It takes special talent to dust tried and tested tropes, and present them with the confidence that any cocktail of romance, friendship and parenthood will be lapped up when served with a dose of comedy. Sure, there are a few good laughs. And nothing more.
Director Trinadha Rao Nakkina, sharing the writing credits with Sai Krishna Biyyapu and Prasanna Kumar, revisits his template of tug of war and bond-building between a prospective son-in-law and father-in-law yet again. When the father, played by Prakash Raj, is made to enact yet another character that’s a mix of Bommarillu, Aakasamantha (dubbed from the Tamil film Abhiyum Naanum ) and several others that he has acted in, there’s major deja vu. Add to that, the hero is made to mouth innumerable lines that look like they were leftover from his previous outing, Vunnadhi Okkate Zindagi .
In between all this, the romance that’s supposed to be the crux of the story goes for a toss. There’s very little that goes to show the bond between the lead pair. Anupama (Anupama Parameshwaran) is made to walk around gracefully but without any clue what she’s supposed to convey through her part. Hers is the most underwhelming part.
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- Cast: Ram, Anupama Parameshwaran and Prakash Raj
- Direction: Trinadha Rao Nakkina
- Music: Devi Sri Prasad
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The story begins in Kakinada where Sanju (Ram) is happy to revel in the warmth showered by his doting parents. On his way to Hyderabad for work, on the train, he plays eerie pranks on Anupama after overhearing her conversation. He pretends to be a creep, just so that she knows small-town guys can match the smartness of city-bred girls. All through that episode, you hope the girl would alert the ticket collector or pull the chain. She does neither, because he’s the hero of the film. As such stories go, she later learns he’s harmless and agrees to be a friend. This uncomfortable premise on which their journey begins is tough to shake off for a while.
Sanju isn’t a creep but he isn’t very sensitive either. The proposal scene involving him and his wide-eyed colleague Ritu (Pranitha Subhash) is clumsy, to put it mildly. A comedy of errors episode where Ritu and Sanju find themselves confronting Prakash Raj and Suresh (in a guest appearance) is the only one that shines in the portions featuring Pranitha. Some hilarious scenes involving Praveen as a mechanic and the general camaraderie between the different characters make the film bearable for a while.
Aamani as Anupama’s mother utters inappropriate and embarrassing things in any situation. A deep-lying hurt is the reason for her to do so, but a few scenes later all this vanishes conveniently.
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When the narrative begins to centre around Ram and Prakash Raj, with the former trying to reason why he is the best bet for Anupama and the latter caught between being a good father (to Anupama) and a friend (to Sanju), there is scope to present the psyche of different generations and rise above prejudices. The route to the conclusion, though, is tedious.
Anupama is the bone of contention but her role gets sidetracked as the two men play a game of ‘now think/act like a friend’, ‘now think/act like a father’. Prakash Raj can sleepwalk through these roles and still ace it. But he too appears tired, mouthing lines that are easy to forget by the time you walk out of the hall. For all that talk of being a doting father, he doesn’t ask the daughter’s consent before giving his word to a groom. Ram tries his best to rise above the middling narrative.
The music doesn’t pass muster, and towards the end, nothing matters except the exit door.