Why this film has been named Ma Abbayi Engineering Student? The moment never comes. The film has a run time of two hours and the hero Manoj (Nag Siddarth) doesn't have the courage to express love to Mansa (Radhika) but there are umpteen songs wasted in imagination — one while spotting her, one after talking to her, then dreaming of her and before he gets into the fourth song, she is engaged and even invites him to the function. A braveheart, he goes on with his life as if nothing has ever happened and even makes friends with the girl's fiancé Rahul (Bharat Bhushan).
Three of them go on a holiday to Vishakapatanam. Seeing the hills in Vizag, Rahul who had returned from the US exults, that too in a strange manner as if he had never seen hills or a patch of green abroad.
There should be a conflicting point in the story and the director portrays the heroine's would be father-in-law as being money minded and is waiting to take the Rs. 60 lakh dowry home. On an occasion, when the heroine is injured, the groom and the father flee and in the next scene we have Manoj and Manasa married and Manasa drawing a portrait of her expectant child.
Before all this drama, the director offers us character sketches of the lead pair with formulaic passion. Manasa shifts from a city college to a college in Rajamundry and takes up the onus of removing a garbage pile near a school.
Manoj wants to impress her and overnight, along with his friends, removes the pile and digs the place and turns it in a beautiful nursery. A minister is ready to inaugurate it.
The characters and plot lack a shred of credibility and the narration tests your patience. There is hardly any chemistry between the duo or the trio.
Just to fill the gaps there are ridiculous sightseeing trips and Janmashtami scenes. Uttej plays Sattireddy who drinks umpteen cups of chai in the college canteen and doesn't pay; Kondavalsa the owner keeps threatening him that if he doesn't cough up the money he will kill him, says kanti choopu tho kadhu ra ninnu tea neella tho champestha. Even if you tickle yourself, you wouldn't laugh at some of the jokes. Manoj is a Sai Kiran lookalike.
The trio do not make any impact and they took look tired and bored; the performances from the rest of the cast too is lethargic. The film might have been Radha Kumari's last project, a note dedicating this to her has been shown in the prelude.
MA ABBAYI ENGINEERING STUDENT
Cast: Naga Siddarth, Radhika, Bharat Bhushan
Direction: Srinivas
Music: Chinni Charan
Genre: Romance
Plot: Hero gets his heroine in the end without even expressing love verbally.
Bottomline: A complete bankruptcy of ideas and a title.
