Swaralaya-KPAC Sulochana award for P. Susheela

Playback singer P. Susheela has been selected for this year’s Swaralaya-KPAC Sulochana Award. The award is given in memory of K P A C Sulochana, the great theater playback artist. This award is given to female playback artists. Pulapaka Susheela was born in 1935 at Vizianagaram. She sung several songs in most of the Indian languages including Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada. In her career spanning about four decades, she received National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer five times in 1969, 1972, 1978, 1983 and 1984. In 2001, Andhra Pradesh Government honored her with the Raghupathi Venkaiah Award for lifetime achievement to Telugu Cinema. In 2005, she achieved Special Jury Swaralaya Yesudas Award for outstanding performance in music. She is also the latest recipient of Padmabhushan award.

Mohan Babu in Pandurangadu

Mohanbabu is doing an important role in the film Pandurangadu being produced and directed by veteran director K. Raghavendra Rao starring Nandamuri Balakrishna and Sneha. Earlier, Mohan Babu did a very important role in Annamayya being directed by Raghavendra. Tabu is also playing an important role in this film. Mohanbabu will be shooting for the film from April 29, 2008. Audio of this film was recently released into market and already got a very good response. M.M. Keeravani has scored music for this film. He previously scored music for another two devotional films Annamayya and Sri Ramadasu directed by K. Raghavendra Rao with Akkineni Nagarjuna in the title role in both of the films.

V.V. Vinayak - NTR film launched

A new film being directed by V.V. Vinayak starring Jr. NTR has been launched. This is the third film in their combination after Aadi and Sambha. The film was launched onApril 23, 2008 at Film Nagar Club. The film is made on Vaishanavi Arts Banner and is produced by Kodali Nani and Vamsi Mohan. Balakrishna was present on the occasion. The event was live telecasted by TV Channels. Muhurat shot was clapped by Balakrishna and directed by K. Raghavendra Rao and Kalyan Ram switched on the camera. Ashwini Dutt, SS Rajamouli, Arjun Raju, MS Raju, S Gopal Reddy, Dil Raju and others attended the function.

Neninthe to begin shoot in July

Puri Jagannadh is now busy with shooting of two songs for his film Bujjigaadu starring Prabhas and Trisha. Bujjigadu is getting ready to be released on May 16, 2008. After the completion of this film, Puri Jaganatth would begin a movie with Ravi Teja titled Neninte. The regular shooting of this film will begin July. Puri Jagannath is going to direct and produce this. Puri Jagannadh will also be launching Nagarjuna's son Naga Chaitanya towards the end of this year.

Kanti to hit screens on May 7

Kantri starring Junior NTR, Hansika and Tanisha will be hitting the screen on May 7, 2008. This film is being directed by Meher Ramesh. The film is being produced on the banner of Vyjayanti Movie by C. Ashwini Dutt. The film will be an out and out mass entertainer. The music of this film has been scored by Mani Sharma. The audio was released into the marked recently and doing great. Prakash Raj, Sayaji Shinde, Sunil, Ali, Ashish Vidyarthi, Murali Sharma, Krishna Bhaghawan and Hema are in the cast. The camera for this film has been handled by Sameer Reddy and the editing has been done by Marthand K. Venkatesh.

Uday Kiran's Gunde Jhallumandi shooting progress

Shooting of the film Gunde Jhallumandi starring Uday Kiran and Aditi Sharma is almost completed except four songs. Aditi has acted in the latest Bollywood film Black and White. Story writer-director Madan is directing this film. Paruchuri Siva Ram Prasad is the producer. This is the second for this director after his debut with Pellaina Kothalo. The story of Gunde Jhallumandi has a college setup as its background. So we can assume that this film will obviously have love as its theme. M.M. Keeravani is the music director of the film.

Michael Madana Kamaraju

Story

Madan (Srikanth) and Kamaraju (Sunil) are cousins and their parents reside in USA. Madan owns an Ad agency and he successfully runs it. Kamaraju is crazy about girls and manages to moves around them. Madan believes that love and romance are ladders to fulfill desires and nothing else exists more in it. And the physical attraction is just an infatuation created by the mind for the body. The two heroes go on a Goa trip for a holiday and there Madan happens to meet Charmy. Charmy is a dress designer by profession and wins the first prize in the dress designing competition in which Madan happens to be one of the judges. Madan personally meets Charmy and from then on they both become friends. Charmy also fetches a job as a creative head in Madan’s ad agency.

