Movie: Alludu Seenu
Director: V.V Vinayak
Cast: Srinivas, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Brahmanandam, Prakash Raj, Pradeep Rawat, Tanikella Bharani
Rating: *1/2
A first time actor’s best launchpad has been time and again dubbed as an excuse to churn an age old love story or a full-on masala show reel. The debutant having access to extravagant finances permits him to milk the best of costumes, popular heroines, character artists and technicians at his helm. Within the balloon, the director makes him do everything amidst an opulent setting that would have been an established actor’s dream do to please his so-called fan base much later with his might. Thereby, Bellamkonda Sreenivas is forcibly fit into the cramped commercial space to outdo the other stars on the block which can’t happen with a film as contrived as Alludu Seenu. He is skittled in a territory alien to his limited skill set and doesn’t have an ideal showcase even after all the resources dumped to make it seem otherwise .
The writer duo of Gopimohan and Kona Venkat wants to prove a point with senselessness in commercial cinema. Having tasted success in the past, they feel so comfortable within the confines of reducing their antagonist to a bunch of jokes, finding multiple ways of fooling them film after film by a caricatured hero aided by another set of buffoons. With the involvement of mafia and a familial betrayal flashback, Alludu Seenu from a city backdrop in the first half shifts to Dubai. Brahmanandam in a sequence before the climax in a humorous dialog requests to spare him some limelight from the lead actor. But hasn’t he been doing that for ages now ?
VV Vinayak leaves him with no choice. He had been bestowed to do the film saving act for at least a dozen directors in the past. After all, why not now ? It’s the audiences who get to suffice it wearing the convenient mask of being entertained. Seenu is an orphan and his girl, played by Samantha is a daughter of a goon. The lead hero in most of the critical situations skips his facial expressions. His eyelids are determined to stay still. He is a mandatory inclusion to every scene and in the name of stretching this to portray his knee-twister act, the songs barge out of nowhere as an only outlet to his gymnastic repertoire. Not for a moment you’re sure to see his ability to carry a scene, save a film.
Alludu Seenu is not meant to have anything out of the world. You only need a small proof of a reimagined plot to sustain the producer’s quest for a rerun of most commercial entertainers in the town. This could have marched closer to what the recent Ra Ra Krishnayya accomplished without much gloss or aura. Wish the film and its lead actor had even half of Devi Sri Prasad’s energy with the songs or at least the desperately visible enthusiasm of Prakash Raj and Brahmanandam. Most of the conventional obligations are its foes. The amateurish graphic backgrounds, larger than life song locations and sets scream for some life. And you ? As disappointed as the popcorn and your wallet for not having found some ideal company.
Image courtesy: Wikipedia
Review by Srivathsan N. First published in Cinegoer.net
