Venky Mama Review: An Outdated, Dreary Comedy Entertainer!

Venky Mama stars the real-life uncle and nephew – Venkatesh and Naga Chaitanya in the lead roles with Rashi Khanna and Payal Rajput as the female leads in a 156-minute comedy, which fails to live up to the hype. Directed by K. S. Ravindra, who earlier had experience writing movies like Mr. Perfect and directing at least one commercially hit film in Jai Lava Kusa floundered with his outdated storytelling technique which is tried and tested a million times before.

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The storyline kicks off with Venkata Ratnam (Venkatesh) taking care of his nephew (Naga Chaitanya) from a very young age and sooner or later forms an eternal bond that goes beyond love and affection. However, in due time, internal conflicts make Karthik (Chaitanya) go MIA for a while. And the remainder of the storyline explains what transpired between the two, their past and the future with a wide variety of emotions and family drama, which reminded me of the classic 90s family films.

To give credit where credit is due, let me begin by articulating that I liked the heart of the narrative and the message director Ravindra is trying to convey. The movie concluded with him vocalizing his intention and dedicating it to everyone who has the same relation, which is sweet. The emotion and the sentiment in a small portion of the scenes worked well and had me intrigued. However, with that being said, everything except for a handful of scenes fell flat as the movie never recovered in its entire runtime.

As I said, the screenplay of this movie had that 90s vibe written all over it. We did, in fact, got to witness a few entertainers back in that era that was written and executed well. But, the entire concept of injecting a comedy scene and a random dance number in the middle of a serious narrative is long gone. Let’s take Rajinikanth’s Petta as an example, a commercial entertainer with a perfect blend of comedy, action scenes, and emotional moments that cruised with the flow without having to interrupt the narrative all that much.

Venky Mama failed in that aspect as I rather felt like I’m watching a film put together to check off all the boxes and, in return, neglected the basic principles of telling a great story. The pacing was all over the place, the ending felt very abrupt, and is a giant mess, overall.

Yet another major drawback of the movie are the characters. Similar to many other commercial entertainers in the past, the female leads in the film continue to be dumb, act dumb, and were given zero depth for their otherwise significant characters. Utilizing them only to piece together a romantic angle out-of-nowhere, incorporating them in a few silly laugh-out-loud moments and needless songs once again reminisce a bygone tradition that we, as an industry can’t seem to let go. Nevertheless, the ladies – Payal Rajput and Rashi Khanna had done a decent job with their characters as I had no complaints performance-wise.

Moving on to male leads, again, if my calculation is accurate, Venkatesh plays a late 40s single guy in the film. And watching him not age that much between two different timelines, making light of his relationship with a woman in her early 30s, is both awkward and silly to watch on-screen. But, I’m not putting forth the message that a couple with an obvious age difference cannot make love or be a happy couple, I’m just questioning the justification in the movie. Despite that, I thought the chemistry between Venkatesh and Naga Chaitanya worked well and their real-life relationship helped to showcase their screen presence remarkably.

Penultimately, Venky Mama also suffers through multiple clich̩s from the generic grumpy and pissed-off antagonist, mundane music, and the most common Рlogicless, and gravity-defying action sequences which make no-sense whatsoever.

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Overall, if mind-numbing comedy entertainers are your jam, Venky Mama might entertain you in bits and pieces. I found it tough to get through with no redeeming aspects for the most part. Venkatesh and Naga Chaitanya shine together on-screen, but a better script and a much-better director could’ve helped when the main focus is to try and showcase their relationship. Maybe, next time?

Rating – 2/5 | Grade – C

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