Cast: Roshan, Shriya Sharma, Nagarjuna, Aditya Menon, Surya and others
Directed by: Naga Koteswara Rao
Produced by: Nagarjuna, Nimmagadda Prasad
Banner: Annapurna Studios
Music by: Roshan Saluri
Release Date: 2016-09-16
Nirmala Convent has been in news for many days. Producers have been aggressively promoting it right from the word go. It has Srikanth's son Roshan making his screen debut and many other newcomers sharing the screen space. Most of the technical crew is also new to the industry. The trailers gave a clear idea about the film that it is a teenage love story. It is not easy to pull off such stories as they have to be highly convincing and extremely endearing to the viewers to accept adolescent romance. Naga Koteswara Rao however has failed to make it an entertaining watch.
What is it about?
Samuel (Roshan) and Shanti (Shriya) are plus-one students who fall in love with each other. Samuel belongs to a poor family and Shanti is a zameendar's daughter. Shanti's father challenges Samuel to earn money and recognition in society if he has to get the hand of his daughter. So Samuel decides to play a game called Champion of the Champions reminiscent of Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu hosted by Nagarjuna.
Performances:
Roshan has a camera friendly face and is confident. He is not a complete actor yet, but can shine with proper guidance and training. Shriya Sharma is an experienced campaigner. She has done many ad films and movies as a child artist. She is expressive and beautiful. Nagarjuna is good as the television show host. His presence saved this film from being a disaster. Aditya Menon, Surya and Anita Choudary did well in supporting characters. Tagubothu Ramesh is his usual self.
Technicalities:
Naga Koteswara Rao drew heavy inspiration from Oscar winning romantic drama Slumdog Millionaire. However, he couldn't narrate it in an interesting fashion. At least the game show should have been designed in a proper way to make for an intriguing finale. Koteswara Rao had all the resources he could ask for, but he has ended up with a mediocre film.
Roshan Saluri's music is fine. 'Lemme Lemme say K U - Kiss u, M U - Miss u' song is already a chartbuster. Even the background score is impressive. Cinematography is very good. Editing could have been better especially in the latter half. Visually the film is rich. Producers didn't compromise upon the quality of the product.
Thumbs Up:
Lead Pair
Nagarjuna
Music
Cinematography
Thumbs Down:
Weak script
Boring narration
Poor direction
Analysis:
One would expect a refreshing teen romance setup in a school after looking at the promos, but Nirmala Convent turns out to be a stale, dated and boring film sans romance and entertainment. The story takes eternity to move forward as the director spends a lot of time on introducing the characters.
Director should have taken proper care on the blossoming romance between the lead characters. The love story starts out of nowhere and within no time the pair is in deep love. First half is utter boring that we pray for Nagarjuna to make an entry hoping that he would make it somewhat interesting.
Nagarjuna plays himself as the game host in the film and it is surely an unexpected twist in the tale. We hope that the game would be an interesting one, but it never excites us as there is no drama or depth to it. Nagarjuna does his best to make this sequence click with his charming performance. However, he is let down by a cold script and bad direction.
Predictability is one of the main problems for this film as we know that the protagonist is going to win it for sure. In the end Nirmala Convent turns out to be a promotional film for Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu show. Lead pair, Nagarjuna and the visuals are the positives but they cannot save Nirmala Convent, which has severely suffered because of a pathetic script.
Verdict: Lemme Lemme Say B U - Bores You, D U - Disappoints You.