Ungarala Rambabu - Movie Review

What's it about!
Rambabu (Sunil), an owner of a travel company, gets impressed with Savithri (Miya George) not knowing that she actually is making him fall in love with her. After couple of duets, Savithri tells Rambabu that her father hates rich people and foreign brands and he may not accept their love. Rambabu is confident of winning her father's approval to their marriage and heads to her village in Kerala. Her father Nair (Prakash Raj) despises Rambabu at first encounter itself but allows him to stay at their house. Will the staunch communist Nair give the hand of his daughter to Rambabu who is not only filthy rich but also believes in horoscope and babas? 
 
Analysis
On paper, the basic idea of 'Ungarala Rambabu's seems pretty interesting - a rich guy falling in love with a daughter of communist and the conflict arousing out of this. Communism vs Capitalism. Communism vs Humanism. These grand ideas have lost in the din of commercial moviemaking by Kranthi Madhav. The ideas seem stuck only at paper, as they never have translated onto the screen.
 
Director Kranthi Madhav, who won critical praise for his earlier two movies 'Onamalu' and 'Malli Malli Idhi Rani Raju', is more like fish out of water as he has struggled to balance between his ideas and commercial moviemaking. He has totally disappointed with this bad output.
 
From the very first scene, the movie derails and it never comes on to the track again. The so-called comedy scenes hardly make us laugh. Even the romantic sequence that is placed in Dubai fails to impress. The sequence is told in the style of Hollywood movie "Groundhog Day" making heroine live the same day over and over again. The basic line about a rich guy like Rambabu landing in the house of a communist and changing him a bit and he getting transformed a bit comes very late in the movie. Before this we are made to see many songs, outdated jokes. Director Kranthi Madhav never seems to be at home with this genre.
 
Moreover, the characterisation of Prakash Raj is more like a typical Telugu Cinema village landlord than a communist leader as he orders everyone to follow rules. A collector acts more like a gumastha. It is also not convincing that a collector changes his stance when the dim-witted Sunil gives him a lecture about farmers and government's idea of development.
 
Talking about performances, Sunil has done what he has done in other movies. Mia George as heroine is okay. Prakash Raj makes his mark as communist leader. Among other cast members Posani as Baba and Vennela Kishore as fraud communism follower are okay.
 
Cinematography and production values are decent. Music lacks appeal. Pace of the movie is slow. There are some Kranthi Madhav's trademark dialogues in the second half but he has failed as director here.
 
Bottom line: 'Ungarala Rambabu' doesn't impress anywhere in the movie. It has nothing to offer. A huge disappointment from a sensible director like Kranthi Madhav.