Rangula Ratnam Review

'Rangula Raatnam', starring Raj Tarun and Chitra Shukla in lead roles, hits the screens this Sunday.  Here is our review.

Story:

Vishnu (Raj Tarun) is the one and only son of a doting mother, played by Sitara,  A working man, boozing with his friend (played by Priyadarshi) is his favourite past time.  His mother is his world.

When he sees Keerthy (Chitra Shukla) at a marriage, it's love at first sight for Vishnu.  He woos her, so does his mother on behalf of her one and only son.  When Keerthy is on the verge of reciprocating love to Vishnu, tragedy strikes the latter in the form of his mother's sudden demise. Life seems to end for him for the next 10 minutes of the movie.  This is when Keerthy says sorry and I love you in the same scene.  Vishnu immediately regains his naughty smile.

But, alas, another tragedy, this time mental, strikes the hero in in the form of Keerthy.  What is it and what consequences does it lead to?  That's the crux of the second half.

Analysis:

It's not known how many times the film's writer watched 'Bommarillu' and 'Mahanubhavudu'.  For all we know, these two films must be his/her biggest obsessions.  What happens when Prakash Raj's character morphs into a girl friend?  How about exaggerating such a GF to the level of OCD?  The end result is 'Rangula Raatnam', a deadly combination of TV soap-level vacuity and short film-level making values.

Stock ideas litter the length and breadth of this farce of a show-reel.  The conversations between the mother-son duo smack of ordinariness or unnecessary drama.  When his mother is around, the hero is expected to become a dumbed down version of a child-man.  So, scenes that match Raj Tarun's image are penned elsewhere.  Every time he bumps into the scooty-borne heroine and her brother at the traffic signal, Raj Tarun becomes Raj Tarun, treating the sister-brother duo with his typical roughness.  Meanwhile, the mom's obsession with marrying off her son becomes the film's motif.

Vishnu has a clue about the heroine's obsessive behaviour at the earliest.  But in the first half, he doesn't see it as a major problem and says only this much: 'Andamaina ammayilu yenni rules aina matladocchanta'.  At worst, we too see Keerthy as a distant relative of Aparichitudu.  But no!  In the second half, we are treated to her OCD-like abnormality.

Nothing wrong in writing a quirky, phobic heroine, especially when she has a back story of her own.  But the scenes, the screenplay are so lame that one doesn't understand why Vishnu is over-reacting to Keerthy's excessive concern.  By the time he has had enough, we too would have had enough of the over-indulgence of the preposterous proceedings.

Priyadarshi as the hero's friend is cliched.  He waits endlessly for his wife to go to her 'puttillu' so that, well, he can have beer with his buddy to heart's content.  At a get-together party, he dances for a 'Sagara Sangamam' number and we are expected to laugh.  He describes a comedienne as 'Volvo bus' and yes, we are expected to die laughing.

Raj Tarun does a fine act in the kind of scenes that are his forte.  Two emotional episodes (pre-interval and climax) are too heavy-duty for him to handle.  Chitra Shukla plays a nutty girl-next-door's character in a so-so manner.  Sitara is melodramatic.

Sricharan Pakala composes impressive songs for sure.  But the BGM is sub-par.  The cinematography and art work are forgettable.

Verdict:

A conflict point that is dangerously weird, trivial ideas that bombard till the end, and okayish performances.