Tuneega Tuneega: Sincerity gone amiss

Sumanth Ashwin and Rhea in the film 'Tuneega Tuneega'. Photo: Special Arrangement

Sumanth Ashwin isn’t a bad addition to the Telugu film industry. He has got the moves, but with an outdated storyline, there is little scope for him to shine. In his role of Karthik Ramaswamy , son of cook Ramaswamy (Prabhu), we are told, he is full of tricks and pranks. Ramaswamy and Ravinder are good friends, despite their obvious class differences. As a child, he troubled Ravinder’s (Naga Babu) daughter Nidhi (Rhea Chakraborty). One of the pranks crosses the line and Nidhi’s mother packs her off to the US. She returns to India, with the memory of the last prank still strong. However, both Karthik and Nidhi fall in love with each other. To this, add the usual family villains including a cunning uncle who wants to get his son married to Nidhi for her property.

The plot is mundane, but that’s not the only thing wrong in the film. With a fictional location, over-the-top situations and scenes, the film acutely lacked sincerity. Sumanth as the brilliant dancer or Nidhi as the staunch animal lover look unreal and lack depth. A bucketful of characters gnaw at the film’s premise, with the numbers only adding to the quantitative value of the film instead of the quality. Sayaji Shinde as the narrator cum family doctor James stood unused.

The loose screenplay involving too many loose threads in the film does little to help the film. With no single focus, the film ever-so-often jumps tracks — from the love-story to his dancing career to a family feud. Humour perhaps redeems the film a little, especially in the sequences that involve Prabhu. Rhea as Nidhi doesn’t do much, but her over-action kills the emotion in the scenes. That said, Sumanth’s potential is purely run-down by a gross lack of substance in the story.

Music in

Tuneega Tuneega is easy on the ears but the chorus of the song introducing Sumanth, ‘ Nene ’ is strikingly similar to ‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries . The mellow love song at the camp is soothing but the visual elements lack depth and clarity. The film walks into the territories of a family, musical and youth entertainer but doesn’t live up to even one of the themes. Good stories are easy to understand but in Tuneega Tuneega , confusion reigns over the story and the screenplay and a lack of connect with the characters would perhaps be the most natural of reactions.

What could easily have been a breezy entertainer falls flat with cardboard characters, slapstick humour and average music. Tuneega Tuneega lacks buzz.

TUNEEGA TUNEEGA

Cast: Sumanth Ashwin, Rhea Chakraborty, Naga Babu, Prabhu Ganeshan, Sayaji Shinde

Music: Karthik Raja

Screenplay, direction: M. S. Raju

Producer: Maganti Ramachandran

Plot: Love gets muddled up in egos and family ties

Bottomline: The film tries too hard and is stretched too thin