Vinaro Bhagyamu Vishnu Katha Review

Kiran Abbavaram’s films have the common point of protagonists playing an underdog role, manchi abbayi image, helping people around him, trying to be a good Samaritan, saying some philosophical dialogues, some jokes, over-the-top action scenes and having romance with the love interest. His latest film Vinaro Bhagyamu Vishnu Katha too has these ‘must-have’ elements of his films. Debutante director Murali Kishore has chosen the point of ‘number neighbours’ as the film’s premise and created drama around it.

Vishnu (Kiran Abbavaram) is a happy-go-lucky guy in temple town Tirupati. He gets a random call from his number neighbour Darshana (Kashmira) who is a YouTuber struggling for viral content. She expresses interest to meet him along with the other number neighbour Markandeya Sharma (Murali Sharma) to do a one-day vlog. As the trio get along and hangout frequently, things take a shocking turn when Darshana kills number neighbour Sharma. How Vishnu unravels the whole mystery forms the crux of the story.

Kiran Abbavaram stuck to his usual and trademark style in acting. It appears that he got monotonous in performance. Yet there are moments where he shined in this underdog role whose love interest lands in trouble. Kashmira . Murali Sharma’s dance reels with the heroine worked and tickled the funnybones. All the characters are decent enough and did their parts. Coming to songs, they are just average and passable. The background music is a bit heavy. The visuals are fine. The film is predominantly shot in Tirupati and the language, dialect is of Chittoor which could be felt very much as all characters speak in chaste chittoor slang. However, this slang and the place of Tirupati has no direct connection to the film’s story and they are only confined as the backdrop.

Recently we have seen Kalyanram’s Amigos that dealt with the ‘Doppelganger’ concept where the protagonist randomly meets his look-alike and lands in trouble. Here in Vinaro, the concept is of ‘Number Neighbour’ which brings some trouble as well as good at the end. Looks like mana makers are trying hard to dig such ‘unpopular’ concepts and themes and trying to present them as ‘interesting’ dishes to our audiences. In reality, these have only limited appeal and only work when they are made with such scale and substance. Sadly, the same happened with Amigos and Vinaro as both have not used the proper scale and substance for these themes.

The story begins with Vishnu narrating his story to a goon who happens to be his number neighbour. And we get to know Vishnu’s life and how it is changed with a random call from girl Darshana. The whole concept of ‘Number Neighbour’ and how this is widely used throughout the film didn’t pan out as expected. The concept is highly unrealistic and told in an unconvincing manner too. There is a heavy build-up fight sequence in the first half where the protagonist tries to help a mother and beats goons. This fight episode is over-the-top and unrealistic. Such things should have been avoided considering the protagonist’s image.

There is a crucial sequence in the film where the protagonist looks helpless and he calls out a group of people and asks them to share this content with their ‘Number Neighbour’ and thus to reach out to the whole country and the ‘Neighbouring Country’. This is Tagore-inspired Chain Networking. The protagonist says, “Chain The whole sequence is very artificial and looks absurd. But clearly, the makers have taken their liberties that gives incomplete feeling. The whole political angle and Sharma’s dog love and motive are all seem to be very superficial and dampener in the story narrative. Making-wise too, the film has its own limitations.

Despite all these, Vinaro Bhagyamu Vishnu Katha worked in parts. It has its moments to take it seriously. It is the effective second-half and the proceedings towards climax make it a better one. The terror angle and patriotic theme at the bottom too is a bit forced but still it is the masala that is required for the masses. And even here, there is this concept of ‘Number Neighbour’ imbibed. There are some layers in the story which play in the background. These add some curiosity to the proceedings and they have worked here and there.

When compared to Kiran Abbavaram’s previous movies, Vinaro is a somewhat better choice and presentation considering that the previous ones were damp squib. Apart from these, it is just a regular movie with its own elements and shortcomings. Since it is ‘Cinema Neighbour’ to Dhanush’s SIR this week at the box office, we have to wait and see how the audiences would receive this underdog movie.

Highlights

Interval Point

Effective Second Half

Layers In Story

Drawbacks

Unrealistic Concept

Over-Buildup Fight Sequence

First Half

Bottom-line: Half Bhagyam, Half Abhagyam

Rating: 2.5/5