Aa Naluguru is a variety film. Chandra Sidhartha directed this film with Rajendra Prasad, Amani, Raja, Kota Srinivasa Rao in the lead. The director tried to discuss on the priority of kindness and love to that of money in the life. Natakiriti Rajendra Prasad did an unbeatable performance. For those of Rajendra Prasad fans who missed the actor in him, this film will satisfy to the core.
Raghu Ramayya (Rajendra Prasad) is an editor. Raghu Ramayya is a kind- hearted person such as one explained in Chandamama stories. He goes to the extent of splitting his regular earnings into half. First part for his family and the second part for helping the needy. Raghu Ramayya is a very helpful person and helps one and all including his family in the same way. His wife Janaki (Amani), two sons Ping Pong and Raja and daughter Revathi are quite against this attitude. On the other hand Kotayya (Kota Srinivasa Rao) is a financier. He loans money on interest and is very strict with his business. For him nothing on earth could replace money. The family of Raghu Ramayya bring on severe pressure for money to pay donation to ping pang, donation of Raja's SI job and helping Revathi to go to US. Though Raghu Ramayya rejects the idea of providing money for wrong reasons, he finally budges in due to the pressure put up by the family. He gets the loan from Kotayya to pay for the needs of the family. In a way he accepts the defeat of his ideology that love should be more valued than money in life and commits suicide.
The film starts off with Raghu Ramayya narrating the story to the Yama Kinkaras. After his death, Raghu Ramayya's children take the money and hide in a hotel. They don't want to be bugged by the loaners. So, will the children come out to perform the final rituals to their father? Is money more valuable than love? Watch it on silver screen to find the answers.
The highlight of the film is the performances by Rajendra Prasad and Kota Srinivasa Rao. Rajendra Prasad yet again proved his versatility. With this film he conveys that it is the story and directors that would get the best out of him and he is always the same. This is another feather in the cap role for Rajendra Prasad and undoubtedly he excelled in the role. Competing th Rajendra Prasad in the performance is Kota. After a long time, Kota got such a role that got the actor out of him. The role of Kotayya could be done by no one else. Such is his performance. Amani did her role quite well as the wife and mother struggling between the attitude of her husband and children. Raja, Giridhar and others played their parts well.
This film brings back another actor, who is away from big screen for some time. Subhaleka Sudhakar. One wonders why he is not seen much on the screen any more. He is such a brilliant actor. This film gave him good scope to perform. Hope to see more of him in the future.
Coming to the film, the asset of the film are the performances, concept and photography. The narration is like a Teleplay. The flow is like that of a TV serial with snail paced narration. First half runs dragged. Add to the slow narration, there is much of lectures about the concepts of the life in the film. Music of the film is not impressive either. Background score is also so so. Dialogues were not clear in some dialogs. Also the get ups of Yamakinkaras are worse and very artificial.
Though the concept is etched out well, the pace-lacking narration kills it. Second half is a relief compared to first half. Emotional scenes carry the film to a better level. Surendra Reddy, who did cinematography for Bollywood films, did handle the camera for this film and did it fine.
