Krishna Sripada
TheNewsMinute
India
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Past articles by Krishna:
'Check' review: Nithiin and Rakul thriller has good ideas but is too convoluted
Thanks to the proliferation of OTT content, a lot of audiences are now well-versed with movies and TV series from around the world. A learned audience is mixed news for moviemakers. They’ll be able to appreciate smart elements in a movie but will just as easily identify plot pieces used in world cinema, and see right through unnecessary tropes. Check benefits and suffers from the above. → Read More
'Next Enti' review: Tamannaah and Sundeep try to hold up a confused romance
Next Enti is directed by Kunal Kohli, the man who made Fanaa and Hum Tum, trailblazers in romantic drama genre. So, the expectations were high. What the makers didn't account for was the sensibilities of the Telugu audience. → Read More
‘Taxiwaala’ review: Good premise undone by confused execution
At the outset, let's establish the context: Taxiwaala has been touted as a supernatural comedy thriller. Arguing against the logic of the movie would be like arguing against the veracity of supernatural elements and a film shouldn't really pay for someone's lack of belief in supernatural occurrences. So, let's assume the movie makes a massive assumption that it is possible to → Read More
‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ review: This Ravi Teja-Sreenu Vaitla film is a wasted opportunity
What’s more interesting than a protagonist (Ravi Teja) who has dissociative identity disorder? A heroine (Ileana) who has the same problem too. Why? Both were part of the same childhood accident. Amar Akbar Anthony is a wasted opportunity. I am almost tired of using that expression week after week – do these movie-makers not tire of using the same tropes and cracking the same → Read More
'Savyasachi' review: Naga Chaitanya's film has a unique premise but falls into chaos
Alien Hand Syndrome - a disorder where one of the hands (usually the left) has a mind of its own - is the biggest spark in this movie. Why the movie is called Savyasachi, which as the Wiki-page suggests, means ambidextrous, I could not understand. But, the title of a movie is usually not so important, so let's ignore that. → Read More
'Veera Bhoga Vasantha Rayalu' review: This vigilante thriller makes no sense
Veera Bhoga Vasantha Rayalu - the title of the movie gives us some interesting 'clues', a word the director is so fond of. If he had a dollar for every time the word "clue" was used, he could have earned the budget to pull off what he seemingly had in mind. → Read More
'Hello Guru Prema Kosame' review: This Ram-Anupama romcom is ruined by poor writing
Some movies, you walk out of the hall cursing the filmmakers. Some movies you walk out of the hall agonizing. With Hello Guru Prema Kosame, Trinadha Rao and Dil Raju almost pulled off a good romantic entertainer. Almost. And when it comes to art, the gap between almost and ‘has’ can be massive, as the movie demonstrates. → Read More
'Aravinda Sametha Veeraraghava' review: A progressive action flick from Jr NTR
A Trivikram movie always comes with a promise. Sometimes, the promise is kept, and sometimes it isn’t. It will always be a watchable affair; it will have plenty of memorable, soul-stirring lines. It will have thought too, fighting the way a green sprout fights against the rains in a forest. → Read More
‘Devadas’ review: This Nagarjuna-Nani film is funny, but not nuanced enough
One of the basics of storytelling is that you hold your conflict dear. You create drama to heighten the emotion as you hurtle towards the conflict. Your characters have to be designed in a way that they flow towards the conflict and not impede the flow or contradict that emotion. → Read More
‘Nannu Dochukunduvate’ review: A love story that promises much but delivers little
Oftentimes you eat at a restaurant and when someone asks you how the food was, you give them a shrug, because you can’t quite think of anything negative to say. When they ask you if you’d ever go there, you spontaneously say ‘No’. The only thing you are clear about the experience is that it wasn’t enjoyable and you don’t want a repeat of it. Nannu Dochukunduvate gives you a → Read More
