‘Allari’ Naresh knows best when it comes to entertaining the audience. The ease with which he churns out comical entertainers year after year is just amazing. After a long gap he’s back on big screen as “Bendu Apparao” with a tagline ‘RMP’, under EVV Satyanarayana’s direction. The film also stars Kamna Jethmalani and Meghana who share the screen with Allari Naresh.. ‘Bendu Appa Rao’ is the story of an RMP’s mischievous and rather silly style of curing patients in a village whose aim is to earn a quick buck. The film follows the trail of Apparao and how his life changes when he suddenly becomes rich under unusual circumstances.

What is it about : ‘Allari’ Naresh stars as Apparao, an RMP in a small village who uses unusual methods to treat the patients. Although he is a good person at heart, he doesn’t back down when he sees an opportunity to make a quick buck. Padma (Kamna Jethmalani) is the daughter of a local zamindar who falls in love with Apparao after their first meeting. While the couple’s love story is in a good form, on a particular night, Apparao and his friends come across a stranger who has had an accident. They try to rescue him, but he dies in Naresh’s arms while pleading him to fulfill his last wish. What is this last wish? And how did the life of Naresh and his friends change after this incident forms the rest of the story.

What is Good: The film has a good blend of all the village stereotypes. There’s a corrupt village president, a bunch of friends who always gamble, a village belle who’s crazy for the most eligible bachelor and the hero himself who tries to bring about a change in the village. “Bendu Apparao” doesn’t do anything remarkable to break from this quintessential formula, but it doesn’t spoil the fun either. Allari Naresh fits into the role perfectly. He has definitely matured as an actor and that definitely shows in melodramatic and sentimental scenes. The entire sequence between Naresh and his assistant in the film, Suman Shetty is pretty hilarious. Kamna Jethmalani looks a tad too glamorous to be a village girl, but nevertheless she’s good in his chirpy role. Ahuti Prasad and Raghu Babu’s characters are well written and the two have some of the best comedy scenes in the film.

What is bad: The second heroine, Meghana is completely wasted in the film. Ali and Dharmavarapu Subramanyam’s guest appearances are forgettable. The film starts on an interesting note in depicting the bizarre ways which Apparao treats the patients. However, it takes too much in establishing the other characters in the village. First half of the film lacks pace although there are quite a few funny lines and comic scenes. The actual story begins with the interval twist and the second half goes into a sentimental mode, thereby deviating from what could have been a good fun film to watch.

Technical Departments: Dialogues by Veligonda Srinivas are good throughout the film, especially the ones written for Ahuti Prasad and Raghu Babu. Cinematography by Jayram is alright. Editing by Gowtham Raju is good enough to keep the film engaging for most part. Music by Koti is mediocre with only couple of songs making some impact. Story by Giri gives a good platform for some hilarious sequences about the misadventures of an RMP. However, EVV Satyanarayana who also handles the direction and screenplay of the film doesn’t succeed completely in making this film a laugh riot.

Bottomline: Naresh’s earlier films like Blade Babji, Seema Sastri were good because the films never took themselves seriously. Here EVV makes that mistake; the film takes itself too seriously and in the end, dishes out an average product. A lackluster first half and the heavy dose of sentiment in the latter half hamper the film a lot. “Bendu Apparao” is not a bad film. It’s just not funny enough which would compel you to watch it again and again. Watch it if you have nothing else to do, it might just manage to entertain you.