Premise: Naveen Polishetty is from a Zameen backdrop, but left with no money except for his bungalow. He tries to marry a filthy rich girl and he spots Meenakshi Chaudhary who is from a wealthy family. The twist post their wedding forms the remaining story.

Writing/ Direction: The film starts with a cracker opening scene, where the hero is day-dreaming to be a millionaire. The path ahead shows how he is trying to achieve his aspiration, but it is not the end goal, and there is a meaningful character arc. The narrative is comedy-driven that relies on the momentary joys and if it fumbles, the flow will fall flat, it does happen at times, we do get an uninterested feel in some places when the jokes don’t land as intended, this is due to the lack of a prefixed story. The content is middling and in fact the treatment is old-school, yet the screenplay is quite engaging on the whole due to the likeable silly humour. Naveen Polishetty has also co-written the film, his comic timing is admirable in general, probably because he has already gotten a hand of his lines, he seems to be mastering it while performing. Plenty of witty dialogues spread across and the pop-culture references do work. The screenplay is a mixed bag with an equal share of hits and misses in both the halves. The sequences to impress the heroine are boring with outdated situations, the self-buildups and other silly moments hold the film together. The twisted revelations that randomly lead to the hero’s political entry in the initial portions of the later half bring a sense of detachment, thankfully it gets better with many quirky ideas coming into place and the press meet scene was a laugh-riot. The emotional stretch in the final act might not be an impact one due to the inconsistencies in the storytelling, yet the entire episode is shot sincerely with aptly innocent performances and the musical treatment was on-point too.

Performances: Naveen Polishetty’s dialogue delivery and comedy timing are the pillar of strengths for the movie, despite some makeup issues, he is well in sync with the audiences throughout by frequently breaking the third wall, etc. Meenakshi Chaudhary plays a routine madcap heroine role, but this time for a calculated reason, she has played her part well. Meaty role for Rao Ramesh who moves forward the main plot, his versatility is explored in a subtle space here. Tarak Ponnappa is in for a dummy villain role. Bheemala Revanth of Sankrantiki Vasthunam fame in an extended cameo, disappoints as he is not used efficiently, plus he randomly appears at places with no valuable role to play.

Technicalities: Except Bhimavaram Balma, all other tracks are bummers. The song placements are bothersome, plus all the songs have been shot very badly and uninteresting dance choreography too. Background score is decent, goes well with the jokes and pathos is maintained well towards the end. But there were sound mixing issues throughout the film, especially during the songs, no bass was felt for the fast beats. Tidy work by the cameraman, knowing the jolly mood of the movie. Messy editing with many abrupt cuts, the shots just kept on jumping here and there, plus it could have easily been trimmed by fifteen minutes at the least.

Verdict: Feels like watching a watered down version of Sivakarthikeyan’s Varuthapadatha Vaalibar Sangam. Despite an old-school storyline, the film happens to be likeable due to Naveen Polishetty’s sparkling presence and the silly gags that click big time.

ANAGANAGA OKA RAJU - Humour keeps our spirits up!

Rating - 2.75/ 5.