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Bangarraju Movie Review: Predictability, ordinary ideas make this a narrowly watchable fantasy-comedy
When the going gets tough, it's the charm of Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya that makes us keep rooting for a happy ending.
Title: Bangarraju
Cast: Nagarjuna, Naga Chaitanya and others
Director: Kalyan Krishna
Run-Time: 160 minutes
Rating: 2.5/5
'Bangarraju' is a film where an endless stream of dialogues are dedicated to the flirtatious nature and other aspects of Chinna Bangarraju (Naga Chaitanya) and also Pedda Bangarraju (Akkineni Nagarjuna). The latter has been busy playing romantic Kabaddi with celestial beauties in Paradise (Spoiler alert: He is not content with just one song in heaven). He is snapped out of hedonism by his now-dead wife Sathyabhama (Ramya Krishna), who emotionally beseeches him to carry out the seemingly difficult task of getting their grandson Chinna Bangarraju married to Naga Lakshmi (Krithi Shetty) against all odds.
As the trailer for the film showed, Chinna Bangarraju and his future wife are into childish skirmishes all the time. But the actual challenge is something else. A set of evil vultures want the young Bangarraju out of the way so as to get hold of invaluable temple treasures in the village. It's time for a divine mission to be accomplished and the two Bangarrajus have their task cut out.
Writer-director Kalyan Krishna tells a sequel to 'Soggade Chinni Nayana' (2016) by making the fantasy elements a major ingredient. In the age of high-end VFX, this one has no eye-popping special effects. The Ram-Lakshman duo mount the action sequences in an unambitious fashion.
The rom-com track is about how Tughlaq-esque Krithi Shetty's character is. She is the sarpanch of the village and whips up weird solutions, much to the embarrassment of her father (Rao Ramesh). This is one idea the film narrates sincerely.
An achievement of 'Bangarraju' is that it makes us wait for the songs. Anup Rubens shows his worth beyond a doubt. The songs will have the audiences watching on single screens get a bang for the buck. But the entertainment offered by the songs is watered down by the done-to-death fashion in which the villainy has been executed. Sampath Raj and others are underwhelming, if not downright unwatchable.
The dialogues are stale for the most part. The romantic escapades are described using terms like 'cover drive'. There are routine elements such as counselling of quarreling family members when the protagonist has to be shown in a good light. While Nagarjuna's acting is able, his characterization comes with no highs. His dalliance with Ramya Krishna is not oh-so-cute.
At one level, the film is a casting nightmare. Praveen's role should have been played by Vennela Kishore, whose role in turn would have better been played by Rao Ramesh. Ravi Prakash is unimaginably underwhelming as Indra, so also Naga Babu as Lord Yama. When the going gets tough, it's the charm of Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya that makes us keep rooting for a happy ending.
Check out the full interview of Naga Chaitanya and Nagarjuna:
