Aatadukundam Raa - Movie Review

Story
Karthik (Sushanth) is in the household of Vijay Ram (Murali Sharma in the role of a crestfallen business tycoon) with the apparent intention of setting the things right. Vijay Ram, a conscientious but cheated elder of the family, fell out with close friend Anand Ram (Anand) many years ago, and is now looking at selling off a rice mill so that his brother (played by Raghu Babu) could pay that amount as dowry of his daughter's wedding.

The villain of his life, who had destroyed his empire years ago, re-appears and coerces him into selling off the property at a throwaway price. Buying peace, the hapless elder agrees to do it. Karthik now has to set the things right by taking it upon himself the gutsy task of defeating the villain (Posani and Brahmanandam are his cruel and funny associates, respectively) at his own game, while the elder at home is oblivious to all this and despises Karthik out of ignorance. The second half is all about how Karthik concocts a con game to demolish the villain's empire by getting ignoramus Brahmi to fall in the trap.  

Analysis:

As ideas go, 'Aatadukundam Raa' has to be one of the most unabashedly inspired movies in recent times. You can trace almost every idea, including Anup Ruben's music, to some other film. 

There is this hugely responsible hero who is blessed to have nothing more than pathetic morons to defeat. There is a whole family waiting to learn lessons in happiness from him. Oh! Such formula, did you say?  You are not wrong. If anything, this one is too hardwired to take a particular route that, even at a crucial spot like the climax, the good hero comes in riding on a bicycle and the dialogue-writer just can't resist the temptation of having the villain invoke Mahesh Babu! 

Brahmi is conned into time-traveling back to 1960s and this is when Rajamouli as a child talks of 'Baahubali' in his mind. Content with having banked upon Rajamouli's craze and such things, the writer moves on to 'trivial' matters like giving lines to Murali Sharma, having a semblance of a love track between the hero-heroine duo, etc. As for how the conning goes, at one place, Karthik drafts a suggestive, self-styled Jyothi Lakshmi at the registrar's office. And Posani Krishna Murali's character loses balance at this.

The heroine (played by Sonam Bajwa, who always almost wears an I-am-irked expression on her face) is reduced to an object lusted, in one scene, by the 'youthful' Brahmanandam. The film, on other 'significant' occasions, makes space for late ANR's never-born sister (played by Jhansi), a cameo by Naga Chaitanya and Susheela, a dance move by Akhil, more-than-once mention of the names of Nagarjuna and Venkat. 

If Brahmanandam (as Girija Rao) is expected to deliver the goods in the second half, the first half expects goods from Prudhvi, who plays the director of TV serial 'Gampedasha' and is tricked into directing 'Bhadrama Devi'. At every step, parody abounds.  

Sushanth needs to choose mature scripts (at least on the likes of 'Adda', if not better ones) to ensure that he has something to do. His dance moves are confident and adept. His slang, on the other hand, is too sophisticated; the mass audience just can't relate to that. Brahmi passes muster; he is wasted in a role with no scope for innovation in terms of dialogue delivery. Prudhvi is okay. Sonam Bajwa doesn't get to prove her mettle, if any. She looks ravishing in a song.  Murali Sharma is OK. Others like Rama Prabha, Raghu Babu, etc are routine.  

It's hard to believe that Anup Rubens has composed the BGM. Of the songs, the remix of 'Palleku Podam' is good. Cinematography and editing are so half-done that the chinks are glaring. Director G Nageshwara Reddy and writer Sreedhar Seepana have come up with lazy narration. There is too much talk of family legacy and lineage. 

Bottomline:

Drawing upon a number of famous ideas, 'Aatadukundam Raa' falls flat in terms of writing as well as execution.