There are 3 steps that the fullhyd.com reviewers follow to successfully watch a dubbing movie and come out more or less unscathed. Of course, that's proprietary expertise and we will not share it, but for all those people wondering just what the economics of a Vishal movie are and how they do not go bankrupt, here's a quick-and-dirty fullhyd.com analysis:
Cost of making movie:
Rs. 50,00,000 (hero comes free, there are no noticeable production values)
Cost of dubbing into Telugu:
Rs. 800 (from fullhyd.com estimates of how many Tamil films get dubbed into Telugu every 10 seconds)
No. of hoardings across AP:
1,00,000 (including on Karnataka, Orissa and Chattisgarh borders, in the Bay of Bengal, and in all lands occupied by land-grabbers)
Average cost per hoarding:
Rs. 50,000Total cost of hoardings:
Rs. 500 croresNo. of newspaper ads:
1,00,000 (counting all ads in each page of each edition of a newspaper)
Average cost per ad:
Rs. 20,000Total cost of newspaper ads:
Rs. 200 croresNo. of TV spots:
1,00,000 (in all channels, including BTV (Bharani TV))
Average cost per TV Spot:
Rs. 30,000Total cost of TV spots:
Rs. 300 croresSummaryTotal cost of making movie:
Rs. 50 lakhsTotal cost of advertising:
Rs. 1,000 croresAverage cost of movie ticket:
Rs. 20No. of tickets to be sold to breakeven:
50 croresThat's it. Everyone in AP just needs to watch the film 5 times, and it's done. See, there's nothing to worry about if you do your math right. Of course, you should take the above analysis only as a broad indicator. Just remember that fullhyd.com knows crap about movie-making, but then so do some people who actually make movies.
It would be unfair to say that Bharani will kill you – we did not see anyone actually dead in the theater, though there were a few who looked like they weren't sure. But it might make you have some important conversations with yourself, some of which wouldn't be allowed if India did not respect free speech.
Bharani is the story of a youngster who helps reunite two warring families after falling in love with a girl from the other family. With a script like that that even an 8-month-old pet dog in Latvia will find clichéd, you need a screenplay-writer who can infuse life into even a documentary on protecting heritage antholes. However, these guys have a clever subsitute – Rs. 1,000 crores.
So Bharani (Vishal) is a youngster who lives with his widowed mother (Rohini) and his uncle Srinivas Bhupathi (Prabhu). The latter runs a salt business in a village Bhimili, and has intransigent and unrelenting foes in Veeram Naidu (Nasser) and his sister Sakuntala Devi (Nadia), and their father and patriarch PVS (Vijay Kumar).
Sakuntala Devi's daughter Bhanu (Bhanu) falls in love with Bharani for reasons that are beyond the scope of this review. When Bharani spurns her, a family fued starts that results in him accidentally hacking off the hand of Veeram Naidu's brother. He greatly repents his action and turns over a new leaf, and decides to marry Bhanu at any cost, but the bad blood is only further vitiated, and it's all-round war.
Bharani is a lousy movie for more reasons than we have space here for, but since this is a review and all, here are some. Firstly, the theme is the last resort of someone who desperately wants to make a movie. Then, the presentation, in its rural backdrop, is so drab, it makes several serials on Gemini look slick. And the dialogues are mostly lame, and whatever little comedy is there could have been written by an MSc math student.
A couple of songs can grow on you because of the number of times that you are bombarded by them on the TV spots, but the music in general is not very entertaining (assuming you are going to this movie to get entertained). And let's not forget the cheesy graphics.
Vishal does not have the screen presence to carry off an entire movie – for his family that appears to be funding him, this is all perhaps just long-term brand-building. Bhanu (you saw her in
Photo last – actually, hopefully you didn't) makes a perfect match. The other actors are all seasoned, but all they can do is emerge without career-destroying damage.
Add to this the fundamental problem with dubbed movies – unrecognizable faces, customs and dressing that you cannot identify with, and sorry lip-sync – and the rap-list is complete. The only films that become hits then are ones with completely innovative storylines – Aparichitudu, Ghajini, Chandramukhi etc. – which this one certainly cannot crow about.
Wait for 3-4 weeks to see if this one is still in town, and if it is, then don't watch it anyway.