Movie Review - Naannaku Prematho (Telugu)

This film which is the 25^th for Jr.NTR doesn’t disappoint you to say the least. Given the credentials and track record of director Sukumar, the 168 minutes film may not be a match for his past films, (leave alone 1 Ninokkadine which was a damp squib). Sukumar always bases the story-line of his films on one simple popular belief and this film is no different. The entire story runs on the belief that every event, big or small, happening across the globe has an effect on something else, elsewhere in the world. This starts from the way the titles were presented.

The film is about how the hero Abhiram(Jr. NTR) avenges to fulfill his father’s ( played by Rajendra Prasad) last wish, which is to witness the downfall of a villain Krishna Murthy Koutilya( played by Jagapathi Babu) who cheated him in the past. Jr. NTR played the role with all the honesty that the character needed. He lived the role except in the climax wherein it looked a bit weird and too unrealistic. His dances as usual are superb. The choreographers did a good job in composing the dance sequences. His new look feels good in the long shots. He himself sang the song “Follow Follow” which felt good to listen. The scenes in the first half in which the hero attempts to get closer to the heroine Divya( played by Rakul Preeth Singh) were too frivolous to be believed or imagined. Hero must have unlimited IQ to be able to meet his love in such a manner. Rakul Preet Singh is looking gorgeous and is best suited for the role. She carried herself with ease and audience would be spell-bound watching her on the screen.  

The highlight in the film is the performance of Jagapathi Babu. He played the role of Krishna Murthy, a villain, in an appreciable manner though having been a hero in several films. Without him, this film would have not got the same elevation that it might be enjoying now. For the first time in a Telugu film we get to hear villain uttering the ‘bad’ word when he says “what the F*** are you doing” to his bankers. While Rajiv Kanakala had a role to play as Abhi’s elder brother, Srinivas Avasarala’s presence was really not needed as another brother.

Music and background score by Devi Sri Prasad (DSP) added lot of value to the film. The lyrics by Chandrabose and Bhaskara Bhatla are rich in content. DSP wrote one lyric which was sung by Jr.NTR.

Though the movie doesn’t bore the audience anywhere, there are too many unconnected dots and gaps in the film like how the hero got in touch with heroine’s mother, the background of why and how the villain ditched his wife ( Madhubala) at the airport when she was caught with drugs, what happened to heroine in the last few scenes (as it appears that she suddenly disappeared after meeting her mother in the jail), etc. We should presume that Satpal Singh (Ashish Vidyarthi) gave several inputs to the hero to accomplish his tasks. There was absolutely no relief in the film due to lack of comedy and fun. Sukumar is known to confuse the audience with his witty conversations between characters and he did the same in this film especially in the scenes involving Jr.NTR and Jagapathi Babu. One from the audience shouted out “maakem artham kaledura baabu” while watching the movie. 

Overall I would give a ***1/2 stars for this film.