MCA movie review: Too much happens too soon in this Nani and Sai Pallavi starrer
MCA - Middle Class Abhayi
Director: Venu Sri Ram
Cast: Nani, Sai Pallavi, Bhumika Chawla
Rating: 2
Middle-Class Abhayi starts off on a high note and goes downhill from there. Watching the film felt like a road trip gone bad.
Nani’s MCA begins as the story of two brothers who love each other so much that the marriage of one is nothing short of a transgression. Nani (called Nani in the film) loves his brother so much that when a sister-in-law Jyothi (Bhumika Chawla) enters the picture, the emotion she evokes is jealousy.
An unemployed man, Nani decides to hate the “heartless woman” forever and the fact that she finds work for him in faraway Hyderabad doesn’t help her case. All this is established in the first 15 minutes of the film and then he is forced to accompany her to Warangal where she has been transferred.
He hates it, but he has to do it for his brother and it is this stretch of the film that hits the high notes. The situational songs, the frustrated looks, and the comic timing work well.
What works even better is Pallavi’s (Sai Pallavi) intro scene. It begins the clichéd way. He spots a beautiful girl at the bus stop, stops, stares and takes a U-turn to park nearby and continues staring. Only, this girl comes up to him and confesses that she loves him and asks him when they should get married. Poor Nani is speechless and the audience in splits.
She doesn’t tell him her name, or why she likes him. The romance between them is so odd and hilarious, and that makes the first half of the film charming. Once Nani and Pallavi meet, it feels like the director is hurrying to get over with the fun part of the film to get to the serious bit. In the next 30 minutes, you have two dance sequences, the beginning of the conflict between the antagonist Shivanna and Jyothi, and Nani realising what his sister-in-law means to him. There is so much happening that you lose interest.
Do you know what happens when you open a wardrobe that’s chock full of stuff? Things start falling out of it and the second half of the film felt exactly like that.
In an attempt to give Nani’s love life and his relationship with his sister-in-law equal footage, the director has failed to add depth to either. On top of this, we have a villain threatening Nani’s his family. And bang in the middle of this, we get a family song. It was like hitting a speed bump when you are driving at a high speed.
When we look at the film as a whole, it is like a lot of interesting things were shot and stitched together haphazardly. Maybe, only focusing on middle class Abhayi’s love life would have made it better. One can’t fault the actors in this case, and in fact it is Nani’s comic timing and Sai Pallavi’s fresh appeal that made this film tolerable.
The author tweets @Priyanka_s_mcc
Follow @htshowbiz for more

Vijay shows fan hysteria over Liger poster, promises ‘nationwide madness' next
- Vijay Deverakonda is touched by the overwhelming love from his fans after the release of the Liger poster. The film, directed by Puri Jagannadh, marks his pan-Indian debut.

Tandav creator Ali Abbas Zafar offers update after unconditional apology
- The Tandav team is having further dialogue with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting over the complaints that have been filed against the show, creator Ali Abbas Zafar has said.

Bigg Boss 14: Vikas Gupta is back on the show, says Eijaz Khan is an honest man

Yash flies to Maldives with family, see pics

When Hrithik Roshan oversaw Amitabh Bachchan rehearsing for his singing debut

Bigg Boss 14: Devoleena enters as Eijaz's proxy, says he has been wrong at times

Dhaakad: Arjun Rampal is Kangana Ranaut’s nemesis, see first look

Deepika Padukone says she manages her home herself, Ranveer keeps asking why
- Deepika Padukone said that because of the upbringing she got, she believes in taking care of her home herself, instead of outsourcing duties to her staff.

Kamal Haasan's daughters Shruti, Akshara give update after his leg surgery
- Kamal Haasan's leg surgery on Tuesday morning was successful, a statement shared by his daughters Shruti and Akshara revealed. He will be discharged from the hospital in a few days.

Happy birthday Varun Tej: Here's his first look from his boxing film Ghani

Rakhi Sawant says husband Ritesh will never accept her or their kids publicly
- Rakhi Sawant said that she misses having a man in her life after her break-up with ex-boyfriend Abhishek Awasthi. She added that she has frozen her eggs and wants Abhinav Shukla to be the sperm donor.

After Tandav, FIR against Mirzapur for 'hurting sentiments, abusive content'

Shabana Azmi recalls 'near-fatal' crash, Deepika confirms film with SRK

Sunil jokes Dr Mashoor Gulati was more difficult to play than Gutthi. Here's why
