Ala Modalaindi

Ala Modalaindi
Promotional poster
Directed by	Nandini Reddy
Produced by	K. L. Damodar Prasad
Starring	Nani Nithya Menen Sneha Ullal
Cinematography	Arjun Jena
Edited by	Marthand K Venkatesh
Music by	Kalyani Malik
Distributed by	Sri Ranjith Movies
Release date	January 21, 2011 (2011-01-21)
Running time	140 minutes
Country	India
Language	Telugu
Budget	₹4 crore (US$480,000).
Box office	₹15 crore (US$1.8 million).

Ala Modalaindi (Telugu: అలా మొదలైంది) (Meaning : That's how it started) is a 2011 Indian Telugu romantic comedy film written and directed by Nandini Reddy under the Sri Ranjith Movies banner. It stars Nani and Nithya Menen in the lead roles. The film was released on January 21, 2011. The film opened to favorable reviews by critics and turned out to become a super hit and one of biggest blockbuster of the year, and successfully completed 100 days.

Plot

The film begins with an accident. Gautham (Nani) is abducted by John Abraham (Ashish Vidyarthi). On the way Gautham is forced to narrate his tale as Gautham talks of stopping a marriage and John too talks of preventing a wedding. Hence, the flashback. Gautham (Nani) is ready to propose to Simran (Kriti Kharbanda) with a bunch of red roses. But destiny has other plans. Elsewhere, Nithya (Nitya Menen) is playing cricket and hits Gautham with her shot. He is then taken to the hospital in the stretcher. Simran falls in love with the doctor treating Nani and they get married in six months. Gautham goes to the wedding but cannot face Simran. When he walks out, he gets drunk and meets a drunk Nithya who actually was in love with the doctor. Later on, Gautham accompanies her everywhere. He realises he's in love with her. But it's not as simple as it seems as She's in love with someone else.

Cast

• Nani as Gautham
• Nithya Menen as Nithya
• Vai Sista, as Anand
• Ashish Vidyarthi as John Abraham
• Sneha Ullal as Kavya
• Rohini as Revathi
• Chaitanya Krishna as Deepak
• Kriti Kharbanda as Simran
• Pragathi
• Uppalapati Narayana Rao
• Mirchi Hemanth
• Raja Valluru
• Rhea Ramana as Sowmya
• Snigdha as Pinky
• Ramesh as Gautham(drunk software engineer)

Critical reception

Rediff gave a four star rating, stating "All in all Ala modalaindi is a fun ride" explaining "Nani and Nithya are at their natural best. Both are so effortless and at ease and share a great chemistry. They are expressive in a range of emotions too."

Sify also gave a 4/5 star rating, noting "Nandini Reddy's plot is simple but her screenplay is knitted with many twists and turns and that makes the movie a pleasant watch. Nani and Nithya Menen score in performance."

Review sites IdleBrain and GreatAndhra, which gaves also 4 ratings, praised the lead pair's performance.

Production

Development

It started with the idea of two people (belonging to opposite sex) meeting in a crisis situation. It will be more interesting than a boy meeting a girl in a regular way. I was in Chennai at that time and discussing with Anjana Ali Khan (director of Tamil film Veppam). The basic seed of the story came out of that conversation. I gave a 10-minute narration to Nani and he said that its awesome. We wanted to title the movie as ‘Prema Thokka Tholu’. I am basically a lazy writer. Hence, Anjana threatened me by putting a deadline of 10 days to complete the script. I wanted the scenes, characters and characterizations come out of the experiences from my life and the from the people I have observed. To stay in that zone/space, I repeatedly watched Friends, When Harry Met Sally and A Lot Like Love during that period. I wrote a 60-scenes order on a pair of yellow papers. I write very little on paper for a scene (a couple of lines for a scene as most of the content is there in my head). I don’t want to slow down my mind while writing as our mind works faster than our hand.

