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Direction: Dasaradh
Music: Thaman
Greeku Veerudu, which brings back Dasaradh and Nagarjuna together 10 years after Santosham, is an archetypal family entertainer. Just as masala entertainers abide by a formula, there’s an unsaid formula that govern family entertainers. A crisis, a hero who stands up for his family against all odds, a handful of characters designed to make you laugh and a little something for the children. Weave all this together around a love story and you have a film that will end with a picture of a happy family. Greeku Veerudu mostly follows this route.
In 'Greeku Veerudu', Nagarjuna plays the role of rich NRI settled in the US where he lives with his uncle (M.S. Narayana) having cut all ties with his grandfather and family back in India because they had disowned his parents.
The Casanova believes in living the good life with ‘no-strings-attached’ relationship with girls, including his colleague (Meera Chopra). Humiliated and angered by his rejection, she lays a trap for him by tweaking his company agreement resulting in a US court ordering him to pay $5 million to a client. Unable to arrange for the money, he has to accept his grandfather’s proposal to return to India.
On the flight he meets and falls for the pretty co-passenger (Nayantara). They renew their friendship on reaching India. Nag gets a warm welcome from his grandpa (K. Vishwanath) and family. He lies to the family that he is married to Nayantara, but she unwittingly lands up at his place without knowing any of this. She breaks up with him when she comes to know of his colourful past. How he has a change of heart and reforms to win the girl over is what the film is all about.
Of the cast Brahmanandam, Ashish Vidyarthi and Vennela Kishore evoke a few laughs that come as a relief. Nayan puts up a decent performance.
But it is Nagarjuna’s film. He looks younger and more agile and does some intricate dance moves. But the hackneyed plot and the protagonist’s change of heart is just as unconvincing. The film fails to hold interest and might attract only die-hard Nagarjuna fans if at all.
When the story moves to India, we sense a Santosham hangover. There are moments of bonding with the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. By this time, you’d have guessed that the happy family will have a threat (here through Tanikella Bharani) and our hero will have to put aside his selfish needs and rise to the occasion. Again, no brownie points for guessing that he will be a changed man half way through the film.
This predictability of the story would have been easier to overlook had the screenplay been fresh, racy and laced with crisp, witty dialogues. But once the premise is established, the tempo slows down drastically.
M.S. Narayana and Brahmanandam take up the onus of making us laugh and succeed in parts. Remember the comic portions between Nagarjuna and Brahmanandam in Santosham that most of us have watched innumerable times and still laugh? We aren’t sure if the comedy in Greeku Veerudu will have that kind of a shelf life. As we walk out of the film, we remember a few funny lines and forget most others.
Perhaps wanting to have something for the children, there are a few sequences at NASA (enjoyable), at an amusement park (disbelief: the security doesn’t come down heavily on Nagarjuna because he pre-empted a chase to fulfil the wishes of a terminally-ill boy!) and on slow-clad mountains (this one is intended to tug at heart strings, but falls flat).
Carrying this film on their shoulders are Nagarjuna and Nayantara. In his 50s, Nagarjuna looks as fit as actors half his age. Appreciably, the film doesn’t show him as someone in early 20s. Introducing him as a businessman whose company is at least 10 years old (this we learn through a bespectacled office assistant) makes it convincing. Despite the impeccable styling, perhaps for the first time, one can see the age on Nagarjuna. Still, it’s his presence that keeps you hooked when the film loses momentum. He has definitely taken a risk to play a role which is a far cry from his established good-hearted lover boy screen image. Nayantara breezes through her role. Clad in colour-coded saris, she is completely at ease in front of the camera.
The sore points of the film, besides the sluggish screenplay, are the montage shots of New York and cardboard-ish sets of the family home in India. However much the camera stays focused on the characters thus blurring the background, one never gets the sense of watching the proceedings unfold in a real location with all those stock frames.
This is a film you could watch with your grandparents without squirming, but not engaging enough to watch with a group of friends.
Bottom line: A family entertainer
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