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Chalo
Chalo links:
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Jeevi
rating: 3/5
Punchline: Humorous take on Telugu film formula
Genre: Comedy/Romance/Action
Type: Straight
Banner: Ira creations
Runtime: 145 minutes
Censor Certificate: U/A
Release date: 2 February, 2018
Theater watched: Screen 3, Prasads Multiplex, Hyderabad
Cast: Naga Shaurya, Rashmika Mandanna, Naresh, Posani Krishna Murali, Raghu Babu, Vennela Kishore, Maim Gopi, Praveen, Satya, Viva Harsha, Venu Gopal Rao, Metta Rajendran, Pragathi, Swapni, Sudarshan, Jeeva .etc
Music: Mahathi Swara Sagar
Cinematographer: Sai Sriram
Art: Ram Arasavilli
Choreography : Raghu & Vijay
Action: Venkat
Lyrics: Bhaskarabhatla & Kasarla Syam
Editors: Kotagiri Venkateswararao (Chanti) & Tammiraju
Story, Screenplay & Directed: Venky Kudumula
Producer: Usha Mulpuri
Chalo links: |
Hari (Naga Shaurya) is very fond of fighting. Irritated by his fixation, Hari’s father sends him to join a college in Thiruppuram. That village is divided into half by a fence with each of the halves belonging to Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. There is an age-old rivalry between these two villages. Hari stays in the hostel and falls in love with his classmate Karthika (Rashmika Mandanna) who happens to be the daughter of head of one section. Rest of the story is about the comedy of errors that happens against a violent backdrop.
Actors: Naga Shuurya has done extremely well by balancing comedy timing with aggressive behavior. His comedy timing has improved a lot with this movie and did well in scenes in which he impresses heroine. Rashmika Mandanna who is making debut in Telugu is very cute and she acts well. Two actors (Satya and Vennela Kishore) do stand out in comedy department. Satya is excellent as hero’s buddy and generates very good humor. Vennela Kishore is hilarious as revenge seeking Param with a catchword ‘Rutherford’ (Probably mimicking m******** ***d from Arjun Reddy’s famous dialogue). Though it’s a limited character, Praveen makes his presence felt. RaghuBabu is decent as a sincere principle. Naresh is good as hero’s father. Three village heads enacted their roles well. Youtube actors Sudarshan and Viva Harsha make their presence felt. Posani Krishna Murali episodes as lecturer are also entertaining.
Story - screenplay - direction: Two groups fighting in a village is an age-old formula. Taking this story seriously and making it as a full-fledged commercial film is a foolish idea. Hence the director has made a satire on it by not hurting the intelligence of audiences. Backed by a good writing (both the screenplay and dialogues), debutant director Venky Kudumula narrated the story in a simplistic manner by sprinkling humor at regular intervals. The way he narrated the climax is innovative. At the same time, heroine should have been presented in an endearing way. The love thread doesn’t appear engaging enough. But, he has the ability to create fresh comedy out of scenes that appear routine.
Other departments: Cinematography by Sai Sriram is good and visuals are glossy. Music scored by Mahathi Swara Sagar is very good. There are 4 songs in the first half and most of them look forced. My personal favorite is the melody ‘choosi choodagane’. Background music is very good. Dialogues written by the director Venky Kudumula are big plus to the film (especially comedy one-liners like ‘varada badhitulu - pulihora potlalu’, ‘oka doma kudithe, all out petti migita domana meda revenge’ etc). Art direction is good. Editing is fine. Production values by the debutant production house Ira Creations are excellent. 
Analysis: First half of the movie is fun with an interval twist. Second half lags a bit in the middle. But humor and an out-of-box climax makes up for it. Plus points of the film are casting (especially Naga Shourya, Rashmika, Satya and Vennela Kishore), humor and dialogues. On the flipside, a more lovable heroine characterization and an engaging love story might have helped the film immensely. People who doesn’t look at it as a satire on routine stories might end up thinking that this is a routine film. On a whole, Chalo is a humorous take on a Telugu film formula!