Rating: 1.5/5
Film: Teenmaar
Cast: Pawan Kalyan, Trisha, Kriti Kharbanda, Paresh Rawal, Danah, Mukesh Rishi, Pragati, M S Narayana, Sudha, Kasi Viswanath and others
Story: Imtiaz Ali
Screenplay and dialogues: Trivikram Srinivas
Music: Manisharma
Cinematography: Jayanan Vincent
Editor: M R Varma
Art director: Narayana Reddy
Action: Tinu Varma
Choreography: Raju Sundaram, Kalyan
Produced by: Ganesh Babu
Banner: Parameswara Arts
Directed by: Jayanth C Paranji
CBFC Rating: U
Release date: April 14, 2011
What’s it about!
The film is about love of the present generation and bygone era. Michael Velayudham (Pawan Kalyan), a chef in Cape Town, meets chirpy beauty Meera and both of them hit off well. They start dating and fall in love. When Meera has to move to India, Michael proposes to break it off, as long distance love relationships don’t work. They part ways but Michael’s friend Senapati (Paresh Rawal) tells that real love can lead you to any distances and lengths and begins to narrate his friend Arjun Palwai’s love story. Arjun (Pawan Kalyan) and Vasumati (Kriti Kharbanda) take us back to the end of the 70's era in Kasi. Their story begins. Rest of drama is about the parallel stories of Arjun going to great lengths to win his love and Michael trying to win back Meera.
Analysis
Teenmaar is remake of Imtiaz Ali directed Love Aaj Kal (2009). Trivikram, one of the all time finest writers in Telugu Cinema, who stopped writing except for his own directorial ventures, was roped in to do necessary changes to suit our nativity and tastes of the Telugu audiences. But Trivikram is faithful to the original movie in terms of screenplay except some minor changes that brought more clarity in narration than the original. The major change he does is to do away with Rishi Kapoor narrating his story to the hero. Instead, he turns that character telling his friend’s story.
Coming to this movie, Teenmaar works big time in the second half as its emotional content in the final scenes touches your heart. The movie starts off with a breezy fresh air but the first half hardly has any moments that can be said entertaining. Post interval the flick draws on you with touchy scenes and clap worthy dialogues.
At times, when big stars’ movies are being made with routine plot lines and illogical scripts, Teenmaar comes as whiff of fresh air. Although the movie doesn’t have perfect screenplay, it does have a ‘solid script’ unlike other recent masala movies.
The film focuses on modern love and relationships and how confused are today’s generations about their feelings. That is clearly established by several scenes by Trivikram with dialogues. But it is lengthy, it needs at least 10 minutes of trimming.
Changes that are good are..
- Bringing more clarity in the narration
- Making the second character (Arjun Palwai’s) more aggressive
Changes that are not good are
- Changing the angle of Rishi Kapoor narrating his story. Because that was the novelty.
- Adding fights unnecessarily
- Making it less contemporary
Performances
Pawan Kalyan in dual role comes as winner. In the role of youthful Michael, he looks little older (as he is in 40’s) but he makes up the looks with a fab performance. After long time, he is highly energetic reminding of his old days of Khushi. In the role of Arjun Palwai, expectedly he is at home. In scenes of expressing his love for Kriti Kharabanda to her father played by Mukesh Rishi, Pawan Kalyan’s fiery acting is superb. But it is high time that Pawan should utter dialogues with much more clarity. In the role of Arjun, his dialogue delivery is fantastic but Michael’s is not clearly audible (probably because of spot dubbing?).
As a cherubic open-minded girl, Trisha shines. She is cool as cucumber. Trisha and Pawan also look good as pair but their chemistry is not that hot.
Kriti Kharbanda in the role of shy and timid young girl of 70’s and 80’s is okay but her makeup is tacky. Paresh Rawal and Mukesh Rishi have nothing much to show their acting skills. Sonu Sood does a cameo and he’s neat.
On technical front, cinematography is top notch. Jayanan Vincent’s visuals are cool. He has used bright colors for the present generation to give contemporary chic look, and red tint for the bygone era. His picturisation of Kasi ghats is alluring. Editing is smooth but not as sharp as the original movie.
The film is rich with good dialogue. Several of the lines are also there in the original but Trivikram has displayed his intelligent writing skills in key scenes. More than the comedy one-liners, emotional dialogues like ‘Andamga Ledani Ammani, Kopanga Unnadani Nannani Vadileyyalem kada’, “Ee Bhasha lo aina bhayam ki expression same’, "sampaadisthe dabbu vasthundi kaani, samskaram kaadu". But excessive English lines are unwanted. Also, the logic behind the name of Michael Velayudham and he speaking in Tamil language occasionally is not explained. Also why is that Arjun Palwai lives in Kasi is also not described. Trivikram should have given an hint about these in the movie.
Manisharma’s songs are peppy; of them 'Chiguru Boniya..' is catchy but best of the lot, of course is, ‘Ale Bale’ (which is Pritam’s composition, though).
Director Jayanth’s direction is neat. Given the fact that the movie is completed in just six months, Jayanth should be appreciated for bringing such good quality of visuals. Although he has tried to make it massy so that audiences in rural areas can be identified with, the movie still is classy.
Bottom-line
Teenmaar is, by and large, faithful remake of Love Aaj Kal. It also is entertaining and appealing in Telugu because it has solid script and is a love story with a contemporary touch. Second half is its strength aided by Pawan Kalyan’s performance, and cool visuals. Though it is lengthy, the film is fun to watch.
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