‘Shailaja Reddy Alludu’ review: Ramya Krishna brings some dignity to this dull movie
You can be forgiven for believing that this movie will take you down memory lane – recreate the old magic of one of Nagarjuna’s movies, where he was pitted against a vicious mother-in-law in a tussle of egos. Not much of that happened in this story. Instead, you get the distinct feeling of someone hitting you with a golf club on the back of your head to stop you from falling → Read More
'C/o Kancharapalem' review: A beautiful film with realistic characters
A schoolboy wears a pink shirt to be ridiculed by everyone except by his crush – it’s her favourite colour, the reason he wears it – who defends him. Thus, starts a friendship, that leads him to encourage her to sing her favourite song ‘Bhale bhale magadivoy’ in a school function. → Read More
'Nartanasala' review: This Naga Shaurya starrer is homophobic, offensive, avoidable
To start with, Nartanasala, directed by debut director Srinivas Chakravarthi, has a title that in itself is a misnomer. Alluding to Arjuna’s one-year exile as Brihannala – a famed mythological story – the movie steps on the wrong note quite early and continues to tread it. Nartanasala depicts a young man (Naga Shaurya) who trains women on how to protect themselves (because → Read More
‘Neevevaro’ review: A thriller that passes the test thanks to Tapsee and a good plot
This has already been a good month for Telugu cinema and Neevevaro continues the trend. It is a suspense thriller that could have dealt better with the characterisation and intrigue-building, but nevertheless has enough to keep you engaged. → Read More
'Geetha Govindam' review: This Vijay Deverakonda romcom has its heart in the right place
A seemingly well-cultured young man, Govind (Vijay Deverakonda), brought up without a mother by his dad (Naga Babu), fantasises about marrying a cultured, traditional woman and then, showering her with all the love in his heart. He falls head over heels for Geetha (Rashmika) but a featherbrained mistake committed by him ends up not only ruining his image in her head but also → Read More
'Srinivasa Kalyanam' review: An overbearing lecture on tradition
Srinivasa Kalyanam is a movie that probably resulted from a gross misunderstanding on part of a story-writer about the pre-nuptial agreement. It has been understood as ‘signing a divorce paper before getting married’. Exactly why it is wrong for a millionaire industrialist to ask a prospective son-in-law to sign a pre-nuptial agreement, I still cannot fathom. And that’s the → Read More
'Goodachari' review: A spy-thriller that doesn’t run out of ideas
A Kingsman-touch with an underground, secret establishment hidden beneath a tailor’s shop; Bourne series-style hand-to-hand combats; a high adrenaline sound track; leading ladies who are not just props and a couple of really good twists. Goodachari, despite its in-your-face title, is a good thriller which is script-heavy and lets its protagonist, Gopi alias Arjun (Adivi Sesh), → Read More
‘Chi La Sow’ review: This charming Rahul Ravindran film is much more than a rom-com
Rahul Ravindran is known to many as a suave, well-spoken, grounded actor. But with Chi La Sow he has shown he is as capable with the pen or behind the clapboard. He has managed to demonstrate how one can make a clean movie, without a lot of fanfare and jazz, to appeal to urban sensibilities, with a story panning out across one night – Before Sunrise style – relying largely on → Read More
‘Sakshyam’ review: This supernatural revenge drama is a tiring watch
If I had a dollar for every time I thought, during the movie, that the budget for a particular scene/song alone could help make a good story-oriented, low-budget sensible movie, I will have enough dollars to fund a good story-oriented, low-budget sensible movie! → Read More
The rapist is at home: How Lakshmi Manchu's 'W/O Ram' speaks uncomfortable truths
*Spoilers ahead He waves his wife goodbye, a man beyond middle-age, and then opens another door within which an adolescent girl implores him, receding away from him. A couple of seconds later, it dawns on a cringing audience that it is her uncle who rapes her regularly. A few seconds later, he is in the hospital, in a critical condition, asking her for forgiveness. → Read More