Mithra Mandali Review

Mithra Mandali is a buddy comedy featuring well-known comedy actors Priyadarshi, Vishnu Oi, Rag Mayur, Prasad Behara, and the debut of content creator Niharika NM. Bunny Vas backed this project under his own banner, BV Works, directed by debutant Vijayender, a known accomplice of directors KV Anudeep and Kalyan Shankar. It hit screens today as a Diwali festive release. Let’s see if this young team delivered yet another laugh riot or not!

Setup:

The story revolves around four friends Chaitanya (Priyadarshi), Satwick (Vishnu Oi), Rajeev Reddy (Prasad Behara), and Abhi (Rag Mayur) in a place called Jangli Patnam, who carelessly lead their lives without any purpose. A politician Narayana (VTV Ganesh), who leads a caste called Thutte Kulam, is a caste fanatic and expects to become an MLA with their support. Abhi and Satwick fall for his daughter Swetcha (Niharika NM) and try to impress her. In the process, Swetcha falls for Chaitanya, and all this leads to a kidnap mess. How will all this end up? Will Swetcha and Chaitanya’s love have a happy ending? How do these Mithra Mandali get caught in all the chaos? Forms the rest of the story.

Technicalities:

Siddharth SJ’s cinematography is below par. The green screen shots are bad. There is no definitive tone to the movie, and it lacks richness on the big screen. Editing by Peekay is mediocre and shabby. These kinds of flicks need a very tight cut where the punches or comedy land, but he fails in doing so. RR Dhruvan’s music is okayish, with one or two reel-worthy songs. The BGM feels overpowered at times and doesn’t fit the scenes most of the time. Production values are passable. Director Vijayender took a very thin core story and wanted to build comedy around it just like his buddies Anudeep and Kalyan Shankar. But here, the narrative is lacking. Even if there is no story, the screenplay has to be gripping, which it isn’t. Even the comedy punches or sequences don’t land at all.

Performances:

All four lead actors Priyadarshi, Vishnu Oi, Rag Mayur, and Prasad Behara tried too hard to be in the zone, but none of the episodes featuring them land or generate any laughs. Everything looks very artificial in all scenes featuring them. Debutant Niharika NM needs to work on her acting and dialogue delivery skills. She doesn’t even have one impactful scene in the entire movie. She did better acting and comedy in her reel content than in this movie. Vennela Kishore and Satya were the only saving grace for the movie with a few laugh-worthy scenes in the first half. Other actors like Jeevan, VTV Ganesh, and Adikesava director Srikanth all have enough screen space but fail to generate any laughs.

Positives:

Few laughs here and there
Satya’s ‘Important character’

Negatives:

Forced and No Impact Comedy
Boring Setup
Flat Narration
Weak Writing
Background Score

Analysis:

When trying to recreate a movie like Jathi Ratnalu, which is silly, messy, and funny, the makers and director are successful in the first two, silly and messy, but missed the funny part. In the whole 2 hr 18 min of the movie’s runtime, there are hardly 5–10 minutes of laughs. Other than that, there is nothing in the story (as the makers gave a disclaimer: No Story, Only Laughs), no excitement, no comedy, and no pleasing visuals either.

Everything looks short film-type or like a group of Jabardasth comedy skits knit together. Wonder what impressed an actor like Priyadarshi to select this movie and give out a statement like “Don’t watch my next movie if you don’t like Mithra Mandali.”

Overall, Mithra Mandali is a very big disappointment from a very promising young cast and crew.

Bottom Line: Not Funny

Rating: 1.75/5