'Tenali Ramakrishna BA BL' review: Insanely unfunny

A film which is promoted as a quirky entertainer with slap-stick humour turns out to be a load of rubbish with a rally of old-fashioned gags that misfire.
A still from the film
A still from the film

It requires great skill and a unique talent to direct a comedy entertainer. It may seem like a lighthearted affair, but in order to get the right material, you need to understand the fundamentals of that genre.

You need to do a lot of research, maintain a consistent sense of fun with clever writing and a lightness of touch. Failing which, you end up making a raucous comedy like Tenali Ramakrishna BA BL.

Starring Sundeep Kishan and Hansika Motwani, the film showcases creative bankruptcy of director G Nageswara Reddy, who hasn’t delivered anything exceptional or funny in a long time.

Kurnool-based Tenali Ramakrishna (Sundeep Kishan) is a struggling lawyer who seeks new ways to keep building his practices while living a life on his own terms.

Rather than offering compromises for long-pending cases with out-of-court settlements, his father and a perjury-turned-broker Durga Rao (Raghu Babu) insists Tenali earn respect in life. Tenali falls in love with a naive lawyer, Rukmini (Hansika Motwani), the daughter of Chakravarthy (Murali Sharma), a leading criminal lawyer in the town. Tenali digs up a ploy etched against a local humanitarian Varalaxmi (Varalaxmi Sarathkumar), who is falsely implicated in the murder case of journalist Bhupal.

What follows is how Tenali with his quirks and wit brings those responsible to justice.

A film which is promoted as a quirky entertainer with slap-stick humour turns out to be a load of rubbish with a rally of old-fashioned gags that misfire.

The script doesn’t offer a piece of integrity and the performances of its cast don’t rise from the surface level.

The film doesn’t convey a point of view and leaves you crestfallen. The narration is replete with a series of utterly illogical scenes and the director didn’t spare the women either from talking all non-sense.

Sample this: Rajitha, who plays Chakravarthy’s wife asks if his Madhya Pradesh, an alias to name the central organ of the human body, is okay after he escapes unhurt from an accident.

Then, there’s also a courtroom drama which shows the judge losing his temper against a witness and calls out the Circle Inspector with a different name (Kiran Kumar) against what the latter wears on his uniform’s nameplate.

I am sure these are the least offensive scenes in the film that assaults your senses and it’s hard to believe that we have some writers, who still harp on such content in the name of humour. And as if there is no respite to your ordeal, you are also inflicted to watch the songs which come as speed breakers.

I still don’t understand why Sundeep Kishan, who expressed his fondness to work in different cinema or Hansika, who has become choosy in Telugu would agree to be a part of Tenali Ramakrishna BA BL.

Ten-fifteen years from now, it’s one such film that they may regret doing and doesn’t shy away from erasing it from their filmography and memories.

Watching this film makes you feel like being trapped in an elevator for 128 minutes!

Movie: Tenali Ramakrishna BA BL

Cast: Sundeep Kishan, Hansika Motwani, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar

Direction: G Nageswara Reddy

Rating: 1/5

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