Family Pack movie review: Rangayana Raghu is the ‘soul’ of this fun family entertainer

3.5/5

Story: Medical student Abhi (Likith Shetty) hails from a broken family, spending six months with his father (Achyuth Kumar), who is on to wife number 3 already, and the other six with his mother (Padmaja Rao). He’s also got a bossy cousin (Chandu B Gowda) who is out to make life miserable for him. Amid all this dreariness, the only ray of sunshine in Abhi’s life is Bhoomika (Amrutha Iyengar), a fellow student and budding social media star. Unfortunately for him, though, Bhoomika, who goes by Baby Boo on social media, remains happily unaware of him or his feelings for her.

Disheartened, Abhi decides that the best way out for him is to end his life and tries to jump off a terrace, only to be saved by a friendly ghost, Manjunath (Rangayana Raghu). Prior to his death, Manjanna (as Abhi calls him), was all set to get married to the love of his life, Sunitha/Badami, when he passes away following a freak car accident. Manjanna makes it his mission to get Abhi the girl of his dreams, but along the way, he realizes there’s more than meets the eye to his relationship with Abhi and Bhoomika.

Review: Family Pack is the fourth film from the PRK Productions stable to get a direct-to-OTT release on Amazon Prime Video, after Law, French Biriyani and One Cut Two Cut. And it is by far the best of the lot. The Arjun Kumar directorial is a comedy family entertainer and lives up to that tag from start to finish. There’s nothing extraordinary about this tale; it’s a simple story with just the right amount of twists and turns to make for interesting viewing.

Family Pack may be a Likith vehicle, but its true strength lies in its ensemble cast. Take, for instance, Achyuth’s character, who even after three marriages, still has a roving eye, or Sihi Kahi Chandru as Boo’s gun-toting ‘thatha’, each member of the cast complements the story beautifully and adds a dash of fun to it in his/her way. Likith presents Abhi as a perfect balance of brawn and brain and does justice to his role. Amrutha Iyengar is delightfully cute as Boo, but it is Rangayana Raghu who literally walks away with the film. He’s the friendly ghost, whose ‘life’ is turned around when he meets the people in Abhi’s life.

Writing anymore about the story would be disservice to the film. This the kind of film that you need to watch without expectations and then allow yourself to enjoy the fun ride every step of the way. My only pet peeve was why Arjun chose to have Abhi and Boo as medical students, when all they do is hang a lab coat and stethoscope around the shoulder. Was it only to justify the hospital scene involving Boo’s grandfather’s missing clothes?

Verdict: Watch it; Family Pack absolutely lives up to its promise of delivering two hours of fun. If you scratch below the surface, you may even find a message or two in the narrative.