'Veeranjaneyulu Vihara Yatra', produced by Bapineedu B and Sudheer Edara, starts streaming on ETV Win from August 14. Written and directed by Anurag Palutla, it is touted to be the first-ever Telugu-language road trip family comedy.
Plot:
A family elder (VK Naresh) loses his job as a Maths teacher owing to his poor English-language skills. Around the same time, his son Veeru (Rag Mayur) faces a setback in his career. His daughter Sarayu (Priya Vadlamani), who wants to get married to her boyfriend Tharun, is facing her own dilemmas. Faced with an imminent expenditure of Rs 40 lakhs, the family elder decides to sell off his late father's decades-old property in Goa. He must lie to his family to get things done. Little does he realize that he is not the only one who holds secrets.
Performances:
VK Naresh and Rag Mayur run the show with their decent acting chops. The former is a seasoned artist who gets to show his vulnerable side. The latter, who was last seen in 'Keedaa Colaa', is good in a few emotional scenes in the second hour. Sri Lakshmi plays the occasionally adorable and otherwise nagging grandma.
Priya Vadlamani of 'Hushaaru' fame is relatable with her body language. Harsha Vardhan plays a money-minded doctor, while Vasu Inturi is a Kannada cop whose involvement hastens the arrival of the climax.
Technical Departments:
RH Vikram's music is respectable. Cinematographer Ankur C's work is decent. Editor Naresh Adupa could have done with some conciseness. He is joined by Hari Shankar TN.
Production Design is by Yellow Design Studio. The lyrics have been penned by Sanapati Bharadwaj Patrudu, Krishna Kanth, and Kittu Vissapragada.
For a film made exclusively for a streamer release, 'Veeranjaneyulu Vihara Yatra' gets its technical output right. ETV Win, as it is, has been in a good form after the success of '90's - A Middle Class Biopic'.
Analysis:
The film, written by Anurag Palutla (with Additional Screenplay by Sri Sushi, Teja Reddy), derives some of its emotional beats from the 2016 Bollywood film 'Kapoor & Sons' (streaming on Amazon Prime Video). The storyline, the conflicts, and the characterizations are different, though. The treatment is a far cry from the Hindi-language movie.
The itch to make the audience laugh for 80% of the run-time is the biggest undoing of 'Veeranjaneyulu Vihara Yatra'. The family members don't come across as real people but as movie characters who want to make sure that the viewer finds the friction rib-tickling. The conversations are plastic for the most part. Midway into the film, a shocking truth bomb about a character is dropped. The reactions of the rest of the characters, and what the grandma does after this, robs the film of a semblance of depth.
The second half drags on unnecessarily, filled with a chaotic hospital escape and a noisy police station scene. These events seem designed more to entertain than to engage the viewer on an emotional level.
The soul of the story is reserved for the final 20-minute stretch. This is where the hidden dimensions of the characters' thinking come to the fore through some nice dialogue. The right to question a family member is earned, a character says. Had the treatment been serious and not breezy throughout, the emotions would have been thoroughly fleshed out.
Vox Verdict:
'Veeranjaneyulu Vihara Yatra' on ETV Win is imperfect but watchable.
Rating: 2.75
