Telugu Movie review - Ride

TELUGU MOVIE RIDE

Punchline: not a smooth ride
Genre: Youth/Family
Type: Straight
Banner: Sri Sai Ganesh Productions

Cast: Nani, Tanish, Shweta Basu Prasad, Aksha, Adarsh, Ahuti Prasad, Sudha, Kasi Viswanath, Brahmanandam, Dharmavarapu, Tulasi, Kinnera, Bikshu, Hema etc

Music: Hema Chandra
Background score: Chinna
Cinematography: Shyam K Naidu
Dialogues: Shashank Vennelakanti
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Art: Chinna
Fights: Ram Lakshman
Executive producer: Ravi Uppalapati
Story - screenplay - direction: Ramesh Varma
Producer: Bellamkonda Suresh
Release date: 5 June 2009

Story

Mahesh (Tanish) is the son of a just retired middle class government officer. He is a responsible guy and shares the responsibly of running the family. He gets an offer to work as a collection agent in a chit fund company. But it requires him to own a bike. He buys the bike with her mother savings. Arjun (Nani) is a carefree youngster who is passionate about bikes. His dream is to own a bike. But his miser father never buys him one. Mahesh’s bike is stolen one day and the next day Arjun is riding on that bike. The rest of the story is all about what happened to the bike and how they resolved the conflict.

Artists Performance

Nani is good as a guy who is passionate about bikes. There are many mass dialogues written for him and he delivers them with panache. His dances in Danchave Menatha song are pretty good. Tanish’s body language, costumes and introduction scene in this is movie is modeled after hero Mahesh Babu. Tanish is really good in emotional scenes. Shweta Basu Prasad’s role is limited and it does not have any substance. She is glamorous with a bit of skin show unlike her debut KBL. Aksha looks like a broader version of Trisha. She needs to shed a few pounds to look more attractive on the screen. Three actors are borrowed from Nachavule film. Kasi Viswanath, small boy and hero’s friend are these characters. All these characters are like just an extension of their Nachavule performances. Ravi Babu should get some royalty for Ride film. Ahuti Prasad, Hema and Sudha are adequate. Brahmanandam is average. Adarsh (Happy Days fame) is alright, but poor characterization doesn’t help him.

Technical departments

Story - screenplay - direction: Story of the movie is thin. And the story writer succeeded in integrating middle class family mentality with the story that revolves around bike. The part of Tanish losing his bike and there by losing his livelihood reminds us of Italian black & while classic Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Theif). The screenplay and direction is neat till the movie reaches interval point. The movie is over in the second half the moment when these guys decide to share the bike. The last 20 minutes of the movie which comes after resolving the main conflict appears like an undesired extension. The screenplay and direction is not satisfactory in the second half. The bike logically belongs to Tanish in this movie because the legal ownership is with him. The same bike is bought by Nani in chor bazaar. All it takes is a police complaint from Tanish in order to get rid of Nani. This basic point is ignored while writing story/screenplay for the second half.

Other departments

Music by singer turned music director Hema Chandra is adequate. A couple of songs are good in picturization (the 3rd song shot in ICRISAT and Danchave Menatha Koothura remix). Cinematography by Shyam K Naidu is good. The fights composed for this movie lack completeness and most of them are abrupt (for example we don't know wha happens to the bike on railtrack in climax). Editing is average. Dialogues in the movie are partly good. The sentimental dialogues are well written.

Analysis

The movie takes off really well with nice establishment of the two main characters and their family backgrounds. First half is satisfactory. The writer/director falters in screenplay section in the second half. Ideally the movie is over the moment these two guys come to an understanding. The last 20 minutes of the movie appears like an extension. For people who have seen uber stylish bike ads on TV, the chases and races shown in the film pretty mediocre. Ramesh Varma did a better job compared to his last film, but it is not good enough!