'Crazy Uncles' headed to the theatres today (August 19). Here is our review of the comedy entertainer.
Story
Reddy (Mano), Raju (Raja Ravindra), and Rao (Bharani Shankar), who are in their 50s, are good friends who live in a gated community. When they cross paths with a beautiful singer named Sweetie (Sreemukhi), they become horny and seek to have a fling with her without each other's knowledge. Sweetie's personal secretary (Gemini Suresh) arranges a fling for them. Very soon, the three males receive a shock of their life. What is it? Can they come out unfazed from the trap? What are Sweetie's intentions?
Performances
The lead actors are okayish in eliciting laughs where the screenplay makes some sense. Raja Ravindra has tried a funny character after years and he delivers a confident performance. Mano would have been endearing in the rib-tickling role compared to the others had he not gone overboard in portraying the role of an over-cute middle-aged man.
Posani Krishna Murali as a Yoga guru is routine, while Hema, as the wife of a lead man, parodies 'Bathuku Jatka Bandi'. Bandla Ganesh as a film producer plays himself. Comedian Praveen plays an aspiring filmmaker who narrates the story of 'Crazy Uncles' as his own fictional script. Gayatri Bharghavi, Vijaya Murthy and others are part of the cast.
Technical aspects
Director E Satti Babu enlists a decent technical team. Raghu Kunche's music sits pretty with the loud and comical nature of the movie. Balreddy's cinematography is adequate.
The film is concise at about 102 minutes. It doesn't stretch itself although it identifies itself as a comedy entertainer. That's a plus, considering that most of the movies belonging to the genre go beyond 130 minutes.
Analysis
The first act of the movie goes into introducing the three men and their wives. Raju is a real estate broker dealing in litigated properties. His wife is played by Hema, who is shown to be too involved in others' problems. Reddy is a gold merchant who is also a manipulative businessman. His wife is played by Gayatri Bhargavi, who is too much into spiritual thinking (this is shown as an eccentricity and is limited to just one scene). Rao is an old-fashioned financier whose wife has been living separately. Due to different reasons, R, R, and R (as the three men call themselves) have been sex-starved.
Darling Swamy's story and dialogues scratch the surface. The humour quotient is found wanting even in situations with great potential. Sreemukhi is compared to gold biscuit, currency wads and a Duplex house. Her objectification slowly gives way to vacuous situations.
The three men never show extreme tension. They are always on the verge of making us laugh even when they are facing the biggest problem of their life. They have to move heaven and earth to hide their misdeeds from their wives. But they don't seem to be doing that. They behave as if they are loonies with no clue. The ghost element in the second half is not inventive.
Bandla Ganesh doesn't behave like a film producer but as an over-enthusiastic First Day First Show audience. For the sake of surprise, one of the three males should have been projected as a decent guy, whose true colours are outed by Sweetie after the fling. Right from the word go, 'Crazy Uncles' maintains the same tone and tenor.
There comes a point when the mistakes of the 3 R's are whitewashed. The story has been written from the male perspective.
A major drawback is that the film doesn't spend much time building up the wife-husband equations. Therefore, the climax doesn't touch the right chord.
Closing Remarks
'Crazy Uncles' is an avoidable mishap. The old-school comedy misfires, while the emotions are superficial.
