Thanu Nenu: Juvenile journey

A scene from the film

It looks as if the producer had the heroine’s dates available, a new talent willing to be launched as a hero and the producer himself wanted to try his hand at direction, and so the project got going. Also the title Thanu Nenu appears to be a lazy choice after having watched the entire film. ...the producer-cum-director probably wanted to say that it is a story of the boy and the girl trying to find true love.

It’s plot is of a youth who grows up at his grandmother’s home, hates his parents and all things American since his parents went abroad and left him when he was a child. He works at a call centre, abuses his offshore Indian client and is fired.

His girlfriend gets a visa but cancels it for love. Just when everything seems rosy, she gets to know something about the boy and leaves to the US just to avoid him. The rest of the juvenile and silly plot is about how they both get back together.

What is puzzling is why the girl dumps the boy. It is appalling that a writer can think of such a staggeringly hopeless nucleus that is neither funny nor serious.

The portrayal of the priest at the temple was in bad taste, the character tries too hard to amuse. The first half of the film is a character sketch of the hero, more time has been spent showing his aversion for USA bound people rather than the void in his heart. There are sporadic gags and laughs but suddenly the characters are inconsistent, one who speaks with an accent suddenly reverts to normal Telugu.

Ravi Babu plays an eccentric and sadistic character but his role ends rather abruptly. Rest of the characters too perform enthusiastically though the story runs slowly.

The film is genuine and unpretentious, it doesn’t try to give out anything except a silly fulcrum. Avika’s screen presence helps to a large extent; it’s sad that she is confining herself to superficial roles after an impressive debut. The audience will take time to get used to newcomer Santosh Sobhan’s look, he vaguely reminds one of Srinivas Avasarala. However he shows a lot of ease. The screenplay is too conventional and music is okay and cinematography is the saving grace.

Thanu Nenu

Cast: Santosh Sobhan, Avika Gor

Direction: Ram Mohan

Music: Sunny

Bottomline: Painfully slow