''Middle Class Abbayi'' (), also known as ''MCA'', is a 2017 Indian

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

-language

action comedy film The action comedy is a film genre that applies to action films where humor plays a much more central role. While early films feature stuntwork and humor, academic Cynthia King wrote that the genre only came into its own as a mainstay of the Americ ...

directed by

Venu Sriram Venu Sriram is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Telugu cinema. In 2011, he made his directorial debut with ''Oh My Friend''. He went on to direct films such as '' MCA (Middle Class Abbayi)'' (2017) and '' Vakeel Saab'' (2021 ...

and produced by

Dil Raju Velamakucha Venkata Ramana Reddy (born 18 December 1970), known professionally as Dil Raju, is an Indian film producer and distributor, who is known for his work in Telugu cinema. He has also financed some Tamil cinema, Tamil and Hindi cinema, ...

. The film stars Nani,

Sai Pallavi Sai Pallavi Senthamarai Kannan (; born 9 May 1992) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam films. Recognised as one of the finest actors in South Indian cinema, known for her portrayals of strong and challeng ...

, Vijay Varma, and Bhumika Chawla in the lead roles.

Devi Sri Prasad Gandham Sriprasad (2 August 1979), known as Devi Sri Prasad or more commonly by his initials DSP, is an Indian music composer, singer, and lyricist primarily known for his work in Telugu cinema, along with Tamil cinema. He has received numerous ...

composed the soundtrack and score, while

Sameer Reddy Sameer Reddy is an Indian film cinematographer who works in Telugu and Hindi films, and Cinema of the United States The cinema of the United States, primarily associated with major film studios collectively referred to as Hollywood, has ...

and

Prawin Pudi Prawin Pudi (born 1 March 1982) is an Indian film editor who primarily works in Telugu cinema. Career Prawin Pudi joined the Telugu film industry as an assistant to editor Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao in 2000, before apprenticing under A. Sreek ...

handled the cinematography and editing. ''Middle Class Abbayi'' was released theatrically on 21 December 2017 and received mixed reviews from critics, but became a commercial success. It was remade in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

as ''

Nikamma ''Nikamma'' () is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Sabbir Khan. It is a remake of the 2017 Telugu film ''Middle Class Abbayi'' and stars Abhimanyu Dassani, Shirley Setia and Shilpa Shetty. ''Nikamma'' was released th ...

'' (2022).

Plot

Nani, a middle-class youth with an

eidetic memory Eidetic memory ( ), also known as photographic memory and total recall, is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision—at least for a brief period of time—after seeing it only onceThe terms ''eidetic memory'' and ''photogr ...

, stays at his uncle's house in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

. He has issues with his brother's house because he dislikes his sister-in-law Jyothi, an RTO officer. Ravi, Nani's elder brother, asks him to leave for

Warangal Warangal () is a city in the Indian state of Telangana and the district headquarters of Warangal district. It is the second largest city in Telangana with a population of 811,844 per 2011 Census of India, and spreading over an . Warangal serv ...

to aid Jyothi in the new place. He falls for Pallavi, who proposes to him in the first encounter. Nani realizes that Pallavi is actually Jyothi's sister after she arrives to live with them. Pallavi tells him that she has seen him during his brother's wedding and has been in love with him. Jyothi learns about Nani and Pallavi's love towards each other and sends Pallavi back to her village, while secretly pursuing Pallavi's father to accept their relationship, but Pallavi's father refuses. Jyothi tries to make Nani to become a

software engineer Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining software applications. It involves applying engineering principles and computer programming expertise to develop ...

, but to no avail. Meanwhile, Jyothi seizes two buses with the same number which belongs to "Siva Shakti Travels", owned by Shiva Shakti alias "Warangal" Siva, a dangerous gangster. Siva threatens Jyothi with dire consequences. Nani learns about Jyothi's sacrifices and realizes his mistake. When Siva threatens Jyothi at the RTO office, Nani thrashes him in public and warns him. Nani and Siva agree to bet on Jyothi's life, without letting anyone know about the challenge. Siva plans various strategies to finish Jyothi, but Nani intelligently rescues her. However, Siva kidnaps Jyothi and hides her in one of the bus, which she seized earlier. Nani asks Jyothi's whereabouts to Siva, who commits suicide and is taken to the hospital. Nani figures out the buses and saves Jyothi. Siva survives, but loses his memory and starts his life afresh. Nani marries Pallavi, while fooling her father that he is a software engineer.

