Story

Two playboys who hail from different locales come face-to-face and are shocked to discover that they are look-a-likes.

Krishna (Nani) is the hot-blooded, aimless, flirt of a man from Chittoor whose only aim in life is to find a girl who will love him back. Continents away in Prague is his look-alike Arjun, the playboy rockstar who doesn’t have a problem bedding girls at all. But what happens that brings Krishna and Arjun together is what the film is all about.

‘Nenu Local’, ‘MCA’ and ‘Krishnarjuna Yuddham’ – there seems to be a pattern in the kind of masala entertainers and roles Nani is picking. After ‘Gentleman’, Nani is back in a dual avatar in this film – the lungi clad Chittoor dialect mouthing Krishna and the bandana plus cringe-worthy wig sporting Arjun from Prague. Connecting these two together is not just their looks but a single incident that will change their lives for the worse as they must race against time to rescue their girlfriends.

The ‘chilaka mukku chinnavada’ Krishna is the typical young man who loves to while away time flirting with girls who never like him back and pick fights as long as it’s for a just cause. Arjun is the cliché rockstar who sleeps around with women without conscience and delivers subpar concerts to a screaming hoard of fans.

Finally, a lady walks into Krishna’s life who will give him the time of the day. The granddaughter of the sarpanch, doctor Riya (Rukshar Mir) sprouts off scientific names of everything she sees and falls for Krishna’s simplicity. As a contrast, Arjun finally meets a woman who calls out on his bullsh*t, the ballsy Subbalakshmi (Anupama Parameswaran) who’s the photographer of a nature magazine in Hyderabad; which for some reason even hits stands in Prague. She doesn’t believe a word that comes out of Arjun’s mouth, even when he’s telling the truth.

When a quirk of fate takes both Riya and Subbalakshmi to Hyderabad on the same day, with Krishna and Arjun following close behind, things go awry. Both the women go missing with not a clue to be found, except, Krishna and Arjun decide to take matters into their own hands and find their lady loves in a span of 48 hours. ‘Krishnarjuna Yuddham’ henceforth morphs from a romantic comedy to a thriller that aims to be intense and taut, but fails. Gone in the second half are Krishna’s funny friends who cannot spell right in English and Arjun’s manager cum best friend Brahmaji who loathes having to teach music classes to Subbalakshmi’s tone-deaf aunt. Instead, in come the human trafficking, drugs, kidnapping, clichéd police officers who’re too lazy to do their jobs, high octane fight and chase scenes, et al.

By the end of it all, we wish with all our might that Nani goes back to doing beautiful and simple stories like ‘Astha Chamma’, ‘Pilla Zamindar’, or even the comparatively recent releases ‘Yevade Subramanyam’, ‘Bhale Bhale Mogadivoy’ and ‘Ninnu Kori’ so we don’t have to sit through something like this again. Don’t get us wrong, Nani shines in this one as the impulsive Krishna, it’s only the playboy Arjun that leaves us cringing. Anupama Parameswaran aces through her role of the beautiful and independent Subbalakshmi, and is a delight to watch on-screen. Her characterisation stays on track till she randomly overreacts and displays psychopathic tendencies for a brief while. Rukshar Mir too looks adorable in her role, even though her character’s habit of mouthing off the scientific names seems to get on the audience’s nerves, if the sighs in the theatre were anything to go by.

Walking away from the film, the only memories that one takes back happy is the vision of Nani dancing to ‘Dhaari Choodu’ with childish abandon, the humorous scenes that elevate the first half and the fact that his friend spells Riya’s name as Royya.