Gundammagari Manavadu, a Telugu film by woman director Jaya B is a masala entertainer with many song-and-dance sequences and a lot of rural imagery.
The title is suggestive of a grandmother-grandson relationship and what could have been a heartwarming tale peters out to be run-of-the-mill fare.
The denouement is routine.Yedukondalu (played by comedian Ali) is looked after by his grandmother Gundamma (Vadivukkarasi) after his mother's death while his father, Srisailam (Tanikella Bharani) is an alcoholic. Ali falls in love with Mahalakshmi (Sindhuri), whose father Neelakanta (Kota) is a greedy person and wants his would-be son-in-law to own a hotel. With the help of his grandmother (she sells off her jewellery) Yedukondalu sets up a hotel.
Neelakatna reluctantly agrees to the match but later calls off the wedding after receiving a better marriage proposal for his daughter. Yedukondalu is beaten up and dumped on the railway track. Injured, he nevertheless rescues a girl (Nicole) stuck in a car on the tracks. Together they join hands to set up a successful restaurant. Yedukondalu then distances himself from Mahalakshmi. Whether he ends up with her makes up the rest of the story.
Besides suffering from a rather stale story line, the song and dance sequences are far too many. The whole movie is rather loud with over-the-top performances.
Performance wise, Vadivukkarasi plays the loud grandmother to the hilt. However, we don't see much of her. Ali, in the hero mould is mediocre. One is used to veteran's Tanikella Bharani's performances by now. Ditto with Kota. The heroines don't have much to showcase their skills.
Jaya seems to have got carried away by the commercial format resulting in an out of sync effect. Overall an average film.
Rediff Rating: 
