Raju Gari Gadhi 2 - Movie Review

What's it about!

Three friends (Ashwin Babu, Vennela Kishore and Praveen) run a resort and enjoy life to the fullest. Their fun is cut as a ghost haunts their resort. They approach Rudra (Nagarjuna), who is one of finest mentalists in the world. He uses some different methods to find out what is causing the trouble. Mentalist Rudra's methods prove that the resort indeed is possessed by the aatma of Amrutha (Samantha). What is the story of Aatma? What is that Ghost is looking for?

Analysis

Telly anchor turned director Ohmkar has made an entertaining horror comedy in his debut 'Raju Gari Gadhi'. Baring the name, this film is not at all sequel in terms of story or characters. It just bears the name to cash in on the franchise. Based on a Malayalam hit ‘Pretham’, ‘Raju Gari Gadhi 2’ holds its  main story in the second half.

The story of the film begins on a lighter mode with regular tropes of a horror- comedy. Vennela Kishore and Praveen are impressed by a girl (Seerat Kapoor) but soon they realise that she is a ghost. The scenes related to this sequence are fun to watch. Their experiences with the spirit are funny at the same time quite predictable. But overall, the first half of the movie doesn't bore you much. The trouble is with the second act of the story which drags on and goes on without any engaging moments.

It comes back to the groove when the flashback episode is revealed. From there the film holds the interest till the end.

Due to the presence of Nagarjuna as the mentalist and Samantha as Amrutha, it makes interesting watch. In a restrained performance, Nagarjuna keeps us glued to the seats despite template screenplay of a horror thriller. Samantha as a brilliant student who later turns spirit has given good performance. The final sequence shot on Nagarjuna and Samantha has some meaningful dialogues.

Among other actors, Vennela Kishore, Praveen and Ashwin make their presence felt. Seerat Kapoor is expressionless. She is there for providing glam.

Background score of Thaman is huge asset to the film. He has given effective BG score throughout. Visual effects are also good. So are the production values. Despite short 127 minutes of runtime, the film needs trimming.

Bottom-line: ‘Raju Gari Gadhi 2’ is faithful to the original Malayalam movie 'Pretham'. While the first half offers some laughs, it turns dry in the middle portion. Nagarjuna's presence and Samantha's performance in final melodramatic sequences make the movie an okay watch.