You know a film is serious about its comic ambitions when it regards no topic as too sacrosanct and when everyone is prone to laugh. One such moment arrives early in Maruthi Nagar Subramanyam when a hypochondriac family member dies all of a sudden. After a bubbly 20 minutes or so, we expect the film to sombre down a little during this scene—except writer-director Lakshman Karya has a surprise in store. Even as the grandmother’s dead body lies there, the father-son duo indulges in farcical self-pity, going off with their indulgent self-introspection, oblivious to the weight of the moment. The laughs keep on building in this sequence, setting the perfect tone for the roller-coaster comic ride that Maruthi Nagar Subramanyam is in its entirety.

Subramanyam (Rao Ramesh) is a middle-aged, unemployed man who behaves like the hero of his story. His son Arjun (Ankith Koyya) is an equally good-for-nothing young boy with delusional fantasies about having a more affluent lineage and a dramatic past. It’s Arjun’s mother, Kala Rani (Indraja), who runs the household, and she is understandably weary, having carried the domestic responsibilities for over 25 years. However, fortune smiles upon Subramanyam one day as he suddenly finds himself a wealthy man. How Subramanyam deals with the stroke of luck forms the rest of the story.

Director: Lakshman Karya

Cast: Rao Ramesh, Ankith Koyya, Indraja, Ramya Pasupuleti, Harsha Vardhan

Maruthi Nagar Subramanyam is so fast-paced that it barely gives you time to breathe. But more importantly, the film understands the value of consistency—and fortunately, the plot never loses focus. Props to Rao Ramesh and Ankith Koyya for carrying the entire film on their shoulders. There are many gags or sequences that could have easily fallen apart at the hands of lesser actors, but the two actors are consistently goofy and disarming in their energy. Imagine a situation where you are crying your heart out, lamenting the loss of something that was never yours in the first place. Rao Ramesh sells this silly moment (like many others) in this rib-tickling farce with great ease.

But it’s not just the witty dialogues and outrageous situations that drive the film. Director Lakshman Karya displays an impressive flair for finding humour even in the peripherals. During a moment where the father and son bicker about Arjun’s obsession with being part of the famous Allu dynasty, Subramanyam’s wife, Kala Rani, quietly moves around the house, finding all the hidden cigarette packets without disrupting the conversation. It creates a great visual synergy and establishes the directorial ambitions here. Similarly, Arjun going off to rescue his beloved on an antique-ish Luna moped is a sight to behold. In another moment, the makers make a howlarious KGF reference as Arjun realises that his crush is someone whom he used to babysit and treat like a sister 15 years ago. Even a minor touch like Subramanyam asking Arjun to write ‘Om’ on the top of a page before they list their creditors and the due payments to be made makes you laugh.

Maruthi Nagar Subramanyam wants to pack in a lot in its 147-minute runtime. Lakshman Karya does overindulge in visual gimmickry (read use of graphics, animation, and editing effects) to keep up the hyper energy it begins with, though. In fact, at one point in the second half, the film might strike you as overbearing in its energy to evoke laughs. The laughs also get less frequent post-interval, and the narrative stakes do seem to subside occasionally, but the film remains true to its comic spirit throughout. It keeps you so busy with its comedy that you are unprepared for some of its minor twists, like a sequence in the final act where a serious character is suddenly seen dancing with unbridled vigour and enthusiasm. We find the reason for it only later, but Maruthi Nagar Subramanyam has plenty of these moments that offer surprises and chuckles at the same time.