Where is the Venkatalakshmi movie review highlights: The first half meanders around aimlessly

The Kishore Kumar Pardasani directorial

Where is the Venkatalakshmi

starring Raai Laxmi, Ram Karthik, Pujita Ponnada, Praveen, Madhu Nandan and Pankaj Kesari in lead roles released today.

The first half of the film sees a rowdy Veera Reddy (Pankaj Kesari) who's not afraid to wield the knife to get what he wants. He kills a couple with ease for a mysterious wooden box they're trying to protect. Then there are the lovers Sekhar (Ram Karthik), son of the village President and Gowri (Pujita Ponnada) who cannot continue their romance due to the latter's brother. But Sekhar's good-for-nothing, moral-less friends Chantigadu and Pandugadu (Praveen and Madhu Nandan) try to bring them together and fail, going about it the wrong way. Venkatalakshmi (Raai Laxmi) is the beautiful, sequin-blouse-wearing new teacher in town.

It's almost as if the writers of Where is the Venkatalakshmi decided to sit at the table and create the worst characters to ever be made on-screen. But out of the whole assorted lot, Chantigadu and Pandugadu take the cake for being sexist, alien to the concept of consent and having no ambition in life other than mooching off their aged grandmother. They spy on women taking baths, drug them and beat up people with no remorse. But things change for the duo when Venkatalakshmi comes into town, being the first woman in the village to not be outright disgusted by them.

The first half meanders around with no plot or narrative in place, taking its own sweet time to set up the characters. The problem is it goes overboard in showing how useless Chantigadu and Pandugadu really are when you get the drift in half the time dedicated to them. With four songs in the first half, out of which only Yemaya Chesindo leaves its mark, the film drags on till Raai Laxmi comes into the fold. A romantic number in the first half seems especially put in for the sake of it. It remains to be seen in the second half how the narrative of all these characters will tie up or if the film will ever pick up semblance of plot.