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| Venkatadri Express |
A train simple journey to Tirupathi goes horribly awry for Sundeep (Sundeep) and Prarthana (Rakul) after they miss boarding the Venkatadri Express.
The movie begins with Allari Naresh's voice over, introducing characters in Sundeep's home one by one, setting the context for what's to follow - how the black sheep of the family atones himself. The patriarch of the family is a retired school headmaster, Ram Murthy (Nagineedu), whose blood group we are told is K for Kramasikshana which translates into discipline. He has a rule book of do's and don'ts for the family and every slip-up a family member makes is duly recorded.
The rule of the house is simple. Anyone who makes more than 100 mistakes will be disowned. Anything Ram Murthy disapproves will earn a red mark - his infant grandson urinating on him also goes on record as a mistake. Then the protagonist is introduced bang in the middle of what turns out to be his 99th blunder.
It's a very painstakingly conceived introductory scene with Sundeep being chased by a bunch of goons amidst a riot of colours (ala the holi scene in Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani) exploding in slow motion. Only after he gets back home do we realize that the guy had gone out to get garlands for his brother's engagement only to return much after the ceremony is completed without the garlands!
When Sundeep rushes back home to fetch the magalasutram his mother forgets at home minutes before the family is due to board the Tirupathi bound Venkatadri Express, you expect him
to miss the train. But Sundeep inadvertently drags Prarthana into the conundrum leading to long chain of mishaps as the duo tries desperately to catch the train.
The filmmaker has packed the movie with enough gags though. We have characters like Thagubothu Ramesh playing a drunk auto rickshaw driver, Sapthagiri playing a nerdy PhD scholar who's blackmailed to act like a railway hawker, MS Narayana playing an old man looking for thrills...that keep the entertainment quotient running.
We also have a handful of tastefully picturised song sequences and fight sequences as well. The acting is well goofy at best but it works largely. The stand out element is the cinematography albeit seeming a little too inspired in places. It's a kind of comedy that isn't entirely original but works nevertheless, largely at least. To sum it up, it's one of those movies that do more things right than wrong and ends up somewhere in between "not a bad film" to a "good film."
Note: The movie has got some gags, though mostly cliched but funny nevertheless. Carry a humorous disposition to make the most of it.
