Cast: Aadhi Pinisetty, Taapsee Pannu, Ritika Singh, Vennela Kishore, Saptagiri and others
Director: Harinath
Top-notch writer Kona Venkat who started with small films like Geethanjali and Ninnu Kori, has now ventured into Neevavaro that stars Aadhi Pinisetty and Taapsee Pannu. Harinath is the director.
Kalyan (Aadhi) is a blind chef running his own restaurant in Hyderabad. A girl Vennela (Taapsee Pannu) comes to his restaurant. She wants to take the remaining food and serve it to the poor. Kalyan likes her service mindedness and falls in love with her. Anu (Ritika Singh), a childhood friend of Kalyan, wants to marry him but Kalyan wants to marry Vennela. A ‘Call Money’ gang threatens Vennela and her father for repayment of their loan. So Vennela decides to leave the city. Kalyan wants to help Vennela. On the same night he meets with an accident and gets his vision back. He tries to contact Vennela but in vain. In the meantime, Kalyan’s parents fix his marriage with Anu. On the day of the engagement an incident takes place and turns the chain of events. What happens, who is Vennela and how Kalyan finds her is the crux of the story.
This is director Harinath’s second film, the first being Lovers. He has chosen the plot for Neevevaro from the Tamil film Aadhe Kangal. There is no big change from the Tamil version and the flow remains the same. The film is supposed to be a thriller but the inability of the director to manage the story properly makes it just a love triangle. The story revolves around a blind man Kalyan, and the director uses the entire first half to establish his love story in a slow narration — how Aadhi falls for Taapsee though Ritika loves him and wants to marry Vennela.
The story gets interesting only in the second half after Taapsee disappears. The ro-mantic thread between Taap-see, Aadhi and Ritika is not appealing; there is no feel. After the interval, one expects the film to pick up pace when Aadhi starts his investigation, but the director loses his grip here. The Vennela-Kishore comedy is forced and the jokes are stale. Ditto with Saptagiri. Even in the first half, the wife and husband jokes are unappealing and very old. Aadhi’s character in the second half is more like that of a mass hero and the director or the writer seems to have missed the opportunity to make it a thriller.
Aadhi as a blind chef is just okay and there is nothing great about his character. Ritika Singh looks beautiful and perfect as Aadhi’s childhood friend. But the film is belongs to Taapsee, who has a meaty role and she too delivers as expected. She has two shades in the film and she carries both with ease; she is the only interesting character in the film. Adarsh Balakrishna appears in a cameo and does a neat job.
Kona Venkat has written the dialogues and screenplay but the screenplay is mostly from the Tamil film. The dialogues are good in places. The cinematography by Sai Sriram is good as he has captured some beautiful visuals of Vizag. One song is good.
Finally, Neevevaro is a gripping thriller that isn’t. The narration is very slow without any thrilling moments and the screenplay is not up to the mark as the suspense is lost at one point. The first half is boring though the second half is interesting. Bottomline — it is not a good remake in Telugu.
