‘Maa Neella Tank’ series review: The countryside story featuring Sushanth and Priya Anand needed a better script

Lakshmi Sowjanya who directed the Telugu rom-com Varudu Kaavalenu takes a rural detour with the Telugu internet collection Maa Neella Tank (our water tank), streaming on Zee5. She presents a ringside view of happenings in a village with out glossing it over, by means of a motley group of characters. The collection marks the entry of actors Sushanth and Priya Anand into the digital area, accompanied by comic Sudarshan, Nirosha, Prem Sagar, Divi, and others.

Much like the assured and unbiased feminine protagonist in her earlier movie, right here Lakshmi presents a younger girl who desires to reside life on her phrases within the village. The story takes off when Surekha (Priya Anand), who runs a flowery retailer within the village, flees the place to evade the marriage alliance with Gopal (Sudarshan), son of the village sarpanch Kodandam (Prem Sagar) and his spouse (Nirosha). The cop Vamsi (Sushanth) is given the duty of tracing Surekha. It’s by means of the eyes of Vamsi, an outsider, who hopes to get transferred to town, that we see the village and its individuals.

Maa Neella Tank begins with the potential to be just like the Hindi internet collection Panchayat, whereas staying true to the milieu of the Telugu countryside. We’re launched to the numerous characters who collect across the non-functional water tank when Gopal climbs the tank and threatens to leap off it if Surekha will not be discovered. The actual story of why Gopal is besotted with Surekha unravels a lot later. Initially, all we all know is that he’s the village social media star, very like Surekha’s sister (Divi), making reels and movies and aiming for extra followers. 

The water tank is a namesake construction that has not but been made practical to the individuals. Kodandam and his spouse are busy earning profits, whereas their secretary has his personal agenda. There’s a political foe as nicely. The Surekha-Gopal alliance turns into a conduit to serve many functions of those characters; for example, bridging the caste divide is prone to win the sarpanch’s household brownie factors. Surekha’s mom (Bindu Chandramouli) is keener on the wealth her household is anticipated to realize from the alliance, whereas her father (Appaji Ambarisha), although empathetic, does little to assist Surekha. Then there’s the aged woman within the village (Annapurnamma) who has an idli bandi and is aware of all of the happenings. 

The gags within the preliminary parts serve their objective to determine the totally different characters and their quirks. After a degree, the gags get repetitive, the humour dries up and for a very long time, nothing occurs. Like Vamsi who’s biding his time and hoping to maneuver away from the village, we, too, watch in anticipation of one thing attention-grabbing, which doesn’t occur. Vamsi and Surekha are characters that might have been fleshed out method higher to lend extra depth to the story. Sushanth and Priya Anand do what finest they will with the fabric. The row between Sudarshan and his father, Prem Sagar, has just a few enjoyable moments.

Maa Neella Tank is an eight-episode collection that feels at the least two or three episodes longer. When issues take a flip within the final two episodes and the story heads to its logical conclusion, it’s too little and too late to maintain curiosity.