Nenu Meeku Telusa? | Telugu Movie Reviews

Rating: 3/5
Punchline: what the frock!
Genre: Thriller
Type: Straight
Banner: Sri Lakshmi Prasanna Pictures

Cast: Manoj Manchu, Sneha Ullal, Riya Sen, Nassar, P Vasu, Uttej, Sunil, Brahmanandam, Bharat, Mallikharjuna Rao, Surekha Vani etc

Music: Achu
Dialogues: Tirumala Kishore & Thota Anand
Cinematography: Sunil K Reddy
Art: Ravinder
Choreography: Noble & Yasin
Lyrics: Sirivennela Seetarama Sastry, Veturi, Ajay Sastri
Fights: Manoj & Tim Robbins
Editing: Baswa Paidi Reddy
Digital Editing: Naveen
Production designer: Ashok Kumar Raju
Story - Screenplay - direction: Ajay Sastri
Producer: Lakshmi Manchu
Release date: 10 October 2008

Review

Story

Aditya (Manoj Manchu) has a strange disorder. His memory keeps refreshing every night he sleeps, but he wakes up with a blank mind every day. Only two people (his uncle and his personal doctor) know about his problem. He falls in a situation where he is accused of a murder. The rest of the story is all about how he rescues himself.

Artists Performance

Manoj Manchu: To do a film like 'Nenu Meeku Telusa?' is a brave and risky decision for a guy like Manoj Manchu who has a supporting father and his own banner. Manoj Manchu comes up with a neat performance as a guy suffering from recurring amnesia. His comedy timing is superb and his dialogues gel well with the concept of the film. The risky jumps he has done during the 8 and half minute chase sequence are excellent. His imitation of Mohan Babu and Ravi Teja got tremendous applause.

Other actors: Riya Sen did the role of current love interest of hero. She is pretty good. Sneha Ullal is nice as the college love of the hero. Nassar plays the role of hero's uncle. Brahmanandam entertains as a fashion designer with the punch line 'what the frock!' Sunil is adequate. Surekha Vani's 'Sri Lakshmi Ganapati Films' commentary is entertaining. 

Technical departments

Story - screenplay - direction: The basic plot of the film is slightly inspired by a Hollywood film called 'Clean Slate (1994)'. It is very thin story line and films of this type of story lines should have been told in duration of one and half hour. Since this movie is aimed for two and half hours of duration, the director had to insert some subplots and prolonged flashback which has very little relevance to the main story line. Screenplay of the film is adequate in the first half, but needs improvement in the second half. Direction of the film is good in parts. The director could able to narrate a serious plot in the first half by injecting humor through hero's characterization. The following things are good in the film –

1. The way hero's character is introduced and established.
2. 8 and half minutes exciting yet hilarious chase sequence in the first half.
3. Manoj imitating Mohan Babu.
4. The picturization of enno enno song
5. The Brahmanandam's title rolling scene

The following things should have been taken care of:

1. Hero records his voice in an audio cassette and plays in a tape recorder. And if the tape is gspoiled, the entire exercise is futile. In this modern age, we have the facility of digital recording and computer. The audio tapes of hero are also stored in cassette format in doctor's office. (Probably the director used it for the screenplay convenience.)
2. The chase sequence is superb. But it has nothing to do with the main story of the film.
3. The friend's characters are introduced elaborately in the flashback format. But what do the friends have to do with story of the film? A song followed by a couple of scenes and confrontation would have been fine for the flashback episode.

Other departments: Music of the film is good. The songs that standout in the film are title song and enno enno. Cinematography of the film is nice. But the colors used are very unnatural. The entire flashback episode has bleaching effect which does not look good. The editing cuts are too sharp and they disturb your eyes. The chase sequence composed by Manoj and Tim Robbins is superb. CG work is nice. Production values are good.

Analysis: First half of the film is decent. The tempo in the second half goes down. The climax of the film is alright. The plus points of the film are Manoj's performance and story idea. The negative points are length of the film and unnatural colors. This kind of story should be narrated in 1 and half hours. In order to make this film a two and half hour runtime film, the director had to add more sub plots and extend the flashback. On whole, Nenu Meeku Telusa? is strictly a multiplex film and is meant for elite audiences who look out for the 'out of the box' films. The general crowd might not like it. But the team of NMT must be appreciated for breaking the shackles of doing routine and formulaic films in order to do a different film.

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