Chaitanya and Anu are neighbours who fall for each other. However their path towards marriage is far from easy. A haughty would-be mother-in-law complicates the proceedings. The couple put up a united front to clear their roadblocks.
Shailaja Reddy Alludu Story: Chaitanya and Anu are neighbours who fall for each other. However their path towards marriage is far from easy. A haughty would-be mother-in-law complicates the proceedings. The couple put up a united front to clear their roadblocks. This is a year where formula-driven cinema in Telugu has faced outright rejection. Yet, director Maruthi times the revival of the once-famous atta-alludu trope that brought the roof down in the 90s for a festival. How successful is he? To put things straight, he doesn't disappoint. Shailaja Reddy Alludu is another film where egoist character(s)-creates-mayhem in the house after Geetha Govindam. Though it may be the lead actors Naga Chaitanya, Anu Emmanuel and Ramya Krishna who do the crowd-pulling act, it's thanks to the supporting actor-lineup featuring Vennela Kishore, Prudhvi and Murali Sharma for laying a neat foundation for the film's entertainment quotient. There's some progress shown in the writing of its female characters, despite the patriarchal backdrop. Anu doesn't mind fighting for her career despite opposition from her mother. The girl puts her foot down in the need of the hour, even with Chaitanya. Ramya Krishna as Shailaja Reddy could've got a better character arc, had she channelised her repertoire beyond a Sivagami-like act. It's also time that Telugu cinema stops antagonising women who have an identity of their own. Shailaja Reddy Alludu doesn't indulge in this aspect much, but portraying Shailaja Reddy's husband Venu (Naresh) as a victim of his wife's domineering qualities could have been avoidable. Even in the overdone climax, Ramya Krishna deserved her moment of glory, while the director prefers Chaitanya to do the goon-bashing as a protective son-in-law. The film's heart is still in the right place in its lighter moments. Vennela Kishore as Chari is in inimitable form in another role as a hero's friend. Watch out for the sequence where he hides himself with a bedsheet from Ramya Krishna. Prudhvi and Vennela Kishore share infectious on-screen camaraderie. Murali Sharma is ever-dependable, he's an equal match to Ramya Krishna in terms of prioritising self respect over common sense. A sub-plot in the film too talks of the importance of wedding rituals, the difference between this and Srinivasa Kalyanam being that the former makes it much more relatable to this generation.
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