Punchline: story of conmen
Genre: Thriller
Type: Remade (Gulmaal & Nine Queens)
Banner: Sudha Cinema & Chakravarthy Productions
Cast: JD Chakri, Srikanth, Lucky Sharma, Anisha Singh, Brahmanandam, Pradeep Rawat, Krishna Bhagawan, Pragati, Kota, Suthivelu, Y Vijaya, Raghu Karumanchi etc
Songs: Hema Chandra
Background music: Sai Karthik
Cinematography: Siva Kumar
Dialogues: Krishna Mohan Challa
Choreography: Amma Rajasekhar
Story - screenplay - direction: JD Chakravarthy
Producer: J Samba Sivarao
Release date: 29 June 2012
Theater watched: Screen 3, Prasads Multiplex, Hyderabad
| Review |
Ravi (Srikanth) is in lookout for money to bailout his father who is in jail. Ravi wants to cheat people to earn money. Chandu (JD Chakri) is a seasoned conman who doesn’t differentiate between family members and outsiders in the business of cheating. Ravi wants to learn the tricks of trade from Chandu. Chandu gets his hands on a big plan which will make him a multi-millionaire over night. The rest of the story is about plotting a scheme to make a big kill.
JD Chakravarthy’s character has lot of dialogues in godavari dialect and he is okay. Srikanth is good as an underplaying conman. Lucky Sharma has some of the features of Deeksha Seth (height is not one of them). She is attractive. Anisha Singh is limited to songs. The inspector-constable series started by EVV with 420 film is still a selling point. Raghu Babu and Raghu Karumanchi are good in the roles of cops. Shakuntala is funny in the role of don’s mother who is obsessed with shers(shayari). Pradeep Rawat plays a key role. Brahmananam is ineffective as Savitri. There is a great comic character inside Brahmaji and he makes sure that he has something to contribute in entertainment section in whichever film he works for.
This film is a remake of a Malayalam film titled Gulumaal, which heavily inspired by an Argentine film ‘Nine Queens’ (Nueve Reinas - 2000). This is a typical Priyadarshan kind of script and it takes amazing comic timing from the director to make it work. Director JD Chakri couldn’t get it right in establishing characters in an impact making way. However, he has succeeded in getting a couple of threads (cops episode and Telangana Sakuntala episode) in entertaining way. The screenplay and run-time of the film appears prolonged due to the nature of the subject. Stories of this kind doesn’t need songs and excessive runtime. The terrorist part of the film looks funny (it's supposed to be serious).
However I see a major blunder in “All The Best” in terms of logic. In the original film, they sell vintage postal stamps (nine stamps featuring the photos of queens). Since it has an antique value, once can have a personal transaction. But in Telugu version they off a piece of land, which requires a big procedure at government’s registration office in person to get the transaction done. But showing seasoned cons selling land by exchanging registration papers in a hotel room over night is a big flaw.
This film is low on production values as entire film is shot in minimal budget in and around Rajahmundry. Cinematography is okay. Dialogues are sufficient. Hema Chandra’s music is not upto the mark.
All The Best film belong to a rare genre (con films) in Telugu film industry. Films of these nature need to be crisp. Con films do generally end up with a brilliant stroke towards the climax. One can savour such a climax only if the rest of the film is narrated in an interesting manner. The film has every thing in right place, but the director’s inability get the timing right marred the over all impact of the movie.
|
|
