TeluguCinema.Com - Ready: Movie Review

Movie Reviews
Ready: Movie Review
By NaChaKi
Jun 19, 2008 - 3:59:34 PM

Ready (2008)
Cast: Ram, Genelia, Nazar, Tanikella Bharani, Giridhar, Chandramohan, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Jayaprakash Reddy, Raghu, Shafi, Ravi Varma, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Brahmanandam, Sunil, Srinivasa Reddy, Suman Shetty, Master Bharat Kumar, Gautham Raju, M.S. Narayana, Sudarshanam, M. Balayya, C.V.L. Narasimha Rao, Sudha, Pragathi, Saranya, Rajitha, Surekha Vani, Satya Krishnan, Preethi Nigam, Nagababu (guest), Navadeep (guest), Tamanna (guest), etc.

Story: Gopi Mohan, Kona Venkat
Dialogues: Kona Venkat
Art: A.S. Prakash
Camera: Prasad Murella
Choreography: Shankar, Suchitra Chandrabose, Prem Rakshit
Music Director: DeviSri Prasad
Lyrics: sirivennela Seetarama Sastry, Ramajogayya Sastry, Benny
Playback: Karthik, Franco, Priya, Benny, Kunal Ganjawala, Shreya Ghosal, Ranjith, Kalpana, Sagar, Gopika Purnima, Neeraj Sridhar, Divya
Fights: Peter Haines
Editing: A.V.R. Varma
Producer: 'Sravanthi' Ravikishore
Banner: Sri Sravanthi Movies
Co-Director: Saikishore
Screenplay and directed by: Srinu Vytla
Release Date: June 19, 2008

What's it all about?
Chandrasekhar or Chandu (Ram), a youth from a loving joint family comprising of families of three brothers Raghupathi (Nazar & Sudha), Raghava (Tanikella Bharani & Pragathi), Rajaram (Giridhar & Satya Krishnan), and a sister Swarajyam (Rajitha & Chandramohan), is a daring guy who takes any amount of risk for a good cause. In a mixup to help his friend Gopi (Ravi Varma) marry his lady love, Chandu and his friends (Srinivasa Reddy, Suman Shetty, etc.) bring from another marriage hall a bride Pooja (Genelia) who's about to get married against her wish.

Chandu, who earlier caught a fleeting glimpse of Pooja and liked her instantly, takes all the necessary risk of bashing up goons and taking her right to his own home, introducing her with a concocted story. By the time his family realizes that Pooja and Chandu like each other and they want to get them both married, Pooja's family comes into the picture. The rest of the story, woven through the hero playing Gudumba Shankar-mark tricks on the families of Pooja's uncles Peddinaidu (Kota Srinivasa Rao & Venniradai Nirmala), and Chitti Naidu (Jayaprakash Reddy & Saranya), forms the second half of the movie.

Performances
Cast:
Ram looks glamorous and has appreciable histrionics too, and his ease on the screen can be felt. He did well in dance and action sequences too, while delivering impressive performance all through. His action scenes as Krishh and Spiderman were received well too. Genelia has a limited role in the second half, as comedy takes the front seat, but she's at home in her role of a girl who is attached to her family. Brahmanandam as "McDowl" (McDowell?) Murthy plays a role that gets confused at the story getting weaved around him, and offers good comedy like in the director's earlier movies. Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam gets a limited role that still entertains the audience until his last dialogue. Srinivasa Reddy offers good comedy in the first half. Both Kota Srinivasa Rao and Jayaprakash Reddy have roles with shades of faction and comedy that they handle with ease. The rest of the cast is adequate, but with such a huge star cast, it's tough to give them all roles of their range, and thus some of them get wasted.

One such role is that of M.S. Narayana, who's limited to two scenes. Ravi Varma looks good in his new look, but is limited to two scenes too. Sunil's role of a classical dancer that develops feminine characters due to his art is in bad taste, and thus thankfully limited. Navadeep and Tamanna (a relative of the protagonist) appear as a pair that get married with the help of the protagonist, with their screen presence for not more than a couple of minutes.

Technical Departments:
The story has nothing new to offer, and reminds of Bhadra in the first half and Gudumba Shankar on the whole. However, dialogues by Kona Venkat are the highlight of the film. There're numerous dialouges that entertained the audience, particularly in the second half, when nearly all the comedy artistes in the film come together. Choreography is very good for the first song ( Get Ready...) and okay for others too. Shot in Venice and other parts of Europe, naa pedavulu nuvvaitE... could have had better choreography and expressions by the lead artises. Interesting to note is the way group dancers were introduced into the song ayyO ayyO ayyO daanayyaa!.... Picturization of TuTuTU... reminds of the locales for ammaayi nacchEsindi... ( Nuvve.. Nuvvee...) from the same production house.

A lot of visual effects and CG were used in the movie, though all of it did not seem necessary, but it was an impressive job on the whole. The lighting schemes and DI work highlighted the visuals and artistes' expressions well. Fights by Peter Haines involved a lot of hurling away of people, but were good and clearly presented, since there were no "free-for-alls" with everyone pitching against the protagonist. Though the two halves of the film were nearly unconnected in their flavor, the director takes care in keeping right amount of action and story flow through the climax too, thereby bridging the gap. There were inconsistencies and loopholes too, such as brothers in the same family speaking different dialects! (Kota Srinivasa Rao in a Telangana dialect & Jayaprakash Reddy in a Rayalaseema dialect.)

Impressive Scenes/Dialogues:

Brief super-human episodes preceded by a remote-controlled car.

Brahmanandam's episode of confusion, and his dialogues when he feels himself as being a "Creator".

Sunil's dance bit for the popular song from Sagara Sangamam, takiTa tadhimi...

M.S. Narayana's expressions and his feelings spoken out for audiences ( janaantikam), particularly in the dog scene.

Ram using DVS Karna dialogue as a ringtone was interesting, and its unique nature was necessary for the story. Nazar being a fan of NTR in the film made it a good choice too.

Srinivasa Reddy's reference to B. Gopal and Super star Krishna.

Dharmavarapu: vaaDi paapaaniki vaaDE pOtaaDu! Brahmanandam: vaaDi paapaaniki nEnu pOyETTunnaanu!

Ram: okka idea... jeevitaannE maarchEstundi, telusaa! Night out chEstE vacchina idea adi!

Ram: (seriously) prEmaku nammakam punaadi... (pauses) anna cinema dialogue naaku nacchindi! daanikE fix ayipOyaa!

Ram: mOsam chEstE tappu kaanee manage chEstE tappu kaadu!

Bottom Line:

Ready is a neat family entertainer with an appreciable dose of clean comedy. General audience looking for refreshing comedy can enjoy the movie so well. The story and treatment has shades of Gudumba Shankar to a large extent, but good-natured comedy makes the movie quite enjoyable for a light viewing.

Review by NaChaKi