Review: Madatha Kaja - Sweet and Sour

Hyderabad: For some reason, Allari Naresh has stuck to his image of being a comedy hero and over the last few years, he has been churning innumerable comedies. Most of them actually work and it's quite natural to expect that his films would be outrageously funny, unless stated otherwise.

The biggest crime a comedy film can commit is pushing the audience into boredom. Madatha Kaja does not commit this crime, yet it is so convoluted that you wish that it actually delivered what you were promised.

We have Kalyan (Allari Naresh) as a police informer in Vizag. He falls in love with Swapna (Sneha Ullal) and after some twists and turns, he manages to impress her. Elsewhere, Nanda (Ashish Vidyarthi) is angry that his two associates JP (Jayprakash Reddy) and KP (Ahuti Prasad) are fighting against each other for supremacy.

So, Nanda decides that KP's daughter, Swapna (Sneha Ullal) should get married to JP's son (Subbaraju). When Kalyan comes to know about it, he hatches an ingenious plot to marry Swapna with the consent of his father. How he does it forms the rest of the story.

Directed by Seetharamaraju, the onus of carrying the entire film falls on Allari Naresh. He does a good job in holding the film together with his comic timing, but he has done much better than this in his previous films.

While some of the comedy scenes, especially those involving Naresh spoofing Pawan Kalyan's body language are hilarious, the film runs short of gags after a while.

The film's plot is simple; however, the manner in which the story unfolds leaves a lot to be desired. Most part of the film has Allari Naresh playing silly mind games with the villains to move the story forward. It's only in the climax that proceedings come alive with few more spoofs.

The biggest problem with the film is except for Allari Naresh, the rest of the actors have weak characterization. Ashish Vidyarthi is fantastic in the climax and his entry towards the end lifts the spirits.

Jayprakash Reddy has played comic villains in several films, yet there are very few scenes where he's allowed to flex his acting muscles. Subbaraju is miscast in the role. Sneha Ullal doesn't even try to emote in her scenes, although she's good in the songs.

Raghu Babu and Ali are good in their roles; however, MS Narayana disappoints. Seetharamaraju could have done a much better job in terms of handling the film's story and screenplay. A little more effort in creating better characters and situations could have worked in favour of the film. Sri Vasanth's music is good.

It's difficult to understand why the film has been named as Madatha Kaja. If it's a metaphor for how Allari Naresh behaves in the film and solves the issues, then the essence has definitely got lost in translation.

It is not a bad film but you expect a lot more from an Allari Naresh's film. Except for few hilarious moments, Madatha Kaja is an average film at best.