Business magnate Rathan Roy (Suman Talwar) succeeds in getting a million dollar Spaceship manufacturing tender, due to Ajay (Ajay). But Rathan tries to share his property to all his company workers rather transferring the ancestral property to Ajay. Saddened Ajay pens to kill Rathan Roy and grab the whole property. Things fall apart when Rathan saves every document in his personal computer, which has an unbreakable password. On the other hand, Chandu (Teju) a small time thief falls in love with Akhira (Chandini) sister of industrialist Prakash (Rajeev). And Prakash associate tries to kidnap Akhira and blackmail him. At this time, Ajay gets to know Akhira is the secret to solve Roy’s puzzled password. Will Ajay be able to inherit the Rathan Roy properties? Why did Prakash plan to kidnap Akhira? How was Akhira related to Rathan Roy? Forms the rest of the story.
Couple of nippers are entrusted with the task of carrying the film forward on their stalwart shoulders, but they completely fail in this aspect. Ulvacharu Biryani fame Tejus has nothing much to do in this title role. Chandini Chowdary is the leading lady, she does look charming, but her expressions and mannerisms were not upto the mark. What are actors like Sapthagiri, Snigdha doing in here in this terrible mess of a film? I haven’t got any clue. Veteran actor Suman Talwar tried to be at his best. Ajay and Rajeev Kankala have done a commendable job.
The story of “Ketugadu” runs on the steady commercial formula of Romance, Fights, Chase, Song and Drama. The movie starts off with a story moves willy-nilly along the timeline intersecting another storyline here and there, making very wispy connections at times. There is nothing wrong with an oscillating timeline and at times the technic has even been found to be productive, but in a film as this, it serves only as an extra pain. Actor Suman’s five minutes sequences are perhaps the finest, but I could see that there were only very few people around, by the time the final revelations came up. It’s this sense of ennui that the film builds up which makes Ketugadu a total ruin.
Of course there few scenes that promise fun. A few. But after sometime you start wondering whether you are laughing at the Sapthagiri démodé jokes or at yourself. Some scenes end up being like a cartoon scenes. *Spoiler Alert* When Ajay was sure about the main documents in the Suman’s personal computer, he never tries to break it or replace it; After knowing the fact that Chadini eye retina will unlock the billion dollar secrets of Roy industries, Ajay instead of bringing her to the company and scanning her eyes to replace the documents. He tries to replace his eyes with hers’. I’m not trying to suggest that script goes cuckoo after a while, since it doesn’t have clue as to where it’s headed right from the very start. Haywire narration is a very light term which could be used in the context.
The best things about the film are the few good frames that captured by Malahar Bhat Joshi. Sadly, they deserve to be in film like “Ketugadu”. Sai Karthik’s songs are okay. BGM works in parts. Editing by Pasam Venkateshwara Rao are inconsistent. Dialogues by P Rajasekhar Reddy and Bhasha Shree are promising. Dialogues like, “Mana Jeevitham lo puttukaku minchina santhosham chaavuku minchina baadha undadu”, “Mandhu thaggaka bottle.. Vasham thaggaka Godugu.. paniayipoyaka friend ni vadileyyadam common ye” etc are in sync with the situations of the film. Production values of “Venkatesh Movies” are fine.
This is a whole lot of attempts to poke fun at mega films prior to 1990’s, and it’s ironic that due to exactly films as these had driven viewers away from the theatres. In Ketugadu, story, screenplay as well as execution are major letdown. Given kind of predictable fare that it is, it’s likely to have an awful time at box office.
