A sorry state of affairs

Have you ever heard of a marriage bureau that gives you a "one year guarantee"? No? Neither did we - till today.

Whoever came up with that concept, kudos to the idea - only because it had the ability to be woven into something much more interesting than ‘Malligadu Marriage Bureau’ (MMB)!

To tell you, ‘MMB’ simply fails to work. But since any statement needs a reasonable explanation, pertinent evidence, we will continue with the rest.

OK, so story first – ‘MMB’ tells us the story of Malligadu (Srikanth), who runs one such marriage bureau, and revels in bringing together the most unlikely of people. "Select anyone in this room, and she/he will be your spouse," he says. But all this doesn't come easily and one will have to shell out a lot of money to get hitched!

But that's just the first two minutes of the film, and the rest is a combination of a lot of subplots that are either too much to handle or too silly to pay attention to. Now, let's move on to the main part of the analysis.

So the first flaw in ‘MMB’ is the script - confusing, haphazard and superficial. The director, Uday Raj, gives this film a sub-standard treatment, and you start feeling bad that Srikanth was even a part of this film.

Most of the comedy track hardly makes you laugh and fails to give you the tickle it intends to. While the first half of the film is too boring, a flashback sequence is the only saving grace. However, even that is wasted in this sluggish drama that lacks novelty.

Superficial though the story is, a crisper handling would have at least made it watchable.

Adding to injury is Raghu Ram's music that is amateurish and unskilful. Even the background music too falls in the same category, failing to make any sort of impact.

Srikanth is the only "star" that shines throughout the film, and it's sad that an actor of his calibre seems totally wasted and lost in this drama that lasts around 158 minutes.

It is also a pity that the strength of Brahmanandam, who plays the role of a don Chotu is frittered away due to the incompetent handling of the script. Posani overdoes his act, and you start getting irritated by his presence, towards the end. However, Vennela Kishore and his love interest do look cute together. The rest of the cast will be forgotten sooner than a lightning strikes the earth.

Not that the promos promised much, but the presence of Srikanth did make us curious enough to consider watching this film - and later regret it.

On the whole, watch ‘MMB’, only if you are left with no other option.