The story of Bhale Manchi Roju begins with Raam (Sudheer Babu), works as driver for a local Benz showroom. That’s when he comes across a socialite Maaya (Dhanya Balakrisha). She gets attracted to Raam’s rich cars and gets attracted to him. But things around when gets to know the ground reality. On the other hand, Sita (Wamiqa) gets ditched by Surya and gets kidnapped. However, she escapes from the fool proof plan due to an accident and Raam gets snatched by the kidnappers. The rest of the story is how Raam survives from the Kidnappers and takes his revenge on ex-love Maaya.
The film largely relies on the cast and its camaradery. Sudheer Babu gives a performance that’s too restrained for its own good. Puzzling as his character is, one ciphers that it’s bound affect the actor. He was more bulging biceps in a role that asked for more charm and conviction. The debutant Wamiqa Gabbi with her fazing screen presence, gives a promising performance, where she displays a great conviction in a decent role and the pleasant presence of Dhanya Balakrishnan who surely deserves to be given some better roles in the future. Apart from these, Sriram and Venu are able to provide few comic moments in the first half. Sai Kumar makes you feel for his character, and is masterful in the startup and climax. Sadly the film and consequently his performance lose steam towards the climax. Praveen, Vidyuraman, Posani, Parchuri Gopalakrishna and Chaitanya Krishna are fine in their limited roles. Once again, Prudhvi steals the show from the rest with the final act and imitating actors. He was an delight.
“Bhale Manchi Roju” the latest crime comedy, fortifies my two recent observations about our Tollywood. First, we are ready to experiment with fresh ideas and plotlines, but still we don’t have the guts to stick to the main subject throughout the 120 minutes odd of its duration. And second, we still reveal a lot more than needed in the initial reels of the film and are unable to thrill or engage audience with the theme. That’s what happened in Bhale Manchi Roju, when we are shown more than enough important sequences regarding the plotline (though remind us of Azhagai Irukkirai Bayamai Irukkirathu [2006] in few scenes) in the initial reels and saving not even one important sequence for the second.
The film seems overtook but this enormous task it has taken upon itself to tell a visually arresting, multifarious plot, that's so tangled, it's begging to be decrypted and told simply. Within this story is a family-kidnap-love angle, double romances, the characters own internal issues, and the burgle angle. The debutant director Sriram Adittya gives such a film that’s ambitious and intermittently immersing till the initial half. Like the way Horoscope scene reveals the fortune of the actor – Like coming across an accident – meeting some new dudes - How Yellow turns out to be his lucky colour (Do you know – even the saree wore by bride is also known as “Pasupu Saaree”) by the end. The way director dealt with the Yellow theme deserves a pat on his back. You soak in the films esthetics, but you are also flurried by the films’ inability to handle a simple stuff by the end.
The main drawback in the film is its slow narration and predictable script. The screenplay gets unexciting and so are the performances from the actors as they are given nothing in the script to showcase their talents. The unwanted songs and deliberately added half-baked love angle & characterizations further ruin the project by the end accompanied by a quite badly written and laughable climax. Thanks to Prudhvi, everyone ignores the climax point.
The songs by Sunny M R are fine, but they become an obstacle in the movie. The background score catches your attention more. Cinematography is great capturing the slum ambience in the right way and the way drone shots are handled deserves a special applause. Actually editing is the main culprit here, resulting in a 134 minutes (still!!) lengthy movie with many repetitious and seen before sequences in the story. In reality the second half misses nail biting essence of a crime thriller. Therefore it becomes a little boring after the few scenes post interval and as a result cramps the beauty of an otherwise different kidnap on screen. Production values of 70 mm Entertainments are good.
In a nutshell review, “Bhale Manchi Roju” is a major step on the road of making much better and small movies in Telugu Cinema, we would like to call it “A technically well-made film with less substance”. And I sincerely wish the makers had chosen good thrill points and proper script for the second half of this project.