Cast

* Nani as Nani * Vijay Varma as Shiva Shakti alias "Warangal" Shiva * Bhumika Chawla as Jyothi, Nani's sister-in-law *

as Pallavi "Chinni", Jyothi's sister *

Rajeev Kanakala Rajeev Kanakala (born 13 November 1969) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Telugu films Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Telugu lang ...

as Ravi, Nani's elder brother and Jyothi's Husband * Naresh as Nani's uncle * Aamani as Nani's aunt * Priyadarshi Pullikonda as Darshan alias Darshi *

Posani Krishna Murali Posani Krishna Murali (born 22 January 1958) is an Indian screenwriter, actor, director and producer who primarily works in Telugu cinema. He worked as a writer for over 150 Telugu films and directed a number of films. In 2009, he also conte ...

as Pallavi's father * Pavitra Lokesh as Siva's mother *

Vennela Kishore Bokkala Kishore Kumar (born 19 September 1980), known professionally as Vennela Kishore, is an Indian actor and director who works in Telugu cinema. Known for his comedic roles, he earned the moniker "Vennela" after his first feature film ''Ven ...

as a software consultant * Mahadevan as an RTO Officer * Racha Ravi as Nani's friend * Ashritha Vemuganti as a doctor *

Subhalekha Sudhakar Suravajhala Sudhakar (born 19 November 1960), known by his stage name Subhalekha Sudhakar, is an Indian actor who worked in Telugu and Tamil language films. Sudhakar's first Telugu film '' Subhalekha'' (1982) gained him wide recognition throug ...

as D. Srinivas * Rakesh Varre as Rakesh *

Rupa Lakshmi Rupa Lakshmi Vaishnava Sri is an Indian actress who appears in Telugu films. She has debuted in a supporting role in ''Subramanyam for Sale'' (2015) and has since appeared in '' Needi Naadi Oke Katha'' (2018), '' Ek Mini Katha'' (2021) and '' ...

Music

The music was composed by

and was distributed by

Aditya Music Aditya Music India Private Limited is an Indian music record label company, which owns the label Aditya Music. It produces music for the Telugu cinema industry and is headquartered at Hyderabad, Telangana. Overview The company was founded b ...

Release

The film was released on 21 December 2017. ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' reported that the film was released in over 900 screens. The theatrical rights of the film were sold at a cost of ₹30 crore. BlueSky Cinemas have acquired the distribution rights of the film in the United States for ₹3.50 crore. ''Sakshi Post'' reported that the film was released in over 150 screens across

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. The film was also dubbed and released in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

as ''Middle Class Aambala''. It was also dubbed in Kannada as ''Middle Class Huduga''.

Reception

Box office

On its opening day, the film collected a total gross of ₹28 crore worldwide. As of 8 January 2018, the film grossed US$1.07 million (₹6.85 crore) at the United States box office. By the end of its theatrical run, ''Middle Class Abbayi'' grossed ₹80 crore worldwide, with the distributors' share of ₹40 crore.

Critical response

Hemanth Kumar of ''

Firstpost Firstpost is an Indian news website owned by Network18 Group, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC TV18. It has posted misinformation on multiple occasions. The Network 18 group was originally owned by Raghav Bahl. In January 2012, the gro ...

'' gave 3/5 stars and wrote "''MCA'' is not a bad film, but it also leaves you with a feeling that it could have been a lot more. ''

Sify Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology (ICT) company providing telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation integration services, and ...

'' gave 2.75/5 stars and wrote "Nani and Sai Pallavi's romantic thread is the major highlight in this otherwise regular commercial movie that is too bland". Neeshita Nyayapati of ''

'' gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "MCA is good enough for a one-time watch, especially if you're a Nani fan or a sucker for family dramas". Manoj Kumar R of ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Venu has banked heavily on the charming performances of Nani and Pallavi to make MCA click with the audience, as his writing is unambitious and mostly filled with clichés like his idea of middle class". Sowmya Rajendran of ''

The News Minute ''The News Minute'' is an Indian digital news platform based in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was founded by Vignesh Vellore who is also the current CEO in 2014. Apart from Karnataka, it also has bureaus in the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, ...

'' wrote "Middle Class Abbayi is a middling entertainer with a lot of fresh ideas that unnecessarily turns into a routine drama". Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' wrote "Three versatile performers are the saving grace in this partly entertaining and partly middling film".

Remake

The film was remade in

as ''

'' and was produced by Shabbir Khan Films and Sony Pictures India. The film was released on 17 June 2022.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 7516778 2017 films 2010s Telugu-language films Films shot in Warangal Films set in Telangana 2017 action comedy films Indian action comedy films Midlife crisis films Indian family films 2017 masala films 2017 comedy films Sri Venkateswara Creations films Films scored by Devi Sri Prasad Telugu films remade in other languages Films about memory Films set in Warangal