Movie: Ante Sundaraniki
Director: Vivek Athreya
Starring: Nani, Nazriya Fahadh, Nadhiya, Harshavardhan, Rahul Ramakrishna, Suhas, and others
Producers: Naveen Yerneni, Ravi Shankar Y
Music Director: Vivek Sagar
Cinematography: Niketh Bommi
Editor: Raviteja Girijala
8
The IBC News Rating
Directed by Vivek Athreya, Nani and Nazriya’s “Ante Sundaraniki” hit the theatres on June 10, 2022. Released amid decent expectations, let’s see how it is.
Plot:
The plot revolves around two childhood friends Sundar (Nani) and Leela (Nazriya) who belong to different religions. Despite belonging to two different traditions, Sundar and Leela eventually fall in love. However, they are afraid of their respective families and devise a plan involving two lies to convince the two families. What were those two lies? How do two lies affect their families? Do Sundar and Leela have a happy ending? forms the remaining plot.
What’s Entertaining & What’s Boring:
The humor continues to flow throughout the first half as well as the second half. In the second half, the drama is more convincing, and the emotions work better.
The director celebrates the entertaining writer in this story that sidesteps a few cliches but ultimately gets predictable. He picked a wafer thin line, and narrated it in a pleasant way but missed out the trimming a few unnecessary scenes.
Editing could have been better as a few scenes in the pre-climax could have been edited out.
Performance of Cast & Crew:
Nani once again proved he is a natural star. He elevates some small moments with his subtle expressions. On the other hand, Nazriya never ceases to surprise. She suits Leela’s character perfectly and emotes with her eyes beautifully. Mainly the emotion she carries because of a sensitive lie was expressed by her eyes themselves. Her love track with Nani is quite mature and holds the film well.
But the main man who is one of the pillars of the film is the hero’s dad. Naresh does supremely well in his role as an orthodox father. The comedy he generates is also good
Anupama Parameswaran’s role was very limited and she gave her best. Some of the other pivotal characters played by Nadhiya, Harsha Vardhan, Azhagam Perumal, and Rohini are also crafted well.
Though director Vivek Athreya chooses a simple script, he nicely showcases the simple yet strong emotions in the love lives which hold your attention till the end. He should be praised for balancing comedy, emotions, and romance neatly. The way he dealt with the pregnancy issue was too good. Also, the camera work steals the show. The production design of the film is superb and so was the music.
First Half & Second Half:
The first half took a lot of time to establish the characters. Nani and Nazriya’s backstories and childhood episodes occupy the major portion of the runtime. Furthermore, the director doesn’t use a straight narrative for a simple situation as well.
However, later the characters are introduced, and the movie goes into a flow with good entertainment.
In the second half when we are into the actual story involving the family story, the movie drags a bit with predictability. But it was the comedy scenes that come in the middle along with emotionally blended pregnancy scenes that make us sit with a good feel throughout.
Impressive:
Nani and Nazriya Performances
Naresh Characterisation
Climax Sequence
Music
Unimpressive:
Run Time
Starting 20 Min In First Half
Lagging scenes in the second half.
‘The IBC News’ take on Ante Sundaraniki:
On the whole, Ante Sundaraniki is a classy love drama that is filled with nicely executed emotions. Though the story is very simple and the runtime is very high, the neat comedy, good emotions, realistic performances, neat romance, and decent narration make this film an endearing watch.
One-Line Review:
Ante Sundaraniki is good in parts.
