'SHOPINGMALL' Review

Shopping Mall…..its the Telugu version of Tamil hit film “Angadi Theru”. Mahesh,Anjali is the lead pair of the movie. Suresh Kondeti,Owner of “Santosham” film magazine has dubbed this movie into Telugu.Suresh has a special taste in dubbing Tamil films to Telugu.Earlier he has dubbed a Tamil movie into Telugu with the title”Premisthe” starrer…Bharath, Sandhya..etc…And now he has come up with yet another cute and heart touching love story called “Love in Shopping Mall”,though one might find the realistic essence is a bit more to digest.

Story:

Shiva (Mahesh), who stands as a topper in school, will be  forced to to discontinue his studies as his father dies in an accident. Later to run his family,he decides to work. He gets a job in big Shopping Mall where the workers lead a life nothing less than to slaves. Rani(Anjali) also works there in the same shopping mall where hero joins to work.After a couple of fights and misunderstanding, bot fall in love..But they find it hard to survive in the shopping mall as one of their colleague gets caught by the owner for loving another guy who also works there.So they decides to get out of that hell like shopping mall. So…how do they get out of shopping mall…how do they fight against the fate which throws a wild smile at them…and finally do they get married forms the rest of the story.

Analysis:

Basically,Tamil audience has the habit of encouraging realistic movies.More reality…more they love.Tamil audience always love it, if they are pinched with some emotions on screen.They will enjoy such films to the fullest. May be that is one of the reasons for Tamil Film Industry producing some beautiful movies..

hopping Mall (Angaadi Theru) is such a treat to watch.Its a movie of its own kind that was hardly seen on screen in the recent times. Director Vasanthabalan has filmed the miserable lives of the workers who are working in some hard situations in huge Shopping malls in the cities. The characters in this film are familiar to us. Shopping Mall is all about the dark side of the workers who work in such malls.Definitely a very good attempt by the director,for whom has to be appreciated for sure.

Vasantha Balan had the guts and courage to make a film on the hard hitting reality and he didn’t try to beat around the bush at any instance. In fact he did do good research about how the life goes on ‘behind’ a shopping mall. He brought the pain of those sorrowful lives in a heart-melting way. Also he spun an excellent love story in between and it is sheer poetry to watch those romantic scenes between Mahesh and Anjali.A real visual treat one can say.

Coming to the Climax,it is brilliantly shot  as it leaves a haunting impression on the audiences even after they leave the theaters. The film starts off with a bang and perfectly paves into the flashback and moves at a good pace until the interval point. Later on it does lose some speed and the proceedings seem heavy.

Who did how?

Debutanter Mahesh is perfect fit in this role. The boyish charm and innocence in his face added to the character. He should work on his expressions though. Heroine Anjali is brilliant. She suited the role to perfection.In fact, she  has dominated the hero in regards acting and few typical expressions. Anjali’s eyes are definitely her sex appeal as she used them very good to show off the pain that her character goes through out the film. The guy who has done a heartless supervisor also pulled a good performance.. heroe’s friend character also was good,which mostly settled for comedy scenes.Every artist did justice to their respective roles. The director opted for brand Tamil faces to appeal to the native Tamil audience and few of them would irk Telugu audience who doesn’t like the Tamil ‘rawness’ and ‘over the board’ performances.

Technical points:

To start with, dialogues were very good as effective as Tamil. G.V. Prakash  Kumar and Vijay Anthony’s  music is definitely a big  asset to the film. Songs are beautifully picturized and Background score is pretty good. BGM elevated the mood of the film and is in sync with the scenes. Richard M. Nathan’s camera work is splendid. His lighting schemes brought the natural feel into the film. Camera plays a big role in this kind of dark films to make an impact and Richard’s camera has perfectly fulfilled the director’s needs.

Film was dragged a bit in few scenes which editing should have been a bit crisp.

Last but not the least, Vasantha Balan is the person to talk about. A director’s true capabilities are generally highlighted in this kind of films and Vasanthabalan passes this test in flying colors. Some might feel that the director has been completely ‘negative’ in showcasing Shopping Mall.Its worth watchable that how good he handled the emotions between the hero and heroin.In couple of scenes,he made sure that weak hearts and sensitive eyes gets watered with some heart pinching emotional scenes. However, his idea itself is to show the ‘blackness’ of the life. Darkness isn’t fine to walk through, but for some it is everything which they can’t avoid but only could adjust to. Survival is the ultimate goal for a human and Vasanthabalan shows how to ‘survive’ against all the odds. The last scene is a true spectacle of it. Take a bow sir!

Positive factors:

A nice realistic picturization
Good love essence mixed with some sensitive emotional drama.
Excellent background scores and a beautiful camera work
Hero,heroine’s acting skills….especially Anjali is a worth watch as Rani.
Of course,a very good screenplay and sensible direction.

Minus points:

Drag in few scenes..especially in the second half of the story.
Reality should have been a bit less as Telugu audience would not adopt such scenes so quickly.
Editing should have been a little better.

Conclusion:

This is definitely not a regular go-happily watch-come kind of films.If you love emotions….natural scenes…yes you can go and have a watch..a definite worth watch movie.