Story

Hari (Ram) falls in love with Sailaja (Keerthi Suresh) when they are kids at Araku. Hari happens to see Sailaja again in Vizag when they are adults. Neither of them know that they are childhood buddies. Hari falls in love with Sailaja afresh. He then impresses upon Sailaja and become very close. Just when he proposes to her, she says a strange dialogue (I love you. But, I am not in love with you) and rejects him. Rest of the story is all about why she has rejected him and what he has done to gain her back!

Artists Performance

Ram: Ram gave impeccable performance as Hari in this movie. The characterization is peppy and smart. His dialogue delivery makes those philosophical and satirical dialogues sound highly convincing. There is a 2-minute fun dialogue in climax that sums up the entire film. Ram has delivered that dialogue without any break and makes sure that we are entertained by it. He is extremely natural. His dances in Sailaja song are effortless and we concentrate on lyrics while watching his dances. If you are annoyed that Ram is going too massy with selection of his films recently, this film will be a surprise.

Other actors: Keerthi Suresh has a pleasing personality with broad shoulders. But her characterization allows limited emotions and controlled expressions. She has done well in that controlled space. Satyaraj plays father of heroine and performs well as a man who is misunderstood by father and daughter. Sudigaali Sudheer gets a lot of space in first half as friend of hero and he does well. Naresh, Pragathi and Rohini played roles of parents. Vijay Kumar is seen on Telugu screen after a considerable gap. Pradeep Rawat who has done a comic role as ‘Maharishi’ failed to generate comedy because it would have worked if a Telugu actor who has grip in Telugu dialect and native expressions were cast in that role. Srimukhi is good as Ram’s twin sister. Prince has done a special role and he is good too.

Technical departments

Story - screenplay - direction: The basic story has two angles to it. One is love story that starts off at a tender age. The other one is the daughter-father conflict. Movie starts off with both the aspects. First half caters to the love story with an interesting interval twist. Second half majorly concentrates on the family bonding. Kishore Tirumala who has made his debut with Second Hand film has directed this movie. He has a nice perspective about love and human relations. He has handled the first half that deals with love in an interesting way. However, he goes into safety mode in second half by writing family bonding episodes (hero coming to heroine’s house while heroine is getting ready to marry another guy. Then hero resolving issues in family and impressing everybody around) which are pretty much give deja vu feeling. The directors ends up the film on a positive note. It’s commendable that the director didn’t resort to forced comedy episodes and spoofs (except for Pradeep Rawat’s episode).

Other departments: Songs scored by Devi Sri Prasad are good. My personal favorite is Nuvvenduku Maaraavu Sailaja? It has got the perfect situation, nice picturization and simple yet effective lyrics by Bhaskarabhatla. We expect a better background music from DSP. Major highlight of the movie is the dialogues written by the director Kishore Tirumala. They are philosophical, yet pleasant like Trivikram. Movie is mostly in conversational mode. Kishore has written long dialogues, but they never appear verbose. Cinematography by Sameer Reddy is decent. Art direction by AS Prakash is good. Editing by Sreekar Prasad is flawless. Fights in the film are crisp and blended well in story without being speed-breakers. Production values by Sravanthi movies are good.

Analysis: Nenu Sailaja is a well-thought project from Ram who has been doing completely mass movies in recent years. It has freshness in first half and a familiarity in second half. Plus points of the film are freshness in first half, beautiful dialogues and Ram’s perfect portrayal. On the flip side, second half gives you a deja vu feeling. But, it’s wrapped up in a positive fashion, On a whole, Nenu Sailaja has ingredients that work at box office and it’s a refreshing movie for Ram.