Movie: Chal Mohan Ranga
Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: Sresth Movies, Pawan Kalyan Creative Works
Cast: Nithin, Megha Akash, Naresh, Lissy, Rao Ramesh, Madhunandan, Pragathi, Satya, Ashu Reddy, Kireeti and others
Story: Trivikram
Music: Thaman
Cinematography: N. Nataraja Subrahmanian
Editing: S.R. Sekhar
Choreography: Sekhar V J
Producer: N. Sudhacar Reddy
Written and Directed By: Krishna Chaitanya
Release date: March 30, 2018
Even though Nithin’s previous film “LIE” was a dud, his latest movie “Chal Mohan Ranga” created good buzz thanks to the impressive trailers and catchy songs. The names of Pawan Kalyan as co-producer and Trivikram as writer also raised expectations.
Let’s find out whether the film has lived up to expectations or not.
Story:
Mohan Ranga (Nithin) likes a girl in his childhood in his locality but she soon moves to the USA from Hyderabad. At the age of 24, he tries to go to the USA for job but his visa gets rejected multiple times.
Luckily, he gets the chance to leave for the US when some NRI’s ask him to bring their mother’s dead body to their place.
In the US, he accidentally meets Megha (Megha Akash), the same girl he liked when he was kid. Series of incidents bring them together and they start liking each other.
One day they decide to propose each other but destiny plays a trick. She moves to her home town in India – Ooty. Few months later Mohan Ranga too comes down to Ooty to meet her but she is getting married to another guy.
What happens next?
Artistes’ Performances:
Nithin always does fun-filled characters with ease. This is his 25th movie, he has matured enough as actor to portray these kind of roles convincingly. He is faultless though his characterization is not proper.
Megha Akash has come up with decent performance. Madhunandan and the guy who played the role of Pammi are okay.
Rao Ramesh in brief role leaves quite an impression. Lissy as mother is just okay. Naresh as Nithin’s father has got noticeable character.
Technical Excellence:
The first thing that impresses us on technical side is Nataraj Subramanian’s camerawork. He has shown amazing standards in both USA episode and Ooty sequences.
Music by Thaman is a mixed bag – couple of songs are good but the background score leaves much to be desired. Though dialogues are written by director Krishna Chaitanya, they sound like Trivikram’s.
Some dialogues are impressive but the scenes are not. Editing is big drawback. The editor seems to have slept at many occasions.
Highlights:
First half
Some comedy scenes
Nithin
Drawback:
Predictable story, screenplay
No emotional connect
Lengthy scenes
Routine second half
Analysis
The combination of Nithin and director Trivikram gave us hit movie “A Aa”. Even though the story of “A Aa” was quite familiar (copy of “Meena”), the narration was engaging and emotions were right.
It was right film for Nithin to move to the next level. It is understandable that why Nithin asked Trivikram to pen the script for his 25th movie, that is “Chal Mohan Ranga”.
Sadly, Trivikram needs time to cool off as he has not been able to write fresh ideas these days. After “Agnyaathavaasi”, “Chal Mohan Ranga” proves that he is stuck in his old thoughts.
The basic script for this film is provided by Trivikram and screenplay, dialogue and direction is done by Krishna Chaitanya but the film carries the imprint of the former.
The theme of destiny playing role with lovers has already been explored in many movies earlier and recently series of movies have come: “Hello”, “Tholi Prema”, “Malli Raava”. Since we have seen those in the gap of just six months, the scenes in “Chal Mohan Ranga” do not provide any excitement. The screenplay has gone on expected lines.
The director has focused more on comedy and fun elements than the emotional connect which is a huge drawback. To be fair to this movie, some comedy scenes are hilarious, some one-liners have evoked smiles. However, the core point of the plot lacks appealing factor.
In “Tholi Prema”, music and the terrific chemistry between the lead pair made the film an engaging watch. Music and tight screenplay had carried the mood in Varun Tej’s film, here the pace of the film is slow and there is no sizzling chemistry either. The music by Thaman is not that good except for two songs.
Despite all this, the first half of the movie is decent and has provided some good fun. Trouble begins when the movie shifts to Ooty-Coonor, the sequences with psychologist and party episode are stretched beyond a limit. Luckily, the film finally comes back to the groove in the climax part.
In the very beginning the director puts a dialogue that if it happens first time, it is an accident, it repeats again then it would certainly happen the third time. He leaves enough signs throughout the movie how the lovers are destined to unite. But these should have been told in effective way.
Trivikram-mark dialogues, Nithin’s hard work and some comedy scenes have worked out but the film’s narration is mostly flat. "Chal Mohan Ranga" may seem time-pass watch but it lacks 'kick' a movie requires.
Bottom-line: Lacks Punch