Ranga Ranga Vaibhavanga review: An endlessly bland concoction of old Telugu films

Ranga Ranga Vaibhavanga, starring Vaisshnav Tej and Ketika Sharma in lead roles, is out in the theatres on Friday, 2 September. After watching it, I felt sad that September has started with such a formulaic film. Here’s my review of this Gireeshaaya’s directorial venture.

Rishi (Vaisshnav Tej) and Radha (Ketika Sharma) have been neighbours since childhood. While they hate each other for reasons best known to them, their families were always closely knit.

As they grow up, Rishi and Radha join the same medical college and fall in love. When they think of revealing the same to their parents, an unexpected incident leads to differences between the two families and they cut ties with one another.

However, the duo makes efforts to bring them all together and also convinces them for their marriage, thus ending the story on a happy note.

Performances are the highlight

The main assets of this film are the performances of Vaisshnav Tej and Ketika Sharma. They add freshness to this otherwise tried-and-tested formulaic film.

Though Vaisshnav needs to work on nuance and expression, he has definitely improved compared to his performance in his previous releases Uppena and Kondapolam.

Unlike in his past films, he plays a lover boy in Ranga Ranga Vaibhavanga and he is convincing in the role. He has also handled the humour and romance quite well.

Thankfully, Ketika has stepped out of her glam-doll look. Instead, she chose to focus on her performance and that’s the best part about her in the film.

Naveen Chandra’s role is well-written and I’m glad that he chose to play something different from the routine.

Prabhu essays the role of the heroine’s father and he has returned to Telugu films after quite a long time. Meanwhile, Devi Sri Prasad’s music has worked some magic on-screen.

Cliched storyline and scenes

Now, let’s delve into the boring, negative and could-have-been-better aspects of the film. Ranga Ranga Vaibhavanga is a routine story being reiterated by every other movie hitting the screens for several years.

In fact, one can predict the entire plot and every scene in the film: That the lead characters who grow up hating each other will fall in love in future, their parents will enter into a fight, and that they will have to handle the situation.

We have seen the same romance and we-love-each-other family drama in numerous movies like Nagarjuna-Tabu’s Ninne Pelladata (1996), Tarun-Richa Pallod’s Nuvve Kavali (2000) and Venkatesh-Aarthi Agarwal’s Nuvvu Naaku Nachav (2001), to mention a few.

You can’t help but recollect these films in every scene. And unlike in these movies, director Gireeshaaya utterly fails to establish the reasons why Rishi and Radha fall in love with each other, out of the blue.

A Youthful treat with family emotions ?#RangaRangaVaibhavanga Worldwide in Theatres from Tomorrow❤️

Book your tickets now!
– https://t.co/BL2GKMcoFU#PanjaVaisshnavTej @GIREESAAYA @ThisIsDSP @SVCCofficial #BVSNPrasad @SonyMusicSouth @RelianceEnt @vamsikaka #RRVOnSep2nd pic.twitter.com/zNepGQLz3e

— Ketika Sharma (@TheKetikaSharma) September 1, 2022

Lacks emotional depth

There’s nothing fresh that the film offers us: Be it the storyline, narration, screenplay or direction. It also lacks emotional depth. The so-called family/emotional drama happening on-screen seems age-old and dreary.

The second half could have evolved in a better way had the director worked on it a little more. Nowhere in the world do conflicts and hatred end just with one or two emotional dialogues. It’s silly that the director missed out on this basic fact.

In short, Ranga Ranga Vaibhavanga is an endlessly bland concoction of old Telugu films. For, it appears that the director has copy-pasted most of the scenes from several of his favourite films. Watch this at your own risk!