After making a mark with serious movies, Allari Naresh returns to comedy with Aa Okkati Adakku. Borrowing the title of one of his father's biggest hits also adds to the expectations from the movie. Senior comedian Johnny Lever's daughter Jamie Lever also makes her Telugu debut with Aa Okkati Adakku. Ganapati aka Gana (Allari Naresh) is in his mid thirties and still not married. His younger brother is married and also has a daughter. Despite being a good-looking government employee, Gana is facing difficulties in finding the right match due to increased expectations of young girls. Most of the time, he faces the taunts of neighbours, colleagues and friends about his single status, which makes him desperately search for possible brides. He finally seeks the help of a marriage bureau, Happy Matrimonial, run by Upendra (Anish Kuruvilla) and Divya (Hariteja). Gana meets Siddhi (Faria) through the agency, whom he has already bumped into once earlier. Gana likes Siddhi and proposes to her. Siddhi declares that she is willing to try the rest of the nine options from the stipulated ten options. Disappointed Gana reiterates his love and agrees to let her try all her options while he waits for her acceptance. When this waiting game reaches the end, new complications arise to keep Gana away from Siddhi even more. Among these reasons is a hidden truth about Siddhi's identity and a big scam involving the marriage bureau. As this secret potentially ruins the love between the lead pair, the story's focus turns entirely towards the matrimonial agency's practices. How the lead pair help each other and expose the wrong practices of marriage bureaus to clear their names and finally come together forms the rest of the story. Also Read - Nadikar movie review: An in-form Tovino Thomas prevents this festival of misfires from crashing The story begins well with the viewpoint of an e-commerce delivery guy, creating curiosity towards the hero's character. An action sequence reminds one of the recent action identity of Naresh. Further scenes go on building up the hero's character and his problems in this tradition-bound society that looks down upon an unmarried guy. As the idea is repeatedly stressed upon with more or less similar scenes, the fun aspect loses its punch. Jamie Lever, as Devi, the younger brother’s wife, is fresh casting opposite Naresh. Even this track becomes monotonous as the scenes run on the same note again and again. Till much later in the second half, Jamie is not offered any variation in her character, rendering her casting half exploited. Faria shines in her glamorous, bubbly avatar. Her Telugu diction still needs some work. Her dance has improved greatly. This role is almost a sleepwalk for Naresh. When he reminds us of his ‘intact’ comedy gene, the dialogues threaten to revive the old slapstick Naresh, but thankfully, it doesn’t go that far. Compared to recent comedy hits in Telugu, the writing here is not funny enough. Particularly the first half gets tedious towards the interval. Even during the second half, the narrative entirely changes focus to talk about matrimonial agencies and their wrong practices. The comic tone of the film disappears entirely and the movie suffers due to this. The discussion of marriage as a business is hardly engaging, and the film suffers due to this clash of genres. Also Read | Aranmanai 4 movie review: A new day and a new Aranmanai film with the same old problems Gopi Sundar’s music is just about ok. The songs are lavishly picturised. The camera work suits the story. The slow pace of the film is due to formulaic writing of the screenplay. The dialogue writing too should have had double the punches as Naresh was coming back to comedy after a long time. Recent films Samajavaragamana, Om Bheem Bush had much better writing compared to this film. Aa Okkati Adakku is a letdown from Naresh after a few good, different movies from him lately. Aa Okkati Adakku movie cast: Allari Naresh, Faria Abdulla, Jamie Lever, Ajay, Viva Harsha Aa Okkati Adakku movie director: Malli Ankam Aa Okkati Adakku movie rating: 1.5 stars
