Cast: Ram, Rakul Preet Singh, Sonal Chauhan, Brahmanandam, Jagapathi Babu
Banner: United Movies
Music: S S Thaman
Cinematography: Arthur A. Wilson
Story: Veligonda Srinivas
Screenplay: Kona Venkat and Anil Ravipudi
Producer: Paruchuri Kireeti
Direction: Gopichand Malineni
Avg User Rating: 3/5
Tag Line: A good cocktail - can taste once!
Plot:
Multimillionaire Industrialists Kartheek Pothineni (Ram) get engaged to Anushka (Sonal Chauhan) to expand their respective business empires. But one of Kartheek's industries in India suffer a seize due to a case filed by social activist Divya (Rakul Preet). Divya is sandwiched between her father Bhoopati (Sampath Raj) and uncle Sai Reddy (Saikumar) who share a rivalry of 25 long years. Kartheek flies down to India to resolve his factory issue but he has got a bigger mission to accomplish. What are his objectives and how did he achieve this forms the crux of the story.
Performances:
Ram: This able actor has done a decent job but the out of the world fights of this energetic star might go well with his mass fan base only.
Rakul Preet: She is a conventional Telugu cinema heroine in the film (with a bunch of romantic and sentimental scenes, couple of songs etc) which Rakul plays with ease.
Sonal Chauhan: The responsibility of glam feast has been taken by this diva of Legend fame. Moreover on the contrary, she has got something different to do and Sonal did a decent job.
Brahmanandam: As usually he is the saviour of the film. His role as Weekend Venkat Rao and his act in the second half are hilarious.
Prithvi & Shakalaka Shankar: The parody of SVSC played by the duo is amusing enough.
The rest of lead cast including Sampath Raj, Saikumar, Rao Ramesh, Tejaswi, JP, MS Narayana & others play their part in this routine family drama.
Direction:
You have a good chef like Kona Venkat who is the Master Chef of commercial laugh riots and you have a promising talent like Anil Ravipudi (of Pataas fame) taking care of the script. So it is expected to be a cake walk for any director to helm this commercial entertainer and Gopichand lives up to the snub. More than the story, Kona's dialogues and screenplay pull of the wagon. But what amazes the common cine goer is the exceptional calibre if our writers to dish out numerous films with the same story.
Besides a hero who lands in the country to unite his family, a joint family who is enraged with some rivalry for years together and can't remember relationships until our hero does with his word or an emotional speech in the climax, a heroine to woo, tease, fall in love, shake a leg and finally get kidnaped by villains and a set of goons to keep yelling and occasionally get bashed up by the hero, Pandaga Chesko has Brahmi coming in Weekend Venkat Rao avatar to entertain and pass the film.
First Half: The romantic track between Ram, Sonal, Rakul Preet and the comedy track of JP, Abhimanyu Singh are amusing enough to keep us engaged.
Interval: The pre-interval episode is routine and predictable.
Second Half: Brahmi is the lone saviour of this segment. The track of Prithvi and Shakalaka Shankar is yet another asset. Besides this, the dose of sentiment and comedy in the last 20mins of the film is a decent fare to bear the rest.
Merits:
The Comedy proportion in the film.
Sonal Chauhan and Rakul Preet's glamor.
Kona's dialogues and Engaging screenplay.
Decent Music with catchy beats.
Demerits:
Routine and predictable story with routine treatment
Music:
Thaman gave a decent album where Ram-Sonal Chauhan's romantic song was well picturized in the exotic locales of Portugal. Except the wedding scene in the 2nd half, the background score is rather routine and needs no special mention.
Others:
Cinematography by Sameer Reddy and art direction by AS Prakash are good.
Verdict:
Pandaga Chesko is a one time watch routine commercial family entertainer. You might have a déjà vu feel but still if you are running out of options to kill you time, PC can be a choice - thanks to Brahmi!