Kathi Kantharao Review

Story

Like his earlier films, 'Allari 'Naresh through 'Kathi Kanta Rao'  chose a script that is full of comedy and entertainment .Naresh did many slapstick comedies like this before and similar to the them, this one too is a bone tickling comedy entertainer that leaves one in splits.The title 'Kathi Kanta Rao' might have made movie buffs second guess if Naresh will be seen fighting with the baddies in this flick. Contrary to those expectations and guesses, this rom-com has no fights, tear jerkering sentiment  scenes or forceful songs. The movie has reel load of comedians who with all their might try to make audience laugh in every other scene. With 'Kathi Kanta Rao' Naresh has cemented his position in Telugu cinema as a hero  who can make anyone laugh with his subtle humour and can guarentee minimum returns for his producers.

'Kathi Kanta Rao' is a story of Kantha Rao( Allari Naresh) a constable, who through his wit, humour and intelligence solves all his domestic problems at home. He makes quick money through small bribes and corruption to address his family's financial needs and demands. His father (Dharmavarapu Subramaniam) leaves his job and signs an agreement with Kanta Rao that he will not marry until he finishes his responsibilites of getting  all his four sisters married.Ironically, Kanta Rao falls in love with Kamna Jetmalani(Ratnam) and under mysterious cirucmstances violating the agreement with his father. The rest of the story shifts to Vengalappapalem where Kota Srinivasa Rao( Raja Rao) and Ahuti Prasad(Lankeshwar Rao) are contesting against each other for the village President's post.Thereafter, the movie makes for an interesting watch on how Naresh is related to the village and the elections happening there.

Performances

Allari Naresh and Kota Srinivasa Rao stole the show in this film which is a choc-o-bloc full of gags and dual meaning dialogues. Naresh who is an actor with a reservoir of energy though  managed to deliever an impressive performance, didn't match upto the exuberance levels he displayed in his previous movies. However, he has proved his skill in emoting comedy dialogues and raunchy one liners that widens the smile of the audience once every five minutes. Kamna Jetmalani didn't have much to do in the film and had over the top expressions more than once. Kota Srinivasa Rao gave his all time best to his charecter and is very convincing in his role as a desperate small time politician. In a few frames  even where there are no dialogues and the camera is zoomed on to Kota's face, the way he emotes varied feelings at one go, is worth an applause. While the performances of Venu Madhav, Kondavalasa, Chalapathi Rao, Raghubabu, Ahuti Prasad, Ali et al were in tandem with the central theme of the script-comedy, Dharmavarapu's cliched histrionics and jokes which are as old as hills, makes one smirk and fuss. Ahuti Prasad has the same Godavari accent in the movie, something he has had in several films like 'Chandamama' . It is advisable for him to avoid repeating the accent and silk kurta costumes in movies, lest he should be typecast for the rest of his career. King of comedy films E V V Satyanarayana who is seasoned in this genre chose the right comedians for their roles which made up for minor glitches in the screenplay.

Remarks

Silly comedy makes you cringe in a few scenes. For instance ,the milk vendor asks Dharmavarapu Subramaniam why he has a 'pulla' in his mouth pointing to the Cigar pipe.The first half of the film gets boring as predictable scenes follow one after the other until the interval bang which comes with a twist in the story. The second half of the movie gets racy and interesting with the story taking new twists as scenes progress. The comedy quotients go up a few times in the second half as the protagonist faces new challenges. The music by debutant Mallikarjun was not upto the mark and leaves no impression. The story is simple and well naratted. The screenplay  and locations in the movie could have been better.

Vedict

The movie is for all those who want to laugh their lungs out without searching for logic. The situational comedy, funny one liner dialogues make 'Kathi Kanta Rao' a complete 'paisa vasool' and pure entertainment.

Released on: 10th Dec, 2010