Raj Tarun has definitely made sure that he has had variety in his movies. Loads of variety, in fact. In
Cinema Soopista Maava, he was a jobless lout who failed Intermediate and fell in love with a girl studying engineering. In
Kumari 21F, he was a jobless lout and fell in love with a girl who was a model. In Seetamma Andaalu Ramayya Sitraalu, he is a jobless lout who's failed Intermediate and falls in love with a girl studying MBBS. See how the girls have different careers in each movie?
However, in all these movies, the girls fall for him. In spite of him being a jobless lout, in spite of him being someone who will steal his grandmom's pension to drink away to glory, in spite of him being a guy who proudly proclaims that he will never work a day to earn an honest living, the girl falls in love with him. Like we wondered when we saw Cinema Soopista Mava, we wonder if this is true in real life.
Seetamma Andaalu Ramayya Sitraalu has Raj Tarun playing Ram, a jobless lout who's failed Intermediate. The only thing Ram does sincerely in his life is loving Sita Mahalakshmi (Arthana), who is a medical student and the daughter of the village president as well. Ram helps Sita out in organizing some medical camps in the village, and the moment she takes a selfie with him, he runs around the village shouting that she's fallen for him. This leads to some friction, and Sita slaps him and tells him that she's not in love with him.
Ram then carries the village goddess' palanquin around the village and walks on a bed of coals while Sita is watching (yes - there is a scene where the guy walks on a bed of coals, and this is the year 2016). Lo and behold, Sita sneaks into Ram's house at night and starts applying salve on his burnt feet, and then proclaims undying love for him.
After this brilliant twist, Sita's dad comes to know of this love story, and promptly fixes her wedding with an up-and-coming cricketer. Ram meets the cricketer and inevitably challenges him to a game of cricket - whoever wins gets the girl.
Now, Ram and his bunch of village louts have to play with said cricketer and his bunch of city louts to win Sita's hand. Sita - being the strong & independent woman that she is - walks up to Ram with a bag full of suicide aids and tells him that she will commit suicide the moment he loses the match.
If you are worried about spoiler alerts you may skip this para, but if you are worried about spoiler alerts for this film, we worry even more for you. Anyway, if you haven't puked yet, the climax of the film will certainly help you along. The match ends in a tie, and Sita is actually asked to pick a chit to decide who she'll marry. And Ram prays God that she picks the chit with his name. And in case you haven't yet realized that both chits have Ram's name on them, God help you.
This extremely regressive story has a leading man who you will not root for, a leading lady who is studying to become a doctor but will allow the flip of a coin to decide who she'll marry, loud and irritating characters, and some crude comedy where people are regularly called "pandi penta nayala" and the hero himself is often called "bakka peenuga". The pace is terrible, and the entire first half goes by just with some loud jokes that might evoke a few chuckles - the girl does not like the guy until nearly half of the second half goes by, and after that, a training song and a cricket match later, it is happily ever after. The entire love story and the challenge are extremely unconvincing.
Raj Tarun is loud and enacts his role exactly the way he did his previous ones. There is not an inch of variation in his costumes, dialogue delivery or diction. Arthana is decent but looks the same in all the songs, and is unlikely to ever make it to the top league. The supporting actors are loud and overact as per the requirement. The only one worth mentioning is Shakalaka Shankar, who delivers some laugh-out-loud lines.
The music is repetitive and sounds the same in all the melody songs. They're also all shot at similar-looking locations - almost like they pictured a few montages in different costumes and cut them into two songs on the editing table. The production values are however decent.
Seetamma Andaalu Ramayya Sitraalu is an abomination that will certainly not give Raj Tarun the history-making fourth consecutive success upon debut that he's awaiting. You can sympathize with him, but if you take that to the extent of watching this one, you'll be sympathizing with yourself.