100% Love - Movie Review

'100% Love' is another good Telugu movie I have watched in the recent times. I loved 'Vedam' and I enjoyed 'Ye Maya Chesave'. I finally notice that the Telugu film industry produces atleast one good movie every year that is outside its usual assembly line movies. After a very good performance in 'Ye Maya Chesave', Naga Chaitanya comes back with another memorable performance in this film. It takes a lot of courage for a Telugu hero to play a person with full of flaws and Naga Chaitanya's Balu Mahendra is one of the most exasperating and immature heros in Telugu Films. It is a terrific performance from him - he is so real and so consistent a jerk that you can actually believe such a person can exist. He plays a college student who reeks of ego, pettiness and immaturity all over. He is one of those kids who define themselves by the first rank they get in school/college and suffer an identity crisis when they are faced with anything but. He has a motorbike and the registration number of the bike is - no answers for guessing it right - '1'. In an important scene towards the end where he confesses his love to the heroine, he fleetingly comes to being likable and humane and a minute down, you see him revert to his usual self. There is no redemption for Balu Mahendra - and there in lies the beauty of the film. He is never out of character; except once when he lands punches into a group of goonda fellows troubling his girlfriend. I have never met a first ranker in my life who could tackle a gang of goondas. In that scene, probably as a edgeways hat-tip to his real-life daddy's famous cycle chain scene, he wields a cycle-tyre's rubber tube. Lots of humour in the film comes from his straight faced dialog delivery in the first half. I consider Balu Mahendra as one of the best charecterisations of a protagonist(antagonist would be the mot juste) in Telugu Cinema. Tamanna, the heroine, delivers a very good performance in a role that actually has enough meat in it than just meat, if you know what I mean. Long after I came out of the movie hall, I realised a refreshing aspect about the film. The absense of that abomination to Telugu movies, that annoying voice of Dubbing Sunita elevated the film by several notches. Here's finally a heroine who has spoken her own lines; or is it a new dubbing artist! I have often mourned the 'death' of the Telugu Heroine - a topic in itself, to the extent that I swore myself off Telugu movies until the girls speak their own lines. Coming back, the heroine is very patient with the hero through out the film and the ideal ending for the movie would have been that she loses her endurance capacity with him, gives him an earful and dumps him. I believe that at the end of the movie, she has gotton into a doomed relationship. I was terribly impressed with the opening credits of 'Ye Maya Chesave' last year and this year '100% Love' must get the award for the most creative opening credits. As the adage goes, don’t miss the beginning.

4 out of 5 Marks.

Comments

[S]

Am not being a feminist when i say this but i would it say its so typical of most men to think that such a character cannot exist.I dont think the director had much difficulty potraying the chauvinism and yes, i agree with you that its been a well played role.

[Arvind Swarup Pathiki]

@S: Such characters can exist in both men and women. Consider the case of 'Ye Maya Chesave'. there the girl was a 'character' in her own way and the guy was working around her complexities. that's just an example. real life provides more interesting/complex cases in point among both sexes. so, there's nothing feminist or hominist about it. thanks for dropping by and sharing your thoughts. :o)

[S]

Sorry, i dont think you've got my point right.It was a merry quip at your own words....'he is so real and so consistent a jerk that you can actually believe such a person can exist.'I meant to say most men cannot believe the existence of such a character whereas most females can actually relate to such a character.
Also wonder why chauvinism is not as synonymous with females.. ;)

[Arvind Swarup Pathiki]

Ok. I understand. :) And I also understand that S is a lady. he he. :)

[Ravindra Prabhala]

Great review.....You are my new rajeev masand...

Did you review dokudu also.....waiting to read it....

[Arvind Swarup Pathiki]

@Ravindra: Thank you so much. I find that remark extremely encouraging (grinning ear to ear). I watched Dookudu first-day-second-show. Only, i didnt review it.