Venky Mama
Director: KS Ravindra
Cast: Venkatesh, Naga Chaitanya, Raashi Khanna and Paayal Rajput
Directed by KS Ravindra, Venky Mama is the kind of commercial entertainer that leaves you with the feeling that it could’ve been funnier. What mainstream Telugu cinema clearly lacks these days is good comedy, which was once the lifeline of many mindless potboilers. Some of the done-to-death Telugu commercial hits over the years worked because of the humour. When Venky Mama was announced, it marked the maiden collaboration of Venkatesh and his nephew Naga Chaitanya on screen, and created quite a buzz. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t live up to the hype.
Watch the Venky Mama trailer here
There are portions in Venky Mama that are genuinely funny and you don’t mind the lack of freshness in the story as you sit back and enjoy. For instance, the uncle-nephew bond between Chaitanya and Venkatesh is full of life and it works like magic on screen. As long as the focus is on their banter, the film is fun but otherwise there isn’t much going on to keep us invested. Venky Mama is a good old-fashioned tale but the narration needed to be livelier and funnier.
The plot is simple. The story is centered on a family that blindly believes in astrology. Nasser (head of the family) opposes his daughter’s wedding to the man of her choice because their horoscopes don’t match. As per their horoscopes, if they get married, they die before their child turns one. Call it destiny or coincidence, the couple die in a road accident and leave behind their son. Nasser doesn’t wish the kid, who is named Karthik, to stay in the house as he feels he’d bring bad luck. But his uncle Venkatarathnam (Venkatesh) takes custody of the boy (who grows on to become Chaitanya) and they both become inseparable.
Ravindran tries to milk the real life family bond between Venkatesh and Chaitanya in Venky Mama, which relies heavily on the camaraderie between its lead actors. It’s an old-school family drama and if you’re familiar with its world, you’ll enjoy the film. But if you have other expectations, you might be slightly disappointed. The film makes Karthik fulfil his uncle’s dream of joining the Indian Army and we get a brief action episode where see Karthik lead an Uri-inspired surgical strike. This is the portion where the film really struggles to stay afloat and it’s a poorly executed action stretch that barely engages let alone entertain.
Both Raashi Khanna and Paayal Rajput have nothing much to do other than look attractive on screen. In terms of screen presence, Paayal does a decent job but even she has nothing great to boast about. Venkatesh continues to shine in comedy and proves once again why he’s one of the best when it comes to comical roles. But the film tries to be everything and never focuses on its core genre, and therefore, never works on the whole.
Follow @htshowbiz for more