Kamaraju also meets Asha Saini in Goa and accompanies her to Hyderabad. James (brahmanadham) tries to kill Madan because he lured his wife and runs with her.
Meanwhile Madan’s falls in love with Charmy. However Kamaraju is ignorant about the whole development and plays a trick and prints a weeding card which has Charmy and another man Michael (Prabhu Deva) as the bride and the bridegroom.

Madan thinks that the wedding card is true and bargains Michael for five lakh rupees to end his engagement with Charmy. But Michael is a witty guy. He tries to trap Charmy and marries her for the sake of her father’s money. Charmy’s father is Nagababu who owns around 100 crores property. The rest of the story is how Madan and Kamaraju succeed in their love.

Performances

Srikanth has done a very good job. Charmy is gorgeous in this film. Sunil’s performance is okay.
Prabhu deva has also given a good performance. Brahmanandham is excellent. Other comedians are okay. Music by Chakri is average.

Overall an average film which can be watched for just timepass.

Bujjigaadu to hit screens on May 16

Shooting of the film Bujjigaadu being directed by Puri Jagannadh starring Prabhas and Trisha has been almost completed. The film will be releasing on May 16, 2008. Mohan Babu is playing a special role in this film. K.S. Ramarao is the producer of this film. Currently shooting a song and fight sequence is in progress in Chennai and will completed in two days. Audio of the film will be released on April 18. The unit then will leave for New Zealand to shoot two more songs. Newcomer Sanjana is playing second female lead. Sandeep Chowta is the music director of this film.

V.N.Aditya's Rainbow to hit screens in May

Shooting of the film Rainbow being directed and produced by V.N. Aditya under the banner of Sri Sidhartha Movies is almost finished. The film will hit the theaters in May. Audio of the film will be launched in the last week of April. Rahul and Sonali Chauhan are the lead pair in this film. Rahul has previously acted as hero in Happy Days while Sonali Chauhan did a Hindi film called Janat. Sindhu Menon is the other female lead. Nihal is the music director of this film. He has previously done singing.

Pawan Kalyan's Puli to begin shoot by the end of this month

Shooting of the film Puli to be directed by S. J. Surya with Powerstar Pawan Kalyan in the lead would be launched by the end of this month. Renowned Bollywood cinematographer Binod Pradhan who has worked previously for prestigious projects like Rang De Basanti, 1942 Love Story, Devadas, Parineeta will be working for this film. A.R. Rehman is the music director of the film. Pawan Kalyan plays dual role in it. The film is being produced by Singanmala Ramesh. This is the second movie in the combination of Pawan Kalyan and S.J. Surya, the previous being blockbuster Kushi. The expectations for this movie have rose with the success of Pawan Kalyan's latest release Jalsa. Jalsa has been declared as 9th in the all time highest collection list of films from all over the world.

Gadhi No.305 Lo Devudu shooting progress

Shooting of the film Gadhi No.305 Lo Devudu with Prakashraj in the lead was done for around two months around Bangalore and Tenkasi. This film is being directed by Simbudevan who has previously directed the film Himsinche 23va Raju Pulikesi. The film is produced by director Shankar’s ‘S’ Pictures which also produced Himsinche 23va Raju Pulikesi. The title Gadhi No.305 Lo Devudu of the film it self has created much anticipation. Star cast in this film includes Prakash Raj, Santhanam, Kanja Karuppu, Madhumitha, and Jyothirmayi, Rajesh, Ilavarasu, M S Bhaskhar, Thalaivasal Vijay and others. S. Soundarajan is the cameraman and G. Sasikumar is the editor. The music director of the film is composed by Vidyasagar.

