Review: Sunil falls flat as Mr.Pellikoduku

Even after adding necessary cosmetic changes to suit the taste of the native people and retaining the soul of the original, 'Mr. Pellikoduku' still goes down because the lead characters fall short in giving it the sparkle that Madhavan and Kangna Ranaut did so fabulously with the original - 'Tanu Weds Manu' in Hindi.

Buchchi Babu (Sunil), a boutique owner in US, sets out to India to get married on the insistence of his parents (played by Dharmavarapu Subrahmaymam and Tulasi).

Before meeting his first possible match at Rajahmundry, he gets to escape from small time thugs who are out to transport him to the place where he comes from. Later he has a glimpse of the traditional Anjali (Isha Chawla) before falling head over heels for her.

Both the parents are now devising plans for the marriage and all of a sudden, Babu comes to terms that Anjali is no Muthyalamuggu Sangeetha, but Rangeela Urmila. She meets him and warns him to put off marriage as she's already seeing a guy. With no options left, he does it.

Just when he is about to leave to US minus a suitable spouse, he takes time to attend the wedding of his friend Nair in Kerala. And guess what, Anjali, a friend of Nair's fianc'e, too, arrives there.

A Good Samaritan as he is, Babu turns the travel guide for Anjali showing the picturesque locales of God's Own Country. In due course, Anjali realises what a sweet heart Babu is.

She introduces her fianc'e Raja to Babu and it turns out to be the latter's duty to get them married. However, after the registered marriage goes awry, Babu decides to convince the parents of both Anjali and Raja for a grand marriage which the two parents heed to. Under the circumstances will Babu get his love?

Cosmetics in giving Sunil's core audience some laughter comes at the cost of emotional conflicts of his role and it is here the film sets apart from the Maddy-starrer.

It's the golden rule in filmmaking- never tamper with the character once you established it in a certain way and even if you do so, do it convincingly, but director Devi Prasad fails to get the job done.

His effort in making Sunil generate some laughs when the drama is unfolding falls flat leaving Sunil not to connect to the audience at an emotional level when it was the need. To be precise, impact goes missing.

Add to it, Sunil's act doesn't add to the show. His act of keeping an innocent face at most places in the film looks repetitive from his earlier films. He can take a leaf out of his senior colleague Venkatesh who just effortlessly slips into such characters with restraint and maturity. Even if Venky shifts gears to cater entertainment, he's just spot on balancing the overall role without a glitch. Sunil's outfits may have fitted his role, but not him.

The climax fight where he does a Sallu, shirt off and flexing his muscles, was just filmed to advertise his well-toned body. Did we see it somewhere earlier? The worst part is that action choreographer hardly does a talking job about it. Composer SA Rajkumar has certainly passed his prime and it's evident with his numbers in the film. Compensating Kumar's music was Sunil with his dance moves.

Dialogues like Ee rojullo chethulo cell phone entha commonoo ammailaki boy friend's antha common, Thappadante thappa violenceni encourage chesae mentality kadhu ra nadhi etc keep the film going and sadly such lines can be counted on fingers.

Cast wise, Isha looks good, but is no-match to Kangna. Ali has a full-length character, but looks too old to be Sunil's companion. Raja played by newcomer will go unnoticed. And Ravi Babu, please, you are good behind the camera on any given day- calling shots.

On the whole, for Sunil fans, the film will be a decent outing, but for regular viewers, 'Tanu Weds Manu' can be re-visited second time.