V. V. Vinayak’s Alludu Seenu (2014) Movie Review

When a producer’s son is introduced, there is usually lot of fanfare. If affordable, the debut film is something unusual framed in the usual trimmings of mainstream cinema. So the dressing might be the same but the product is a curious conoction. Bellamkonda Suresh’s magnum opus lauch pad of his son BellamKonda Sreenivas is a shocking subversion of the above. Lets get on to the review. 

Seenu aka Bellamkonda Sreenivas earns his livelihood by cheating and indulding in the most challenging situations. Seenu & Narasimha (Prakash Raaj) runs away from Badami & accidently step down in Hyderabad. Thats where Seenu comes across Local don Bhai (Prakash Raaj), who is similar to his Uncle. Thereby he plays a trick by replacing his uncle in the place of Bhai, with help of Dimple (Brahmi). In this process Seenu intelligently woos Anjali (Samantha) with his charm and wins her heart finally, which by the way was bound to happen. Rest is best unsaid and left to be seen on screen provided you plan to watch it at all.

Debutant Bellamkonda Sreenivas looks good, but seemed a bit off playing the massy lead character. He has the ease, but he needs to work on his dialogues delivery, Expressions, Comedy Timing & Body Language. As a debutant Sreenivas impresses usa with his dance movements. Samantha Ruth Prabhu in a meaningless character such as this, especially after Autonagar Surya, made me wonder whether the times are really so bad for a good talent. How much life could her expressions and eyes induce in the cruddy lines she’s given. The chemistry between these two actors is zilch, and this happens to be commercial love story. Tamannah sizzles in her item number. Prakash Raaj in the dual role, as a Bhai of Hyderabad and an innocent father. He is okay as a loving father, but he fails to get into the skin of Bhai’s character which was very important for the story. Brahmanandam overdid his character as a funny Personal Assistant to Bhai. Pradeep Rawat is utilized in an uneffective character (which reminds us of Ashish Vidyarthi in Gudumba Shankar). Ravi Babu wears single expression through out the movie. He was a miscast. Tanikella Bharini, Raghu Babu, Vennala Kishore and Master Bharath are okay in their limited roles. 

The story of Alludu Seenu is pretty much predictable and thus becomes a chore to watch. Everything seems half baked or in some cases completely uncooked. The story reminds us of Gudumba Shankar, Aadhi, Rachcha, Aata, Ready, Mirapakaay, Adurs, Baadshah etc. As in most cases, the script is the deal breaker here. It is neither consistent, nor explored, and has got it all wrong as far as plot points is concerned. It’s the multiple supposed twists that get annoyingly aweary on my one and half kilo brain. So much so that you begin suspecting the very premise of the whole plot. Like; How come the train from Badami – Chennai gets diverted to Hyderabad – Hero escapes in a Charter flight from Dubai, but Villain reaches the destination before him – Prakash n Sreenivas always lay low but they get the Visa’s to Dubai as if they have got some high level influence on ground, Dubai’s Airport chief chases a flight to stop, rather trying to call the pilot, Villain wakes up from his coma with a bucket full of water etc… The film has contrived, ultra-moralistic leanings typical of the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Banner. But it’s also old-fashioned in other ways.

I completely understand that the film-makers believe that the genre required loud music. I am glad though that they didn’t think so about cinematography. That and the slick editing put together made some parts really interesting, visually. Especially during the Introduction and a couple songs (Esp. Tamannah Item Number). The lighting scheme in film is not up to the mark.  While the music is just about alright, the lyrics of “Neeli Neeli” are nice. Dialogues in the film by Kona Venkat are not upto the mark except for few rhyming lines. Like; Thuntari ye anukunna Ontari anni marichipoyanu, Dabbulu chusi Jabbulu guruthuku ravodhu, Stars ki em telusu Fans ekkada untaro etc.  The worst thing in this film is unnatural visual effects. Fights in the film are mediocre. The production values of Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Productions are grand. 

V V Vinayak has flopped and flopped miserably. He comes out with no script, creates silly situations and expects his cast to enact with conviction and have audience in splits. Feel for him, because he had such a talented line up of artists that are sadly made to jump around without rhyme or reason. All said, all of the above might have been tolerable, even ignorable, if the film had a little more soul.

So, yet again, a concept with potential to entertain dies at the hands of commercialism. Oh well…