Movie: Pandaga Chesko
Rating: 2.75/5
Banner: United Movies
Cast: Ram, Rakul Preet Singh, Sonal Chauhan, Brahmanandam, M S Narayana, Vennela Kishore and Others
Music: S S Thaman
Cinematography: Sameer Reddy
Editor: Gowtham Raju
Producer: Paruchuri Kireeti
Screenplay and Direction: Gopichand Malineni
Release Date: May 29, 2015
Ram returns after a long time with Pandaga Chesko. Well, the one dialogue that almost created a controversy of sorts has surely generated quite a bit of curiosity. So let’s see how the film has come up…
Story:
Karthik (Ram) runs his own company in Portugal. One day he is tracked by Weekend Venkata Rao (Brahmanandam) who wants him to marry Anushka (Sonal Chauhan) another business woman who is in a rush to find a groom so that she does not miss out on her Rs 3000 crore property. Well, meanwhile Karthik goes to India and ends up meeting Divya (Rakul Preet Singh). The rest of the story tracks Karthik, Divya, Anushka and is about who gets who.
Artistes’ Performances:
Ram is back after a long break and looks quite energetic. In the past, he would more or less remind one of Pawan Kalyan. But he seems to have worked on it and looks fresh and ready to go. As always he manages all emotions rather well.
Rakul Preet Singh is her usual best. Looks good and dresses pretty, though she is mostly in half sarees. Sonal Chauhan adds to the glam quotient and pulls off her part well.
Bramhmanandam as Weekend Venkata Rao gets his share of funny dialogues as does MS Narayana. Sampath Raj, Rao Ramesh, Sai Kumar get decent roles among the ensemble cast. The rest of the cast also puts in performances in accordance with their character requirements.
Technical Excellence:
Music by Thaman is not earth-shattering surely, but it has a couple of mass numbers. Cinematography and editing are alright. Screenplay is by Kona Venkat and Anil Ravipudi while story is by Veligonda Srinivas. Of course, the story follows the usual pattern like in many Telugu movies, but it has some interesting dialogues sprinkled all along.
Gopichand Malineni plays safe and does not move away from the formula.
Highlights:
- Few dialogues
Drawbacks:
- Story
Analysis:
Kona Venkat is probably associated with more or less every film that releases every week. So, it is not humanly possible to come up with a sparkling script every single week and Pandaga Chesko is one such film that sticks to the formula to the core.
A rich NRI boy comes to India and tries to marry his uncle’s daughter after bringing them together.
Well, the story is old and so is the narrative. But the story has been repackaged to suit today’s times and the dialogues are pretty interesting especially during the first half. Kona Venkat and his team have some interesting scenes tucked in here and there.
In fact, there is no consistency as far as entertainment element is concerned as the story jumps up and down in an uneven pattern. But the producers did spend quite some money on the concept and on the locations, though the second half is wrapped up in a set.
While the first half is breezy, the second half is the typical ‘hero-goes-to-heroine’s house’ and the age old brother and sister fight revisited. This makes the film a bit tiresome to watch during the second half.
Well, if one likes formula films with a dash of entertainment, then the film is for them.
Bottomline: One for summer days
(Venkat can be reached [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
