Narayana & Co review: This crass, cringe comedy is unimaginably boring and torturous

Sometimes you have to acknowledge the bravery of our NRIs who come a long way back home to produce films in Telugu. Every time they visit, they burn their pockets and never return. Because the twitch and passion for cinema teach everyone a lesson for a lifetime.

Narayana & Co is one such project that landed in the hands of NRI actor Sudhakar Komakula of Life Is Beautiful (2012) fame. As the film hit the theatres on Friday, 30 June, let’s dig deep into its story.

Synopsis

PK Narayana (Devi Prasad), a banker in Hyderabad city. He leads a decent life with the meagre income he earns as a cashier. Narayana wears the traits of honesty, integrity, and loyalty on his sleeves.

Contrary to his lifestyle, his sons Arjun (Sudhakar Komakula) and Subash (Jay Krishna) take diabolical careers; one is into cricket betting and the other is an aspiring playboy but in the guise of a photographer. Thus, both put Narayana’s reputation at stake.

The sons’ misadventures and Narayana’s goodwill at the workplace lead to neck-deep troubles.

Narayana has to forge hands with gangsters to strike a murky deal to come out of his financial mess. How he, his sons and his family come out of this quagmire is the story in short.

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Amateurish shots & poor comedy

Narayana & Co takes its sweet time establishing the characters. Ironically, the visuals of Hyderabad city are played to establish that the story is happening in the city.

The visuals of traffic on the roads, the rush at busy Metro Rail, the MMTS, the lives of gipsies, people living along the abandoned rail lines, and a washerman at work is what we get to see on screen.

The visuals are shot so amateurishly that you might think that a YouTuber is better at capturing city life than the cinematographer.

The outdated troops that are used in the film irritate you more than tickle your funny bones.

The humour is used so profusely that the characters deviate from the story to shoot punches at each other.

For every scene in PK Narayana’s house, a video is played on the television conveniently as if to match the situation. Once Brahmanandam’s punchline gets played, another time a dialogue between Pawan Kalyan for another scene.

Explaining her ordeal at the restaurant, female protagonist Arathy tells Sudhakar Komakula that she is pregnant, the hero replies, “Nenu full non-veg madam” (I’m a non-vegetarian) without any link. The scenes keep playing haphazardly with poorly written comedy.

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Performances

Senior actor Devi Prasad as PK Narayana is a complete miscast in Narayana & Co. His monotonous expression in almost every scene reminds you of a sobbing character in a television soap.

Sudhakar Komakula does well in his portions as a morally corrupt son.

Jai Krishna’s humour looked organic in a few scenes.

Arathy Podi’s role as a newlywed woman is impressive.

Senior actress Amani does good but has nothing meaty to boast about.

Thotapally Madhu plays the role of Shankar Anna who aspires to become a politician. He fakes a Telangana accent just to give the impression that he is a dhaadha (rowdy).

The cuss word “mingey” (f**k off) is profusely used whenever and wherever it is not necessary.

Ali Reza’s introduction in Narayana & Co as serious duty-bound inspector Arjun seems like he is going to investigate the serial murders in the city. But it takes aeons for him to enter the zone where he could connect with the viewers about what he is doing. In most of the scenes, he is either stone-faced or too relaxed.

Saptagiri does a good job as Mamidikayala Mohan. But no strength in writing could match his expressions. You could easily sense his punchlines are lame and outdated.

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Technical crafts

Music is partly okay but you can’t blame three music composers — Dr Josyabhatla Sharma, Naga Vamshi, and Suresh Bobbili — for the comedy that is so cringe and stale.

The cinematography by Rahul Shrivatsav doesn’t bring any semblance to the story.

Also, the script lags behind by at least 20 years and the film must have been produced to keep the promise to bail out someone.

Interestingly, Sudhakar Komakula bankrolled Narayana & Co. He made a name for himself with Sekhar Kammula’s directorial Life Is Beautiful.

The fame that he earned with the character Nagaraj was short-lived, as he couldn’t land good roles in the subsequent years.

He played a cop in Ravi Teja’s Krack sometime back in 2019. Later, he appeared as an ACP in Raja Vikramarka in 2021.

Verdict

Narayana & Co is an unimaginably boring story that can be watched at your own risk!

(Views expressed here are personal.)