Punchline: Weak story with a few good laughs
Genre: Romance
Type: Straight
Banner: Anandi Art Creations & Keva Movies
Cast: Nani, Anu Emmanuel, Priya Shri, SS Rajamouli(SA), Raj Tharun(SA), Sathya, Vennela Kishore, Saptagiri, Posani Krishna Murali, Satya Krishna, Sivannarayaja, Raj Madiraju, Kesavadeep, Anupama, Manisha etc
Music: Gopi Sunder
Cinematography: Gnana Shekar V.S
Dialogues: Mirchi Kiran
Editor: Prawin Pudi
Lyrics: Ramajogayya Sastry & Srimani
Art: Ashok
Story, Screenplay & Direction: Virinchi Varma
Producers: P.Kiran & Golla Geetha
Release date: 23 September, 2016
Review
Story
Majnu Aditya(Nani) falls in love with Kiranmayi(Anu Emmanuel) at first sight in Bheemavaram. He joins her college as a lecturer to get acquainted with her. They fall in love and then they break-up on flimsy grounds. He moves to Hyderabad and joins as an assistant director to Rajamouli. He falls in love with another girl Suma(Priya Shri). Rest of the story is all about what happens when he realise that his feelings for Kiranmayi are still alive.
Artists Performance
Majnu review Actors: Nani gives another breezy performance as a guy who is stuck in love despite breaking up with his girlfriend. His witty dialogue delivery and casual demeanor helps in portraying the character of a man in love so effortlessly. Anu Emmanuel and Priyasri are okay as heroines. Satya gets a lengthy role as hero’s friend and he does well. Vennela Kishore is highly entertaining in the role of a Mumbai cabbie. Both Nani and Vennela Kishore have a perfect comedy timing when they do it together. Posani Krishna Murali is pretty good though his scenes are limited. The girl who acted as heroine friend also succeeded in providing some entertainment(especially while crying while question by lecturer). SS Rajamouli acts so naturally as the boss of Nani and provides a few laughs. Raj Tharun gives a special appearance though the characterization is ineffective. Saptagiri plays a small part.
Technical departments
Majnu review Story - screenplay - direction: Story of the film seems interesting to start with. But the latter part of the story where hero rekindles love in his ex-flame is uninteresting. The screenplay is good in first half with an interesting interval twist. The screenplay in second half is flat. Director Virinchi who has delivered an engaging village family entertainer Uyyala Jampala as his debut has shown his poeticness in this film too. The college love episodes are handled well. Few of fun moments generate good humor. His fascination for Ilayaraja is evident as he uses Ilayaraja songs as background music in few scenes. The way he conceived the ‘navarasalu’ swimming pool episode is hilarious. However, he fails to engage us in second half though the ending of the film seems reasonable. The reasons for break-up are not convincing enough. The director didn’t distinguish flashback scenes from the current scenes in the second half which led to a bit of confusion.
Majnu review Other departments: A couple of songs(Kanulu Moosi in particular along with Jare Jare) scored by Gopi Sunder are very melodious. Background music is pretty good. Visuals by cinematographer Gana Shekar.V.S are eye-pleasing. Dialogues by debutant Mirchi Kiran are excellent. He adds wit and substance to them. The love letter written by Anant Sreeram requires special commendation. Editing by Prawinpudi is fine. Producer values by the new banner Keva Movies are good.
Majnu review Analysis: First half of the film is nice though slow with a good interval twist. Second half falls flat and not engaging enough. But regular sprinkling of humor helped. Plus points of the film are Nani’s performance, dialogues and first half. On the flip side, a weak story and uninteresting screenplay in second half spoils it for the movie. Nani has been consciously making sure that he has something unique in story of his last four films(Evade Subramanyam, Bhale Bhale Magadivoy, Krishnagadi Veera Prema Gadha & Gentleman). For this film, he has chosen a weak story line and expected the director to create magic out of it. On a while, Majnu has a weak story that depends on a few good laughs!
Rating: 3/5