"Greeku Veerudu" Telugu Film Review

"Greeku Veerudu" is a rehash of past films and despite  familiar tweaks, is going to be a forgettable film of Nagarjuna. Nag is a vagabond businessman in America who only believes in living life without commitments and value for relationships. His philistine ways land him in a financial mess, and he suddenly gets a missed call from his native place in AP to let his ailing grandmother catch last glimpses of him. He takes off with Nayanatara who happens to be his bete noire's (Aashish Vidyarthi) sister. The sparks fly and Nag ropes her in to play his wife. The family bonds with him and he makes amends with some familiar drama. I have never seen a film where a director (Dasaradh) has cannibalised so many of his own films  - "Sambaram", "Santosham", "Mr.Perfect" in order to create an umpteenth version of sentimental, sick family drama. He has remixed a few of scenes of "Athadu" and "Manmadhudu". The travails of the film do not end there and I will spare you the onslaught I faced for 150 minutes with a feeble mention of the tortures inflicted.

They used what is called "Demat" (sounds like a Stock Exchange term) technology to shoot sequences in US - New York and San Francisco. But what I noticed in credits is a mere mention of Zurich Airport whereas most of the American shots are all floor-adjusted in a clearly visible frame looking out of sync. For example, the Statue of Liberty is shown as a fixed shot but it looks dangerously similar to our own Tank Bund Buddha statue. NASA space centre is shown with graphics like you are floating in Birla Planetorium. Entire sequences are shown with backgrounds suggesting Europe (must be in Switzerland) but the background is meant to be in the US. It is obvious that producer of Kamakshi Movies - good friend of Nag - has cut corners with everything to give the sloppiest film of his career. Despite his 800-calorie diet and botox injections, Nag looks woefully old like never before in this movie which has an oft-beat role of lover boy-turns-saint. His body language also looks inept - in some scenes with Nayanatara and K.Vishwanath, he doesn't know what to do with his hands - the typical dilemma of a public speaker. Comedy with MS Narayana and Brahmanandam is inspid because Dasaradh uses an over-familiar terrain to crack lewd jokes and cheap tricks with Kovai Sarala in remix of blockbuster duets. When a director is overawed by the starcast and a Superstar, he will get a performance worthy of rotten tomatoes. Thats the bane of this film - something that fan-serving websites and star-struck reviewers will never accept. Watch it if you are a hardcore fan  - atleast there are a few good songs and one by S.P.B in which he creates new steps. For others, including Nayanatara and Kota and Brahmanandam and MS Narayana and Aashish Vidyarthi, this is not going to be a film to remember. Thaman SS scores a few good songs but seven songs will breed contempt in a film elongated with needless sequences, lazy shots, cheap photography and deadpan dialogues. It should be a below-average film that deserves no better than 2 out of 5.