Slumdog Millionaire, Nag style!

Puppy love, done-to-death story of rich girl, poor boy background and a climax in which the winner takes it all haven’t we’ve been viewers to such kind of storylines umpteen times in the past? It is true that there are always takers for such flicks because heartaches are evergreen for young things, generation after generation. Some of these movies manage to score at the box-office also, because of a combination of reasons which could be racy treatment, hit songs and the lead pair.

‘Nirmala Convent’ has one of the above components a new combo of a star son, Meka Roshan and an erstwhile child artiste, Shriya Sharma. It also has yet another niche explained earlier– a tiresome, clichéd storyline which gives the film an amateurish, theatrical feel in the first 45 minutes. In an era when kings and zamindars have morphed into modern day politicians, this venture drags one back to that time, which probably justifies the hyper acting of the royal types in the film (Aditya Menon & Co), who have an eye on the hero’s family asset– an acre of land which is an irrigation plus point.

The story, for its own reasons is narrated in flashback from the heroine’s side. Obviously, the debutant hero has to be a super specimen of a character– intelligent, yet humble, the ideal son every mother would want to have. Again, one does not find logic in why the hero’s father converts into Christianity, may be for a secular feel, one presumes. Rather rapidly, the boy and the girl are neck deep in love and obviously, the blue blood types would want them to be separated. Here is where, once again the film slips into the Eastman colour kind of movies, when heroes are made to prove their manliness before a scheming evil, sneering kind of a villain and ultimately win her over before a cheering crowd.

Using a low cost, branding initiative to plug for his game show, Nagarjuna is all over the audience in the second half, walking around the screen, knowing that it is his in-house output after all. Quite frankly, the adoring references to his macho, young looks and the orgasmic response of the female characters to his drop dead looks are a little overdone.

Without an intelligent engagement from here on, the film, in old world fashion, just goes to prove that it is an indulgent match-fixed game between the ageing matinee idol and the fresh faced Roshan. The live Q&A show in the last 45 minutes is a flat, thrill-less kind of a depiction in which one clearly knows one more Telugu hero, with super duper talent is on his way to torment the hapless viewers. Of course, he wins the game and gets the girl and tells the audience he will wait for himself and his beau to turn majors. Sometimes, Telugu cinema thinks realistically too!

Film Name : Nirmala Convent

Cast : Roshan, Shriya Sharma and Nagarjuna
Direction : G Naga Koteswara Rao
Genre : Romance-drama
Likes : Skin show kept to the bare minimum
Dislikes : Archaic story, stereotyped treatment