Unspoken love doesn't go unrequited

Anju loves Sanjay while Rakesh loves Anju. Manju also loves Sanjay while Varaprasad alias Veepi loves Manju who doesn’t care a hoot about him.

Throw in a sex-crazed Rekha Das, her suspicious (?) husband Karibasavaiah, a wooden-faced swimming coach (?) Mukhyamantri Chandru along with Ashalatha and others and the deadly outcome is “Neenandre Ishta Kano”. Then there’s also the late Raju Anantswamy, playing a drunkard with all symbols of wealth on his person — should he be remembered this way?

Neenandre Ishta Kano, being the director’s 25th (!) outing, offers new methods of torturing an unsuspecting audience expecting good fare from a Dhruv-starrer. The entire credit for painstakingly sifting through reels shot aimlessly and assembling them into some semblance of order should go to K Narasaiah who is unable to raise the film from below mediocrity. Despite having two music directors and two cinematographers at his disposal, Reddy shows why he ought to be restrained from making films in the future.

“Inspired” by a 2003 Telugu film that had little to offer, Neenandre Ishta Kano looks dated and little else. Dhruv gives his best and newbie Roopanjali is the only girl to show some spunk. Sharan is the backbone of the film, even as he plays second fiddle to the hero. But his antics, like the rest of the so-called comedy track involving Raju Anant­swamy and others, irritate and sadden the viewer further.

The award-win­ning male dubbing artiste, however, has a major role to play, lending his voice to several characters but that’s about it. The film sucks away all pleasant feelings in a jiffy.