Anand Deverakonda in ‘Gum Gum Ganesh’
Gum Gum GaneshaThe Telugu crime comedy, written and directed by Udaya Bommisetty, doesn’t take itself seriously and expects the audience to enjoy it for some easy laughs. The film has a good dose of humour – mostly silly and sometimes smart – but is equally disappointing. Despite quirky characters and plot twists, it doesn’t keep us hooked. Anand Deverakonda and Emmanuel deliver a great deal of funny dialogues and the comedy of their friendship is far more interesting than the romance in the story.
The director takes off his hat Pirates of the Caribbean and old westerns, while he unfolds this story in the milieu of Kurnool and Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh. The opening scene, amplified by Chaitan Bharadwaj’s riffs, plays out like a western in a desolate location near Kurnool. Political rivalries are on display and with elections around the corner, a huge amount of cash is required.
Gum Gum Ganesh (Telugu)
Director: Uday Bommisetty
Cast: Anand Deverakonda, Emmanuel, Pragati Shrivastava
Story: A petty thief clashes with politicians and goons and the cause of the dispute is a Ganesha idol worth Rs 100 crore and above.
Meanwhile, petty thieves Ganesh (Anand Deverakonda) and his friend (Emmanuel) rob a house. Grocery A few thousand dollars are earned in the stores. The friends do not aim high until Ganesh realises that love also comes at a price. While he wants to make a quick buck to win over his girlfriend Shruti (Pragati Shrivastava), a cunning politician wants nothing less than Rs 100 crore for the elections. Around the same time, a jeweller’s heir wants to loot his father’s shop and grab a diamond worth a huge amount.
A number of odd characters emerge. A prisoner, who has come out at the behest of a politician (Raj Arun), wants to prove himself by performing a difficult task, a village headman wants to make a quick buck, and a few others do the same. Other characters who have nothing to do with idols, money or diamonds also feature in the story – for instance, Vennela Kishore as ‘Organ’ David, a strange doctor who roams around robbing people of their organs, and a drunken old man who claims to have taught Chiranjeevi to dance!
Ideally, all these characters coming together could have led to humorous results. gum Gum… However, it never builds tension or makes us excited for any of the characters. Barring a few funny parts, it’s hard to engage ourselves in the drama.
Anand, sporting spiky hair and tattoos (which become a running joke throughout the film), is at ease in the role of a man who falls in love and then falls out of it. When he gets treated badly in romance and breaks down in tears, albeit with a comic tone and laments that it can never happen to him again, it brings laughter in the theatre, thanks to the memories of his previous film, ChildWhile Emmanuel and Vennela Kishore make their presence felt, others, including Nayan Sarika and Satyam Rajesh, have less scope to contribute.
Gum Gum Ganesh had the potential to be a blockbuster crime drama along the lines of Swamy Ra RaBut it does provide some forgettable laughs.
