Ali has done quite a few films in the past as a hero and some of them like Yamaleela went on to become huge hits. His latest film Thimmarju is nowhere close to any of his earlier films where he has played the lead role and what’s worse is that the film completely loses track of what it wants to achieve. Directed by Vemagiri, the film narrates the story of a tribal warrior who comes to the city to gain knowledge about how the modern society lives their life apart from earning some big money.

The film begins with an interesting note with three friends, Suman, Dhanraj and Venu being banished from the village unless they convince a telecom network provider to set up a cell tower. The reason why they have to embark on this journey is hilarious and it’s perhaps among the very few aspects which stand out in the film. When they reach Rajahmundry, they try to convince the minister to help them out; however they are trashed and kicked out of minister’s house. Meanwhile, the minister’s daughter and his opposition party leader’s son fall in love and they elope. They bump into Thimmaraju (Ali) and request him to safeguard them for 10 days for which they agree to pay him Rs 10 lakhs. How he safeguards them and will the problem of the three friends be ever solved forms the rest of the story.

The film which begins on an extremely funny note soon ends up being a cat and mouse chase between the goons and the young lovers. Later, when the story shifts to a forest, umpteen scenes depicting how the three friends try to escape from Thimmaraju’s hold hardly solve a purpose. And all of a sudden, the film turns into a Pentagonal love story with the three guys dreaming of romancing the girl on the shores of Godavari. After much buffoonery the film reveals the real reason why Thimmaraju ends up in the city and it’s faintly inspired from an incredible comedy film titled ‘God’s Must Be Crazy’. In the end, the film is a two hour long comic drama about how an interesting concept can be lost underneath layers and layers of buffoonery which desperately tries to make the audience laugh.

Ali has done funnier roles as a comedian and except for the double entendres there’s hardly anything funny in his role. Venu, Suman and Dhanraj do generate few genuine laughs and they live their part quite well. Chinna and Deepthi who play the role of eloped lovers do well in the emotional scenes where they end up misunderstanding each other. Jeeva, Duvvasi Mohan and Kishore are alright.

The film’s music is surprisingly good and the music director Nandan Raj makes quite an impression. The title track and another song ‘Lokame Kothaga’ are quite pleasant to listen to. There’s hardly anything else to be written about the film, if only Vemagiri who wrote and directed the film had spent more time in exploring Thimmaraju’s experiences after he comes to the city, it could have been a funnier film.

Thimmaraju probably has its own target audience who like to be entertained by pure comic timing and over the top antics. But then, the film’s ludicrous enough to sit through. Two big thumbs down for the film.