotient in the movie is minimal when compared to other Sekhar Kammula films yet the movie is neat. A few scenes have been well shot and the relationship between characters well shown. Even for a director with a high success percentage, without a strong plot you can't expect to taste success all the time. Watch it if you don't have any other activity to do and if you really want to watch it, then wait for a festival!(for the television premiere).
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