Araviarasu (Vijaykanth) is a criminologist working as the chief instructor at the police training college. He uses his brains and brawn to catch criminals and has a passion for his job. Arivu is happily married to Aarthy (Navneet Kaur) after some enjoyable courtship and a song. Meanwhile top scientists and entrepreneurs get murdered in the city, by ordinary people like a student, a poor graduate girl, a milkman.

The top echelon of the police force is baffled by this murder spree. Suddenly Arivu is asked to investigate the matter as a top cop and his brother-in-law Manoj (Biju Menon) disappears in mid air as he is on his way from Mumbai to Chennai.

The sharp brain of Arivu leads him to Chandru (Rahul Dev), a guy who is killing off top 'brain trust' of future India using innocent people to murder them. However Chandru escapes to Canada when the super cop is just about to close in on him.

Not to be discouraged our hero in hot pursuit goes to Toronto, to catch the kingpin behind the operations. In Toronto (everybody speaks Tamil!) he is assisted by a sexy undercover Royal Canadian Police agent Lara ( Seril Brindo).

Together they unearth a plot to destabilize India with their "operation brain dead" plan where a foreign force jealous of India becoming a world leader wants to kill all scientists and entrepreneurs.

The bad guys are led by Martin (no explanation is given how cop Manoj and Martin look like twins? Maybe the bad guy did a face-off with the good guy?) The rest of the film is how our hero brings back Martin to Chennai and also uncovers another diabolical plot to destabilize the country.

The film has everything packaged as masala entertainment, and for a change Vijaykanth is engaging and enjoyable. There are just two songs in the film, by Srikanth Deva to show Navneet's and Seril's glamour. Biju Menon as bad guy is promising, while Rahul Dev looks anemic.

Thank god there is no irritating comedy track.

For the undemanding masala fan, Arasangam is worth a look, when you compare it with the recent crop of over hyped super hero films that failed to deliver.

Bujji (Prabhas) and Chitti (Trisha) are childhood friends. After a trivial fight, Chitti asks Bujji not to talk to him. Before separating, they promise each other to meet after 12 years and marry. Bujji goes off to Chennai from Vizag and spends his life there while Chitti’s family is settled in Hyderabad. 12 years later, they come to Vizag to meet but is not able to. In a minor scuffle, Bujji lands up in jail where he meets sons of Machireddy (Kota) who ask him to kill the mafia don (Mohan Babu) for Rs 1 Crore. Later he goes to Hyderabad to kill Sivanna as well as to find Chitti. The rest of the film is how he meets his long lost girlfriend.

It is a typical formulaic Puri Jagannadh film with a wafer thin story, predictability, good songs, larger-than-life hero and slick presentation. The director plays to the galleries and succeeds to a large extent. Prabhas is the one of the main reason for investing time and money for this film. To be honest, he saves the movie to a large extent with his dialogue delivery (in Tamil sometimes) and carefree attitude of his character. Mohan Babu is wasted while Trisha looks glamourous in a modern girl role. Newcomer Sanjana is promising and she looks fresh and cute though she has very little screen space.

Ali’s comedy fails to evoke any laughter. Sandeep Chowta’s songs are top class. Sam K Naidu’s visuals are eye-catching. If you are looking for are some time pass entertainment, you still won't be disappointed.

His midas touch is clearly visible in the last 45 minutes of the film. The magical combination of MM Keeravani and Raghavendra Rao works again. Indeed, Keeravani steals the show once again with extremely soulful devotional numbers and extraordinary re-recording.

Comparing to NTR’s classic Panduranga Mahatyam, Balayya’s Pandurangadu is not an exact remake of teh original. Basic storyline is similar to the old classic, but the script here is completely different.

Pundareeka Ranganathudu aka Rangadu (Balakrishna) has all the vices. He is womanizer and mistreats his parents. His parents (K Vishwanath and Shivaparvathi) are pained by his deeds and they force him to get married.

Rangadu is attracted to local prostitute Amrutha (Tabu) and they become very close to each other. On other hand, there is Lakshmi (Sneha) who is devotee of Lord Krishna. She dreams that Lord Krishna ordered her to get married to Rangadu.

Lakshmi comes to his house and pleads with him to marry her. Initially he refuses but finally accepts her as his wife. Even after marriage he doesn’t change his vices. The rest of the film is how Lord Krishna makes Pandurangadu realize his faults and makes him better person.

The first half is a bit boring but the film gains momentum post interval and then there is no dull moment. Balakrishna shines in the role of Lord Krishna. Of the two roles he scores in Krishna's role although his performance as Bhakta towards the climax is good. But the blue makeup is loud and his flirting scenes are a bit overboard.

Sneha has now perfected the art of a suffering of a wife in films. She is excellent. Tabu looks hot. She shows off her assets more than required in a very important role of a prostitute. You get to see plenty of cleavage in the movie. Mohan Babu in a small role is good. K Vishwanath and others have done justice to the role.

Keeravani’s music is a major asset and Malayalam singer Madhu Balakrishna’s rendition has brought freshness.

