'Oye Ninne', starring debutantes Bharath and Shrusti Dange, hits the screens this Friday.  Here is our review of the rom-com.

Story:

Vishnu (Bharath) is strongly chastised by his disciplinarian-father (played by Nagineedu) and pampered by his mother (played by Thulasi) at the drop of a hat. Ammu (Shursti Dange) is his soft-spoken, studious and lovely rival, as she is the aforementioned father's pet girl.

The families of the lead pair are thick friends among themselves (the heroine's parents are played by Raghu Babu and Pragati).  While Vishnu's father will never marry off his son to his pet Ammu, the girl secretly loves him.  But does Vishnu also love her?

Analysis:

When Sekhar Kammula made 'Fidaa', he rightly gloated about how his film steers clear of the cliches associated with village-based love stories.  Such films hold lessons for other filmmakers.  'Oye Ninne', however, has an insufferable ecosystem in which it unfolds.  It refuses to rise about worn-out cliches.

The world of 'Oye Ninne' is full of hackneyed characters, a dumbed down college campus comedy track, a mediocre father whose anger towards his son can bore you to death, a male lead who comes of age in the most cliched manner (by chiding a harassing husband et al), so on and so forth.

Whenever Nagineedu plays the hero's father, his one-note expression turns into a half-note expression.  Tragically, he is a pivotal character in this film.  He is joined by comedian Sathya, who is wasted in a role that a jaded Sunil of the early 2000s might have played in a low-brow college campus comedy.

As they fight over being discriminated against or favoured by the aforementioned boring dad (or uncle, as the case may be), the lead pair thanklessly watches Pawan Kalyan's 'Sardaar Gabbar Singh'.  While returning after watching the masterpiece, Ammu asks Vishnu about how much he likes her, only to be disappointed by his reckless reply.  Her question and the subsequent emotion come as a bolt from the blue, because she was never shown to be secretly liking him while pretending to fight with him like a kiddo.

Our films are permanently fixated with one thing.  Whenever the male lead is a good-for-nothing bum, other important characters (barring the heroine) are actually worse in one respect or the other.  In this film, thankfully, there is no lowly bridegroom vis-a-vis whom the bum can look like a saint.   Instead, a random inhuman husband comes in handy.  Voila, our heroine has a moment of pride.  Among the other important characters who don't cover themselves in glory, you have to trust Nagineedu's zero-level anger management.

The second half introduces Arvind Swamy RMP (played by Dhanraj) and a pure-hearted drunkard (Tagubothu Ramesh, who else?) to elevate the hero's character in the most ineffective way possible.  Fish Venkat is forgettable.

It would have helped had the campus comedy been decently good.  The principle at the college is an unfamiliar face who has an extra-marital affair to make the matters worse.  The non-actor is made to tremble in fear when comedian Sathya blackmails him in a throwback to the 1990s era comedy.  This episode defines everything that is outdated and unwise about 'Oye Ninne'.

Bharath, for a debutante, would have done a fairly good job in the hands of a better director.  Shrusti is weighty, but she could fit the bill when it comes to doing bit roles.  Sathya, Nagineedu, Raghu Babu, Thulasi, Tanikella Bharani and others are sub-par.

Sekhar Chandra's music, the cinematography and the editing are eminently passable.  Many framers suffer from poor lighting.

Verdict:

An outdated love story set in the backdrop of an insufferable ecosystem, 'Oye Ninne' is blighted by mediocre performances and cliched moments.