'Aa Ammayi Gurinchi Meeku Cheppali' hit the screens today. In this section, we are going to review the latest box-office release.

Story:

Naveen (Sudheer Babu) is known for making blockbuster films and is one of the biggest star directors of Telugu cinema. On a night, he stumbles upon a showreel featuring a beautiful woman (Krithi Shetty) and is bowled over by her drop-dead gorgeous looks. He wants to cast her as a Princess in his next film. He comes to know that the woman is Dr Alekhya, an ophthalmologist. He pursues her hard, only to discover that she and her parents (played by Srikanth Iyengar and Kalyani Natarajan) are dead against the film industry. But then, things start falling in place for Naveen. Alekhya eventually comes on board, antagonizing her parents. Where does this conflict lead to? What is Alekhya's purpose? Why are her parents morbidly against cinema? Can there be redemption?

Analysis:

The film under review is director Mohankrishna Indraganti's second edition of his trilogy on cinema/film industry, the first one being 'Sammohanam' (2018). In that film, the male lead fell in love with the female lead, an actress who looked like a dream. In the current film, the male lead is an industry insider and his muse looks like a dream.

The 'film within a film' template hasn't been overused by the director and that's a plus. There are no cheap gimmicks in terms of eliciting laughs by cracking inside jokes. That said, the humour lacks the zing. VK Naresh's comedy was a highlight of 'Sammohanam'. Expect none of such humour in 'AAGMC'.

Vennela Kishore (as a co-director) is pretty plain, many times less comical than he was in the recent 'Oke Oka Jeevitham'. Rahul Ramakrishna (as a screenwriter) gets to play a serious role, and his supposed intellectual digs are pretty mundane.

Considering that Indraganti wanted to make the film as a non-preachy tribute to the women out there who dare to dream against the conventions set by their elders, he should have put in a greater deal of effort. That said, the climax portions cut the deal. One can't say the film gets every major segment right. But it is at least not as off-the-mark as Indraganti's previous film, 'V', was.

The casting couch issue has been touched upon without stretching it too long. It has been milked for a potentially emotional scene. More than cinematographer PG Vinda, it is composer Vivek Sagar who was supposed to do a lot of heavy lifting. For some reason, he fails to. Compared to 'Ante Sundaraniki', this one has a pretty flat musical output, barring two songs that hit it off.

Sudheer Babu's performance is a mix of his two previous outings with the director. He is able. Krithi Shetty needed to bring loads of earnestness. She gets a full-fledged role. After the back-to-back duds ('Warriorr' and 'Macherla Niyojakavargam'), she surely shows spark. Srikanth Iyengar is not bad.

Verdict:

This film makes for a decent watch if you consider the start, middle and end arc. But the writing is inadequate when the storyline is stretched as a story.