News Movie Reviews

There was considerable delay in the release of Upendra starred "News" for various reasons, but the music of the film had already become very popular. After seeing the film on the day of release, I am feeling that the film's music remains the major attractive element though Upendra's top-notch performance will also take the cake. But with all these positive points, the film cannot be classified as a better product only because there are several negative points in the film, which takes away all the credentials and makes it an ordinary offering.

Take the case of the so-called comedy sequences in the film, which are nothing but poorly churned out sequences. The sexy malayali girl hooked by a fifty plus old man, his nutty son who unhesitatingly delivers double meaning dialogues with aplomb are all made in poor taste and is not in conformity with the way the basic story has been narrated. These negative elements in the film dilute the strength of the narration, which has succeeded in creating some suspense and tension in the minds of the viewers. If the director had worked on the script putting some more efforts, he would have certainly been capable of delivering a good product.

The story revolves around the investigative journalist Guru who is given some assignment by his newspaper owner to find out as to how his rival newspaper owner gets some sensational scoops. Guru and his friend Pooja who looks more like a fashion model find out that a girl is getting some unusual dreams and she is leaking out these dreams to the rival newspaper editor. Since all these dreams become a reality, the newspaper is always on target.

One day this girl gets a dream where she is engaged to Guru and she falls for him. Guru wants to disprove that all the incidents that have happened are coincidental and is working on his own way to find out the truth behind some murders. Finally, the girl gets a dream where in she finds that Guru will be killing the newspaper editor and also a train accident, which kills thousands of people on board. Finally Guru resolves all the mysteries behind the murders and gets into the bottom of these dreams.

The film's narration has some strong influence of Malayalam films like "Iyer the Great'' and "New Delhi" featuring Mammootty. "New Delhi" was simultaneously produced with the Malayalam version in Kannada with Ambarish in the lead. But the finesse of the Malayalam films is not seen in "News", which has some cheap sequences.

Upendra who has played the role of Guru has to fight, make love with two glamorous girls and also engage himself in comedy sequences featuring Tennis Krishna and Bank Janardhan. Upendra excels in all of them, but if at all the director had been little more circumspect he would not have included some below the best sequences in the film.

Still "News" may be a worthy viewing exercise for many reasons. The songs are well choreographed and are a major attractive feature of the film. Upendra as an investigative journalist-though he does little of journalist's duties and more of policing work delivers a better performance. Malayalam actress Renuka Menon has done her role adequately, but Reema Sen has nothing much to do except singing some songs and adding some oomph into the film. Tennis Krishna's comedy is in bad taste. Ashok and Nasser have come out with decent performances.

The technical work in the film is much better with Guru Kiran scoring more marks in music. "Padayappa" cameraman Senthil Kumar who wields the camera has done a fantastic job in his first Kannada film. The editing work is also quite o.k.

You will enjoy "News" very much if you are a die hard Upendra fan. But if you look at the film objectively, it is a film with both positive and negative points and may be okay for one time viewing.