Adi Nuvve Review

Most teen flicks end up down the same drain. Some sink in slowly through the sludge, some whoosh down quicker. Adi Nuvve must easily feature among the fastest of drain-wrecks, thanks to its skimpy script.

The movie starts off with Ravi (Chaitanya) being so smitten by a girl at a bus stop that he misses his US visa interview. Deciding that an interview can be pursued later but a girl cannot, the otherwise hardworking Ravi follows her around.

After joining the same dance school as the lady Sameera (Aksha), the two get close. They learn a lot of interesting steps in class, some of which should not be attempted at home without our supervision. One day, he finally opens up his heart to her. Sameera says she can't respond since she's already in love. Ravi is completely despondent. All those ridiculous dance sequences and now this?

Ravi's friends shamelessly spur him on to woo her even though she's already hitched. He does so, and one day he finds out that she's not in love with a guy - her true love is dance, apparently.

Ravi is amused. He expected to have been dumped for a standard boyfriend - with a name, a body, smart clothes, great acads, a sense of humour, sensitivity, and all the other stuff you read in the magazines.

But after she convinces him of her passion to become the nation's best dancer, he's determined to help her realize her dream, even if it means adding 40 meaningless minutes to the film's time.

Now it's the heroine's turn to add to your sob story, with a flashback. She tells him that she had two wonderful parents who were crazy about their dream to become India's best dancers. They died in a train accident when on the way to a dance competition, and this is why Sameera is hell-bent upon realizing their ambition. Little does she realize that this won't bring the dead back to life - at the most, it's working the other way round.

Adi Nuvve's plot is outrageously elementary, and the makers drag it so much it's painful to watch - it's like watching individual thought molecules of the writers float around in front of you, none of which is very intelligent. However, since the film is visually well-made, it misleads you into looking like a serious effort.

While all the wooing and the puppy love is okay to watch, it's the whole dance story that takes the cake for being mind-blowingly silly.

The lead pair does a decent job, and Chaitanya looks earnest enough to seem like he's in the wrong kind of flick.

Satyam Rajesh is given the role of the choreographer, and his comedy is mildly funny. Brahmanandam is about as funny as a broken TV remote, and Naresh as the girl's uncle looks indifferent. The songs should be heard only when you're not in the mood.

On the whole, skip Adi Nuvve unless you have tickets to Pluto booked.