Movie: Manmadhudu 2
Rating: 2/5
Banner: Manam Enterprises and Anandi
Cast: Nagarjuna Akkineni, Rakul Preet Singh, Samantha (guest), Keerthy Suresh (guest), Lakshmi, Jhansi, Devadarshini, Vennela Kishore, Rao Ramesh and others
Music: Chaitan Bharadwaj
Cinematography: M Sukumar
Editors: Chota K Prasad, B Nageswara Reddy
Producers: Nagarjuna Akkineni, P. Kiran
Direction: Rahul Ravindran
Release date: August 09, 2019
Manmadhudu was one of the favorite films for many among Nagarjuna's movies. When the senior star announced ‘Manmadhudu 2’, it naturally created good buzz and the teasers and trailers of this latest romantic drama have increased the hype.
Has this new romantic drama lived up to all the hype and buzz? Let’s find out.
Story:
Middle-aged Sam (Nagarjuna) is a perfumer and is unmarried. When his mother and sisters insist on getting married, he brings in a girlfriend Avanthika (Rakul Preet Singh).
She has been hired for a fake marriage. But things don’t go as they plan. She runs away as they planned on their wedding but she comes back to his life due to one incident.
Will this rented-girlfriend fall in love?
Artistes’ Performances:
Nagarjuna has played such cool roles in the past and he is believable in this character. There is nothing special about his performance here but one can spot his good looks even at the age of 60. Some dialogues are written about his age and looks, like ‘hot old man’.
Rakul Preet Singh has played the role of Avanthika that has required a better actress. Chinmayee has dubbed her voice and it is like watching Samantha's dialogues with Rakul’s expression.
Lakshmi as Nagarjuna’s mother, Jhansi, and Devadarshini as his sisters and Rao Ramesh have added nothing but cacophony.
Vennela Kishore gets good lines and he is the only saving grace. Samantha, Keerthy Suresh, and Akshara Gowda have appeared in guest roles.
Technical Excellence:
The film has just okay music by Chaitan Bhardwaj. Cinematography is colorful. Editing is neat. Production values and production design are classy but dialogues are not good, most of them are filled with double-entendre.
Highlights:
Nagarjuna
Vennela Kishore comedy
Drawback:
Old theme
Adult jokes
Lousy narration
No emotional connect
Analysis
Even though “Manmadhudu 2” is not a sequel to the much-loved 2002 “Manmadhudu”, people definitely will compare this movie to Trivikram written Vijay Bhaskar rom-com.
Nagarjuna has dared to put the second part of ‘Manmadhudu’ but the movie has not even turned to be half good. In fact, this is lame attempt to cash in on the old movie’s name.
“Manmadhudu 2” is the official remake of a French movie named “I Do”. The story of this French movie is quite clichéd, and also jaded.
What made Nagarjuna think that this would suit his age and image since we have seen such stories done by other actors when he was young?
He is introduced in this film as a perfumer who can smell anything even from the far place, he gets choked when he notices pungent smells. One wonders why Nagarjuna in real-life could not sense that this story and scenes smell bad.
The film has some silly backstory that some people from Andhra went to Portugal and settled there some decades ago. The place they settled is Casandra.
But soon, the people had indulged in reproduction activity as there is no other entertainment back then and made the place an Andhra locality and thus it came to be known as Cas’Andhra’. Why this explanation?
Because the director wanted to add some old Telugu dialogues for Nagarjuna and Lakshmi. He thought this would generate laughs.
There is also silly backstory to Nagarjuna why he has remained bachelor. Because, his mother and sisters scared his first girlfriend Suma (Keerthy Suresh) and who later broke him up with. How lousy is this?
He remains bachelor even when he has become an old-man (this film doesn’t mention his age unlike in the original French movie where protagonist is in early 40’s).
But he keeps indulging in one-night stands with various women because he doesn’t want to do agriculture (marriage) for one meal (sex). Then he has an assistant (Vennela Kishore) and his main job is to bring ‘helmet’ (condoms) when he starts playing ‘match’ with women.
Filled with such lousy adult jokes, double meaning dialogue and over-the-top scenes like Nagarjuna getting a whip from a hooker in a sex bar to Rakul kissing Jhansi, the movie hardly is ‘family-friendly’ movie though it claims to be.
It is acceptable if it is modern love story. But the other scenes are quite jaded, full of clichés and filled with sloppy sentiment. This mix is quite bad.
By end of the movie we feel what Brahmanandam (he did cameo appearance) said in the movie: “I waited 17 years to take revenge”. We feel the same that makers are taking revenge on us when get to watch some awkward situations in the film.
Although Vennela Kishore has tried hard to save the film with his good act and there are some genuinely good laugh out loud movements such as pre-interval episode, the narration is at the most is sloppy and boring.
All in all, “Manmadhudu 2” is not only bad sequel (if it is) to ‘Manmadhudu’ but also bad remake of the French movie “I Do” and it is a misfire.
Bottom-line: Ekkado Teda Kottindi