Rajugaadu - Movie Review

What's it about!

Raju (Raj Tarun), a guy with kleptomaniac tendency, falls for the charms of Thanvi (Amyra). Soon she reciprocates her feelings towards him. Her parents approve the love but Raju's parents (played by Rajendra Prasad and Sithara) fear that their son's kleptomania might be exposed. As they fear, Thanvi's father asks Raju to stay at Ramapuram as Thanvi's grandfather has to give final nod to their love. Trouble is Thanvi's grandfather (Nagineedu) hates even petty thieves. How Raju wins the love is the rest of the story?

Analysis

Raj Tarun seems to be aping Rajendra Prasad of 80's. He is selecting movies that center on comedy. His recent movies suggest this trend. But what is missing here is bad selection of scripts. Even Rajendra Prasad did movies with hollow scripts, but he made sure that all of them had a good dose of entertainment. But Raj Tarun's recent movies have suffered with one major issue: lack of comedy. His latest 'Rajugaadu' joins them.

The film marks the introduction of journalist Sanjana Reddy as director. It is sad to see even young female directors are also treading the path of formulaic stories and screenplays that is paved by outdated male makers. There is no visible trace of sensible writing. She has just followed the trashy narrative style of some of bad movies.

Sanjana Reddy's basic plotline - a guy with kleptomania falling in love with a girl whose father/grandparent will go to any lengths to punish the thieves - has enough meat to tell it in comic way but her screenplay drive has gone wrong route. The very first half of the movie is too formulaic and tires us. Post-interval, it completely hits the nadir. After some point, we forget where the movie started and where it is going. Formulaic screenplay is the main drawback. The young director is poor at writing. The outdated dialogue writing by Veligonda Srinivas has further spoiled the show.

Raj Tarun is doing the same thing in every movie: talking too loud even when simple gestures can suffice. He urgently needs to change the style. Amrya disappoints again. Rajendra Prasad as Raj Tarun's father, Prudhvi as a doctor who wants to check only 'rare diseases' and Praveen as Raj Tarun's friend have provided some laughs though they are routine. Technically, there is nothing much to praise. Of Gopi Sunder's music, "Rabbaru Buggala Rama Chiluka" is catchy.

Bottom-line: New director Sanjana Reddy's 'Rajugaadu' fails miserably with poor-writing and outdated jokes.