Avakai Biryani (2008) Telugu Film Review By Kalcha

Audience Rating For AVAKAI BIRYANI

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FILM: Avakai Biryani
LANGUAGE: Telugu
RELEASE DATE: November 14, 2008
STAR CAST: Bindu Madhavi, Kamal Kamaraju, Rao Ramesh, Varun, Praneeth, Durgesh, Kameshwar Rao, Vijaya, Rakhee, Vinay, Charvy & Pandu
LYRICS: Vanamaali
MUSIC: Manikanth Kadri
EDITOR: Praveen Boyina
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Ratnam
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Shamdat
SCREEN WRITER & DIRECTOR: Anish Kuruvilla
PRODUCERS: Shekhar Kammula & Chandrashekhar Kammula
BANNER: Amigos Creation Pvt. Ltd.,

AMIGO CREATIONS has created a name for itself to be different and sensible. I was extremely impressed with ANAND as it was simply a superb Screenplay… though it had its weak moments at the fag end. Then, I was disappointed with GODAVARI as it was a blatant copy of ANDALA RAMUDU and also because it had too many flaws like repeating Kamalini Mukherjee’s characterisation from Anand. Then I was again impressed with HAPPY DAYS for its simple narration, unadulerated fun and frolic. So, what would this movie be? AVAKAI BIRYANI, as a title is very intriguing and so I was really looking forward to this movie as it was also directed by ANISH KURUVILLA, who is making his commercial foray with this venture.

Plot of the movie is as old as Telugu Cinema itself. An inter-religion love, good guy-good gal wanting to come up in life, village setup, necessary villains, an auto race (replacing bullock-carts), typical happy ending.

• Overall, Music by MANIKANTH KADRI is delightful. There are a few songs that are superbly composed. One of them is “Maamidi Kommaku” sung by SAINDHAVI & MANIKANTH KADRI, which had beautiful lyrics by VANAMAALI and composed with an amazingly energetic rhythm. Another one is “Nannu Chupagala Addam” sung by KARTHIK & SWETHA, which had light and yet deep lyrics and composed with amazing String accompaniments. And the other one is “Veerudena” sung by SHREYA GHOSHAL & KARTHIK, which was not entirely an original tune… but was elevated by amazing Shehnai accompaniment which is on par with the Musical genius of A R RAHMAN. There is one forgettable song which was supposed to be a celebratory village song. But the most disappointing element has been a direct lift of an entire piece of composition from A R RAHMAN’S repertoire which plays during “Adigadigo”.
• Cinematography by SHAMDAT is quite impressive. The simple techniques he used, knowingly or unknowingly, to show the contrast of the village atmosphere is superb. He used mostly high-akela-crane shots to highlight the beauty of the village atmosphere. To show the authentic and real imagery, he used lowly shots. Kudos to this simple technique. His imagery is strikingly rich.

AVAKAI BIRYANI LEAD ARTISTS

As there are no Highlights except the Music & Cinematography, the rest of the movie is a LOW-LIGHT. But still let me try to comprehend them…

• Lead actor KAMAL KAMARAJU at best has 2-3 expressions. He is promising but didn’t deliver in this movie. His character in the movie with the tag line “Oka Auto Vadi Story” had more weight than any other character in the movie and yet he couldn’t cash in on it.
• Lead actress BINDU MADHAVI is impressive with her effort to bring out her acting skills in her first movie. But she is not, what one expects from a Telugu heroine… glamorous. Moreover the pathetic screenplay made her acting effort seem like over-acting, many a time. Its not her fault at all. While not being glamorous, Kamalini Mukherjee was aided with a beautiful screenplay and dialogue in Anand. Later on, Telugu audiences just shunned her as she was not glamorous enough. But Bindu did not have the luck that Kamalini had in Anand.
• The rest of the cast are just FORGETTABLE. Pathetic acting skills and no screen presence.
• Amigo Creations has a simple but crucial problem. Kammula and team seem too egoistic to hire some real professionals to make their movies. Since the beginning, Shekhar had a bad habit of hiring non-actors and actresses in the elder and character roles. Remember Bamma (House Owner) of Anand… that had her dialogues by-heart and just chanted in a linear way without any modulation. Then there were the whole bunch of parents in Happy Days and so on and so forth. I know that Shekhar Kammula is just trying to bring authenticity… but in result putting more pressure on the lead characters to carry the whole movie on their shoulders. Kamalini & Raja had superb screenplay, Happy Days had many leads… but Bindu & Kamal have nothing to lean on. Bad luck for them.
• Carrying the non-hiring of professionals problem forward… Shekhar kammula’s movies always had the weakest and shoddy dubbing job. As always, the Sound Engineering work is poor in this movie too. Many of the dialogues that are on the side lines and in the background are inaudible. It was extremely hard to listen and understand the dialogues even in Happy Days during the first half hour. Avakai Biryani too suffers from the same problem.
• Lastly, the Screenplay & Direction by ANISH KURUVILLA simply… never moves. It was so dumbly written that even at just 2:15 hours or so… it felt elastic and back breaking. If edited well, it could still come down to about 1:45 hours. At the core, Avakai Biryani is a concoction of Jagapathi Babu’s PANDEM & KABADDI KABADDI. Good-for-nothing village guy, a bet, female lead who tries to inspire, male lead who becomes the village politician. And so… there is a ridiculous AUTO RACE in Avakai Biryani that reminds me of the innumerable Indian movies which had bullock-cart races to settle scores. Most recent one is by director Teja in Lakshmi Kalyanam with bullock-carts. This movie neither had the engaging conversations between the lead couple nor a fresh story line which were the hallmark of ANAND. This movie neither has the romantic spice nor the fun and frolic of HAPPY DAYS. Moreover, the hero & heroine meet and talk everywhere possible in the village without any hesitation whatsoever. In one scene, they even converse too closely on a street with a bunch of people watching and hearing them while celebrating Diwali (Anish assumes them to be blind & deaf… I suppose). There are too many continuity errors… like the one where the hero seems to write his mains and supplementary within a gap of precisely 2 months. And in another scene, the protagonists agree to talk in English from then on and that’s it… there is no mention of it again anywhere else. All in all, a ridiculous screenplay.

AVAKAI BIRYANI has nothing to offer. But I liked the idea of the title. Combining 2 ethnic foods to represent the culture clash was really good. But please, do not waste your time watching the movie for the title like I did. In the end, I don’t suspect the intentions of Anish to make a good movie… but I suggest Anish to watch Welcome To Sajjanpur by Shyam Benegal to imbibe some writing skills for a village based movie or for that matter… any kind of movie, instead of copying a plot here and a plot there.