There is nothing ideal about the Thotti family. Chittibabu (Daggubati Venkatesh), who keeps referring to himself as the man of the house, is the breadwinner and the bread maker. When he is not scrambling to pay off his wife’s piling debts, he slaves in the kitchen making curry and dal. Swarna (Srinidhi Shetty) dawdles around the house watching television, even as the family is losing its bearings each day. But Aadarsha Kutumbam (AK47) is a film led by Trivikram and Venkatesh. Instead of an emotional upheaval, we get a devil-may-care attitude. The family is bleeding money, the younger son nurses a hole in his heart, and Chitti is laid off two months into his job. The absurdity of the situation, like clockwork, brings in a few laughs. Until, of course, the gag wears thin.
AK 47 has a wafer-thin plot, and it’s perhaps designed to be the case. When the Thotti family hits the jackpot, quite literally, as Thotti is in possession of the 100-crore-winning lottery ticket, the family begins to positively glow. They repair his son’s heart, buy flashy new clothes, and move into a palatial villa in the good part of town. The predictability of these events offers a certain comfort in the viewing. It’s clear that the wealth is anything but old money, and it provides a few laughs as Chitti and Swarna abandon their responsibilities as parents and fill their home with things they don't need. Things get so good that you can't help but anticipate a lurking danger.
This is also where things get terribly off-tone in Aadarsha Kutumbam. In a film that runs on a steady diet of nonchalance and indifference to conflict, a pack of dacoits land up from Bihar — the kind that finds joy in slashing people’s throats and digging graves. The film takes a dark turn, and a deadly home invasion is in the corner, as this family is left to fend for themselves. The genre shift isn’t something we haven’t seen in films before, and in Aadarsha Kutumbam, the stakes are tepid at best. But the film lacks the finesse to figure out the two big levers — something that Anil Ravipudi’s Sankrantiki Vastunam (which also featured Venkatesh) achieved to an extent.
We see the explosive interval coming a mile away, but it’s enjoyable nevertheless. The exposition is bloody and funny, the sweet spot that a film like this needs. The biggest dip, however, comes right after in the second half. Trivikram seems unsure of what to do with the aftermath of the reveal. It is almost as though the entire film has been written around this one moment, with little thought given to what comes after.
The film, almost as if acting on reflex, resorts to lewd comedy (if you were hoping to see Nivetha Pethuraj dazzle with the same emotion she brought to the recent Telugu musical Sing Geetham, you will be disappointed). It is a particularly problematic choice, even as the industry is rightfully under the scanner for this very issue. A backstory, which could've actually evoked genuine emotion, comes off as an afterthought and is too scattered to make sense. Mindless action sequences follow and the blood is tidied up as quickly as it spilled.
Venkatesh's Chitti leaves us with an introspective dialogue in the climax. "Never predict how far along a common man will go when he's pushed." While AK 47 sets out to find answers to this question, it loses its way as quickly as it began.