Raj Tarun seems to be getting big for his own shoes. He kickstarted his career with the jolly-good entertainer, Uyyala Jampala. After a good show at the box office with his next film, Cinema Choopistha Mava, he made a mark for himself with his third feature, Kumari 21F. However, since then, his career curve has gone for a dive.
His latest comedy caper, Kittu Unnadu Jagratha, is bubbling with ideas and noteworthy themes. The central plot revolving around the male lead and his friends making a quick buck by stealing dogs is hilarious. This is also the place where the story runs out of steam.
The film uses the wheels of a thriller for what is, at the end of the day, a no-brainer comedy. The writer probably brought in several ideas and stitched them all together. Sometimes, the characters just don’t fit in the narrative. The whole track featuring Raghu Babu and Vennela Kishore rightfully belongs to another film. Their characters, or their attempts at being funny, add nothing but extra minutes to the runtime.
Kittu Unnadu Jagratha begins with a touch of Bollywood. Arbaaz Khan plays a serial blackmailer who makes money with people’s weaknesses. Look at these characters for a second – the hero steals dogs and the villain blackmails people. These are the ideas the writer and director should have worked on. Instead, Anu Emmanuel enters the scene with her expressionless eyes and passionless acting. Wait a minute! In fact, her character, too, has some angles that turn the tables a bit toward the end.
Shouldn’t the film rise and rise with all these characters? Nope! Whenever it goes up an inch, it tumbles immediately.
Why do filmmakers in Telugu cinema keep getting people from Bollywood who don’t know what they are doing? Arbaaz’s face constantly yells, “I’ve no clue why I’m in this film,” and Anu’s problem from her previous film, Majnu, continues. Her face and body language reveal nothing. When she smiles, it’s like she’s heard a PG-13 joke. And when she cries, it’s a gentle sob.
There are portions in the movie where she gets kidnapped. It happens twice, and each time, a different gang kidnaps her. Wouldn’t you be worried if you were kidnapped? Won’t your face show at least a bit of fear? Anu’s face doesn’t show a wrinkle though this happens to her on two occasions.
We have seen Sampath shout like a maniac in the past. He would have still done a better job than Arbaaz Khan. And, as for Anu Emmanuel, I wonder how she’s bagging one project after another.
If Kittu Unnadu Jagratha had ironed its bumps in casting and writing, it would have made for a much better film.