Nandini Nursing Home - full movie review: Neither substance, nor style

The capacity of Tollywood to make good cinema has been in doubt for a while in some sections. Last year, when we bagged the nation’s most prestigious award, we all did some chest-thumping, but have since promptly and with vengeance gone back to our old bad ways. The challenge apparently appears to be able to translate a simple story (even time tested ones) into an absorbing viewable product. The typical filmmaker– from the very successful to the debutant (PV Giri) – seems caught in an inextricable cobweb where everything except a clear crisp script and skill to tell the story get preference.

‘Nandini Nursing Home’ is no surprise. It not only treads the beaten track but so strongly suffers unjustified self-belief that it keeps you seated for over two and half hours of running time. The dosage is not only unpalatable but strong. Most industries in contemporary times are regulated by some standards of accountability and a verificatory process in place. Not our cinema. The result is all too obvious to see. It appears to be a case of money, a story, an assembled cast launched on a scale proportionate to the star in question. Cinema here is not art. It is a misadventure.

Chandoo (Nawin Vijaya Krishna) is an MCom who is looking out for a job and comes to the city where he meets up with old friend Naidu (Shakalaka Shanker). Though unqualified, he finds himself appointed as a doctor at the nursing home run by Dr Murthy (JP) and his daughter Nandini (Nitya Naresh). Naidu and Chandoo manage to hoodwink all and sundry and begin to live a comfortable life. They also get into the good books of the main doctor Dr Venbkateshwarlu (Jaiprakash Reddy) who believes more in astrology than the medical profession.

Soon things begin to happen in the hospital. Some mysterious deaths, some intrigue and even some conspiracy. Admitted in the same nursing home are chain snatcher Ganesh (Vennela Kishore) who feigns coma to escape from the police and another inpatient (Saptagiri) who sublets his room for dubious sexual meets.

Nandini falls in love with Chandoo but he is yet to get over his jilted love story with Amulya (Shravya) who he believes has left him for money. Who is behind the killings? Is the nursing home haunted as believed and rumoured? Stay on to find out all this in the midst of a few light moments.

The film is told in too much leisure without much style or substance. The comic wingers keep things going to a certain extent.
Particularly Vennela Kishore does everything right and refuses to go overboard. The two heroines, like always, have nothing to do. Debutant hero is among those who have made it to the cinema screen without going to the gym. However, as an actor he seems to have the genes in the right place and lives up to the family repute. He is promising. Otherwise the visit to the film is as pleasant and welcome as having to go to a nursing home.

Cast : Nawin Vijaya Krishna, Shravya and Nitya Naresh
Direction : PV Giri
Genre : Drama-comedy
Good : Humour
Bad : Predictable