‘Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu’ movie review: Where is the humour?

‘It’s all concerning the girls’ might have simply been the tagline of Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu. The lead pair performed by Sharwanand and Rashmika Mandanna apart, the Telugu movie brings collectively Radhika Sarathkumar, Urvashi and Khushboo together with Jhansi, Satya Krishnan, Rajashri Nair and Kalyani Natarajan. Does the script have sufficient meat in it to warrant the presence of all these proficient girls? We will get to that in a bit.

However first, the world of Aadavallu… Chiranjeevi (Sharwanand) grows up within the firm of his mother (Radhika) and aunts who dote on him. They smother him with a lot affection as a baby that he learns to do a tightrope stroll to maintain all of them comfortable. He’s a pleasant man however is in the end pissed off at not discovering a bride who could be permitted by all of them. 

A premise like that may pave the way in which for a narrative with loads of humour. These crackling moments are far and between, like a sip of water to parched throats. For many of the movie, an inescapable tv serial temper hangs within the air. The boys of the home break the fourth wall to start with and inform us that they may seem from time to time and that the ladies will take centre stage. So we get a number of scenes that includes the ladies dressed of their finest and doing the issues that on-screen comfortable joint household girls do — chopping apples or making pickles.

The seven girls who’re portrayed as comfortable homemakers are contrasted by Khushboo as a single mom who helms a small scale business and her daughter Aadhya (Rashmika Mandanna), a lawyer. We don’t get to see Rashmika as a lawyer, because the story is focussed on her private life. There’s one scene the place a girl seeks her assist for a case and one other the place she stares into her workplace desktop, simply to ascertain that she is a working lady. By no means thoughts.

Whereas we all know what troubles Chiranjeevi (there’s an enormous poster of Chiranjeevi from Gang Chief so as to add credence to Sharwanand’s character identify) early on, Aadhya is inscrutable to start with and with good motive. The narrative takes its time to ascertain the rising bond between Chiranjeevi and Aadhya, punctuating it with a hilarious scene the place she buddy zones him in a restaurant. In lots of of those parts, Sharwanand and Rashmika maintain us invested within the proceedings.

The entry of Aadhya’s mom ought to have moved the story into prime gear. But it surely fritters away the chance by selecting the tried and examined route of Chiru getting into Aadhya’s mom’s manufacturing unit to win her approval. Khushboo’s characterisation of a single mom who doesn’t belief males simply rings rather more actual than the opposite seven girls who’re portrayed in a cliched method. We get a touch of Urvashi’s emotional vacuum and why she dotes on Chiru. As for the opposite girls who’ve their daughters, is their love for Chiru primarily as a result of he’s the only male baby within the joint household?

Different subplots are available in as Chiru tries to win the approval of Khushboo. The gag involving Sharwanand and Vennela Kishore in the home of a goon, whereas making an attempt to assist a buddy, ensures laugh-aloud moments. It’s enjoyable to look at Vennela Kishore stringing collectively the names of Malayalam movies to type a gibberish sentence, earlier than shifting on to ‘Manike mage hithe’ and signing off as Shyam Singha Roy. 

The Chiru-Aadhya drama ends solely in spite of everything the ladies have spoken their minds. The arguments are nicely meant — about each Chiru and Aadhya placing their households first and the ladies, given their very own household backgrounds, studying to have a look at different factors of view. But it surely will get melodramatic and boring. In between, as if to distinction the geniality of the ladies in Chiru’s family, we get to see Jhansi as a bitter single mom. Although it’s simple to grasp what makes her the way in which she is, it is a one-note character that doesn’t get a due closure because the story progresses.

The movie scores when it comes to aesthetic manufacturing design and cinematography (Sujith Sarang), however the script wanted some life. Devi Sri Prasad additionally tries to infuse the movie with some mirth together with his music. If solely the movie had extra humour! There’s a pre-interval scene the place Urvashi brings the corridor down. To underutilise an actor like her appears like a felony waste.