Manalo Okkadu

Manalo Okkadu could use a better director and a better protagonist, and reminds you of that all through. The movie looks confused about what it wants to be: a morally charged take on the media's TRP-greed and repugnant practices, or a chronicle of a helpless commoner's plight in the face of this ethically deficient system, or a satire on a sad state where spoofs on the subject are dangerously close to reality. A movie could be all of these at the same time and this one tries to be, but the effort cannot go beyond good intentions.

As soon as a film resorts to black-and-white char....