Even for a moment if you put aside all inhibitions about watching a mindless commercial film (which filmmakers here tend to pass off as 'entertainment') and watch it with an open mind, sitting through Raaja Kiran's Luckunnodu will be an ordeal.
The director seems to have taken bits and pieces of random ideas and somehow pieces together a wafer-thin plotline. He tries to oscillate between comedy, action and drama (read: father sentiment) but doesn't do justice to any of it. Luckunnodu instead turns out to be a cocktail of random moments executed with laughable mediocrity.
Lucky (Vishnu Manchu) wants to commit suicide because his father never calls him by his name and his girlfriend Positive Padmavati (Hansika Motwani) dumps him for being a 'negative' influence in her life. Funnily enough, a thief who breaks into Lucky's house tries to talk him out of committing suicide, well at least until he finds out why he wants to do it.
And thus, he narrates his story (well, if you can call it that). Add into it a bad guy who robs people and kills them cause he doesn't like their expression, and a few jarring songs, and voila - you have your 'entertaining' film. Even demonetisation gets a mention, as the bad guys only rob Rs 2000 notes, that too freshly printed by the RBI.
They also kill a bunch of policemen in broad daylight to steal Rs 25 crore and life goes on normally. In fact, a policeman admits that he knows who has done it but cannot arrest him due to "lack of proof".
Luckunnodu is a classic example of lazy writing. So many talented actors are there in the film but none of the characters are properly fleshed out. Tanikella Bharani, for instance, appears in just one scene as the hyper-positive father. Jayaprakash, who plays Vishnu's father, is made to stay silent most of them, and often cuts a frustrated figure. And then there are Vennela Kishore and Satyam Rajesh, fine actors, who are utterly wasted in lame characters that are meant to make you laugh. Vennela Kishore still manages to make you laugh on occasion (before his character mysteriously slips away from the plot). The same cannot be said about Posani Murali Krishna, who's loud, boorish and repetitive.
Vishnu Manchu doesn't do himself any favours by constantly repeating 'meow meow' (for some inexplicable reason). You pinch yourself to believe it when he says it a second time, but when you realise that it's a constant fixture in the film -- you know it's time to leave the theatre.
| Film | Luckunnodu |
| Cast | Vishnu Manchu, Hansika Motwani |
| Director | Raaja Kiran |
| Rating | 1.5 stars |