Producer: Chanti Addala
Director: Gopal b
Cast: Jr. NTR, Nagma, Arti Agrawal, Gajala
Music: Patnaik RP

Jr. NTR, B Gopal and RP Patnaik are making the right noises at the moment. Having earned a huge fan following his superb Aadi, Jr. NTR, plays a mass hero role again in Allari Ramudu. B. Gopal having delivered a fabulous hit in the form of Narasimha Naidu, is the director in the reckoning now with two most eagerly awaited films in his kitty (Allari Ramudu and Megastar's Indra). RP Patnaik, who shot to fame with his musical scores for Chitram, Nuvvu Nenu and Manasanta Nuvve, is the undisputed king of music in Tollywood today. This is RP's fifth musical score this year. His other albums so far in 2002 being - Nuvvu Leka Nenu Lenu, Santosham, Sreeram and Jayam

When the triumvirate came together for the first time, nothing less than pyrotechnics was expected from them. Despite the presence of the big three, the music of the film is not at all slick. Clichéd instrumentation, banal tunes, average lyrics result in a trite allari that is rammed into this album.

1. 2002 Varaku
This song is a revived version of NTR-Sreedevi's highly popular 'Aaku Chaatu Pindhe Tadise' from Vetagaadu. The original song was composed by Chakaravarthy and crooned by SPB and Suseela. SPB and Usha sing this version. Though it lacks the punch of the original song, it's the singing of SPB and Usha, which makes it worth listening to. Lyrics by Veturi in the original song are much better than what Pothula Ravi Kiran pens here. If Veturi talks subtly about the girl as 'aaku chaatu pindhe tadise', Ravi Kiran prefers to refer her as 'choodaledey intha saruku'.

2. Chelia Chelia
This is the only lilting song in this album. Though it has no great instrumentation, RP comes up with a hummable tune. RP, Usha do their job of singing this song well. Lyrics by a new lyricist Chaitanya Prasad are decent considering the quality of lyrics in the other songs of this album.

3. Rukhmini Rukhmini
It's a fast beat song sung by Ravi Verma and Usha. Though Ravi Verma's voice sounds like that of Vandemataram Srinivas and Devi Sri Prasad, he nevertheless does a good job and so does Usha. If Chaitanya Prasad pens lyrics like 'looks loni x-ray ni penchutondi pulse-beat' (Wonder what he means by that? That is, if at all his intention was to come up with something meaningful in the first place), he also written some witty lines like 'muripalanu vediga tagani, madi meegada toduga veyani'.

4. Bodduni Choodayyo
This song kickstarts as a Punjabi folk number with the chorus singing 'shama' and 'aha' (this part resembles the chorus singing 'aha' in the 'Snehituda' song of Sakhi). Karthik and Kousalya sing this number effectively. What can I talk about the lyrics written by Pothula Ravi Kiran, which goes 'Boddunu Choodayyo, Bongaramadayyo!'? They speak for themselves. Seduction seems to have taken an entirely new route these days where the girl has to 'explicitly' say certain things to draw the attention of the guy.

5. Voppula Kuppa
RP, who lends his voice for this song, sounds like Altaf Raja singing a Telugu song going overboard whenever and wherever possible. Usha, is her cool, usual self. Though the 'pallavi' of the song is catchy, the tune in the 'charanams' treads the commonplace path. Lyrics by Chaitanya Prasad are just about mediocre.

6. Ee town naadiraa
There's one line in this song written by Pothula Ravi Kiran which sums up this whole song - 'Mari cheap!' Mano sings this song in his customary style doing full justice to what was expected out of him. It is solely because of him that the rating of this song jackes up beyond one star. RP shouts a few words in the song and Usha gets to mouth a line or two here and there.

RP is known for his beautiful mellifluous numbers apart from his liking for folk songs. Most of the best songs in his albums till date are melodious numbers retaining the richness of the lyrics and bringing out the best out of his singers. With Allari Ramudu he has tried something different, to come up with 'pakka mass' numbers but leaves a lot to be desired. If this album does any good, then that is - it makes you appreciate RP's recent albums (Santosham, Sreeram and Jayam) all the more.

Some of the songs in this album are bound to become popular as date of the release draws closer and will hang in there as long as the movie is in the news. But not a single song will remain ingrained in our memory unlike at least one song from each of RP's previous albums. The songs, if well picturised (adding the oomph of Arti Agarwal and Nagma and the amazing dancing skills of Jr. NTR) might catch up after the release of the movie. Until then, this ramudu might not create any allari.