Breezy romedy

Director Srinivas Avasarala happily and healthily stays away from the ‘loud school of Tollywood’ and after a couple of crass double-meaning dialogues, adopts an urban and sophisticated style. That is the virtue of the film.

On the flip side, the pace of the film is in tandem with the heroine’s opening lines -- “Let life unfold” – her reply to the hero when he proposes to her. For the filmmaker too, it takes almost as many reels to kick start the love story and sum it up. It is a tiring non-happening love story with the cast affected by the insipid script and the director’s narrative style.

Someday, Tollywood filmmakers would come to realise that 143 minutes of non-happening inertia is not entertainment. Even Malaika Arora selling Chaini khaini during the interval is more happening.

Coming to the story, Venky (Naga Shourya) dreams of graduating from a ‘tele-marketing’ model to a newsreader at UBTV. His boss Uday (Srini Avasarala) shows him the stick and a very-very far carrot. Meanwhile, Uday falls for Prabhavathi (Rashi Khanna). Tongue-tied and clueless in love, he seeks the tutelage of Venky who has a way with girls. Venky unwittingly goes about assisting Uday in the hope that this is the ticket to his professional ambition. He soon realises that the girl his boss is wooing is none other than the only girl he fell in love a few summers ago while on a holiday in Vizag. Though Prabhavathi keeps goading Venky, he is on denial mode till his mom (Pragathi) knocks elementary sense into his head.

It must be said to the credit of Srini Avasarala that he is impressed by soft hues and often walks a subtle path not often tread by filmmakers here. The courage and effort are praiseworthy. The temptation, however, to fall prey to hackneyed cinematic situations is not eschewed and resultantly you have the predictable guys-gals scenes that leaves you hoping for something fresh.

The film’s music (the songs actually) just play themselves at will. Not that the script is disturbed by anything but they are collectively so badly placed that you have the entire audience announce when the next song would be.

The lead cast show a sense of sincerity, though the lead pair does not share a great chemistry. Some humour from unknown artistes suggests a shift from the hackneyed comedy track. The humour is surely very subtle and far different from what one is used to in Telugu cinema. The regular veteran support is on the mark -- Rao Ramesh, Hema, Posani Krishna Murali, Pragathi, etc., just give the film that professional touch. Both Naga Shourya and Rashi Khanna have good screen presence while their acting skills still need to be honed.

The film’s main undoing is its editing (Kiran Ganti). The raw stock available in plenty could be put to alternative use and the reels edited by at least a quarter of an hour. Watch the film for a change.