Sai and Shujath talk Cinema

Lakshmi Kalyanam May 22, 2008

Most of Teja’s films are quite simple (despite the fact that he thinks he is extremely creative). Rich boy falls in love with poor girl or vice versa. If his last film is set in a village, the next one will be set in a city. Sometimes there is a strong villain. Generally, the hero is pretty weak. It worked (at the box office) with Nuvvu Nenu and Jayam and then people got bored of watching the same thing over and over.

As it stands, Chitram (or maybe Family Circus) remains his most novel effort (by virtue of everything that followed).

So, I don’t even know why I saw this film but then my endurance levels are high. And I actually had hope when an initial sequence showed an astrologer predicting conflicting futures for the main characters. It felt like a giant step for Teja. Then, slowly but surely, the film migrated into expected territory and there was really no incentive to finish it except to see how he has rehashed the same elements once again.

Lets briefly look at what we’ve got in this movie.

Setting: Village
Hero: Kalyan Ram (improved but still has a long way to go). Weak: Surprisingly not!
Heroine: Kajal Agarwal. Debutant: Check. Half-sarees: Very welcome.
Villain: Ajay (the most watchable member of the cast). Modeled on: Gopichand’s character from Jayam
Comedians: Harsha Vardhan (wasted), Raghu Babu (the same character that he plays in most films, the sidekick of the villain who makes satirical remarks without any repercussions)
Music: RP Patnaik (way past his prime)
Plot: Bava Maradallu in love. The villain eyes the girl. Weird village feuds fuel the plot. A race to win the girl (I kid you not). All odds against the hero. I won’t tell you if he makes it or not.
Advice: Don’t watch it.

Parting shot: I found myself laughing uncontrollably (inexplicably) to one song in the film called Labjanaka (the Teja style item song). See if you find it as funny.