Ee Nagaraniki Emayyindhi — A Refreshing Buddy Entertainer
Pelli Choopulu, that came in 2016, with a horde of debutants the ‘then star-in-the-making’ Vijay Devarakonda, Ritu Verma, Priydarshi Pulikonda was a feel-good rom-com and a refreshing coming-of-the-age entertainer. The rom-com had a slick storyline with a slice of life narrative. It had a lot of dialogues infused with subtle humour, bolstered by the Telangana dialect, spoken by the archetypal Hyderabad Telangana-ites. In fact, the dialect was instrumental in bringing the required essence to the dialogues and became e and the repartee is one of the main assets of the movie. After a gap of 2 years, Tharun Bhaskar Daashyam is coming again with yet another refreshing youthful entertainer- Ee Nagaraniki Emayyindi continuing his stride comes up , screening new faces again.
This buddy comedy revolves around four friends (played by Vishwak Sen, Abhinav Gomatam, Venkatesh Kakumanu, Sushanth) who team up to make a short film. The story happens primarily in Hyderabad and Goa and the episodes at Goa are rumoured to be a laugh riot. The movie in a way is Tharun’s revisit to his short film days. The movie reflects tribulations of short filmmakers on a comical note and the characters of the four friends and the situations are fictitious. Tharun chooses Goa as the premises to infuse humour into the story as he feels Goa is a great place to visit with friends and make a film.
Ee Nagariniki Emayyindhi is produced by Suresh Productions and Tarun Bhaskar Dashyam together. Music is by Vivek Sagar, who earlier composed music for Pelli Chooplu and Sammohanam. The cinematographer for the movie is Niketh Bommi.
The movie starts with a ‘difference-of-opinion’ argument in a car, about a short film, among four friends. With an ongoing heated argument among them, the car hits a tree, losing control of the steering. The story here fast forwards to 4 years later where four sub-stories from four different walks of life are introduced to us. Here, there is a photographer-editor Upendra (Venkatesh Kakumanu) who works so hard for running errands that he is deprived of sleep so much that he mistakenly touches the hand of a girl for mouse, that is sitting next to him, then there is a guy Kaushik (Abhinav Gomatam), who dubs for chimps and gorillas in a discovery channel and on the other side fantasizes to be an actor. The third one,Karthik(Sai Sushanth Reddy) works in a pub and hopes to get settled in the US, availing his boss’ jackpot offer of starting a club in the US. The fourth guy, Vivek (Vishwak Sen), an aspiring filmmaker and the head of the here-after short film unit, does not mind losing his job by going to the office drunk. What connects these four is their unflinching and long-living friendship. They are lifetime buddies, willing to do anything for each other. Their melancholic and despondent lives are layered with fun and they have no qualms in incessantly pulling each other legs and poke fun at each other for that.
Amidst this bonding, there is a girl, who enters Vivek’s life only to leave him lovelorn. This leaves Vivek crestfallen and induces within him an aversion for romance and love, which is demonstrated through a couple of incidents where he is asked to direct a love story and he refrains it with an aggressive outburst. The friends hang out at a bar on an evening and head to Goa after a splurge of an over drunk activity. They engross themselves in the serenity of Goa with fun and frolic. Certain incidents flow leading to a phase of self-realization. What forms the rest of the story is that how they make their dreams come true battling all the apprehensions and insecurities they have in life that hindered them to be a better version of themselves.
The movie, is rumoured, to be an unofficial biopic of Tarun Bhaskar. It could be a revisit to his short filmmaking days. The story is an out and out jolly ride that paints a tale of friendship among four close buddies on Hyderabad and Goa canvas. The light-hearted humour pertaining to the situations keeps the movie flowing at a good pace. The dialogues are crisp and situational. Most of them either invoke fun or convey an emotion. The first half meanders aimlessly at some places and in the name of truth and a dare game, the story appears like a convergence of different situations that happened in their lives but the second half gets busy with the objective of the movie when the team gets serious about making a short film. The movie explicates the travails of wannabe filmmakers and their life situations. When it comes to the genre and the narration, the movie has clear shades from Bollywood movies like Zindagi Naa Milegi Dobaara, Dil Chatha Hein and Venkat Prabhu’s buddy films from Kollywood. It’s not just that we even have our own version of Premji, Abhinav, in the assortment. The ‘Telugu’ accent of Hindi spoken by a character, the comic phrase they paid no’ from the movie Manmadhudu, the conversation of one of the friends with a camera-lender at Goa are some of the humorous jump-out-of-seat moments in the movie. There is a scene at the climax holding a conversation between two of the characters in the group which reminds us of Nani and Vijay Devarakonda ‘ characters to Evade Subramanyam. Vijay Devarakonda also appears in a cameo in the climax.
Technically, the movie is tad good. The sync sound, the anamorphic lenses and the worked well to bring to life a lively and exuberant movie. The introduction scene composed of slo-mo shots is well picturized and is a laugh riot even after it is shown for the second time in the movie. The visuals are good and tunes by Vivek Sagar are soothing.
Abhinav entertained with his humorous antics being the laughing stock of the group while Sai Sushant, as an overambitious practical person and Vishwak Sen insecure and vulnerable guy delivered a subtle performance. Upendra as a reluctant and diffident guy is okay in his given screen presence.
Overall, the movie, as recommended by the makers, is a joyous affair, if watched with a group of close friends.
