Rating: 2.75/5 (Monotony at it's best)

Energetic Star Ram is desperately looking for a hit. Combining with a safe director like Gopichand Malineli, the duo have delivered a film titled Pandaga Chesko. Is this festival worth it? Not exactly. Find out why in this review?

Story: Even though the story has only been made about a million times now, I'll still tell you what it's about. Karthik (Ram) is a rich businessman who is successful in Lisbon, Portugal. His parents are Rao Ramesh and Pavitra Lokesh. A fellow successful businesswoman named Anushka (Sonal Chauhan) falls for Karhik as their ideologies are alike and they get engaged. But before the wedding, Karthik's mother tells him that he actually has a huge extended family back in India and his mother has been exiled from it due to some reasons. Her brother is Bhupati (Sampath Raj) and his daughter is Divya (Rakul Preet). The rest of the story is how Karthik reunites the two families and solves all the problems in the end.

Performances: Ram is his usual self and provides great energy. Nothing new in terms of performance but his dances are good.

It's Rakul Preet who shines and looks hot with her glamour and outfits. She also performs well on the acting front. Sonal Chauhan has a funny characterization with her role and she is smoking in the bikini scene. She is ok acting wise.

Brahmandham is funny enough as Weekend Venkat Rao. Jayaprakash Reddy is hilarious in his brief role. Abhimanyu Singh is ok.

Sampath Raj and Saikumar have done roles they have done a million times before. They're fine. There are many character artists and comedians in the movie but they hardly have that much screen time.

Technicalities: Music and BGM by Thaman are ok. Dialogues by Kona Venkat and Anil Ravipudi are hilarious in parts. Art by AS Prakash is fine. Editing by Goutham Raju is alright. Cinematography by Sameer Reddy is excellent. Direction by Gopichand Malineli is average.

Analysis: Ahh, where to start. If I had to be honest, the analysis of the film could actually take forever because this film is just so outdated it's not even funny. Monotony is a name you could associate with Srinu Vaitla. He's been making the same movie with the same template since Dhee. And they've somehow worked. And then others started using that template. And now here we are with another template movie that reeks of monotony and predictability. Just change the cast and crew and make the same movie. Veligonda Srinivas has penned a story that dates back to B.C. (Before Christ).

The story for every "family entertainer" as they call them nowadays has been the basis of two warring families and a man coming from somewhere to make them realize their mistakes and all ends happy. Every family film since the Venkatesh days of Preminchukundam Raa and Kalisundam Raa have had the same story. But the template that was invented in recent times is on full display here. The movie introduces the conflict right away and then proceeds with hero intro-intro song- intro fight-comedy scene-romance scene and so on and so forth. The movie runs like this for 2 hours and 42 mins and it's a seen this before, scene that scenario that you'll get when watching this movie. It's high time Tollywood starts coming out of this routine and template masala films and start to make more out of the box films such as a Swamy Raa Raa or a Vedam. It's disheartening to see to see that the Telugu film industry lacks behind Bollywood and Kollywood when it comes to making out of the box films and ideas.

Talking about the film, the 1st half is entertaining enough and a the interval has a nice twist. The 2nd half is the typical and routine hero entering heroines house as a stranger to win her family members over and all ends happy with a sentimental climax.

Overall, Pandaga Chesko is a truly monotnous film that's a rehash of all the successful family entertianers in the past especially Brindavanam and Attarintiki Daredi. The comedy quotient is quite high and if you like template films you can give it a shot, but if not then pray that Telugu film directors and writers eventually come out of this mould and bring about a fresh wave of ideas and concepts ASAP.