Review

A. R. Mohan's Itlu Maredumalli Prajaneekam is about a Telugu teacher, Naresh, who goes to the Maredumalli forests for voting during election period. There he gains the trust of the tribals and gets them to vote, however, he realizes that though he is fulfilling his duty, there isn't any benefit for the tribals there. To help the tribals and allow them to get necessities and help from government he fakes getting kidnapped and starts a fight to negotiate for basic necessities until the government budges.

The movie is quite well written in my opinion, the first half goes well in a smooth manner due to the banter from Vennela Kishore and Praveen, while portraying the virtues and values of Allari Naresh. The second half is good for the most part with good twists and turns and a non-preachy message without lengthy discourses, however, there are a few cliched twists and cinematic scenes.

Allari Naresh chose another good character post-Nandhi with a character which has depth. The love story with Anandhi seemed quite unnecessary. Sampath Raj does well as the collector but I don't think he had to be so evil that he needed to get stabbed by an ox to realize his mistake and approve hospitals.

Some of the twists were a little predictable, like the votes requiring the Marademalli tribals votes due to the short margin of votes in difference along with the realization process. Just felt collector's realization could have been designed in a more fresh way and adding more layers to him would have improved the film and taken it to the next level.

The movie succeeds in showing the plight of tribals and the forest dwellers. They don't have quick access to hospitals or a proper education and are cheated by businessmen for the resources and goods they produce. Naresh, as an idealistic man, understands their value and helps them fight as an educated man.

Overall, this is a good social drama which avoids getting too preachy and despite a few cliche or predictable scenes here and there while having good intentions and themes.