The story gets into the grim of things quickly: the phone rings for ACP Rajeshwar Vyas (Rahul Dev, grimacing and scowling, and never in uniform) and he receives information about a dead body. We see the body of Ritu Bhatnagar, a lady with plumped-up lips and big, non-blinking eyes. The next cut takes us to Jimmy (Mimoh) who’s dancing away furiously in a nightclub where he works as the DJ. As your eyes curiously scan the newcomer, you realise a few things – he’s a great dancer, an absolute natural; his dancing, unfortunately, does not make up for his lack of leading man looks and presence; his hair needs some immediate TLC (tender loving care).

The song playing in the background has lyrics like `why not Jimyyyyyy’. Jimmy is DJ at night and mechanic at day; he’s working this hard to repay his deceased father’s karz and give his aatma shanti. His mother is the archetypal filmi ma, only tad more glam. She keeps spouting dialogues like `ye ladka bhi na’, when not scolding him like he’s a five-year-old.

Love interest arrives in the form of a girl Megha who keeps crashing into his car and the cop they go to, alas, turns out to be Shakti Kapoor in his most suggestive and objectionable avatar. They christen her Miss Breaking News and turns out she is the daughter of a man who calls himself an Arabpati. Arabpati is friends and partner with a slimy man and his slimier son (Vikas Kalantri, help); again these characters are straight out of the villains in the '70s who always came in beta-baap jodis, with the latter being the more calm and cunning one. Arabpati suggests that Megha marry his partner’s son, but she’s fallen for Jimmy.

Meanwhile, Jimmy faints twice and is diagnosed as having brain tumour. He is approached by a man who claims to have killed Ritu. He wants Jimmy to take the blame upon him, and in return, is willing to finish off his existing loan. What happens next? Courtroom drama that make you giggle, emotional rona dhona that gets on your nerves, the ACP who is omnipresent and manages to eavesdrop on everyone’s conversations, the story told all over again through a flashback scene, and a twist that has you all twisted in the head.

Mimoh is a superb dancer, but he's not proven himself to be hero material whether in terms of talent, presence or even outward styling. Vivana is pretty in a Sonali Bendre kind of way and has a commanding screen presence as well. Zulfi Syed, who plays Jimmy’s bhai-jaisa-dost, gives dialogue delivery so bad, it’s perplexing.

The technical aspect of the film is archaic. Cinematography tries hard to be contemporary and cool, but ain’t; editing needed to trim the film further, was the flashback really required; the storytelling technique is old as the hills, and the dialogue is unoriginal and uninspired. Songs like Marhabba are quite listen-worthy.

The film, overall, gives a very outdated feel and its lack of originality makes for a rather dull debut vehicle.

Here's a sampling: the hero traipses into an airport with a black leather bag full of illegally got money and no one stops him. He even boards the aircraft, opens the bag exposing the cash and pats it indulgently. But it's illogical to expect logic here. This is a thriller, Gupta factory style, and as long as the actors are charismatic enough, and there?s enough skin show, they?re hoping no one will look at the gaping discrepancies in the script.

We are introduced to wolfy playboy Samir (Sikander Kher) in a scene you could mistake for a modelling portfolio shoot. Once he gets off his too-cool bike, Kher attempts dancing to Saawan mein lag gayi aag, an amateurishly picturised song. So we know that he loves the flashy lifestyle; but back home, his landlord (Shakti Kapoor) who says things like 'beti aur gaadi, dono paraya dhan hai', is after his life for the unpaid rent. Samir needs money, but refuses to work like ordinary mortals.

One evening, at a nightclub, Samir spots a girl who introduces herself as Zara Kampani (Neha Uberoi). He pursues her but she dismisses him with an 'I spell trouble' warning. Evidently, he doesn't know how to read and goes after her anyway. A few days later, she lands up at his home with a sinister plan to test whether her husband really loves her. She begs Samir to kidnap her; he complies for the money, and once they reach the secluded Woodstock Villa, pretends to rape her, so she looks the part of the distraught kidnapped. He then makes the ransom call to her husband Mr Kampani (Arbaaz Khan). Then, predictably, comes the twist in the tale.

Oh yes, and there's also an unnecessary parallel sub-plot of Karim bhai (Gulshan Grover), who trails Samir to get back some big bucks he lent him. Possibly this angle was introduced for the sole purpose of reiterating that the protagonist needed the money real bad.

Woodstock Villa introduces two actors, Sikander Kher and Neha Uberoi. Kher is unconventionally attractive and suits the character of the brooding playboy who's always getting himself into trouble. But it'll need a second film to test his range and adaptability. Uberoi, who complies with Sanjay Gupta's dictate of half-stripping his heroines, is an interesting face and does fairly well. They're both strong on presence and exude dewy freshness and confidence. Gaurav Gera as the hero?s dost and sidekick is a thankful relief from other hammy performances in such roles, like the one in Jannat.

The songs are all superb, a huge advantage to the film. Technically, the film falters in cinematography, which is patchy. Editing is effective and the sound design interesting. The narrative technique is wannabe cool with its superfluous jump cuts, spilt screen fight scenes, and other jazz. Director Hansal Mehta refuses to evolve from his Dus Kahaaniyan stupor and gives us a supposed thriller that rides only on the appeal of the lead actors and the songs. Oh well, so what else is new.

Rating: One-and-a-half stars