Movie Review - Alludu Seenu (Telugu) - As bad as it gets!!

Many a time you see a Telugu film, operating in the commercial zone, that resets the template and then for many years, everyone blatantly copies its tricks of trade. So there’s a time-tested formula, but for how long will it be forced upon the audience to test their patience. More than entertainment, the movie watching becomes a game to find the original movie or the scene from which it has been inspired or copied. Alludu Seenu does nothing magical than stick to the template. Don’t be surprised when you see Gudumba Shankar, Aadi, Cheli, Ready, Raccha, Dookudu, Adhurs – and hold your breath – Argo rolled into one. In simple terms, it’s V V Vinayak trying to pull off a Sreenu Vytla.

I feel rather than revealing the plot, it’s better to detail the format of such films. A happy-go-lucky orphan hero flees from his hometown. He moves to a city and bumps into a villain and his daughter, at different instances. How cinematic! Without waiting for a minute, he falls head over heels for her. Alongside he schemes with his sidekicks to make some moolah.

All hell breaks loose when he is pitted against heavyweights in the crime world and an imminent flashback episode seeps in post interval. Now, with the entire world turned against him, the hero has to do so many things – get the girl, teach a lesson the villain, regain the lost glory of his family. All this is done by oozing loads of comedy and glamour screen. Just remember, our heroes never lose their cool and can deal even the serious situations with silly antics.

Alludu Seenu is a routine fare with not an ounce of freshness in it, but there are couple of jokes which crackle and few songs which sparkle. At times, the plot tries to make sense by touching issues such as Fluorosis problem in the district of Nalgonda. However, they are fleeting and the required emotion couldn't get carried all through. The music and camerawork are just in place, and nothing exceptional to write home about them. The beautiful city of Sharjah has been restricted to shoddy CG work that only shows the sandy deserts.

Bellamkonda Sreenivas tries to show some promise, but only in dances and fights. I wish he learns to flex his facial muscles. Samantha falls prey to another poorly etched role. Prakash Raj offers no variation for both his roles. Both the characters lack a proper fixation of their behavioral traits. Samantha's Anjali, in the beginning, wants her would be husband to pass some irreverent tests, but in the later half she's ready to accept anyone! Prakash Raj's Narasimha takes off as an ingenuous person and ends up being an ingenious one. The movie showcases many fatal lapses from scripting to execution stage.

And when in doubt, it’s only Brahmanandam who can steer a foundering ship to the shore. For the sake of entertainment, the antagonist and his henchmen are limited to a bunch of buffoons before the hero. Why they wear glares in their homes... argh! If that’s not all, you may get into the shoes of the bride from Kill Bill when you see the last song placed after a poorly constructed Argo-esque dramatic escape sequence. That’s riding on the rut of formula.

Director V V Vinayak makes a movie that has been seen before and stretched to death, without either the skill or spirit that distinguished its decent predecessors. Alludu Seenu remains as a string of scrapes and never departures from archetypal commercial conventions. It doesn't attempt to do anything except pass the time, which simply isn't good enough when most of us have access to other forms of entertainment. 

The film is an epitome of too many actors and technicians laying hands to deliver a menial mishmash of a launch vehicle for the Bellamkonda scion. 

My Rating: Expectation - 6/10; Reality - 3/10

This review as originally written for Metro India newspaper.

An edited version of this piece can be found here.