'MAD' Movie Review..Non Stop Fun Ride..

Youthful entertainer Mad, starring Narne Nithin, Ram Nithin, and Sangeeth Shobhan, has created a decent buzz with its promotional material. The film is directed by Kalyan Shankar. We have been to the paid premiers of Mad, and let’s see how the film is.

Set in an engineering college, MAD revolves around Manoj, Ashok and Damodar. Kalyan Shankar weaves a story around these characters and their love. The director did not waste much time in setting up the campus atmosphere and the introduction of characters. The characters are aptly presented, probably inspired from real-life students. This sets up the tone and mood. The story begins when a senior student Laddu (Vishnu Oi) convinces a newcomer to stayback and in the process, he narrates the story of their batch. The take-off is smooth and good.

And the story has all the typical elements in a college – ragging, canteen fights, exams, freshers day, farewell day, romance and friendship. It is all chaotic and fun. There are several over-the-top comedy scenes. These work mostly. Some of them seem to be inspired from previous films. Yet these are passable. These are time-pass scenes and they do the job.

The episode of a baseball match fighting for dominance over the canteen is part of this. The first half largely banks upon the hostel comedy. Towards the interval, the conflict in the story is revealed. It is a typical campus comedy playing it to the galleries. There is pure madness and crowd-cheering moments.

The film suffers post interval scenes initially. But it bounces back in no time. The proceedings make enjoyable soon. The pre-climax twist is guessable. However, there is more to it. It finishes on fine note. Campus-backdrop films like Happy Days earned a cult tag. It is not quite easy to cater in this genre. The challenge is to not repeat or rehash the college scenes of any of the previous films. Here MAD manages to make its mark. No doubt, there is nostalgia here and there, but its strength is in the comedy and it hits the right chords.

There are enough shortcomings. MAD has weak love stories that are confined to subplots. Unfortunately, the love stories introduced at the interval point fail to develop dramatically, ultimately leading to predictable and humorous conclusions. The songs are not engaging, unlike Jathi Ratnalu. The story is wafer-thin and adding to this, the predictability puts off the narrative. While Damodar and Manoj’s characters are written well, Ashok’s role isn’t fully evolved.

MAD is a roller-coaster ride filled with laughter, subtle emotion and a decent twist towards the end. It is beautifully written and well-narrated and tailor-made for youths and college goers. It caters to its target audience, offering a steady stream of laughs, with a few characters standing out as the true comedic stars. The film will surely take one a trip down the memory lane and reminds us of college and hostel days. Finally, MAD is for limited section of audiences like youth, particularly Engineering Students. Overall MAD.. Two hours non stop fun ride.. Just go and enjoy.