Life Is Beautiful (Telugu) Review
Suggestions
Can watch again
Yes
Good for kids
Yes
Good for dates
Yes
Wait for OTT
No
We enter the movie hall to an air thrumming with the tangible excitement of people who have come prepared for a good time. It is only to be expected. Shekhar Kammula has mastered, and then some, the art of a certain brand of idyllia that has people coming back for more.
It isn't that those residing in his little bit of Utopia don't face any problems. Or even that they are perfect. In fact, they're all eminently human, with human flaws and joys and sorrows. What makes this world Utopian is the belief it manages to instill amongst its viewers that hell, high water, Scylla-Charybdis situations or treacherous Sirens notwithstanding, life really is beautiful and everything is going to be alright.
So you have Srinu (Abhijeet Duddala) who, along with his two little sisters, is packed off to Hyderabad by his mysteriously insistent mother (Amala Akkineni). He makes for an interesting subject as you watch him grapple with the sudden responsibility of taking care of his sisters, and of gaining a stable career.
Then there is Nagaraj (Sudhakar Komakula), the footloose and fancy-free son of a Qualis driver who is constantly harangued by his father to make something of himself.
And finally you have Abhi (Kaushik), a genius who takes the art of being a smart-alec to all new heights, who constantly gets into trouble by virtue of his audacious tongue, and finds love far beyond his reach.
All three reside in the Sunshine Valley, which is bifurcated into the middle-class B-Phase and the Gold Phase which is populated by those with golden spoons firmly stuck in their mouths.
What follows is a delightful story that tells you of the travails of refreshingly ordinary people as they work their way through the maze formed by the cornerstones of life - career, love, family, society, celebration, and conflicts.
The residents of B-Phase have a wonderful sense of community that incorporates more than a touch of nostalgia and wishful-thinking. The portrayal of the affluent Gold Phase dwellers as a brashly entitled lot is rather jarring, but the director redeems himself towards the end.
Now for the characters. The newcomers, for the most part, do full justice to their characters. Anjala Zaveri, although extremely attractive and competent as an actress, is more window dressing than an important character. Amala Akkineni makes her presence felt in the short time that she occupies screen space. Shriya Saran, as the rich girl with a heart of gold, is as convincing as she is gorgeous even though she looks a tad too polished amongst a cast that is mostly occupied by newcomers.
The most noteworthy character is the little girl who plays Srinu's younger sister. This writer is not ashamed to confess that she might have shed more than a tear or two (read: bawled her eyes out) as she watched the adorable little girl give an emotion-clogged speech on her mother.
The music by Mickey J. Meyer, although pleasant, isn't something you're going to find yourself humming ten years from now. Lyrics by Veturi, which brought to life the music in all of Kammula's earlier movies, are sorely missed. May that man's poetic soul rest in peace.
The movie is lovely to look at as the cinematography by Vijay C. Kumar perfectly complements Thotta Tharani's beautifully created sets.
Like with every Kammula movie, you find yourself laughing here, shedding a tear there, or even thoughtful at times. Our only grouse with the movie is an ending that doesn't quite manage to tie up all the loose ends.
It isn't that those residing in his little bit of Utopia don't face any problems. Or even that they are perfect. In fact, they're all eminently human, with human flaws and joys and sorrows. What makes this world Utopian is the belief it manages to instill amongst its viewers that hell, high water, Scylla-Charybdis situations or treacherous Sirens notwithstanding, life really is beautiful and everything is going to be alright.
So you have Srinu (Abhijeet Duddala) who, along with his two little sisters, is packed off to Hyderabad by his mysteriously insistent mother (Amala Akkineni). He makes for an interesting subject as you watch him grapple with the sudden responsibility of taking care of his sisters, and of gaining a stable career.
Then there is Nagaraj (Sudhakar Komakula), the footloose and fancy-free son of a Qualis driver who is constantly harangued by his father to make something of himself.
And finally you have Abhi (Kaushik), a genius who takes the art of being a smart-alec to all new heights, who constantly gets into trouble by virtue of his audacious tongue, and finds love far beyond his reach.
All three reside in the Sunshine Valley, which is bifurcated into the middle-class B-Phase and the Gold Phase which is populated by those with golden spoons firmly stuck in their mouths.
