The movie is a throwback to the typical rural comedies with a nice coming of age angle. Naveen Polishetty who is also the dialogue and screenplay writer does a fine job in entertaining the viewers. The transformation of Raju in becoming a more socially conscious person has come out well. The election portions are a hit and miss nevertheless AOR makes for some harmless fun
Starcast: Naveen Polishetty, Meenakshi Chaudhary, Chammak Chandra, Mahesh Achanta, Rao Ramesh and others
Genre: Comedy/drama
Story, screenplay and dialogues: Naveen Pollishetty
Director: Maari
Producers: Suryadevara Naga Vamsi and Sai Soujanya
Production Companies: Sithara Entertainments and Fortune Four Cinemas
Music: Mickey J Meyer
Cinematography: J. Yuvraj
Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes
Naveen Polishetty’s latest venture has a significant hangover of Nani’s Pilla Zamindar in more ways than one. The backdrop of a royal family and the short cut nature of the heroes is the same. The second half with the villagers’ problems and Raju jumping into election bandwagon for his own selfish gains and how the eventual transformation happens plays out in a certain template. Nevertheless, AOR makes for a breezy watch primarily because of Naveen Polishetty’s treatment of a repetitive plot point.
The story of AOR in simple terms focuses on a young man from a royal family, the once rich family is in a somewhat improvised state now. When Raju goes for the relatives rich wedding, he faces humiliation from an aunt. This makes Raju extremely angry, and he makes a vow of marrying a rich girl himself and challenges that he would give the first wedding card to her. Enter Meenakshi Chaudhary’s Charulatha a seemingly naive girl falling for Raju. Things go smooth in fact too smooth for Raju, but the interval twist changes everything. What is that twist and how things unfold when the real intentions of Charulatha and her father come out forms the basic premise of Anaganaga Oka Raju.
It goes without saying that Naveen Polishetty is the biggest backbone of the movie. He completely justifies the tag of a star entertainment not just as an actor but also as a screenplay and dialogue writer. Most of the jokes work because of the actor’s timing and the energy he brings. The combination scenes with Mahesh Achanta and Chammak Chandra are especially a riot. The entire track of operation Charulatha is outright hilarious. There is a Bahubali like scene with Naveen emerging out of water with a dog. The conversation that follows is very humorous. Sankrantiki Vasthunam child actor Bheemla Revanth Pavan Sai Subhash is an important part of this sequence. His dialogues with Naveen adds to the fun quotient. At the same time, he is also successful in bringing out Raju’s transformation. A key emotional sequence with Meenakshi is a solid example of this.
Meenakshi Chaudhary as Charulatha is also fun to watch whether it’s her obsession with K Dramas or being an extreme dog lover. Her character starts off as someone who appears very naive, but the post interval portions bring out a different side making the movie more interesting. The marriage portions are somewhat hurried, and better writing was needed to develop the emotional bond nevertheless the chemistry between the two make up for the weak writing.
The election portions also have some funny moments particularly the initial scenes of Raju trying to win the confidence of the villagers. There is the track of a padayatra resembling real life incidents and the humorous depiction of countryside problems like lack of good doctors and water among others is narrated in a fun satirical way.
How Raju uses Instagram reels as a way to bring awareness is definitely innovative. The portion of press conference with Naveen trying to imitate a key scene from Mahesh Babu’s Bharat Ane Nenu raises many chuckles as well.
However the problem lies in the track of a weak antagonist, both generically written and performed. This was also a problem with Anil Ravipudi’s Mana Shankara Vara Prasad too. The tonal shift from comedy to serious feels abrupt too. A smoother flaw in the second half was needed.
Mickey J Meyers music is fairly fine but a special number in the middle of second half sticks out like a sore thumb. Among the supporting cast Rao Ramesh is underutilized nevertheless he is successful in bringing out the desperation of a once rich man.
Final word: Angangana Oka Raju is a treat for Naveen Polishetty fans and those looking for typical rural comedies
