Movie: Raju Gari Gadhi 2
Rating: 2.75/5
Banner: PVP Cinema and Matinee Entertainments
Cast: Nagarjuna, Samantha, Seerat Kapoor Vennela Kishore, Naresh, Rao Ramesh, Vidyulekha, Shakalaka Shankar, Ashwini Babu, Praveen and others
Story: Ranjit Shankar
Dialogues: Abburi Ravi
Music: S S Thaman
Camera: Diwakaran
Producer: PVP Cinema and Matinee
Direction: Ohmkar
Release date: October 13, 2017
With series of hits in recent times, Nagarjuna's movies are being looked forward to. He has been associated with diverse genre of movies made with quality production values and engaging narration. Hence, his doing a horror-comedy evoked interest among all.
Moreover, his daughter-in-law Samantha acting as ghost in the movie added to the hype around ‘Raju Gari Gadhi 2’. Let’s see whether the film lives up to the hype.
Story:
Three friends (Vennela Kishore, Ashwini Babu, Praveen) run a resort. They soon feel the presence of paranormal activities and seek the services of a mentalist Rudra (Nagarjuna).
Rudra informs them that their resort is haunted by a ghost that is waiting for vengeance and is looking for answers to her death.
The ghost is of Amrutha, a law student. Who killed her and why is her spirit hovering around this resort?
Artistes’ Performances:
Nagarjuna in the role of Rudra, the mentalist is well suited. It is a simple role for the experienced actor but his presence makes all the difference.
Samantha gets a meaty role that appears in the second half of the story. Samantha has come up with good performance in a key emotional climax sequence.
Vennela Kishore has generated some good laughs along with Shakalaka Shankar. Praveen and Ashwini Babu are okay. Seerat Kapoor provides the glamour quotient.
Abhinaya impresses once again.
Technical Excellence:
Special effects are the main strength of this movie. Production values and VFX are plus points along with
Thaman’s riveting background score. He has elevated the movie. Cinematography is adequate enough. Though its run time is short, the pace is slow.
Highlights:
Nagarjuna Screen Presence
Samantha's role
Climax sequences
Drawback:
Comedy sequences
Inconsistency
Predictable screenplay
Analysis:
Ohmkar's “Raju Gari Gadhi 2” is the remake of a Malayalam movie “Pretham”. The director begins the story like he did in the first part -- “Raju Gari Gadhi" with comic elements.
The film begins in a routine manner with three youngsters looking for fun in their resort and two of them (Vennela Kishore and Praveen) trying to impress a hot girl Suhanisa (Seerat Kapoor).
The director focuses mostly on this track during the first half. The scenes are quite predictable. There are some laughs but they are not worthy enough to mention. Nagarjuna as mentalist appears just before the interval.
After interval, the film completely turns sluggish with quite boring moments. Thankfully, the momentum is regained towards the penultimate sequences when Nagarjuna starts questioning the suspects of Amrutha's (Samantha) killers.
The method that Nagarjuna employs for the questioning is interesting and also the conversation between Nagarjuna and Samantha's spirit are okay.
Although the film is in the genre of horror-comedy, we see less horror and comedy as it ends as a melodrama. It is as if the film is made for mama-kodalu (Nagarjuna and Samantha). The key conflict of the story is not at all convincing.
The reason for the killing of Samantha is quite an old one. For regular fans of horror-comedy, this movie doesn't offer anything new.
Lack of comedy and clichéd storytelling makes the movie mostly dull except for the presence of Nagarjuna and Samantha. Nagarjuna’s role doesn’t have novelty. Even the reason given for the killing of Samantha lacks effectiveness. So, the film doesn't satisfy entirely.
All in all, “Raju Gari Gadhi 2” doesn't belong to any genre in particular and focuses on all kinds of elements. While the emotional quotient is good in the end, the overall effect leaves much to be desired.
Bottom-line: Ghost Buster!