What follows is a delightful story that tells you of the travails of refreshingly ordinary people as they work their way through the maze formed by the cornerstones of life - career, love, family, society, celebration, and conflicts.
The residents of B-Phase have a wonderful sense of community that incorporates more than a touch of nostalgia and wishful-thinking. The portrayal of the affluent Gold Phase dwellers as a brashly entitled lot is rather jarring, but the director redeems himself towards the end.
Now for the characters. The newcomers, for the most part, do full justice to their characters. Anjala Zaveri, although extremely attractive and competent as an actress, is more window dressing than an important character. Amala Akkineni makes her presence felt in the short time that she occupies screen space. Shriya Saran, as the rich girl with a heart of gold, is as convincing as she is gorgeous even though she looks a tad too polished amongst a cast that is mostly occupied by newcomers.
The most noteworthy character is the little girl who plays Srinu's younger sister. This writer is not ashamed to confess that she might have shed more than a tear or two (read: bawled her eyes out) as she watched the adorable little girl give an emotion-clogged speech on her mother.
The music by Mickey J. Meyer, although pleasant, isn't something you're going to find yourself humming ten years from now. Lyrics by Veturi, which brought to life the music in all of Kammula's earlier movies, are sorely missed. May that man's poetic soul rest in peace.
The movie is lovely to look at as the cinematography by Vijay C. Kumar perfectly complements Thotta Tharani's beautifully created sets.
Like with every Kammula movie, you find yourself laughing here, shedding a tear there, or even thoughtful at times. Our only grouse with the movie is an ending that doesn't quite manage to tie up all the loose ends.
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL (TELUGU) SNAPSHOT
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Cast
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Music
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Director
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TheatresNot screening currently in any theatres in Hyderabad.3 users say this is wrong.
TOP COMMENT
Just had the misfortune of catching this dud on MAATV. I am yet to come out of shock! I have seen worst movies but this one probably beats most of them. It's especially annoying because this product, coming in a velvety and attractive package and gloss literally cheats you! Every scene is so cliche and so hammed up, aimless, etc. The most surprising thing was the review here (script 7.0!!???) but that's a different story because when you are a diehard fan the side effect is you start losing your vision. I think the downward trend after Anand has now finally reached the lowest point and I am hoping things don't go any worst than this. BTW, (a) I have never seen a middle aged woman coming out and dancing in open every time it rains, (b) a beautiful lady ruffling a neighborhood boy's hair every time she meets him (won't even talk about the kissing), (c) building tree-houses for kids in India, (d) spelling bee contest between a "Govt." school and a Convent school to decide upon the school admission of a kid and the Convent school suddenly shedding a tear on hearing some blabbering in Telugu, etc. And I still don't understand why in our movies the "rich" are always bad and the "poor" are all noble!!! And truly speaking I don't know why everyone is going gaga over Amala's role/performance. Actually you can cast ANY or the first housewife you meet in that role and can extract the same "performance". Well, I can just go and on... I am glad that I didn't waste my money on this but I did waste much more precious than that - 5 hours of time plus 15 minutes typing/venting out my frustration!
Pros: Visuals
Cons: Everything
Cons: Everything
11 USERS
Performances
Script
Music/Soundtrack
Visuals
1.0
1.0
1.0
8.0
Can watch again - No
Good for kids - Unsure
Good for dates - No
Wait for OTT - No
Just saw the movie and was so disappointed, I wanted to write a comment about my frustration. I saw sid's comment below and I was amazed because everything sid mentioned is what I thought was wrong with this movie.
His thoughts are exactly what I felt walking out of the theater but I will still write it in my words.
Shekhar Kammula is one of the few directors whose films I love watching. Godavari and Anand are high up in my list of favorite films. I was excited when LIB was announced. After watching the trailers, I became extremely skeptical(did I really want to watch Happy Days again?). Lowered my expectations to almost not have
any. During first half, I wanted to reach out and tear the screen in frustration. Immature fights between rich and poor is all you could come up with? And all the stereotyping was just awful. How could you just toss the
most important aspect of a movie called "story"? Well made shots joined together does not make a movie.
