Sunday, January 23, 2011

The Kajal Aggarwal/Magadheera week



I had two posts both "not very pleasant" to start the new year and I didn't want to post. But I hardly realised I would watch something so pleasant for the New Year that I am glad to write it about now.

Ever since I saw the film clip of the telugu movie "Magadheera" posted on FaceBook I have been curious about this movie. Actually on FB the person who posted the video was ridiculing the scene and so were many others. But ironically I found the sfx scene (of the climax) quite dramatic and wonderfully done. I also did watch the amazing fight scene where the character "Kaala Bhairava" takes on a 100 men on a cliff, wonderfully created using CGI.

A couple of weeks later I came across the song "Panchadhara Bomma" on YouTube and was completely blown by Kajal Aggarwal's performance (who wouldn't). A few days after that I listen to "Bangaru KodiPetta" at the Sony store and the staff there is clueless which movie it is from. What a pleasant surprise it was to find out that it was from "Maghadheera".

Thanks to Shruthi at the office, I got the HD DVD disc last Monday and I don't know when I'll actully be tired of watching the scenes and songs from the film. Though I was more keen to watch the SFX it was Kajal Aggarwal who stole my every attention.

Never have I been blown by such a performance, beauty, grace and range of emotions as Kajal's in this movie. Kajal delivers in every frame. Incredibly adorable, The Police's song "Every little thing she does is magic" comes to mind when I watch her. I was amazed by her character and her child-like charm. In many years I have never been stunned by an actress and a performance as this. Being a non-telugu person I wonder if she was acting it out naturally or if someone was telling her to do so. I can only think of the former and if it really was I must say she is a natural. Kajal was simply awesome. I wonder what it would have been to watch her on the big screen. I have watched the "Panchadhara Bomma" video countless times or to be more precise some of her expressions in that song a countless times. With a gorgeous straight from the heart smile and not to forget stunning looks she is a winner in Magadheera. She has such a happy aura about ther that scenes where she should cry or show anger seems a bit unacceptable. Her dubbed vocals were perfect too, not the nauseating tone (of God only knows who) of the girl we used to listen to in the innumerable Tamil movies.

Probably it is my state of mind, or maybe it is because I like her character and her in this movie that I am lavishing praise. However I did not find this charm in the clips of her movie videos before or after Magadheera. Her interviews where she is conversing mostly in English and other raunchy videos on YouTube where I thought she was just being exploited was a big let-down.

Kajal is also the reason I like the songs in this movie. Musically I will not say songs are top-notch. M M Keeravani does make those cliches in his music which otherwise would have made "Bangaru Kodi Petta" a smashing rocker. Actually it still can be modified with those cliched parts removed. In the early 90's I recall "Kshana Kshanam" that many of us were watching in Telugu. The song in the final credits of the Magadheera was good too and here too Kajal impresses.

On the weekend I even tried checking for a couple of Telugu channels. I did want to play the movie on my parents newly purchased LCD TV which is 1080p HD but I wasn't able to.

Man, have I been blown away by Kajal? So what?