Andhra Pradesh

Nothing funny about it

Twosome: A scene from Navvule Navvulu

Film: Navvule Navvulu

Cast: Prithvi, Anju Ansari

Direction: Dr. Ranga Rao

Ali, AVS, Kondavalasa, Krishna Bhagwan, M.S. Narayana, K. Chidambaram, Sunil, Jayalalitha and company assure you from the posters that this film is a complete comedy. ‘Navvule Navvulu’ does not come anywhere close to it. In fact, it is tasteless and crude.

Prithvi plays the hero who is in love with a college student. There is another man in love with the same girl and Prithvi picks up a fight with him while he teases her. The young man dies accidentally and Prithvi on the insistence of his girlfriend agrees to dress up like a woman to protect himself from the police. He finds a shelter in a women’s hostel and attracts attention from all and sundry. How he helps others and steers himself clear of the accidental death forms the crux of the story.

Except Kondavalasa, who plays the suspecting husband, the remaining characters are more horrible than funny. A.V.S. plays a transvestite who keeps jutting in and out of every scene overdoing his bit. Prithvi, in a woman’s attire, is anything but decent, and his desperation to come back to the commercial stream is evident here. Sunil is the police and Ali as the confused son wears a bemused look throughout.

Chalapati Rao’s work is artificial as the father who wants probe into his son’s death. The first half of the film is always looking out for an excuse to break into a song, but post interval there is some trace of substance. Anju Asrani, the leading girl, is convincing. The film is inspired by a novel ‘Kodekaru’ scripted by Bollimuntha Nageswara Rao and produced by Paleti Venu and V. Sivaramakrishna Prasad.

There is nothing in the film to make the viewer stop and think.”

Y. SUNITA CHOWDHARY

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu