Love does triumph sometimes

Ellellu Neene Nannallu Neene is a fair attempt by award-winning director Richard Castelino at a ‘romantic and wholesome’ cinema. The story chosen is a no-fuss, simple tale.

Castelino revisits the 1973 Shammi Kapoor-Sharmila Tagore hit Aa gale lag ja and its spin-off Pyar Jhukta Nahin but modifies the story ‘suitably’. Rajshekhar (Ashwath Ninasam) is the doting elder brother to ‘foreign-returned’ Rani (Supritha) who falls in love with their driver Rohith. She and Rohith secretly marry, but the brother finds out about their ‘budding romance’. After several bottles of liquor and red-eye scenes, Rajshekhar confronts Rohith. He then finds out Rani is pregnant...

Among the actors, Ashwath stands tall, coaxing the inexperienced lead pair to put up some performance. For Supritha is mostly insipid while Rohith does not suit the role. To make matters worse, the supporting cast is blissfully ignorant of the fact that they are facing the camera. People like Suresh Mangalore are wasted.

The film has its bright spots though - Mallikarjun’s cinematography is intelligent and Vijaya Bharathi’s music good. But it is Malavalli Saikrishna who suffers the most. Richard trusses up the writer with his ‘sophistication’ and Saikrishna’s dialogues lack juice. Yet, the film is watchable mainly for Ashwath’s histrionics.