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After a brief gap, Sharwanand is back on the big screen with ‘Manamey’. Directed by Sriram Adittya, this film is a light-hearted family entertainer. The trailer and songs generated a decent response from the audience and Krithi Shetty played the heroine’s role. There is a lot of positivity and good expectations on this movie. Let us see how it turned out.

Story:

Vikram (Sharwanand) is a playboy who lives in the moment without any responsibilities. He doesn’t think about his parents too. His best friend and his wife die in an accident leaving their kid in the hands of Vikram and Subhadra (Krithi Shetty). Vikram sees the kid as a burden while Subhadra cares for the kid. Two separate personalities are forced to live together for a few months in order to take care of the kid. In this process, both Vikram and Subhadra grow very close to the kid and get emotionally attached. They start developing feelings for each other as well. What happens after that forms the rest of the story.

Analysis:

Sharwanand is a hero with zero haters. He makes movies that cater to all sets of audience. Despite trying different concepts, he makes sure that they are watchable by all sets of audience. ‘Manamey’ is no different. It has a very good-looking hero and heroine, a decent love story, family sentiments, a bit of action, drama, pleasant songs, fun moments and more. But there is still something missing in this movie. It is the emotion that binds them together. Director Sriram Adittya partly succeeded in impressing the audience but his predictable plot with stereotypical characters played a major spoilsport. The story of the movie is heavily inspired by the Hollywood flick ‘Life As We Know It’ which came out in 2010.

Sharwa’s character growing closer to the kid should have been showcased in a more effective manner. He just gets emotionally attached after one fight and the heroine’s behaviour towards the hero too changes for some reason. Everything happens in a convenient fashion and you can predict what’s going to happen from the mile away. Despite the familiarity, the scenes with the kid work out but it is the love story between the hero and heroine that disappoints. One fails to understand why the hero likes the heroine so deeply. The director should have focused more on the change that made the hero transform from a person with a lack of commitment to a guy who envisions a future with the heroine and the kid. The proceedings are too slow at times and the predictability doesn’t help either.

There are a few unnecessary elements added in the movie like Rahul Ravindran’s character and showcasing the hero as a highly educated guy working on his thesis all of a sudden while showcasing him as a lazy playboy throughout the movie. The whole plotline featuring Ayesha Khan and Seerat Kapoor’s character revealing the reason for doing what she did are quite silly. There are a lot of scenes that lack conviction but the director manages to deliver a decent ending to the film that is laced with emotion as well as some endearing moments. On the whole, ‘Manamey’ suffers from predictability, lack of emotional depth and unnecessary characters. It is the acting of Sharwanand, Krithi Shetty along with beautiful visuals that save the film to an extent.

Performances:

Sharwanand looked very handsome in the film. His dressing sense is quite trendy and he suited the character perfectly. He played the role with a lot of ease and delivered a very enjoyable performance. He did well in the emotional scenes too and provided the comic relief in many parts as well. It was him who carried the movie on his shoulders to a large extent. He did everything he could to make this journey enjoyable. Krithi Shetty gave an impressive performance.

She showed improvement from her previous films and delivered in the emotional scenes as well. She looked very beautiful onscreen and looked good beside Sharwa. Vikram Adittya, the cute kid looked adorable and lit up the screen with his smile. Rahul Ramakrishna is decent while Vennela Kishore brought a few laughs in the two scenes he was present. The actor who played Krithi Shetty’s fiancée was good while Mukesh Rishi did not have much to do.

Technicians:

‘Manamey’ relied a lot on the technical team. The visuals played a key role in the movie. They were quite refreshing and choosing the UK as a backdrop worked quite well. The cinematography is very good but there are some scenes that were shot on a green screen that looked very artificial. The CG work is quite patchy and the car chase sequence in the first half was quite poor.

Writer-director Sriram Adittya did an okay job with ‘Manamey’. He extracted good performances from his artists and delivered in some emotional moments too. But the movie is highly predictable and runs at a very slow pace. While it is clear that he tried to focus more on the bond between the couple and kid, the required emotion in the love story went totally missing. Also, the routine screenplay pattern and formulaic elements are not something you expect from Sriram Adittya who made ‘Bhale Manchi Roju’, ‘Shamanthakamani’ and ‘Devadas’.

Verdict: ‘Manamey’ – A Predictable & Slow Love-Family Drama!