Lakshmi Raave Maa Intiki Movie Review

Story : Set in Vizag, the film traverses the life of a youngster named Sai (Naga Shaurya), who falls in love with Lakshmi (Avika Gor). Soon, he realises that it is going to be a mammoth task for him to get a positive response from her. The rest of the story is about how Sai ends up going to Lakshmi’s house to impress her father and the repercussions he has to deal with.

Movie Review : There are films which test your patience and bore you to death and then, there are films which aim too high and fall flat, but Lakshmi Raave Maa Intiki belongs to a different category altogether. It’s the kind of film which makes you wonder if the actors and the director, while shooting the film, were as clueless as the audience is. Despite having a bunch of good actors, a story which follows the template of Bommarillu and all the necessary ingredients for a romantic drama, the film is embarrassingly bad and no amount of melodrama comes to its rescue.

After delivering back to back impressive performances in Oohalu Gusagusalaade and Dikkulu Choodaku Ramayya, Naga Shaurya finds himself in a role which gets lost in the multiple layers of the story. And on a similar note, Rao Ramesh and Naresh too don’t quite get the attention they merit. For instance, there’s a scene where Nadhyala Ravi, the director, establishes the fact that Rao Ramesh is quite strict and he expects everyone in his family to follow his guidelines quite seriously. Yet, it’s difficult to feel this undercurrent, given the kind of freedom which Avika Gor’s character seems to enjoy throughout the film.

It all boils down to choices one makes and you can’t help but question the director for meandering too much, from the basic plot, to establish the love story between the lead actors. What’s even more blatant throughout the film is the lack of chemistry between Naga Shaurya and Avika Gor. It’s hard to empathise with their characters, which are clueless almost till the end of the film. Avika Gor, in particular, looks too young for the role she plays and her expressions resemble emoticons to denote either she’s clueless or too scared to go against her father’s decision. On the positive side, the film has been shot well and there’s a well written sub-plot featuring Pavitra Lokesh.

The film also suffers from an abundance of redundant scenes and you can just feel the story losing its grip within an hour into the film. In the end, you realise that the only one you truly empathise is yourself for having put up with this never ending drama. And by the time Lakshmi goes to her in-laws place, as the title suggests, it already feels like you have spent a lifetime in the theatre.