Director Maruthi’s Manchi Rojulochaie created curiosity among the audience with its promotional stuff. Starring Santosh Shoban, Mehreen and Ajay Ghosh in the key roles, the film has hit the screens today. Let’s see how it fares.
Story: Influenced by his neighbourhood mates, Gopalam Thirumalashetti (Ajay Ghosh), a fearful person starts spying on his daughter Padmini (Mehreen). In the process, he comes to know that Padmini is in a relationship with Santosh (Santosh Shoban). Being a weak-hearted fearful person, how will Gopalam handle further circumstances? Will, he accepts his daughter’s love and give a green signal for her marriage? To know that, you have to catch the film in the theatres near you.
Performances: Santosh Shoban perfectly fitted in his role as a lover who goes to any extent for his love. Though his character looks like an extended cameo, Santosh gave a decent performance in the given character.
Mehreen is alright with her appearance but in close-up shots, her facial expressions turn as a minus. Adding to it, her chemistry with Santosh also lacks proper connectivity and looks more like an artificial romance.
Actor Ajay Ghosh, who played the heroine’s father role is a major highlight for the film. Be it his screen presence or dialogue modulation, Ajay Ghosh remains us of a typical middle-class father and excels in his character.
Noted comedians like Vennela Kishore, Sapthagiri, Viva Harsha, Srinivas Reddy, Sudharshan and Praveen are part of the film but none of them registers with comic timing.
Other character artistes who played Ajay Ghosh’s friends and family members roles are okay in their respective roles.
Technicalities: Music scored by Anup Rubens is decent as his songs are appearing on the screen. His background score is also apt for the film’s genre.
Cinematography by Sai Sriram is good as showcased the film with good framing and lighting setup. Editing work is adequate. Production values for this limited budget movie are good.
As most of the film was shot amidst Covid second wave lockdown restrictions, the film looks wrapped up in the limited location.
Analysis: Director Maruthi who is famous for taking up a defect in the person as the core point and writing characterizations and scene order based on it has once again come up with a fear emotion in the person as the key episode with Manchi Rojulochaie. But completely failed in narrating the film in an entertaining manner.
From the word go, we come across scenes that lack proper establishment and depth in them. For instance, a father spying on his daughter just by believing his neighbours looks so silly and the same is the case with the heroine covering her relationship with Santosh by naming it as ‘Colleague’ disconnects the audience from the movie.
To summerize, the core concept of Manchi Rojulochaie is good but lack of proper treatment and convincing screenplay stands tall as the demerits. In one word, except for the impressive performance from Ajay Ghosh, the movie has nothing new to discuss here. Considering the festival weekend, the film may find audience at the initial stage but is likely to end up as a disappointing watch.
Verdict: Presentation syndrome!
Rating: 2/5
