It is
A poor man’s Happy Days
Plot
Srinu (Abhijeet Duddala) and his two sisters are sent to Hyderabad to live with their uncle, for reasons the mother (Amala) wouldn’t tell yet. Srinu’s new life kicks off with the signature Kammula voice over telling us how he is excited and doubtful about the new place (these voice overs, so cute and simple, very annoying).
The unrest between the burgeouis and the harmless middle class (another signature segment) that prevails in the uncle’s colony (divided into A and B blocks) hits Srinu at the very beginning, when their auto accidentally enters the A block. The fights between the blocks is where all the drama comes in.
The other two leads are Nagaraj (Sudhakar Komakula) and Abhi (Kaushik) who are part of the B block. Nagaraj, an uneducated macho man of the block (reminescent of Rajesh from Happy Days) and Abhi is a sceince genius (reminecent of Tyson, the sets of these characters is where the amateurity of it is at its strongest).
Eventually all the happy people fall for different girls from the neighborhood (Shagun Kaur, Zara Shah and Shriya Saran) and they go through life battling their simple yet profound issues hence making it a beautiful life.
The Relief
The plight of the Telugu audience battling the repetitiveness at the cinemas is very much like the happy troubles of Kammula’s characters. He might be repetitive, but, he makes fewer films and was quite the relief to have watched a well written film.
Execution
The film is well written, no issues there. But, the execution of it just seems like a mere formality to get over with. There was hardly a pleasing edit nor any camera work that can create the super optimistic world the writer believes in.
And why do people have to hi five so often.
Kammula (on the sets): "Hey newbee, listen, you are giving me a lot of awkward shots, so, just hi five when you can’t think of anything or put your hand around his shoulder, whatever works, you are supposed to be friends, put your your hand on him"
Actors
Like Happy Days, the character that stays back is the one that doesn’t talk like the rest. His pronounciation is clearer and he has a Telangaana slang. Sudhakar Komakula plays him and was the star of the show.
Zara Shah playing Sudhakar’s love interest is the only female with decent pronounciation, she was good.
Other than that we have a new double for Varun Sandesh and one other cute guy who is brought in to look happy.
Verdict
A little draggy, a little too cute, too many slo-mo dances in the rain and has to be the film with most number of hi fives. Still, enjoyable.
Reviewed by Rohit
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