Mr. Nookayya begins with the entire story, except the climax, shown in slow motion in a span of less than a minute. The hero is being tortured, you see a woman falling off from a height into the river, and a blood-curdling Murali Sharma tormenting Manoj, angrily asking him "Where is the mobile?" at point blank range. In the course of the film, you are persecuted more like the hero was racked in the Hollywood-style opening scenes! Here is a film that loses its way faster than the cash bag with Rs. 2 crore changes hands. For a flick that comes with the caption 'Only Action', not a single fighting scene has a rational reason. Even the last fight had to be triggered with an unnecessary tempo (the villains trying to shoot a blue film on Kriti Karbanda). There is only sound and fury, no sense, no sensibility. Only over-the-top action scenes, confused camera angles and tasteless humour.
The story is so wafer-thin that the second half reduces Kriti to sob and sob, Manoj trying hard to shine through in a chasing scene here and a fighting scene there, an MP (Ahuthi Prasad) to run after Mr. Nokia, who has stolen his cell that features the politico's sexcapades, and so forth. Manoj philosophizes in songs and uses cuss words and makes lewd gestures in scenes. The director shows us how to deprive a film of a song situation. At least three songs seemed force-fitted into the narrative. What a tremendous waste of Yuvan Shankar Raja!
The story that wasn't: Husband Kiran (Raja of Anand fame makes a thankless comeback) is abducted by Murali Sharma, who demands Rs. 2 crore from wife Kriti, a bank manager, lest the husband will never return home. Kriti steals the bank money to hand over it to the kidnappers. As her fate would have it, she loses herself (fondly reminiscing the sweet time she spent with her man) twice at a railway station and at a marriage hall, making it all the more easy for Nokia and his sidekick (Vennela Kishore), who also want money, to steal the briefcase.
Nokia has always been satisfied with stealing mobiles. However, his girl (Sana Khan) wants him to earn money big-time before they can marry. The interval bang offers a double whammy to the happy-go-lucky orphan. Sana is a two-timer. To make the matters worse for the good-at-heart Nokia, his brother-like childhood friend runs away with the money. A heart-broken Nokia weeps like a child.
The second half lacks a plot, to say the least. To put it mildly, the twist in the climax was purposeless to the story. If the scenes were inchoate, the dialogues were vacuous. The editing was horrendous, while the background score vainly tried to capture the behavioural disorder (no, it was not oddball, not even weird, but was plain madness) that the film suffers from.
Manoj's acting template is heavily influenced. We pray that Kriti gets to sign a garments brand soon, because ads don't demand acting skills. Sana had nothing to do.
Some laughable elements that deserve special mention:
- Imagine Raja behave like a sadist. Mr. Nookayya's special Holi offer.
- The director wanted to build tempo before having Kriti attempt a suicide. So, he makes the hapless girl have a bad dream, in which Murli Sharma cuts off Raja's ear. Phew!
- Watch Manoj force himself to imitate his dad yet another time. Yes, he portrays two or three expressions over and over again.
- Brahmi plays a 22-year old flirt. He says he suffers from a genetic defect.
Released on: 8th March, 2012
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