Film: "Romeo"; Cast: Ganesh, Bhavana, Rangayana Raghu, Sadhu Kokila, Sudha Belawadi,Avniash, Mithra, Girish; Director: P.C. Sekhar; Producer: Naveen; Camera: Vaidhi; Music: Arjun Janya; Rating: ***

Jul 8: Ganesh-Bhavana starrer "Romeo" reaches its young target audience through its styling and visualisation. The film's director P.C. Sekhar, who has done many corporate films, again proves he focuses more on visual strength of a film.

It is better for technically competent directors like Sekhar to realise that storytelling on screen does not limit to stylish presentation, but it is much more than that.

The story goes on like this -- Ganesh is an educated but unemployed young man. He is a pampered, spoilt brat thanks to his father. Ganesh whiles away time with his friends doing unproductive things, but he is thedarling of his parents, who live in a slum.

Ganesh instantly falls for Shruthi after meeting her.

He pretends to be a rich person and even borrows money to present expensive gifts to Shruthi, the daughter of a bank manager. She too falls for Ganesh and decides to marry him.

But Shruthi's father makes an inquiry about Ganesh's background and manages to get a suitable boy for his daughter.

On the day of marriage, Ganesh and his father gate crash the bank manager's bungalow and take Shruthi out of the house to get married in a sub-registrar's office.

After marriage, Shruthi realises she has fallen into a trap and gets angry. She prepares to take divorce and goes to her father's residence.

Ganesh tries to convince her that he is in true love, but this time she doesn't reciprocate. Finally the confusion gets cleared and Shruthi realises that Ganesh is now reforming mainly because of deep love towards her.

"Romeo" could have been few notches better than it is had Sekhar worked on its second half and tuned it well. However, even with a weak second half, the movie is quite engaging and is really hilarious in the first half.

The song picturisations are superb and the comedy timing of all the actors including Ganesh, Rangayana Raghu and Sadhu Kokila, is perfect.

The dialogues by Narayan are crisp and funny at times. The technical support to the film apart, "Romeo" also has another strength -- its comedy elements. But unfortunately, "Romeo" is also like many well-mounted technical films which suffered from lack of consistency.

Ganesh is the screen charmer. His look is apt for the role and his dialogue delivery is superb. In a few emotional sequences, he even makes the audience weep. In a way, he has shown that he is a complete actor.

Bhavana is a real scene stealer in many sequences inthe second half. She looks quite glamorous in the song sequences, but it is Rangayana Raghu and Sadhu Kokila's comedy timing which assure to tickle your funny bone.

Sudha Belawadi and Avinash have essayed their roles perfectly.

Arjun Janya's music compositions are quite good. Shreya Ghoshal's rendering of "Alochane" song is sure to top the charts. Vaidhi's camera work is stylish.

Watch "Romeo" despite some of its flaws. It is entertaining and engaging.