Allari Naresh’s films come with small ambitions and no pretensions. A viewer knows what he’s in for, from parodies to refurbished comic tracks featuring a long list of comedians who cushion a feeble plot. Intlo Deyyam Nakem Bhayam marks the actor’s foray into horror comedies, adequately tailored to match his strengths. He reprises his typical underdog part, as he plays for a wedding band, chases a girl he spots at a temple and is later forced to be a sorcerer in a haunted mansion.
The laughs are frequent as the director sets up the premise. Shakalaka Shankar and his Jabardasth counterpart control the proceedings well. The laughs are spontaneous but you can’t escape their crass undertones. Sample lines like ‘ padmasanam ante padma tho asanama ’. As long as director G. Nageswara Reddy is in familiar territory and sticks to the brand of comedy he’s known for, he does fine. It’s the horror comedy formula that he fails to crack.
The narrative flows smoothly as he keeps you guessing about the ghost’s past. When he does bring in the twist, all you witness is a formality waiting to be completed. An aggressive ghost with an unfulfilled wish, traversing one body to the other for her interests, sending intermittent danger signals to the male protagonist, is done to death. This film’s terrain feels like an adulterated mix of most horror comedies you’ve watched this year from Kalavathi and Nayaki to Ekkadiki Pothavu Chinnavada .
A positive from the movie is its departure from rhyming one liners. Most of the few one liners are weaved into the story with some purpose. When it comes to parodies though, there’s no stopping the director. The actors reference lines from Baahubali, Kabali, Janatha Garage and Nannaku Prematho . The one eliciting maximum laughs is when Allari Naresh utters Mohan Babu’s Pedarayudu lines, ‘The relationship between a wife and a husband...’
Most performances are loud and perfunctory. One sees Brahmanandam after long and he doesn’t disappoint. . Drushyam girl Kruthika deserved better than this outing. It’s high time Allari Naresh moved beyond these templates.
Intlo Deyyam Nakem Bhayam
Cast: Allari Naresh, Kruthika, Rajendra Prasad
Director: G. Nageswara Reddy
Dialogues: Diamond Ratna Babu
Rating: 2 stars