Actors were decent. The girl who played paddu's character is gorgeous and acted well too. Shekhar did well with some emotional scenes towards the end but that is always his strength and it was too little too late. I just did not care about any of the lead characters by that time. It was shot well but then crap shot well is still crap.
My thoughts are, "another good director bites the dust". Sigh. Hope Yeto Vellipoyindi Manasu and Routine Love Story
would lift my spirits up. I still have some hope of watching good telugu cinema this year.
His thoughts are exactly what I felt walking out of the theater but I will still write it in my words.
Shekhar Kammula is one of the few directors whose films I love watching. Godavari and Anand are high up in my list of favorite films. I was excited when LIB was announced. After watching the trailers, I became extremely skeptical(did I really want to watch Happy Days again?). Lowered my expectations to almost not have
any. During first half, I wanted to reach out and tear the screen in frustration. Immature fights between rich and poor is all you could come up with? And all the stereotyping was just awful. How could you just toss the
most important aspect of a movie called "story"? Well made shots joined together does not make a movie.
Actors were decent. The girl who played paddu's character is gorgeous and acted well too. Shekhar did well with some emotional scenes towards the end but that is always his strength and it was too little too late. I just did not care about any of the lead characters by that time. It was shot well but then crap shot well is still crap.
My thoughts are, "another good director bites the dust". Sigh. Hope Yeto Vellipoyindi Manasu and Routine Love Story
would lift my spirits up. I still have some hope of watching good telugu cinema this year.
RATING
2
Life is Beautiful movie - What is beautiful ??
The movie starts on a promising note but half hour into the movie you realize that disjointed bits and pieces from here and there are stitched together. The story has an extreme type-casting of the rich with which I disagree. The rich are shown as evil, illogical, senseless and always angry. The rich are type-casted as people who only care about their status and in the process dont mind even if they look, act and sound foolish. The middle classes are shown as righteous, good, sentimental, logical and people with values. This is far from the truth. I dont deny the latter but the former (the rich) are most often in-control, less angry, sensible (that's why they are rich) and mostly diplomatic. I get a feeling that Shekar Kammula has potrayed them in such a way just to build up a "Good vs Bad" story.
Story......!! Is there a Story ??.......may be, may not be, I dont know. There is no meaningful story except the Amala chapter. Add to it, the screenplay which so disjointed that it makes sincere efforts to destroy an already weak story line. The story lacks timeline (there is nothing like 6 months later, 1 year later, 2 years later etc). You dont know what (events in the story) is happening and when. As with regular Telugu movies, people start falling in love immediately which is not expected of a Shekhar Kammula movie. When somebody gives a timeline you understand that "oh ok, they have been together for so much time, thats why they understand each other and thats why they are in love". But things just keep happening.
First half of the movie is all about the rich fighting the middle class on petty things. The first is half is as if 2868 frames from here are added to 4356 frames from there and a story is built. This goes on and on and on until you realize what is going on. In the midst three parallel stories go on, one is nice, the other is cute, the third one - I dont understand. The nice one is the Nagaraj story, the cute one is the Seenu and Paddu story and bekaar one is the Shriya and Abhi story. I dont want to give you the details and spoil your intent to watch the movie. I just wanted to say that Shriya was as usual gorgeous and does justice for what she was asked to do but it is the director and the personality of Abhi that destroys the chemistry of the third story.
At interval you are again promised something good in the second half but the same shit continues. Also I dont understand why a geek character is always necessary in the story. Anyway the geekiness this time crosses the red line and it was serious shit believe me. Most of the songs were situational and more or less went with the story except one. All the songs were average as none of the tunes stuck to me. I can't recollect any tune of any song while writing this review which I wrote one hour after watching the movie. The movie does not justify the title in any way and the sudden ending showing hard core rightist mindsets changing in a snap leaves you bewildered when you leave the theater.
There are some good and bad things about individual performances here and there:
- Amala's performance is fantastic. You truly and realistically get the motherly feeling when she is in the frame. Acting wise10/10 for Amala.
- Nagaraj performance is the one thats keeps you laughing. He was cool, really nice and true to the world and his role is the perfect basti boy performance. 8/10 for Nagaraj. He has good future if he picks good roles.
- Seenu, good acting and screen presence but average dancer, has good future.
