Khaleja (2010)

Mahesh Babu who amazed everybody with his Uttarandhra dialect in his dialogue delivery in Pokiri this time uttered dialogues in Godavari dialect. He is simply superb in mouthing the dialogues penned by Trivikram. He is also exceptionally good in the action episodes and of course acting. You can see the hard work he has put in for this movie on the screen. He changes his body language for this movie. His costumes are cool and he used scarf throughout the movie and it helped in Mahesh Babu look different. Mahesh Babu shed a lot of weight and looks extremely handsome in the movie. Anushka is good in the movie as an 'iron leg' lady. She has put on a little bit of weight compared to her recent outings. Prakash Raj is good as villain, but has a limited screen-time and has a conflict with hero only during the climax. Subbaraju is nice. Rao Ramesh is very good in a new get-up of a soothsayer and performed well with a controlled modulation. Shafi is fine. Tanikella Bharani, Dharmavarapu and Raghu Babu are adequate. Brahmanandam, Sunil and Ali entertain. MS Narayana is wasted. Archana did a small role. I fail to understand why Kota Srinivas played such minuscule role. Khaleja movie has a divine element in it. Trivikram tried to balance the divine part of it by saying that there is a God in everybody and all we need is an intent to serve others. The aspect of killing village men by mixing toxins in water seem to have resemblance to that of Sahara (2005) movie. The entire first half of the movie is like a road-film where the hero and heroine bond with each other while traveling. The second half sports the main story of the movie. Trivikram is a terrific dialogue writer and he gave his best dialogues to Mahesh Babu in Khaleja. Trivikram has a class taste while conceiving comedy episodes and he made sure that there are many episodes of such nature in the movie. Direction of the film is good in parts and screenplay should have been more effective. The beginning point and interval bang are good. Trivikram couldn't justify the second half with right content and tone. Trivikram should have ironed the script better and made it concise/effective. The unbreakable glass episode of the movie seems to have been inspired by Sabrina (1955) movie (especially lady secretaries dancing on the glass to test strength). Dialogues by Trivikram are huge asset to the movie. Music by Mani Sharma is good in three songs (Sadasiva, Taxi and Piliche). Though Yash Bhatt is the official cinematographer, parts of the movie were also shot by KV Guhan (Athadu) and Sunil Patel (Hum Tum). Cinematography is very good and there is a visual theme for the movie. Fights by Peter Heins and Ram Lakshman are excellent. First half of the movie is entertaining though there is no story in it. Second half should have been better. Climax disappoints. Plus points of the movie are Mahesh Babu (terrific dialogue comedy and superb characterization) and Trivikram brand entertainment. On the flip-side, the second half plays a spoilsport and movie lacks consistent tone.

I have just watched Khaleja after months of its original release. Director Trivikram Srinivas joined hands with Mahesh Babu again after the success of Athadu in 2005 and this time they came out with another commercial entertainer. Part of the storyline, i.e. people dying mysteriously in a village is similar to the Hollywood film, Sahara but it has been packaged in a way that it will be an entertaining commercial flick.Mahesh Babu has done a apt job for his role as Raju. He looks perfect in every situation, be it a comical or a serious situation. His body language is excellent. Anushka performed well alongside Mahesh.Prakashraj as the villain has done a decent job and I feel Subbaraju been under utilized in this film.Manisharama's music is good especially Makathika Maya and Boom Shakanaka. BGM is apt for the scenes. The songs are well choreographed especially Sada Shiva is well done.Cinematography by Yash Bhatt and Sunil Patel is good. Action choreography by Peter Hein and Ram-Laxman deserves a mention although there are some physics defying stunts. Sreekar Prasad's editing is crisp although part of the second half could have been cut short.In a nutshell, Khaleja is the usual commercial stuff packed with action, romance and comedy but for variety it's laced with environmental issues and a bit of religious beliefs.

One of the amazing entertainers I have seen in Telugu movies, especially Mahesh's character is entirely different from his previous movies and he excelled in performing it. I still do not understand why it was not commercially a great success, people say the story is not good, I wonder what kind of story they look for. Not up to expectations, what are their expectations, had it been a serious thriller like Athadu audience would have still not liked the movie saying its same as Athadu or had it been like any other commercial movie, they would have said routine commercial movie. My guess is, keeping all these kind of things in mind, Trivikram tried to reach the audience in a lighter manner with a decent message so audience say its not up to expectations. So god bless Telugu movie industry!!!But I am sure everybody would have this movie in their DVD collections and they watch and they would love it but when you ask them they would say its not good and you all know why. The fans associations !!!

Mahesh's most long awaited movie Khaleja is out with many Expectations as it is Mahesh -Trivikram Combination. Though the movie did not reach the Very High Expectations, It projected the new angle in Mahesh. Trivikram had his mark in direction and dialogues.Action Sequences in the movie are very Excellent. The Picturization of Various locations in Rajasthan are beautiful. Songs didn't reach audience but the background Score and title music is very good. The way Mahesh delivered dialogues is Humorous and entertaining. Though the story line in the second half touches the spiritual matters, It is Interesting and bagged the positive responseThough the initial talk about movie is somewhat negative, i have no doubt that it will slowly pick up the Hit talk.