Rating: 1.5/5
Starring: Sandeep Bharadwaj, Harsha Vardhan, Vasu Inturi, Kivish Kautilya, Padmini Settam
Director : Naani Bandreddi
Music : Ajay Arasada
Cinematography : Rakesh S Narayan
Editor : Venkata Krishna Chikkala
What's Behind
Lol Salaam directed by Nanni Bandreddi generated interest with its promotions. The web series started streaming on the Zee5 OTT platform. Let us see what impact Lol Salaam starring Sandeep Bharadwaj, Harsha Vardhan, Vasu Inturi, Kivish Kautilya, Padmini Settam makes on viewers.
Story Review
Thick friends Reddy, Varma, John, Naidu, and Khan who are engrossed in their own problems decide to forget them by taking time out and have fun going on a picnic. But their quest for fun on a picnic lands them in trouble when they venture into forests and got entangled between Naxalites and a powerful politician. How they come out of it and the twists and turns in their journey form Lol Salaam's storyline.
Artists, Technicians Review
Director Bandireddi managed to create interest among viewers initially for the first two episodes as he introduces the friends and also their relationships. But from the third episode, he loses steam when he should have taken the narration to another level with the entry of Naxals. The third and fourth episodes went awry and ended up testing the patience of the viewers as he messed up the entire proceedings. One can excuse him as in most of the episodes, the middle episodes end up in a boring manner. The final episodes should make viewers experience the real thrills and frills. But this is where the director failed miserably with everything falling apart.
Kivish Kautilya has the talent and showed the initial promise. However, his character is loosely knit. Director Naani Bandireddi completely messed up with the roles of Srinivas Reddy, Bharadwaj, Pavan Kumar, Darahas Mathu, and Rohit Varma and ended up testing the patience of the viewers. Pawan Kumar played the role of Babai and he evoked few laughs initially. Harshavardhan who shot to fame with Amrutham serial tried his best to impress as a politician with ulterior motives. However, he turned out to be a miscast in the role.
The entire web series is dominated by the male cast and female actors like Padmini Settam, Gayatrhi and Praveena got very limited scope to showcase their skills. While Padmini played the role of a girlfriend who aspires to be a journalist, Gayathri and Praveena played the roles of a Maoist and a village teacher.
Ajay Arasada tried to elevate the proceedings with his background music but he couldn't make any impact. Rakesh S.Narayanan did well as a cinematographer with his camera angles in the night scenes. However, the overall result turned out to be artificial. Venkata Krishna Chikkala's editing turned out to be mediocre. He should have used the editing scissors rather sharply.
Advantages
Basic premise
Few hilarious scenes
Disadvantages
Story,Screenplay,Direction
Editing
Seriousness
Routine Narration
Rating Analysis
Naani Bandireddi wasted the golden opportunity to make an impact with the creatively titled LOL Salaam. He seems to have taken the entire thing in an easy and light manner and this impacted the project's outcome in a disastrous manner. He completely failed with his story, screenplay, and direction. These half-serious and half hilarious entertainers often face these problems and after the initial comedy scenes, the entire plot loses steam. Director failed to justice to the story he selected. Some of the hilarious scenes he showed in the narration showed the Telugu story quality in a bad light. Considering all these aspects, CJ goes with a 1.5 rating for Lol Salaam.
Punchline: Lot of Badnaam