Cast: Aberaam Varma, Saathvika Raj, Ravi Varma, Rajeev Kanakala, Pavithra Lokesh, Late TNR, and others.
Music Director: Vivek Sagar
Cinematographer: Sundar Ram Krishnan
Editor: Marthand K Venkatesh
Producers: AVR Swamy, M R Kirtana & Snehal Jangala
Director: Balu Sharma
Heading: Conversational love drama
‘Neetho’ is the latest romantic drama to be released in theatres. Let’s find out what the film is about in this segment.
Plot:
Varun (Aberaam Varma) is an insurance agent who badly needs a top-billed insurance policy so that the loss-making company where he is working doesn’t show him the exit door. Meghana (Saathivika Raj) and her fiance Satya come as the answer. They both hail from business families and are getting their wedding insured for big bucks.
Varun develops a rapport with Meghana while doing paperwork. In the meanwhile, Meghana’s wedding with Satya gets called off, leaving her questioning her choices. In the meantime, Varun is mighty worried that the shelved wedding might end in his losing his job. He gets to interact with Meghana in the process of averting a career crisis. Slowly, they fall in love with each other. But they are also confused. Will they manage to figure out what they want?
Performances:
Aberaam Varma shows restraint. He gets to be seen in almost every scene. Yet, he manages to not bore the audience despite the non-commercial beats of his character. With a couple of solid commercial films, he looks to have a very good future.
Saathvika Raj looks apt; she suits the character of a mature yet slightly confused woman from an affluent family. She is there right from the first scene till the last, enjoying playing a role that is not defined by typical norms.
Pavithra Lokesh as Varun’s mother is fine. Rajeev Kanakala as his ‘babai’ and Ravi Varma as his colleague are natural. Sunjiit Akkinepally is seen as the other colleague. Late TNR as Varun’s boss and Gururaj Manepalli as Meghana’s father are apt.
Technical Departments:
Vivek Sagar’s songs can’t be hummed but the light feel of the songs works. ‘Lalana’ sung by Hariharan and ‘Madhuramey’ are placed well. The cinematography and editing are impressive for a small-scale film.
What works:
The film has an interesting setting. Also, the concept of Wedding Insurance has been shown without dumbing it down.
If you like love stories that are conversational in nature, you will like how Varun and Meghana exhibit their thinking as the film progresses.
The multiplex sensibilities work if you have the patience to follow the dialogues.
There is no attempt to oversimplify the equations/relationship between the lead pair.
The male lead’s character is enriched with a slice-of-life take on confusions and doubts without making a brouhaha about the class differences between the lead pair.
Work doesn’t work:
Even at 129 minutes, the film is somewhat lengthy because of the slow nature of the story.
The pre-interval portions and the scenes that come post interval till before the pre-climax phase should have been written in a better way.
Conclusion:
‘Neetho’ is your kind of film if you are a patient viewer who wants to soak into the mindset of two different individuals whose pasts overlap somewhat. Give the film a try if you like romantic dramas that come with a metrosexual setting and multiplex sensibilities.
Rating: 3/5