Casting

John Abraham - Asish Vidyardhi I wanted to take the film to next level and I felt that I needed one more layer. I watched a film titled ‘In July’ in my initial days. In that film a guy is carrying a dead body to cross the border. Another guy takes a lift, but notices the dead body. The entire film is about misrepresentation. I took that movie as reference and created a character called ‘John Abraham’ who is a professional kidnapper. I wanted to derive humor by showing the human angle in him. I have also used John Abraham character to ask the questions to Nani on the behalf of audiences.

I liked the layer of Johan Abraham character, but the entire team is not convinced about it. That idea was put in cold-storage. After the 3rd schedule of the film, a friend and a co-director Srinivas came to the sets. I narrated him the John Abraham thread. Srinivas loved it and convinced the producer by talking to him. Since it involves casting a notable actor, it is a big decision to the producer. Asish Vidyardhi was my original preference. But tried Prakash Raj as I personally know him. Prakash Raj loved the character but said that he is playing a similar character in Orange movie. Then I spoke to Asish Vidyardhi and narrated the script. He loved it and quoted his price. It was unaffordable to the producer. After a few days, Asish Vidyardhi called us again and lowered him remuneration.

Scrat - Ramesh I used to love the scrat character in Ice Age movie. Scrat character has nothing to do with the story of Ice Age, but creates chaos. I wanted to create such a character for my movie. Producer Damu suggested that we should have a guy hit with recession. Writer Bhupal said that we should have a drunken character. It was Bhupal who suggested Ramesh for that character. Ramesh worked for Mahatma and Bheemili in the past, but didn’t get any recognition. He is a simple and hardworking boy. His work in Ala Modalaindi is being appreciated well.

Shooting of the climax was very difficult as we have many character, links and threads. Writer Anil Ravipudi provided great help in climax.

Introduction of Sneha Ullal’s character Anjana pointed out that Nani’s character is always rejected by all the girls. He should reject a girl by choice (not by destiny). That’s how we created the character of Sneha Ullal.

Soundtrack

Kalyani Malik has composed the songs and soundtrack for the film.

No.	Title	Performer(s)	Length
1.	"Cheli Vinamani"	Vedala Hemachandra
2.	"Innalu Naa Kallu"	Geetha Madhuri, Kalyani Malik
3.	"Edo Anukunte"	Nithya Menen, Deepu
4.	"Oo Baby"	Veena Sahiti
5.	"Ammammo Ammo"	Nithya Menen, Kalyani Malik

Malayalam dubbed version

Angane Thudangi
File:Angane-Thudangi-Movie.jpg Malayalam version poster
Music by	Jassie Gift
Distributed by	Cinema Paradiso
Release date	July 28, 2011 (2011-07-28)
Language	Malayalam

Angane Thudangi ( Malayalam: അങ്ങനെ തുടങ്ങി), the Malayalam dubbed version, got released in Kerala on 28 July 2011 . The film got a wide release and a good reception, indicating the growing popularity of Telugu dubbed films in Kerala. The presence of kerala actress Nithya Menen also helped in film's success. the malayalam version of the film received largely positive reviews. Angane Thudangi was the first Malayalam film (though dubbed) to be made available for online viewing on the same day as its release. This arrangement was made by Mathrubhumi, who also released the music for the Malayalam version. The music for the Malayalam version was composed by Jassie Gift, based on the tunes in the original film. The music of the film was also a chart-topper in Malayalam. The home video of Angane Thudangi was released by Hot & Sour on 2 December 2011.

Tracklist

The lyrics for Angane Thudangi were written by Siju Thuravoor. The music for the Malayalam version was composed by Jassie Gift, based on the tunes in the original film.

No.	Title	Artist(s)	Length
1.	"Ammammo Ammo"	Najim Arshad, Nithya Menon
2.	"Entho Nedunne"	Nithya Menon, Salin
3.	"Kandille Nee"	Najim Arshad, Sindhu Premkumar
4.	"Nenjin Veena Meetti"	Jassie Gift
5.	"Oh Baby"	Ranjini Jose & chorus

External links

• Ala Modalaiyindi ReviewUmpire.com