Movie Review: Family Star 

Vijay Deverakonda and Mrunal Thakur’s much-anticipated project “Family Star” was released today. Vijay has been struggling at the box office of late. As this is the second collaboration between director Parsuram and Vijay, the exceptions on the movie went up.

Let’s see if the team delivered the middle-class family drama that they promised in the promotions.

Story:

The movie starts well with a middle-class family drama. In the first scene, we can observe that Mrunal Thakur(Indu) is narrating the story. The entry of Vijay Deverakonda(Govardhan) is done in a way where he is going to buy onions. Govardhan has one alcoholic brother who does not do any work. Govardhan is so caring for his family in all ways such as managing home needs and paying the children’s school fees. The middle-class family is portrayed well.

Mrunal Thakur(Indhu) studies at ‘Central University’ and stays in Govardhan’s penthouse. Indhu soon becomes part of the Govardhan family. There is good chemistry between Govardhan and Indhu. Indhu’s main motive is to write a book on Govardhan a middle-class family boy. Indhu writes the book ‘The Man’ on Govardhan without his permission and Govardhan gets to know about it. With this many twists take place in the interval scene.

Who is Indhu and why she came into Govardhan’s life? What is the need for writing the book? How is Indhu the CEO of the company where Govaradhan works? These are some of the questions we are left with at the interval bang. All these questions are answered in the second half of the movie.

Screenplay and Analysis:

Govardhan as a middle-class family man is not portrayed well. He earns Rs 1 lakh per month but the movie projects him as a middle-class man. The songs are not up to the mark. They could have been better. The utilization of the characters is not proper as the screen time of Jagapathi Babu is very low. There are many twists in the movie that can be easily anticipated by the average moviegoer. The director was not able to carry the middle-class emotion till the end of the movie.

The second half of the movie is too boring. You will feel like, “When will this movie end?” That’s how boringly the second half plays out. One saving grace of the movie is Venella Kishore in the second half. You can thoroughly enjoy the comedy scenes. There are also some cringe moments such as bathing and brushing in the office. Vijay’s acting is more like overacting in so many instances.

The climax of the movie is not properly executed. The BGM is not impressive and the dialogues are too unnatural. The movie does not have any proper flow.

Actors:

Vijay Deverakonda’s acting is not natural and in most of the scenes, we will not be able to connect to the emotions of the middle class. The dialogue delivery is not proper in many scenes.

The chemistry between Mrunal and Vijay is not good. Mrunal stood out in many scenes. The audience is going to be satisfied by Mrunal’s acting.

The role portrayed by Jagapathi Babu as the father of Mrunal is good but the screen time of Jagapathi Babu is very less in the movie.

Technical Departments:

The songs and BGM of the movie are unable to impress the audience. In many scenes, it is hard to connect to the emotion and the tempo in which the movie is going.

The cinematography of the movie is good and the editing work is decent.

The story is very weakly written and poorly executed by the director.

Plus Points:

• Mrunal Thakur’s acting is a major advantage.
• Venella Kishore’s comedy timing.
• Middle-class life is portrayed well in some scenes in the first half.
• The interval band is very good.

Minus Points:

• The climax is not properly executed.
• Chemisty is missing between Mrunal and Vijay.
• All the twists can be predicted.
• Routine story.
• Songs and BGM are not up to the mark.

Punchline:

Formula Star Fails to Shine