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Mass Maharaja Ravi Teja’s ‘Devudu Chesina Manushulu’ has released today and it has been directed by Puri Jagan. The film has Ileana as the heroine and BVSN Prasad is the producer. Music has been scored by Raghu Kunche. Let us see how the movie is.

Story :

The story starts off with Lord Vishnu (Brahmanandam) promising an entertaining story to Lakshmi Devi (Kovai Sarala) .Ravi Teja (Ravi Teja) is a settlement broker in Hyderabad while Ileana (Ileana) is a taxi driver in Bangkok. Both of them are orphans and they share common likes. Because of an arati thokka (Banana peel) thrown by Papayya (M.S.Narayana) on the road, the story takes a certain direction and Ravi Teja heads to Bangkok to negotiate a settlement between Circle Inspector Subba Raju (Subba Raju) and Bangkok Don Prakash Raj (Prakash Raj). He meets with Ileana in this process and falls in love with her. But at the interval stage, they quarrel and fall apart.

Unhappy with this turn of events, Lakshmi Devi decides to turn time back and prevent Papayya from throwing the arati thokka on the road. What new events happen because of this modification is what the rest of the story is about.

Plus Points :

Ravi Teja is decent in his role and his energy levels are good as always. Ileana looks quite attractive in the film with her shorts and Ray Bans,but she does not have much to do.

Prakash Raj’s performance as the absent minded Don is good. Jyothi Rana looks sufficiently vampish. Ali brings a few laughs as Bangkok taxi driver Goli. M.S.Narayana is seen in a very brief cameo. Fish Venkat is routine.

There are a few entertaining dialogues, like Brahmanandam’s comment on Google search and his interaction scenes with Ali. The songs ‘Nuvvele Nuvvele’ and ‘Nuvvante Chala Ishtam’ have been shot well. Gabriela sizzles in her item song.

Minus Points :

Ravi Teja is not showing any variation in the roles he is picking up. He is a very talented actor (check his performance in Vikramarkudu) and he needs to make better choices. Ileana looks good but her wig selection is bad.

Puri Jagan said something interesting in the audio function of the film. “I made the film without a story”. He was telling the truth. This movie does not have a story, not even something remotely close. The characterizations of all the actors are incomplete and very cliched.

I have quite a number of issues with the film. Brahmanandam and Kovai Sarala are very bad as Lord Vishnu and Lakshmi Devi, even from a comedy perspective. The dialogues are written poorly and do not reflect Puri Jagan’s usual standards. Scenes come in without proper justification.

The romantic track between Ravi Teja and Ileana never really takes off and the viewers will find it hard to connect with their feelings. Prakash Raj is made to look foolish in the second half once he starts calling Ileana ‘chellemma’. And this is hard to digest when in the first half, he lusts after Ileana’s body. Although they are two separate stories, it will be hard for viewers to accept such radical change of feelings within the same film.

The songs tend to come in at abrupt intervals and spoil whatever flow is there in the narrative. This is especially more evident in the second half, where screenplay is quite bad. Subba Raju has carried over the same expressions over from ‘Pokiri’.

The climax block is very poor. It is dragged out needlessly and once again, the sister sentiment card is tried out in a comical way. But it does not come out as intended and it fails to bring any laughs from viewers.

Technical Aspects :

Cinematography is decent. Editing is a major minus and it should have been a lot crisper. Raghu Kunche’s background score does not gel with emotions of the film. His music for songs is good though.

Dialogues are surprisingly poor and Puri Jagan disappoints big time. Direction and screenplay are not upto the mark either and it is almost as if Puri Jagan lost interest in the film. Screenplay technique has been lifted from the Tamil film ’12 B’.

Verdict :

‘Devudu Chesina Manushulu’ is a surprisingly poor offering from Ravi Teja and Puri Jagan. The movie fails to entertain on any level. Strong and hard hitting dialogues are expected in a Puri Jagan movie and he disappoints this time. Except for a few moments of humour and one or two nice lines, there is nothing to rave about in this movie. Perhaps, some respect for the intelligence of the viewers should have been shown.

123telugu.com Rating : 2.25/5

Reviewed by Mahesh S Koneru

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