Movie: Bujjigadu Made in Chennai
Banner: Creative Commercials
Rating: 2/5
Cast: Prabhas, Trisha, Sanjana, Mohan Babu, Sunil, Ajay, Subba Raju, MS Narayana, Hema, Kota Sreenivas Rao, Ali etc
Music: Sandeep Chowtha
Stunts: Vijayan
Cinematography: Shyam K Naidu
Director: Puri Jagannath
Producer: KS Rama Rao
Released on: 22 May 2008
It is the film made by Puri Jaganndh after ‘Pokiri’ and ‘Chirutha’. Prabhas and Trisha joined again on screen after ‘Varsham’ and ‘Pournami’. Mohan Babu played special role in the film. KS Rama Rao, who was in news for a tug with Mohan Babu last year, is the producer of this movie. New heroine Sanjana who turned famous on Kannada screen with her hot role in ‘Gandi Hendathi’ (Kannada remake of ‘Murder’) debuted on Telugu screen with this film. All this hyped the film a lot. Let us go into the details of the film.
Story:
The story of the film starts when the protagonist is just 12 years old. He friends with a girl next door called Chitti. The guy is in love for the girl so much that when the girl asks him not to talk for about 12 years because she is angry on him for a small tiff the guy obediently obliges. Unable to bear separation he runs off to Chennai where he grows up as a big Rajnikanth fan and a road Romeo. Twelve years hence he wants to meet the love of his childhood Chitti and returns back to Vizag. The story from here on is the twists and turns of how Bujjigadu (Prabhas) tries to meet Chitti (Trisha).
During his stay in Vizag Prabhas lands up in jail for a petty crime ,here the two sons of Bachi Reddy (Kota Srinivas Rao) see the daring and dashing nature of Bujjigadu and lure him and ask to kill one Shivanna (Mohan Babu). The lure is a crore of rupees. Prabhas lands up in Hyderabad in search of Shivanna, on the side line his search for Chitti is on. One day he fixes to kill Shivanna and ends up in a fight. Prabhas is severely hurt, but Shivanna sees a big potential in the abilities of the Bujjigadu and takes him under his wings. Bujjigadu starts living with Shivanna nursing his injuries. Interludes with Chitti continue but with out knowing who she is. Chitti incidentally happens to be Shivanna’s sister. When Shivanna comes to know that Bujjigadu is the love-interest of his sister he feels that she may just leave him once they unite. Hence he asks Bujjigadu to not reveal to her his actual identity. The film prolongs in this fashion for some time.
Bachi Reddy’s gang realizes that Bujjigadu has double crossed them and now he is not inclined to kill Shivanna. They also come to know that Bujjigadu’s love interest is Chitti. They now plan to kill Chitti and Shivanna. In an attack to kill Shivanna Chitti gets hurt. In the climax Bujjigadu is infuriated and wants his revenge for the attack on Chitti. Shivanna and Bujjigadu finish the rival gang and all unite.
Performances:
Only Prabhas to some extent stands out. Puri Jagannath has for sure lost touch with his midas touch. Having an excellent actor like Mohan Babu he could not extract any performance. Trisha is shown as such a limited actress in this film without leaving right scope to perform with right character and characterization. Sanjana as Trisha’s sister is introduced in this film. She has been wasted. This was a very important film for Prabhas, as he is expecting a lot from this film and it’s a big let down at the end. The fight and action sequences are so bad that they look copied from a 90’s film.
Prabhas speaks so much Tamil in the film that one starts wondering if it is Tamil movie that is being watched. The audiences were disturbed by this and it was very visible.
Songs have no punch and the dances are just pathetic. Except for one step from Prabhas none of the steps were appreciated by the audience.
Mohan Babu looks younger with make up, costume and body maintenance. His mannerism of asking for tea is tried and tested that no one will remember it.
Some dialogues from Prabahs evoke laughter, but that is not because they are written excellently but because the way Prabhas says them. Had it not been for the way Prabhas has acted the film would be an even big drub. The comedy track between Ali and Sunil is crude to say the least.
There is hardly any character development and some characters like especially that of Mohan Babu rope up from nowhere. Given the importance of this character much care should have been taken. Mohan Babu tried to imitate Rajnikanth in walking and style and in doing so all originality is lost.
Minus Points:
- Music
- Dialogues
- Scene Composition
- Mohan Babu’s characterization
- Choreography
- Direction
Senseless Scenes:
- Interval twist where Mohan Babu tells ‘I Love You’ to Prabhas
- Ponnambalam’s entry and a secret marriage of unknown couple followed by fight
Positive Aspect:
- Prabhas’ new style and ease in performance
Boring Things:
- Mumaith Khan’s item song (turned routine)
- Songs (no attraction in music and couldn’t give relief in any way)
- Prabhas calling everyone ‘darling’ (not in sink everywhere)
Inspirations:
- Dhee (for Mohan Babu’s character)
- Manasantha Nuvve (for basic theme)
- Basha (for Mohan Babu’s style)
- The number ‘Lemon’ from U2 band is adopted for a song in picturing
Analysis
Puri Jagannath is synonymous with Pokiri. Every movie that he would make ever in his life would be compared with Pokiri. It seems like Puri Jaganth wanted to break away from those shackles in this movie. He wanted to project in a different style and in the process he deeply hurt Prabhas’ box office prospects. Puri Jagannath wanted to infuse some comedy and melodrama in the first half of the film and his intention seemed to focus on gearing and speeding up in the second half. So the movie does not at all pick up in first half. Puri Jagannath is known for the speed and action in his movies and audiences wanted this to happen right from the word go. But the audiences were asked to wait for the entire first half for things to happen they got frustrated. The second half was supposed to have picked up but that hadn’t happened.
In terms of characterization the biggest eventuality and villain is Mohan Babu. Even his fans would be disappointed with this performance. Mohan Babu has to realize that he is aging but not getting younger by the day. He has to do characters with substance not style. The scenes between Prabhas and Mohan Babu lacked punch and most of the time looked comical. To top it all Mohan Babu is called ‘darling’ by Prabhas in this film.
Overall the entire movie is dull one. The only saving grace is Prabhas, who has put his hearth and soul in the film. All other just were there to finish a formality.
(SiraSri can be reached at [email protected])
