An irritatingly innocent love story

Telugu film directors like to showcase their heroes in myriad forms. The one which has not been seen very regularly of late, is that of the protagonist portrayed as a naïve, unworldly-wise kind of a character. Director Teja, who has had a mixed run in the industry tries a contrasting approach in this case – with his hero (Bellamkonda Sreenivas) as a soft, saintly type and heroine (Kajal Aggarwal), a no-nonsense businesswoman who wants to succeed at any cost.

Fate brings these two together as the hero's uncle (K Bhagyaraj, in a cameo) makes him the legal heir of all his riches as he believes it is because of his nephew that he became a great business magnate. The daughter would have none of it and refuses to get any close with her beau-to-be, shown as an inmate in a Buddhist monastery in Sikkim. With her aggression taking full control of her, she crosses swords with a local MLA (Sonu Sood) who wants her at any cost as she agrees to some of his conditions.

However, keeping the formulaic requirements in mind, Teja does not deprive the hero of his action sequences, however, unintentional it is featured. Playing dumb to the point of it irritating the viewers at times, Sreenivas stays faithful to the mindless script which gives more scope for the heroine to display her self-centred ambition of earning Rs 100 crore within a year, come what may. As the final reels unfold, of course, the heroine realises how the man in her life has a heart made of pure gold and all that he wants is to keep his uncle's promise of taking good care of her.

In a sort of retro feel to what can be considered a neither here or there kind of a venture, Teja tries to take a leaf out of the 1986 hit ' Swathi Muthyam' of K Viswanath where Kamal plays a simpleton, which he makes his heroine acknowledge more than once in the film. But then those were days when such films had an audience and a market, with the audience more accepting of normal people playing the title roles. In this era of hi-tech and hyper masala fare, trying to blend both action and emotion, in a bid to be different, cannot work effectively. Hence Sreenivas, with five films before this latest release of his, is yet to find a slot for himself, despite many attempts of his banner to present him even more aggressively with every film.