'Tuneega Tuneega' is a film in which there are more dances than there are facial expressions. Besides, there are more songs than there are emotions, and there seem to be more lyrics than there are dialogues. MS Raju wanted to make a racy, musical, romance, and but he ends up giving nothing more than a not-so- exciting drama that is filled with certain hackneyed elements. It is not a love story; it not a hate story either. It is a film where some characters are seen using all the dirty tricks in the book to create a rift between our newly in love pair for their selfish ends.
Karthik (Sumanth Ashwin) and Nidhi (Riya), are better known to the world as childhood enemies. Don't go by the title, there is no element of juvenile love involving two innocent infants. Twelve years have passed without each other thinking of the other even for a single moment. And suddenly today, Karthik falls for a sensuous saree-clad Nidhi on the beach. If ever you had doubts about the saying "There is no love at first sight. There is only lust at first sight", the misgiving must go now. So much for a movie named after the first lines of a memorable song from that mature film, Manasantha Nuvve. After a scheming plot stage-managed by a side character, Karthik and his father (Prabhu plays a cook and long- time friend of Nidhi's rich father, Nagendra Babu) are forced out of the picnic camp.
In the second half, childhood enemies-turned-lovers-turned-adult avengers start the squabbling yet again. Just when you are thinking that things are back to square one, Sayaji Shinde (he plays Dr. James quite calmly and confidently) enters the scene to set the things right. More than the twosome, it is he who is concerned about the orchestrated turn of events.
Having lost his love life, the guy sets forth to make it big as a dancer, prodded by his father, who stands by our hero. There develops a chemistry between Karthik and his co-dancer, even as Nidhi boozes in a voluptuous song to disturb our hero. There follows a scene where an attempted rape (legally speaking) by Nidhi's would-be is heroically averted by Karthik. Even so, misunderstandings continue to follow, though not as quickly as the songs.
Raju makes us watch the film without complaining about the outdated elements, but the antiquity definitely occurs to us in retrospect. Comedy is situational and is dealt with maturity. However, humorous scenes are few and far between. There is no depth of emotion. The focus is on portraying Sumanth's gusto and energy, while intensity goes for a toss. As much as the director tried to infuse a musical thrum to the proceedings, they are subpar. Karthik and the millionaire daughter have total fun in the picnic as two-three families look the other way. High decibel music and so many crackers are burst to vainly elevate a scene where the hero has to help the girl catch hold of a pigeon.
The wrong faces don't add to the film's value, neither the songs raise the quotient a bit higher. It is a contest which the hero has to play because some of them do not like to see the son of a cook marry the daughter of a millionaire. The idea packed a punch for the audience of the last generation.
In any case, this question remains answered: When and how does the heroine start loving our hero? Don't know, but she will reciprocate her love on the full moon day.
A humanly impossible dance sequence, graphical birds, inapt accent of the heroine, a below average cinematography add to the artificiality.
Music should have been the film's soul. Karthik Raja's function was to stylise the film with an inventive output. He fails to do the job, but his music works perfectly for the last song.
Except the leads, the others get their act well.
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