Cast: Sandesh, Nikhil, Vamsi Krishna, Raahul, Tamanna, Gayatri Rao, Sonia, Monali Chowdary and Kamalinee Mukherjee (in a guest role)
Music: Mickey J Meyer
Art: Kishore Chowksi
Camera: Vijay C Kumar
Editing: Marthand K Vankatesh
Executive producer: Anish
Story, screenplay and directed by: Sekhar Kammula
Release date: Sept 28, 2007 (in USA) Oct 2nd (in India)
What's it about!
It is all about laws of attraction. In an Engineering College, a group of youngsters - Chandu and Madhu, Appu and Rajesh, Tyson and Sonali, Sangeeta and Shankar - attract to each other. The film is told in Chandu's point of view but it mostly deals about love, jealous and campus comedy. That's it.
Analysis
Sekhar Kammula is one of the few directors in Tollywood who handle movies very sensibly. He makes films that centre around urban middle class. He treads similar path with Happy Days too. This time he focuses on a gang of college youth and their love stories. Hence the subject is very clichéd. Yet, Happy Days scores largely on three points - the fresh casting (you relate to this young talent), music (Mickey J Meyer has given superb songs) and catchy visuals. Sekhar Kammula brings life to the film post the interval by creating a mood. Dialogues - colloquial and casual - are another advantage.
In fact, the script completely hinges on the dialogues and characterizations of the young leads. You can say it is his version of Dil Chahta Hai. The format is same except the situations and characters. You can also see influence of many films on several scenes like Pawan Kalyan's Khusi, Premadesam, and recent Manmadha.
On the flip side, it is very slow paced and nothing newness in the story. First half is weak.
There are too many mistakes and some of the scenes are very artificial. A Proddutur boy speaking Telangana dialect, Lagaan type cricket match, Srikakulam born boy finally giving speech in English, giving conclusion as a message oriented film - are some of the jarring points in other wise neatly made movie.
Performances
Except Tamanna, all are new faces and the casting has brought freshness. All the actors have done exceedingly good job. Especially the guy who played Rajesh (Nikhil), Tamanna, Rahul who played Tyson role, Gayatri Rao and Sonia excel. They are very likable and are natural in their expressions and performances. The lead hero Sandesh (who played the role of Chandu) has done nothing but mimic hero Siddardh. So, we have Jr Siddardh here! Sekhar's muse Kamlinee Mukharjee too appears in the film as a sexy teacher. She is so glamorous and dubs her own voice.
Technically, it is music director Mickey J Meyer who steals the limelight. His tunes and the recording are excellent. Songs are not in regular style and even the picturisation of songs by the director are praise worthy. Vijay Kumar has brought cool look with his bright color scheme and wide angle shots. His work is great. This is his best work so far.
Sekhar Kammula scores as writer especially in dialogues. But his script is too weak.
Bottom-line
Sekhar Kammula has brought another sensible movie with Happy Days. It might not be totally fresh story but it entertains and scores big way in many departments. Watch it for time pass clean entertainment.
