Around interval time in Nuvvu Nenu, your biggest concern as a reviewer is that
if you are going to rate this a 1 star, then you are wronging some other films
that are classics in comparison. Like, how can the difference between
Yaadein
and Nuvvu Nenu be just 1 star? Shucks, Yaadein appears awesome now - it has great
actors, great dancers, great cinematography, great choreography... See, most Indian
cinema is actually pretty good. You only need to have the right perspective. Watch
some utter crap, that is.
Nuvvu Nenu is a pathetically narrated tale of two college students who fall in
love and unite against all odds. Ravi (Uday Kiran) is the only son of his very
rich Dad who can't think beyond money. Ravi is a college student, and is quite
good at sports. Part of a typical college gang, he's mostly fooling around, though
thankfully the gang here is actually pretty decent, and isn't into lecturer-heckling
or eve teasing. In fact, they are bullied and made fun of by the girls of the
college, led by Vasundhara (Anitha).
Vasu hates Ravi but is suddenly impressed by him just because he dances around her in a song. Then she's into tutoring him, and before you can say yo, they're in love. The problem is that Vasu is the daughter of Shankar Yadav (Tanikella Bharani), a milkman and goon. Of course, Ravi's Dad doesn't love this lineage, and gets Yadav beaten up by the cops themselves, and Yadav hates the rich man and his son.
The rest of this tale is Ek Dooje Ke Liye for a while, QSQT for some more, and unabashedly banal all through. The two are imprisoned by their folks after being conned into agreeing to stay away for a year, and they both run away and unite and start staying together on the outskirts of some village. But, of course, they won't be let alone. We wish we could say the climax was unimaginative - only, that would be wrong. It has some unbelievable imagination.
The biggest problem of Nuvvu Nenu is the performances. Its 'hero' just can't act.
It's surprising how a producer can put big money behind someone so patently untalented.
When he opens his mouth, you feel sorry for the dialogues. There is any number
of times when he spoils what could have been some good scenes. And he has this
"why are you doing this to me" kind of woeful look nearly all through that gets
on your nerves. You wonder how this guy got past the screen test. It's okay to
say you should be encouraging to newcomers, but this is not his first film, and
you care more for the money you spent on the ticket.
Anitha doesn't look great, and a lead actress needs a lot of talent to make up for that deficiency, which is far from the state of affairs here. Tanikella Bharani is, in a rather truncated role, good in spurts (he has some good dialogues), and his and Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam's are perhaps the only decent performances. Oh yes, Telangana Sakunthala plays a vile harridan with some vigor.
The tale is so bereft of any originality in any part, you can't believe it came
from the same guy who made
Chitram.
The college scenes at the beginning have a little bit of humor, but just a little
bit. The
music
is good, and is the only redeeming feature of this flick. And oh yes, that perspective
thing. Like we said, this is a good way to appreciate the rest of Indian cinema.