Laddu Babu (Allari Naresh) is hyper obese son of Mushti Kishtayya (Kota Srinivas Rao) who is a strangely greedy father looking to marry off Laddu Babu to even some retard, sell the property written on Laddu Babu’s name and lead an opulent life in Goa. On the contrary, Laddu Babu is a sensitive and soft-spoken guy who wishes to love and marry a beautiful girl of his choice. On the other hand, he is daily troubled by a school going kid named ‘Murthy’ (Master Atul) bugging for friendship.
One day, he sees Maya (Poorna) and instantly falls in love with her. But, Maya wishes to use Laddu Babu to make her would-be husband Arjun envious of her. Laddu Babu who is ignorant of this fact loves her madly and rejects all the weird matches his father fetches for him. Fed up with Laddu Babu, his father expels him from home. Expelled Laddu Babu is requested by Murthy to come over to their home and in inevitable conditions, Laddu Babu obliges to stay with Murty and his mom Madhuri (Bhumika). So, why did Murthy request him to stay at their home, what did Laddu Babu do to the family and did Laddu Babu win Maya’s love forms the plot of the story.
Allari Naresh: We know he is an able character and as usually he did a brilliant job as ‘Laddu Babu’ because carrying such heavy make-up and performing is never easy. He was cute and sweet as a big ‘Laddu’ but guess with the make up around, we could not witness the true feelings his face was trying to emote behind the artificial flesh.
Poorna: She was hot and gorgeous. She could emote well too. She added the much needed spice and oomph to her character ‘Maya’. Way to go dear!
Bhumika: She is an absolute charmer, especially in realistic characters like ‘Madhuri’ (a widowed mother). She took the character to a different plane altogether so brilliantly with such ease and poise.
Master Atul: This little cracker is a stunner in the film. His performance as an innocently adamant kid was a pleasant surprise. He has put up an impressive show along with Allari Naresh.
Kota Srinivasa Rao: One will instantly fall in a love-hate state with his character 'Mushti Kishtayya'. Though Kota has shown his 'vishwaroopam' in characters like these, he adds a different tinge and his trade mark magic to this character.
Sameer: He is a surprise cop in the film and we would not like to spoil the surprise now.
The rest of the cast including all the big wig comedians late AVS, Brahmanandam, Ali, Krishna Bhagvan, JP, Kondavalasa, MS Narayana, Giri Babu, Rallapalli, Raghu Babu, RK et al just do their job decently and walk off.
Ravi Babu is a unique filmmaker who has got a distinguished style in making laugh riots, romcoms and thrillers. But this film stands out from all those films who tries to make you laugh your guts out and dip in an ocean of love but unfortunately could not. It is quite evident that this is a genuine attempt to tell a tale of a fattie but unfortunately he could not measure up to the expectations that are usually tagged to a 'Ravi Babu' film.
Merits:
- A good and intense story of a kid and Laddu Babu more than just a love story.
- A good job by his cast. All the performances especially Naresh, Bhumika, Kota, Master Atul make this story believable and appealing to the extent possible.
- The unique Ravi Babu style treatment with slapstick comedy.
- Impressive song picturization.
- Dialogues evoke laughter here and there.
Demerits:
- A sluggish screenplay that evokes boredom in the first half and successfully hooks it to the second half as well.
- The narrative has a poor blend of comedy that is usually guaranteed in an Allari Naresh's film. Particularly Kota's comedy track in the second half looks so artificial.
- The scenes are not potential enough to make you laugh in the comedy scenes or feel the emotion of the emotional scene.
- A mediocre music fail to let you enjoy at least the songs.
P.S: The first half was interesting with a pinch of lag
The interval was unpredictable
The second half was a patient test.
Music by Chakri was not upto the snuff, certainly not a Chakri mark audio too but the songs were brilliantly picturized. Especially the Muddugumma and Sirimalli songs were so innovative. And forget about the back ground score that hardly adds any value to the scene.
The opening title credits that were planned on a chocolate shop backdrop, the entire film that carries a chocolate brown tinge and the deleted scene with Venu Madhav displayed at the end were good.
Laddu Babu is a 'Tirupati Laddu' size surprise to all those who enter the theatre expecting an Allari Naresh mark laugh riot. It is a badly told good film that might impress your kids but not you - "Tasteless Laddu"