Director Parasuram Petla’s Telugu film starring Vijay Deverakonda and Mrunal Thakur, is an incoherent chaos that is neither interesting nor entertaining

film unfolds. Some of them, like his sour relationship with his older brother, are answered eventually, though superficially. It doesn’t help that except for Govardhan, the other family members have little room to make any impression.

The initial interactions between Govardhan, his family and their new tenant Indu (Mrunal Thakur), supposedly a student at the University of Hyderabad, provide some fun. Each time she calls Govardhan ‘yevandi’, something flutters in him. But the romance, even till the end, is never explored convincingly enough to make us root for them.

As the scene shifts to the US, the film completely slips into a zone where anything goes in the name of a plot. There is no reason why Indu, a CEO of a leading infrastructure company, does an anthropological thesis on a middleclass man. The differences in strata between Govardhan and Indu, with his aspiration to raise the standard of living for his family while not letting go of his egoistic nature, and she quietly asserting herself while also wallowing in guilt, are also not explored well. All we get are a series of patchilywritten incidents.

Every now and then, the underlying aggression in Govardhan’s character is leveraged to underline Vijay Deverakonda’s image as a regular guy who can turn volatile. When he remarks that everyone is judgemental or has a philosophy, it nearly breaks the fourth wall.

Throughout the 2hour 35minute runtime, the film presents several dialogues about middleclass lives and aspirations, the struggle for recognition in corporate settings and the concept of middleclass superstars. However, these points lack a cohesive narrative to anchor them.

When the writing remains muddled, there is nothing the actors can do to salvage the material. Vijay Deverakonda remains charming and energetic, but this film does not tap into his acting potential. Mrunal is saddled with a sketchily written character and after Sita Ramam and Nanna, the romance in this film is rather pale. Several others, including Divyansha Kaushik, Rohini Hattangadi and Vasuki, have nothing to do. The usually resourceful Vennela Kishore is cast in a role that can be described as decent but nothing memorable.

Family Star does no justice to the family quotient or the star material. It is an interesting idea to raise a toast to the star of every middleclass family but that idea is lost in a film that gets progressively boring and tests your patience. The family audience deserve better.

Family Star is currently running in theatres

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