Venkatesh and Naga Chaitanya teaming up for the first time is the biggest selling point of Venky Mama. With Venkatesh proving to be a great crowd puller at this age with his F2, expectations are rife on Venky Mama. Did K.S. Bobby deliver the goods?

What is it about?

Venkata Ratnam (Venkatesh) goes in search of his missing nephew Karthik (Naga Chaitanya) and narrates their story to the army officials who question him for trespassing into the restricted zone. What is the reason for Karthik leaving his 'Mavayya' and everyone behind?

Performances:

Venkatesh gets a tailor-made role that not only suits his on-screen image but also his age. The veteran is as energetic and entertaining as always. He shoulders the film with his performance and screen presence while Naga Chaitanya is mostly restricted to do the supporting act. Chay looked good as the army major. Rashi Khanna and Payal Rajput play stereotype female lead characters. Rao Ramesh's character is not etched well. Dasari Arun fails to make an impression. Nasser plays a regular supporting character. Jabardasth Aadi plays Chay's sidekick.

Technicalities:

Bobby picks up yet another regular commercial plot that heavily relies upon the combination craze. Apart from making sure to have all the regular masala elements, Bobby doesn't leaves his mark as a director. He just makes sure to present Venkatesh in a tailor-made role and that's all about it.

Thaman comes up with two peppy mass numbers that are shot well. His background score is just okay. Cinematography is standard. Editing is fine. Dialogues are pretty average. Production values are grand.

Thumbs Up:

Venkatesh

Few Scenes in first half

Two songs

Thumbs Down:

Second half goes downhill

Climax is a dampener

Lack of freshness

Analysis:

Venky Mama is a typical rural drama that offers nothing new except for bringing Venkatesh and Naga Chaitanya together on screen. Director Bobby banked on the real life relationship of both actors and their on screen image to drive home this routine family drama laced with commercial elements that cater to the masses. It starts off with a scene where Venky goes to an army camp in search of his nephew who has left home three years ago.

He narrates the series of events that led to his nephew leaving home and we get to see the bonding between them. Venky Mama dedicates his entire life to bring up his nephew who lost parents as a baby. The kid grows up and now tries to get his uncle hitched to a school teacher. Uncle also makes his attempts to unite his nephew with his girlfriend, who broke up with him. First half runs on these parallel tracks that offers a bit of village humor and then comes a twist at the interval that is totally predictable.

First half is passable for Venky's trademark scenes and some fun moments between the two pairs. Second half gets a bit serious as the uncle and nephew duo gets seperated because of astrology related reasons. Then the story moves to Indo-Pak border and this is where the movie goes totally out of place as the director's limitations get exposed in dealing with army scenes. The climax is laughable in spite of Venkatesh's striking performance.

We expect the film to have at least some freshness given the combination and Suresh Babu as producer, but all we are offered is a regular rural drama with scenes targeted at B and C centers audience. The film's box office fate will rely upon how they embrace it and the 'multi-starrer' aspect.        

Verdict: Very Routine Mama!