Telugu movie buffs are familiar with what to expect from a romantic family entertainer set in a rustic backdrop. We get to see an influential man, who is well-respected among the community and stands by the downtrodden against tainted politicians. He has a heart of gold and would do anything for his family. Some adult jokes, high-voltage action sequences and foot-tapping songs, you have a recipe for a commercial potboiler. That way, Venkatesh and Naga Chaitanya’s Venky Mama offers nothing new to chew on. The film is soaked in kitschy 80s nostalgia and turns out to be an old-fashioned melodrama that quickly becomes too much of a slog.
The screenplay, to begin with, takes too long to arrive at the core conflict, which involves Naga Chaitanya’s character – Karthik, a Captain with the Indian Army – who was raised by his uncle, Venkata Ratnam aka Military Naidu (Venkatesh) as his own son. But before the film even gets to that point, nearly an hour or so is devoted to establishing the relationship between the mama-alludu and the women in their life.
A woman like Vennela (Payal Rajput) is hard to find as she stands faithfully by her man even though he is in no mood to get married until he meets his nephew. She plays a Hindi teacher, but you rarely see her in a classroom. On one such instance, you see her trying to befriend her students discussing her relationship status and showing compliance to live in a joint family. No wonder why Karthik becomes a matchmaker to get her hitched to his mama.
Then we have this mama, who tries to find ways to rebuild a fractured relationship between his alludu and Harika (Raashi Khanna). Disguised as comedy, the sequences involving the mama-alludu, who try to stitch alliance for each other is in bad taste. These clichés could have been easily avoided.
One assumes that the point Venky Mama wants to make about astrology is that even though God writes our fate, love alone would change it for good. However, the message gets lost in the milieu and the film suffers primarily due to its mediocre script. It might have worked as an enjoyable comedy, but much of it is narrated as an emotional drama, resulting in several contrived scenes that fall flat on the face.
The humour works mostly when it’s done smartly and not as effective in the film’s slapstick sequences – like the one in which Venkata Ratnam asks his mother to prepare chalimidi (a traditional rice sweet). Overall, the film is predictable and tiresome because it’s wafer-thin storyline has been stretched way beyond its potential.
Venkatesh is at ease in a character we have seen him play many times before – the man of strength with a heart-of-gold and humour to boot. The blows and the look of pain on his face seem genuine and the film largely benefits from his performance. Naga Chaitanya fits the bill as Karthik and he delivers a few light moments. Hyper Aadi helps muster up a few laughs. Prakash Raj as Army Brigadier and Rao Ramesh, who played the baddie have been reduced to caricatures. Nasser and Geetha tried to breeze through their roles but they couldn’t get enough scope to provide an emotional wallop to the story. To an extent, director Bobby does well to keep things moving without a dull moment. But that’s not enough for this story as the director clearly has the potential to make a better film than this.
If you switch off your brain and enjoy seeing Venkatesh and Naga Chaitanya in action, with zero expectations, then, this one is for you.
Film: Venky Mama Cast: Venkatesh, Naga Chaitanya Director: KS Ravindra Rating: 2.5 / 5 |