'Luckunnodu', directed by Raj Kiran of 'Geethanjali' and 'Tripura' fame, hits the screens today.  Here is our review:

Story:

That he is an unemployed youth is the least of Lucky's (Vishnu Manchu) worries.  His pain, agony and nightmare are that he has been shooed away by his father (Jayaprakash) for being the opposite of what his name stands for.  Yes, bringing bad luck upon his family and friends by merely being present in their midst is his biggest bane!

He falls for 'Positive' Padma (Hansika, whose oddball dad Tanikella Bharani can see positiveness in the deadliest), but that is no news.  She falls for him, invariably before he can even find a job, but even this is not news because that's how it should happen in our movies.  He ends up laying his hands over a bag containing Rs. 25 Cr and that, we would hope, is news.  Or so we think, until we realize that all of these descend into a climax that has Posani Krishna Murali exclaim in surprise that it's a revenge story even as we say the same with the prefix 'the oldest' before the words 'revenge story'.

Analysis:

The lack of an emotional core is the biggest problem with 'Luckunnodu'.  How can the father's character be convincing when he hates his son for no mistake of the latter?  Since every single audience would know in the heart of hearts that all beloved onscreen dads will be thanked by the hero for preaching that Truth alone triumphs, why not make the son (the hero) speak about it right after the interval? Do we still have audiences left who would be touched by the hero saying why he loves his father via electronic media after the climax fight?

The hero's presence visiting bad luck upon the people around is a caricaturish idea which should have been limited to evoking comedy, not writing a whole story line.

Somehow during demonetization, the son-hating-extraordinary-human-being dad manages to get Rs. 25 lacs in currency.  So far, so miraculous.  Now look at the reason that makes the dad literally get rid of the son one final time.  It's because of the totally unrealistic memory loss of a character.  Somewhere toward the interval, this is the level of emotional quotient the film has to offer...

How about the rom-com track?  Hansika gets to make a couple of stock expressions and that's all.  The only time she seems to be giving a reason for the cinematographer to take her seriously is during the song 'O Sirimalle', which is beautifully choreographed.  The whole romantic track seems to have been hurriedly done, complete with a Vennela Kishore interlude.

Now the villain.  MVV Sathyanarayana as JK puts up a decent show, but his villainy smacks of old-fashioned presentation.

The climax comes and gets done before you can figure out if it is a fight that just happened.  Even the supremely soft, subtly Gandhian male leads of '60s and '70s used to beat up more in the climax!  'Avnu ra.. Nene champa', says the villain and the cop's (Suresh) job is done!  Seriously?

Posani Krishna Murali (as a corrupt comedy cop), Prabhas Sreenu (as a petty thief Pulihora), Vennela Kishore (as a doubting Thomas), Sathyam Rajesh (the prince-turned-pauper), Tanikella Bharani (as an incurable satthwik on the lines of 'Race Gurram's Prakash Raj) and Raghu Babu (as the bad news-bestowing relative) fit the bill.

Diamond Rathna Babu's dialogues come with some spark here and there.  Atchu's music passes muster, with 'O Sirimalli' standing out.  PG Vinda's cinematography and the BGM are just about OK.

As performances go, Vishnu tries his best to scrape through a sketchy script.  Hansika somehow looks bland, probably because of the way her characterization and screenplaying was done.  Jayaprakash is good.  The actor who played JK's disloyal assistant is very good.

Verdict:

A formulaic story, 'Luckunnodu' peters out after a good interval bang.  The dialogues tickle the funny bone here and there.