Ugram is the cynosure of all eyes as Allari Naresh and Vijay Kanakamedala surprised all with Naandhi. The way Vijay showed Allari Naresh in a completely different avatar is unforgettable. Their second venture Ugram is releasing on 5 May 2023. Ugram OTT rights have been bagged by Amazon Prime and streaming will be after the theatrical run. Let us find out what surprises they got in store for movie lovers with Ugram.
Ugram's story deals with an honest police officer and the situations he faces in his life due to his honest nature and how he faces and deals with adversaries. SI Shiva Kumar (Allari Naresh) during his training in Warangal,fall in love with a beautiful girl Aparna (Mirna Menon). Both get married and he gets a posting in Hyderabad.
Soon shocking developments occur in his life and his personal and professional life takes a beating. To find out what are those shocking developments and how it is connected to Chief Doctor Dr. Manasa (Indraja), Patel (Sarath Lohitaswa) father of Aparna, and his colleague Victor, watch Ugram on the big screen.
Allari Naresh seems to be on a mission to disown the tag 'Allari' which he earned with his hilarious entertainers and comedy crappers all these years. He is doing powerful performance-oriented roles and after reinventing with Naandhi, he teamed with Vijay Kanakamedala once again for Ugram. Allari Naresh performed well and worked hard to do full justice to his role and also carry the film on his shoulders. He showed good expressions and emotions as a lover, honest police officer, and caring husband, and doting father. But the weak characterization undid all his hard work.
Mirna Menon played the female lead and made her debut in Tollywood. She is ok in her role and got limited screen presence. She is good in the song Deveri shot on her and Allari Naresh. The little girl who played the role of Naresh and Mrinaa's daughter attracted by her cute dialogue.
Indraja played a key role of a doctor in the film but at times her scenes impacted the narration. Others like Sharath Lohitashwa, Shatru, Kaushik Mahata, Sreenivasa Sayee, Naga Mahesh, Ramesh Reddy, and Manikanta Varanasi are playing important roles.
Ugram's story readied by Toom Venkat tried to highlight an interesting point. Though the point is interesting and appears good when one hears it, it is quite difficult to run the entire film on it. Thus Vijay Kanakameda's creativity is crippled and this impacted the screenplay and direction. Vijay stuck to the plot and did not deviate much in the name of a romantic track. The first half showed the missing cases and simultaneously showed Naresh as the cop who is always available to help the people. But the personal and family problems turn the film into a routine entertainer. The first half ends on an interesting note setting the tone for the second half.
As the second half is more intense and serious but in between unnecessary scenes and repetitions drag the already weak narration. The investigation part is a little interesting though predictable but Vijay Kanakamedala concentrated on action sequences to increase the mass image of Naresh. This turned the film into a routine one. Vijay Kanakamedala instead of concentrating on the story and screenplay, instead concentrated on showing Naresh on the lines of Balakrishna with the stunt choreography. But at times, it looked unbelievable and odd to viewers with Naresh for his personality doing over-the-top stunts. Finally, the story ends in a predictable way.
The music of Sricharan Pakala is just ok. Only the first song Deveri is beautifully shot and is melodious to hear. His background score is decent. Chota K Prasad's editing is ok. It could have been better in the second half as many repetitive scenes impacted the flow. Siddharth's cinematography is good and gave a realistic feel. Stunt choreography elevated the heroism of Allari Naresh quite well. Dialogues of Abburi Ravi at times appealed to all but most of the time they are ordinary. The production values of Shine Movies are good.
Altogether, Ugram is a routine cop story. Vijay Kanakamedala who directed Naresh, continued where he left Naresh in Naandhi and tried to add more fervor, vigor and valor to power him in the masses. Vijay Kanakamedala and Naresh's hard work in that path is commended. However, in the process, they failed to develop the interesting idea of missing cases to create a thrill factor on the screen. They flattered with regards to the story, screenplay, and direction. Naresh's action avatar may appeal to the masses but it may alienate other movie lovers. It has to be seen how Naresh's transformation pays dividends. Ugram is full of Naresh and Vijay Kanakamedal's hard work and commitment minus the thrills and frills. Had they worked on the story and screenplay, Ugram would have made a more intense impact. Considering all these aspects, Cinejosh goes with a 2.5 Rating for Ugram.