Nene Raju Nene Mantri

The film is a political movie which shows how an ordinary moneylender named Jogendra enters politics and then what he does for power. In the meantime, it shows how he is affected by emotions. The film also has a love triangle between Jogendra, Radha and Devika. With certain plot twists and turns, the movie is engaging and lives up to its expectations.

Jogendra and Radha are a happily married couple; however, they do not have any children. When they are finally blessed and Radha gets pregnant, they are overjoyed. When they go to the temple to pray for the well-being of the baby, Radha lights a holy lamp. Sarpanch, the leader of the village that they live in, comes along to the temple with his wife. His wife sees that Radha lit the lamp and becomes infuriated as she is always the one who does it. She pushes Radha down the steps of the temple, and Radha has a miscarriage. Both Radha and Jogendra are dismayed.

Jogendra goes to Sarpanch's house and persuades him to let him join in his political campaign. Jogendra cleverly wins, and this angers Sarpanch. Sarpanch tried to kill Jogendra, but Jogendra shoots Sarpanch when he mentions that he will also kill Radha. Later, Hema Chander, the policeman who was to give Jogendra an FIR copy for killing Sarpanch in defense, asks him Rs. 50 Lakhs for his sister's marriage in return. Jogendra, however, is not willing to give the amount. He then takes Hema Chander's pistol, shoots his hands, and puts the blame on Hema Chander.

Later, MLA Choudappa, who was supporting Jogendra for his party, asks him an amount of Rs. 1 crore and takes the FIR copy. When Jogendra tells Choudappa that he is unable to arrange the money, Choudappa asks Jogendra to send Radha to his guest house. Upon hearing this, a frustrated Jogendra kills Choudappa. After Choudappa's death, he stands in the MLA election and defeats Choudappa's brother (who was his opposite party candidate in the election) by framing him that he killed his brother to become MLA. He also makes Choudappa's wife believe it and have her support him. With the help of sympathy, he wins the election.

Tamil scenes

• Nassar as Jailor
• Mayilswamy as Jailor's assistant
• Jagan as Jagan, the Doordarshan cameraman
• Shivaji as Ranganathan, the jail lawyer

In February 2016, filmmaker Teja signed Telugu actor Rajasekhar to play a negative role in his directorial Aham. Sneha was approached to play the female lead in the film.[10] It was shelved in April 2016 due to both creative and personal differences. P. Satyanarayana Reddy, the film's producer, wanted another actor to play the lead role.[11] Teja approached Rana Daggubati and gained his consent. Rana's father Daggubati Suresh Babu suggested Kajal Aggarwal for the female lead role, who was signed later.[12] Daggubati was completing his portions in The Ghazi Attack (2017) and was about to join the sets of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion when Teja approached him. They worked on the script for eight months, writing different versions.[13] Lyricist Lakshmi Bhoopal, who was supposed to work with Teja for three of his earlier films, was chosen to pen the dialogues.[14] Teja also approached R. Rathnavelu to handle the film's cinematography.[12]

The film was titled Nene Raju Nene Mantri; Venkat C. Dileep and Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao were recruited as the cinematographer and editor respectively. Anoop Rubens composed the film's soundtrack and background score.[15] Babu, along with Kiran Reddy and Bharath Chowdary, jointly bankrolled the film under their banners Suresh Productions and Blue Planet Entertainments.[16] Nene Raju Nene Mantri was Aggarwal's 50th film as an actor. Catherine Tresa, Navdeep and Ashutosh Rana were cast in supporting roles.[17]

The soundtrack album was composed by Anup Rubens, and released on 30 July 2017 by Junglee Music.

Purnima Sriram Iyer of The New Indian Express termed Nene Raju Nene Mantri a "riveting political drama"; Iyer found the narration "gripping and enthralling" and the dialogues "hard-hitting". She added that Teja writing was effective enough to let even a politically-ignorant person "enlightened about the subject".[18] Hemanth Kumar, writing for Firstpost, called Nene Raju Nene Mantri the "cinematic equivalent of Newton's Third Law of Physics" where "every action is met with an equal and opposite reaction". Kumar noted that the leads' performances and Teja's writing are the film's strengths, adding that Aggarwal's portrayal of Radha was the "biggest revelation".[19] Karthik Kumar of Hindustan Times noted that the entire film is built on the bonding between the lead characters, with the political backdrop used only "to give the story a solid padding". Kumar was appreciative of Daggubati's performance: "[His] powerful screen presence takes everything up a notch and it's a treat to watch him turn from good to grey."[20] Suresh Kavirayani of Deccan Chronicle praised the performances and the portrayal of emotions such as love, hatred, smartness and cruelty handled by Jogendra. He, however, felt that the second half suffered from an "overdose of sentiment".[21]

Writing for The Hindu, Sangeetha Devi Dundoo opined that the film's later segments lacked the sharpness of the initial moments. She termed Jogendra as one of the "most intriguing characters Rana [Daggubati] has played" and found its actions troubling the narrative.[22] Neeshita Nyayapati, reviewing for The Times of India, found Nene Raju Nene Mantri a good love story of Radha and Jogendra than an effective political drama; she stated that the political angle "seems like a pesky annoyance in an otherwise beautiful movie". Nyayapati was also critical of Rani's characterisation, calling it a "messy" one with "no thought put into it at all".[23] Sify noted that the film turns "tedious and predictable" post intermission and criticised the script's lack of logic in the later portions. The reviewer added that Daggubati's portrayal of Jogendra was a "stunning act" and "very intense" in crucial scenes.[24]

Criticising the lack of cohesiveness, Nagarjuna Rao of Gulf News added that the addition of few irrelevant characters and implausible situations in the later portions "drain the viewer much before the climax, which turns out to be a denouement". Rao also found Rubens' score "too loud, to the point of being irritating".[25] Manoj Kumar R, writing for The Indian Express, was critical of Teja's direction. He found the climax "cringe worthy" because of Teja's attempt to "underplay the gravity of crimes Jogendra committed". He also added that Teja's reservations failed to give Rana's character a logical conclusion.[26] K. Naresh Kumar of The Hans India found the film a "patchy effort" and criticised its indifferent treatment: "Building up the hero as a crusader for the common man, despite his questionable and violent tactics in retaining his political status is the main contradiction that one feels, the film suffers from."[27] Sowmya Rajendran of The News Minute opined that the narrative "simply does not hold together" and found the CGI "patchy". Rajendran too felt that the film doesn't allow Jogendra's devolution "to really punch [the viewers] in the gut, because it wants to simultaneously hail him as a hero."[28]

• Nene Raju Nene Mantri at IMDb