I must say up front that I did not pay much attention to the story in this one, which is probably just as well with all the seeming plot holes galore :D The whole thing is definitely stylish- lots of well-lit, crisp cinematography and nice shorts of Malaysian landmarks. I don't know anything about Malaysia, but after seeing these landmarks repeatedly in the film I had to figure out what they are:
ID: Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the KL Tower on the left!
ID: Statue of Hindu god Murugan at the entrance of the Batu Caves.
Famous bridge perhaps?
There are three leading ladies in this film: Hansika Motwani, Namitha, and Anushka. Anushka looked absolutely *fabulous*. Despite wearing somewhat revealing costumes, she manages to never look trashy, and she goes all "Lara Croft Tomb Raider" at one point:
Namitha can't really act imo and just takes up space...
And aaaaaaagh!! Hansika Motwani! I do not understand why she is so popular- her crazed facial expressions and eyes drive me nuts and ruin everything she's in. In her little item number with Prabhas, the fashion-team made the unfortunate mistake of putting her in a very unflattering dress that makes her tummy obvious. My stomach would look like this too if I was wearing that, but I don't want to see it on screen! :D Fortunately, her character isn't seen very long in the film.
And then we come to... Mr. Prabhas! :D For me, he just could not pull off the "cool, stonewall, international criminal" persona. His dialogues in English were completely painful to listen to, with the stupid "Can Can" and "Hasta La Vista Baby" phrases grating on one's nerves... but once he switched to Ranga, it was much more enjoyable. I mean, anyone can throw on a pair of sunglasses and designer suits and stare menacingly, but being convincing is a separate thing.
I liked the Telugu Billa just a teensy bit more than the Tamil one with Ajith simply because there was more interaction/flirtation between Ranga and Maya than Velu and Sasha. And neither Prabhas or Hansika annoyed me like they normally do, although I change my mind about Hansika looking 23; she looks 26. Still, I liked her item number better than Rose Dawn's.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea you had a blog, thanks for leaving a comment on mine so I could find you!
ReplyDeleteBilla is not a great movie at all, but I could watch Prabhas reading the phone book so I didn't mind. I liked it more the first time -- the second time around all the plot holes started jumping out at me right and left -- but...well, Prabhas is enough for me to forgive just about anything. :-D
Billa was terrible. Prabhas was so unnatural in the role. He waS better as Ranga. The English Dialogues were atrocious.
ReplyDeleteHe looked damn good.I will give him that.
lapetitediva - I keep forgetting there is the Tamil Billa too! With Ajith, right? Awww, Prabhas usually annoys you? I don't know that Hansika can ever stop annoying me, lol. :)
ReplyDeleteEmily - exactly! this movie is only worth watching for Prabhas' fabulously-slick look. Oh, and Anushka too, except that she didn't have much to do unfortunately! But Prabhas looked fantastic. :)
filmizest- I so agree! :D