- Abhi, below average acting, zero screen presence, total misfit for the female. I doubt his future.
- All the girls are gorgeous. Shriya, Paddu and Lakshmi. Shriya and Paddu are beautiful and did justice to their roles. I liked Paddu of all for her liveliness. Lakshmi is beautiful but below average dialogue delivery. They all look sexy, hot and exquisite in Sarees, Half Sarees and modern dresses. Shirya 7/10. Paddu 8/10. Lakshmi 7/10. All said and done, I would marry all of them given a chance.
The faces I remembrer after walking out of the theater are Amala, Nagaraj and Paddu. I am no one to comment on others' feelings but the overall public feeling in the theater was - "They did not like the movie". All in all I am disappointed and this is the first Shekar Kamula movie I disliked.
The movie starts on a promising note but half hour into the movie you realize that disjointed bits and pieces from here and there are stitched together. The story has an extreme type-casting of the rich with which I disagree. The rich are shown as evil, illogical, senseless and always angry. The rich are type-casted as people who only care about their status and in the process dont mind even if they look, act and sound foolish. The middle classes are shown as righteous, good, sentimental, logical and people with values. This is far from the truth. I dont deny the latter but the former (the rich) are most often in-control, less angry, sensible (that's why they are rich) and mostly diplomatic. I get a feeling that Shekar Kammula has potrayed them in such a way just to build up a "Good vs Bad" story.
Story......!! Is there a Story ??.......may be, may not be, I dont know. There is no meaningful story except the Amala chapter. Add to it, the screenplay which so disjointed that it makes sincere efforts to destroy an already weak story line. The story lacks timeline (there is nothing like 6 months later, 1 year later, 2 years later etc). You dont know what (events in the story) is happening and when. As with regular Telugu movies, people start falling in love immediately which is not expected of a Shekhar Kammula movie. When somebody gives a timeline you understand that "oh ok, they have been together for so much time, thats why they understand each other and thats why they are in love". But things just keep happening.
First half of the movie is all about the rich fighting the middle class on petty things. The first is half is as if 2868 frames from here are added to 4356 frames from there and a story is built. This goes on and on and on until you realize what is going on. In the midst three parallel stories go on, one is nice, the other is cute, the third one - I dont understand. The nice one is the Nagaraj story, the cute one is the Seenu and Paddu story and bekaar one is the Shriya and Abhi story. I dont want to give you the details and spoil your intent to watch the movie. I just wanted to say that Shriya was as usual gorgeous and does justice for what she was asked to do but it is the director and the personality of Abhi that destroys the chemistry of the third story.
At interval you are again promised something good in the second half but the same shit continues. Also I dont understand why a geek character is always necessary in the story. Anyway the geekiness this time crosses the red line and it was serious shit believe me. Most of the songs were situational and more or less went with the story except one. All the songs were average as none of the tunes stuck to me. I can't recollect any tune of any song while writing this review which I wrote one hour after watching the movie. The movie does not justify the title in any way and the sudden ending showing hard core rightist mindsets changing in a snap leaves you bewildered when you leave the theater.
There are some good and bad things about individual performances here and there:
- Amala's performance is fantastic. You truly and realistically get the motherly feeling when she is in the frame. Acting wise10/10 for Amala.
- Nagaraj performance is the one thats keeps you laughing. He was cool, really nice and true to the world and his role is the perfect basti boy performance. 8/10 for Nagaraj. He has good future if he picks good roles.
- Seenu, good acting and screen presence but average dancer, has good future.
- Abhi, below average acting, zero screen presence, total misfit for the female. I doubt his future.
- All the girls are gorgeous. Shriya, Paddu and Lakshmi. Shriya and Paddu are beautiful and did justice to their roles. I liked Paddu of all for her liveliness. Lakshmi is beautiful but below average dialogue delivery. They all look sexy, hot and exquisite in Sarees, Half Sarees and modern dresses. Shirya 7/10. Paddu 8/10. Lakshmi 7/10. All said and done, I would marry all of them given a chance.
The faces I remembrer after walking out of the theater are Amala, Nagaraj and Paddu. I am no one to comment on others' feelings but the overall public feeling in the theater was - "They did not like the movie". All in all I am disappointed and this is the first Shekar Kamula movie I disliked.
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