Current Teega Review

And the Manchu family saga continues. The Bhatts of Tollywood churn out yet another unrepentantly generic film that attempts to pack in something for everyone. Elder brother Vishnu produces this one while the younger one Manoj acts in it. The film is the official remake of a Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam, a runaway hit in Tamil. After seeing the remake, though, it seems like our makers should've let the original be.

The film is set in Parvatipuram. Sivaramaraju (Jagapati Babu) is the patriarch of the village. The film begins with Sivaramaraju being arrested for the murder of his daughter and her lover. It then moves into flashback mode showing the love story between Sivaramaraju's daughter Kavita (Rakul Preet Singh) and the village vagabond Raju (Manoj). What obstacles did Raju face in his love (DUH)? Did Sivaramaraju really kill his daughter and her lover (DUH DUH)? These and several other mundane questions are answered during the course of the movie.

Current Teega suffers majorly from a lack of consistency in tone. The film fails to decide what it wants to be - there is a comic undertone to proceedings but things turn vehemently sentimental in a few instances, and the action sequences are more suited to a Rajamouli movie. There is a scene where Manoj and his father are crying their hearts out and consoling each other, which ends with Manoj's father suddenly saying "Go drink - no sentiment, only entertainment".

There is also no consistency in the characterization of the actors. Manoj flips between being super-human, super-sentimental and super-comedian, and Jagapati Babu flips between villain and comedian.

Rakul Preet Singh does the usual Tollywood heroine shtick, while Sunny Leone's much hyped appearance lasts all of 10 minutes. Sampoornesh Babu, the new superstar, plays a cameo that will leave you in splits.

Manoj uses his favorite music director - Achu - and composes the stunts himself, like in all of his films. The technical values are quite mediocre, with some of the scenes appearing unfinished. The cinematographer too adheres to the lack of consistency reflected in the rest of the film, with some slick visuals and some looking like they were shot on a 2 megapixel camera. The production values are also quite mediocre - the budget of the whole film does not appear much more than what they reportedly paid Sunny Leone for her guest appearance.

Current Teega is a bit like the power situation in Telangana these days - intermittent bursts of power amid several power cuts. Go if you are a Manchu family follower - else, Happy New Year is a better choice. Yes, like that.