'Annapurna Photo Studio', produced by Yash Rangineni of Big Ben Cinemas, will hit the cinemas on July 21. In this section, we are going to review it:
Story:
Sometime in the 1980s Godavari, Chanti (Chaitanya Rao) is an inept videographer who is pushing 40. He is unmarried because his father and even his father, who is an expert astrologer, doesn't seem to have a solution to his bachelorhood. Chanti's life looks bright when he bumps into Gowthami (Lavanya Sahukara). It is love at first sight for him.
But things turn ugly when an evil businessman and Sindhu (Mihirah Gurupadappa) enter Chanti's life out of the blue. Meanwhile, a sincere cop is confused whetehr Chanti is good or bad.
Performances:
Chaitanya Rao Madadi of '30 Weds 21' fame is yet to find a foothood in cinema. His previous film, 'Mukha Chitram', was a dud. The film under review is even more hopeless. To be fair to him, he doesn't let the superficial script water down his performance. His chemistry with Lavanya Sahukara may be artificial but he at least doesn't aggravate the already annoying script.
Producer Yash Rangineni plays a character that doesn't reveal its cards too early. Uttara Reddy and Mihirah as the male lead's sister and relative, respectively, deliver generic performances. The latter's character is so derivative that nothing would have managed to salvage the actor playing it. Viva Raghav, who almost gets a full-fledged role as the male lead's naughty friend, doesn't extract laughs in a single scene even.
Technical aspects:
Composer Prince Henry's 'O Muddhugumma' and 'Rangamma' are the only songs that matter. The background score is stuck in a low-technology photo studio in the era of iPhone. Pankaj Tottada's cinematography is dull.
D Venkata Prabhu's editing needs a separate analysis. The film was conceived as an editing-based narrative. A suicide note running into several pages is read by two characters throughout the film. The pages are jumbled, leading to confusion. However, the editing is so routine that the supposed confusion is not felt by the audience. As the end titles start rolling, the word 'Confusing' is put before 'Story', 'Screenplay' and 'Dialogues'. Sorry, but director Chendu Muddu is confused here. There is no confusion out there. This filmi s as straightforward as it gets.
Post-Mortem:
Director Chendu Muddu, who has previously made 'O Pitta Katha', had set out to make a screenplay-based movie. Either because there he was not clear-headed or because the audience's intelligence was under-estimated, the narrative structure was not tinkered with at the edit table.
A lot of scenes could have been intriguing. The small-town setting made it possible to take the audience on a nostalgic ride. The influence of some yesteryear directors is also visible. But the plain dialogue, the plainer screenplay and the plainest possible plot test the viewer's patience.
The banter between the male lead and his friends, the conversations between the male lead and his playful sister, the JV Somayajulu-like father, and the red herrings thrown around here and there only frustrate the audience member.
Closing Remarks:
Nothing in this film feels original. The title could very well have been 'Annapurna Xerox Centre'.
