Run-of-the-mill stuff

Name : Govindudu Andarivadele
Cast : Ram Charan, Kajal Aggarwal, Srikanth and Prakash Raj
Direction : Krishna Vamsi
Genre : Drama
Rating : **1/2
Like : ?
UnLike : Just too repetitive

Tollywood talkies need surgical attention. Its system has just too much repetitive content and reflects a total lack of imagination. The appalling quantity of time, money, energy and other resources that go repeatedly into the tell telling of ‘family values’ is getting beyond acceptable levels of entertainment. Even as the audience flock the theatres in the hope of a new entertainer, it is be numbingly tragic that not an iota of fresh thought goes into the new offering. The big Indian family heading towards the big Indian wedding and the large group photo is yet again just a ticket away.

Our Govindudu is Abhiram: Abhi or Ram (Ram Charan). He is the latest export quality Travolta who early on is greatly disappointed when the much hyped news of dad Dr Chandrashekar (Rahman) being appointed as the Dean of the local medical school is not to be. Dad gets introspective and we get a peep into the feudal past where his dad the elder patriarch Balraj (Prakash Raj) wants to establish a village hospital but the son has ambitions for the melting pot. Dad Balraj clearly disapproves of the son’s American dream in London. The umbilical cord is thus cut and the doctor is making the mega bucks and the dad is back home in his blissful feudal environs in the village with wife (Jayasudha) and a whole army of siblings.

Abhiram now comes to the village to win back the angry grandpa who alongside half the village lives in this huge mansion that has obviously escaped the Land Ceiling laws! If the principled patriarch lost the elder son to the dollar dream, he loses the other Bangaru (Srikanth) to liquor, gambling and wayward lifestyle. Ram and Bangaru have Satya (Kajal) and Chitra (Kamalinee Mukherjee) as the love interest.

The village is predictably divided into good (Prakash Raj) and bad (Kota, Rao Ramesh, Adarsh Balakrishna etc., and lawyer Posani Krishna Murali). While the latter want to establish a Beer factory in the village, Balraj opposes it and thus gets the war line divided clearly. Everyone, including a certified moron would know that Abhiram the gifted is none other than the son of the estranged son in foreign locales, but the patriarch cannot make it out. The script entangled in violence and romance leads to the all too familiar finale leading to a camera defying crowd for the family finale.

The film revolves round two characters: Prakash Raj and Ram Charan. The former goes overboard. He is loud to a fault and believes that he needs to be heard rather than be seen. Over dramatic and loud you wish the guy tones down his acting. Ram Charan the actor is a tad too stylised and ill fit for the rural backdrop from where he is required to function. Yes, for a justification he is the NRI and the super talented bloke. Most part of the wooing for love is unacceptable socially in a world that has come a far far away from the times of Shammi Kapoor. Caught in a time wrap and eschewing creativity, the end product is simply annoyingly predictable and a poor assessment of the filmmakers understanding of the intelligence of the audience. That a star gives his sign of approval with his presence to such a script is tragedy confounded. Watch it if you are a Ram Charan fan. The rest have other alternatives then the film theatre over the festive weekend.