Rating: 5.5/10 (Slow and Mediocre)

Cast: Ram, Anupama Parameshwaran, Lavanya Tripathi, Sree Vishnu, Priyadarshi, Anand, Kaumudi,

Story-Screenplay-Dialogues-Direction: Kishore Tirumala

Producer: Sravanthi Ravi Kishore

Banner: Sri Sravanthi Movies

Actor Ram and director Kishore Tirumala are back after a gap of 1.5 years with their 2nd outing, Vunnadi Okkate Zindagi. Featuring rising heroines in Anupama and Lavanya Tripathi, the film is based on the theme of friendship. Does it live upto the expectations?Unfortunately not. Let's find out why in this week's review.

Plot: Abhi (Ram) and Vasu (Sree Vishnu) are best friends since their childhood. They have a group of close friends that they all hang out with. Abhi is a guitarist and he falls in love with a house surgeon named Maha (Anupama) after she runs him over with her car. A small twist at the interval point leads both of the best friends to break their friendship and coincidentally they meet at a wedding of one their friends wedding 4 years later.

What happened between them? What is that twist? Do the two become friends again? Watch this movie to find out.

Performances: Ram is excellent as Abhi. He's done subtle acting and it's definitely different from his usual energetic and at times over the top acting. The guitarist look seems a bid odd but it suits him well as the movie progresses.

Anupama steals the show. She has a very friendly screen presence and is the equivalent of a real life doll. She is adorable and gives a superb performance as Maha and is exceptional in the emotional sequences. She will go a long way in Telugu cinema for sure.

Lavanya Tripathi has a different type of role as the wedding planner Maggie and it's a glamour role. The role isn't one to remember and it's unfortunate that this movie will be another one for her to forget in a disastrous 2017 career wise.

Sree Vishnu as Vasu is pretty good. He makes sure to justify his role. Priyadarshi finally entertains after Pellichoopulu and he is hilarious in certain scenes.

The gang of friends seems to be all new actors and they do a decent job.

Direction: With Nenu Sailaja, Kishore Tirumala proved that he can deal with emotional entertainers. He has chosen Ram once again and it's a proven fact in Tollywood that picking the same combination for back to back films is a formula for failure. Mahesh babu and Srinu Vaitla, Sukumar and Allu Arjun, Prabhas and Puri Jagganadh, Gopichand and Siva, these are just some examples of actor director duo's who have failed to deliver the goods in their 2nd outing. Vunnadi Okate Zindagi is no different. While the film can't be compared ti Nenu Sailaja, this film lacks any entertainment value and has some illogical writing. For example, the hero's friends bride says that a dog is worth more than him and she says not call it a dog, but call it Juice. She then proceeds to get into a fight with her future in-laws and says the dog is worth more to me than him. They say marriage cancelled. After a song, the hero gives the phone to his friend and asks him to call the same girl up. They talk and the girl just suddenly says let's get married and viola they tie the knot in the next scene. While the first half is good with Ram and Anupama's romantic thread, the 2nd half is unbearable to an extent with a friend's marraige backdrop with boring scenes. Sree Vishnu's brooding and Lavanya's poor character only add to the horrendous 2nd half. If Kishore Tirumala had made the 2nd half more entertaining and brought the film to it's conclusion a little faster, the film definitely would have been a much better movie.

Technicalities: Music and BGM by Devi Sri Prasad is alright. The same tune is used for most of BGM and it gets repetitive. Two songs, What Amma and Rayyi Rayyi Mantu are good to watch on screen. Cinematography by Sameer Reddy is the lifeline of the movie. It is simply elegant and he has captured the visuals of Ooty, Araku, and Vizag so beautifully. Art by AS Prakash is superb especially the shed set by the sea in Vizag. Editing by Sreekar Prasad is a joke. It's high time filmmakers sit down with the editors and cut all the unnecessary scenes and fix the lag in movies. Recent film such as Spyder, Raja the Great, and Arjun Reddy have all suffered from terrible editing and as a result have made the movie going experience drag on longer than it needs to. The 1st half is decently paced while the 2nd half turns unbearable. The two fights in the movie are well choreographed. Production Values by Sravanthi Ravi Kishore are pretty good.

Positives: 

+ Ram and Anupama

+ Cinematography

+ Pre-Interval and Climax

Negatives: 

- Silly Scenes

- Entertainment

- Pace

- 2nd half

Analysis and Final Verdict: Recently I have been looking for logic in Telugu movies and I've realized 99% of hit films contain none. But one still has the right to ask for answers if they're not convinced.

There are two types of Telugu movies. One where the narrative is so entertaining that we do not care about logic and we just watch the movie. And two, ones where the narrative is filled with routine scenes, no logic, bad comedy, and are filled with silly scenes that are supposed to be called entertainment when in reality they are nonsense.

Vunnadi Okate Zindagi falls somewhere in between those two types. While the film is not albeit illogical, it still contains routine scenes, bad comedy, and features silly scenes throughout the 2nd half.

The director immediately establishes the relationship between the hero and his best friend. But the way that he has shown the relationship makes you wonder if they're actually more than friends.

When the hero is moving to a new school, he runs away from his dads car and rides his bike all the way to his old town just so he could stay where his best friend is. The dad then accepts his son's unconditional love and decides to stay in the same town and doesn't send the hero away.

The film really only takes off when Ram meets Anupama and their romantic track is engaging. The twist before the interval is unexpected but predictable if you've seen enough movies. The way that the two friends deal with situation though is where the film shows it's maturity.

The interval bang is unexpected and then the movie moves to a friend's wedding set up for the 2nd half. Here Lavanya's character is introduced with heavy makeup but no substance within the plot. Ram and Sree Vishnu's never ending love hate relationship is once again the main point of the 2nd half but the director forces you to sit through silly scenes and zero entertainment for the latter half before a meaningful climax.

While Kishore Tirumala has made the film based on the concept of friendship and bros before hoes, he could have definitely gotten to the point quicker but he instead chose to drag the film on for another 20 minutes. Had he written a more engaging 2nd half with good entertainment, the film definitely would have been a hit. Besides Priyadarshi's occasional one liners, the film offers no laughs and the pace of the movie is dead slow.

Overall, Vunnadi Okate Zingadi is a slow and mediocre entertainer. While the concept of friendship is good theme, director Kishore Tirumala fails in delivering a meaningful entertainer. Besides Ram and Anupama, the film only works in parts and fails when looked at holistically. Watch it only if you really have a strong connection with your best friend.