Homam to hit screen on April 25

Homam being directed by hero J.D. Chakravarti with Jagapati Babu and Mamta Mohandas in the lead is ready to be released on April 25, 2008. Jagapati Babu is playing the role of a police officer in this film. The makers also promise us of a story line with great deviations and thrills. The publicity of the movie was started by poster release in Lal Bahadur Stadium on the occasion of ICL 20-20 cricket match final between Lahore Badshahs and Hyderabad Heroes. Heroine Sakshi Sivanand making a comeback with an item number in this film. Nitin Raikvar is the music director of this movie.

Srihari in Ram Charan-Rajamouli film

Hero Srihari has been selected for a special role in director Rajamouli's latest film starring Ram Charan Tej and Kajal. Srihari has recently acted with young heroes like Siddardh in Nuvvosthanante Nenodantana, Vishnuvardhan in Dhee and Uday Kiran in Viyyalavari Kayyalu, the first two being big hits. The shooting of this film is presently being done in Rajasthan after ten days of shooting in Kutch in Gujarat. Keeravani is the music director of the film. The shooting will continue till the end of this month Rajasthan. This film is being produced on the banner of Geeta Arts by Allu Aravind.

Mallepuvvu with Bhoomika in the lead launched

The first shot of the film Mallepuvvu being directed by V. Samudra with Bhoomika in the lead role was done in Srisailam. This film is being made under the banner of Sri Samudra Silver Screens and regular shoot will start from April 27, 2008. The first sequence will be a song picturing the heroine Bhoomika from various places of Hydrabad. Shooting will be completed in single schedule by May 10, 2008. The hero's role in this film is being played by a new comer Murali. Other star cast of this film include Brahmanandam, Kovai Sarala, and Telangana Sakuntala. Music mastero Ilayaraja is composing the music of the film. Story has been penned by Ramesh Varma.

Powerstar Pawan Kalyan Jalsa movie review

Casting : Pawan Kalyan, Ileana, Kamilini Mukherjee, Parvati Melton, Mukesh Rishi, Prakash Raj, Sunil, Brahmanandam and others.
Release Date: April 2, 2008
Banner : Geetha Arts
Producer : Allu Arvind
Story : Trivikram Srinivas
Screenplay : Trivikram Srinivas
Dialogues : Trivikram Srinivas
Direction : Trivikram Srinivas
Music : Devisree prasad
Camera : Guhan
Editing : Antony

STORY
The film starts with the voice of Mahesh Babu who calls himself a friend of Sanjay (Pawan Kalyan). Pawan Kalyan is an alcoholic and a person obsessed with education. Pawan Kalyan loves Kamalini Mukherjee who is the daughter of Prakash Raj. In the next sceen, Pawan Kalyan is seen attending Kamalani Mukherjee’s wedding. After an year, Ileana and Parvathi Melton enter into Sanjay's.

Ileana wins Pawan Kalyan's heart with the help of Sunil. Mukesh Rushi is a notorious factionist whose occupation is doing settlements. Mukesh Rishi runs all his operations from within the Jail. Mukesh Rishi sees Pawan Kalyan for the first time in the theatre; he wants to catch him but could not. Pawan Kalyan does not know what is happening around him. Mukesh Rishi plans to kill Pawan Kalyan, but stops at the last moment saying that he needs to suffer before this death.

Mukesh Rishi tries to kill Pawan Kalyan a few times, but fails. In one of such attempts, Ali is grabbed from the group of Pawan Kalyan’s friends and a fight follows. Then Pawan Kalyan reveals about his childhood.

Second half begins with Pawan Kalyan narrating his miserable childhood and poverty he faced and how he worked for a while with the naxalites, but quits after few persons start mobbing Pawan Kalyan.

How he handles the villain and how he wins his love is the remaining story of the film.


Performances
Pawan Kalyan is excellent and his comedy is very good. Fights are choreographed well and his dance good. All the songs are picturised good and few of them are excellent. All of the heroines have not much role in this film. Trivikram Srenivas failed to deliver what he would have liked. There are few loop holes in the script. Music by Devi sri Prasad is first grade. Comedy is excellent.

Overall Jalsa is a good movie with beautiful picturization, very good songs and fights, and good comedy except the story. Nonetheless, it is a visual feast for Mega Fans and worth watching movie for general audiences.