'Ameerpet Lo' hits the screens today.  Here is our review of the movie:

Story:

As the title suggests, it's a film set entirely in that area of Hyderabad where aspiring professionals arrive with a million dreams.  Writer-Director Sri has no interest in the perfect men/women.  His stories are about those impressionable youngsters who have infatuations, lust and worse.

Vivek day-dreams about becoming a superstar and all that he has got are good looks, sans the capacity to invest for his producers.  Literally standing at the crossroads, he chooses Krishna Nagar (the graveyard of innumerable dreams) over Ameerpet, the ticket to a world of opportunities.  Like an incurable Romeo, he wants to date with Vennela, who sees "frankness" in his dating proposal, emotions be damned.

Linga Babu falls for Soniya, a fellow tech aspirant at the institute.  He has a disregard for his poor rural father's concerns, gives all time for Soniya, but has Enlightenment one fine day.

Then there is Mamatha, a traditional village girl who falls for the charms of city life and goes on to have a few flings.

Amidst all this, Venkat Rao and Chitti, the fellow roommates, know that they are comedians and try hard to tickle the funny bone with their half-bald head and dumbness, respectively.

Analysis:

True to the title, the film presents a bevy of elements that are associated with the enticing Ameerpet ecosystem, complete with flirts, flings, fake CVs, frank daters, feku sons/daughters, so on and so forth.  From a pestering girl friend whose imbecility makes a hell out of Libu's (yes, Linga Babu calls himself as Libu) life, to girls who clandestinely taste beer in the hostel room, the film has all the expected ingredients.

There is a thesis about what exactly first kiss means when planted on different parts of the face.  There is also a song paying a sorry tribute to the wasted lives of software professionals, some of whom have become unfashionable uncles even before marriage.

If all of this is carried out in a mediocre idiom, the real problem arises when you realize that 'Ameerpet Lo' is not about the kind of stuff Maruthi might have engaged when he was in his 20s, but about an agenda for orphans.  When was the last time you forgot that it's never about the characters' brains/qualifications in our movies?  It's always about the heart, you heartless critics.

By and large, the film is a simple-minded outing where characterizations are a scratch on the surface.  The dialogues could have been witty; all that you get here are plain lines which get plainer when it's time for moralizing.

Featuring Sri, Ashwini, Siva Sai Praneeth, Esha, Rajitha, Rithika, Raju and Tilak, the film has music by Murali Leon.  While the actors largely do an OK job, the technical departments behave as if they are located in Ameerpet, the other side of the streets where fine studios are stationed.  Yes, one understands the budgetary limitations.

Verdict:

'Ameerpet Lo' is a youth-oriented subject that deals with a lot of indsicplined characters who mature toward the end. Too straightforward and in-substantive, the movie is blighted by a pedestrian technical output.

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