Tenali Rama is made by the same team that produced Honeymoon Express, a full-length comedy released a few months ago. Honeymoon Express did reasonably good business, which encouraged producer Babu to start this second film immediately.
In Tenali Rama, he managed a casting coup of sorts by teaming up Ramesh Arvind and Jaggesh, better known for their comedy films. Therefore with the duo together, a feast of laughter was expected.
The expectations are fully met in the first half, when these two talented artists challenge each other to create fireworks. But Tenali Rama disappoints in the second half where confused director Nagendra Magadi creates all sorts of illogical sequences that spoil the impact of the film.
The director has lifted several sequences from many popular non-Kannada films as he had done in the case of Honeymoon Express. The main story of the film is taken substantially from the Tamil film Kathanaayagan, featuring Pandya Rajan and SV Shekhar -- which was in turn based on Nadodikkattu, one of the most popular and loved Malayalam films made by Satyan Anthikad with Mohanlal and Srinivasan in the lead.
Ramesh Arvind and Jaggesh fall into the lure of a fake employment agent who promises to take them to Dubai. Instead of Dubai, they land in Goa and do not realise initially that they have been duped. They are mistaken for police investigators by a team of goons, and then starts the confusion.
Tenali Rama could have been a continuous laugh riot like the Malayalam original, but the script lets the film down. Ramesh and Jaggesh have tried their best to salvage the film, complementing each other very well. Komal has once again delivered a strong performance and it is to his credit that he maintains his form even in front of the two talented artists in the lead Villains Rangayana Raghu and Dharma have tried to engage in comedy situations with some success. But there is nothing of note to be said about the three leading ladies, Deepu, Santhoshi and Manasi.
Because of the inane second half, Tenali Rama is just an ordinary film.
Rediff Rating:
