Sarada Saradaaga Review

Sarada Saradaaga is Maine Pyaar Kyon Kiya in Telugu and in slow-motion. Every joke is dilated till it becomes a study in the construction of a joke itself, rather than humor. Tollywood seems to be better at keeping humor as a minor side-track, like a pair of Hanes briefs peeping fashionably over low-cut Jeans. But when the whole underwear is on display, it obviously ceases to titillate.

In Sarada Saradaaga, the entire plot is a jumbo joke, and so this time, you really have to think to laugh. S V Krishna Reddy is trying unsuccessfully to ascend to the realm of intellectual humor, and like the Trishanku of the legends, is forced back to sublunary realms. The pratfall, toilet humor is completely missing, yet there is nothing to replace that. So, what are we talking about here?

Well, Sarada Saradaaga steals its plot from MPKK as we said. Raghava (Srikanth) is an irresistably sexy doctor (or so we are to believe) who is hotly pursued by every female eye that sets its sights on him. In order to get him unentangled from the constant and unwanted attention, his secretary Ali (Ali) tells every girl that he is already married. That seems to work just fine until Lavanya (Sindhu) drops by one day and Raghava falls madly in love with her at first sight. This time, too, Ali goes and tells her the same story, thus unintentionally leaving a pretty kettle of fish for him to sort out.

Now, in order to prove that he is still eligible for Lavanya, Raghava has to involve his fictitious wife Siri in a love affair with another guy. This other guy is Subba Rao (Rajendra Prasad), also the mastermind behind the whole madness. All in all, there are three couples cross-connecting into total mayhem. All the trimmings of a crazy tussle - accusations, tears, slaps and punches - fly up in the air like boots and hats in a roadside scuffle.

The premise is funny of course, but it is in execution that Sarada Saradaaga sells you down the river. The surprise at the discovery of newer twists in the plot brings some slight mirth to the comatose state you are in, but there are long periods where the only weak attempt at humor is the characters speaking in an exaggerated, comic way, as if trying to make a toddler laugh.

Like we said, Tollywood specialises in humor as a sidetrack, and that proves itself when a fringe story about a murderer (M S Narayana), and the police chasing him, turns out to be hilarious. Sunil plays an out-of-work man who is conning the police for some money to get by till he lands a job. The humor sub-plot within the main movie works wonders, and when it ultimately joins the main track, it creates an effect of consonance for some much awaited laughs.

Overall, Sarada Saradaaga is as loosely knit, full-of-holes and ineffective as your most fashionable crochet shawl. Don't let the title or the cast mislead you, 'cause here is a typical case of experimenting with all the old ingredients and botching up the age-old and favourite family recipe for pie.