The Movies made in Tollywood, in general, will get their name and fame through the Stars casted in them. But it has become an exception in the case of SS Rajamouli, since his last offering “Maryada Ramanna”! He is the only director to be attributed as the most updating one in adopting the Cinema Technology for making the movie as an “experience” rather than mere a “motion picture”! His previous creations like Simhadri, Chatrapathi, Yamadonga, Vikramarkudu, Magadheera have not only proved his potentiality as the creator of a special sort, but also as a visionary in film-crafts and film technologies. He has upgraded his skills and knowledge on movie making techniques with every film of him and had come a long way by imagining and translating bigger dreams on to the screen. Now, Rajamouli come with the Visual Effects as the platform to portray his latest creation, Eega.
The Eega got the attention of the Telugu Audience across the globe, ever since its announcement and Rajamouli had succeeded in maintaining the same curiosity levels among the public since last 2 years, which took a relatively long time in Tollywood. As such, EEGA has become the most-awaited movie for this season.
The Story:
Nani is simple and joyous young lad, who falls in love with a “micro artist”, Bindu (Samantha). Bindu runs a charity called, Project 511 and to raise donations, she approaches a Big Businessman, Sudeep. Sudeep is a playboy and had a belief that, “he can get any dame in the world”! He starts trials to trap Bindu and donates Rs.15 lakhs to become close with her. But Sudeep finds that, Bindu is in love with Nani and develops hatred over Nani and kills him. Then what happens to the soul of Nani and how he protects Bindu and took revenge over Sudeep, makes the rest of the story.
The Performances:
The movie rolls between very few characters. Nani as the admirer and lover played well. His get-up and looks are appealing and his moves in certain scenes and in dance sequences are pleasing. He had a very limited role but succeeded to impress. Samantha as the lady protagonist had some space to perform apart from showing glamour. Her expressions are very hearty in certain scenes while her interaction with Nani and heart-touching in the scenes when she learns the death of Nani and knows the House-fly is the reincarnation of Nani.
However, it is the show of Sudeep, who deserves all the accolades in every scene he played from passionate egoist and wicked to cruel and eccentric one. Particularly, his irritating moves and corresponding action with the damage created by House-fly are note-worthy. Though he is the antagonist, he runs with all the applause for the acting prowess.
And finally, it’s “Eega”, the computer-generated character, which surprised all the eye-balls of the audience with its style, dance, exercises and “goggles and weapons”! It’s the superb creation of technology, which emoted like any other human-being and brought the expressions well.
The Technicalities:
“Eega” has taken the Tollywood films to higher level in terms of 3 Ts, i.e.,Technology-Technique-Treatment ! Kudos to Rajamouli for imagining such a nice dream and bringing the same on to the screen, blended with all the elements of a commercial movie. Though the story is very simple, the screen-play and technical paddings to the scenes are very effective which made the movie as the “visual experience”! The visual effects done by Makuti VFX team are praiseworthy.
In general, the Tollywood movies are of “dialogue-driven audio movies”, even though cinema is visual media. Eega resurfaced the potentiality of the visuals and made upper hand over the routine stuff. The design of Eega, its style, action, emotions and expressions are carried out with minute details and the dance sequence at the end has excelled in it. The origin of Eega, escaping the bullet shot, writing the message by using the tears of Samantha on the table, chase scene between two evil-driven-eagles and with Eega, car accident episode are some of the scenes which thrills the minds of the viewers.
Music by Keeravani adds the flavour to the movie, especially in re-recording. The tunes of “”Eega” and “arey arey arey arey oho” are catchy. Senthil’s cinematography with the coordinated efforts of Ravinder’s art direction and Makuti’s visual effects ultimately succeeded in making a magic on the screen.
Sum Up:
Eega is no doubt, a technical and visual extravaganza of a special sort in the sojourn of Tollywood. But story-wise, it is very weak with a very thin line. We cannot convince in most of the scenes of the movie, even though, we consciously accept it as a fable-like socio-fantasy flick. The story does not build well to substantiate the rebirth of the hero as EEGA. It is unconvincing to even think of the vengeance of a small creature and series of failures of Sudeep in curtailing the attacks of EEGA. The climax of settling Samantha with EEGA is also not convincing, though it has made it light with the “misconception” of Tagubotu Ramesh character.
The movie had given a miss to Comedy and Entertainment, which are the basic essentials to a comman moviegoer. Instead, the movie catered the “thrilling element” and subsided it.
In terms of creativity, Eega is undoubtedly an off-the-beat novel experiment in the “formula-driven industry like Tollywood”. EEGA broke all the myths of the age-old traditions of the Telugu films.
However, SS Rajamouli has proved, he is synonymous for Super Success and maintained to continue his reign of hits in an un-interrupted series. He also made an example that, even a film without big stars and Item songs can also become a hit, if the maker successfully satisfies the Emotional Quotient of the audience.
by Mamidi Harikrishna (harikrishnam at ragalahari.in)
