It is sad that we still have a few stale stories and amateurishly directed films; we wonder how a producer gets sold on a script that pales in comparison to even regular television serials. The title Ammammagari Illu is self-explanatory; one can easily guess its all about — nuclear families realising the importance of spending time with grandparents in the village.
Chalapati Rao and his wife Sumitra are shown as having five children — three sons and two daughters — all wanting their share in the property. When one son-in-law says the division of property is not that important, the rest leave the house only to return after two decades, this time to get their share from the widowed mother.
One son is married to a foreigner; strangely her identity is established by a Telugu artiste donning a blonde wig and eats pizza! Santosh (Naga Shourya) buys her a pizza and is surprised the delivery boy wants him to pay through digital transaction. Sita (Shamili) thinks the only way to express her love to the sparring bava Santosh is to show him a teddy bear that he gifted her in their childhood. Then she changes her mind as she isn’t sure if he will believe her, that is the only conflict in the love story. Their romance is not developed. We cannot expect every film to be a Satamanam Bhavati , but even if there is a bava maradalu angle in it, one expects a decent love story or at least a few moving scenes.
Santosh brings the entire family together, but all of them leave when they realise that the house and properties had been registered on their name long back and they were just made to believe otherwise. The onus is on Santosh to show how much his aunts and uncles mean to him and that is achieved with the regular mass action scenes towards the end. Each character talking of their past is yawn inducing. .
With lazy acting by everybody and poor story development, there is no high point in the film and not a single scene that makes for a compelling watch. Even comedian Saptagiri is wasted. Naga Shourya should be selecting his scripts wisely, especially after delivering a hit Chalo . What did Shamili see in the story to make a comeback to Telugu cinema with this film? Sumitra, Rao Ramesh and Naga Shourya hold your gaze but not for too long.
Ammammagari Illu
Cast : Naga Shourya, Shamili
Director : Sunder Surya
Music : Kalyan Koduri
