Nobody pulled off a melodrama such as Bomarillu in the past few years. Sidhu and Hasini are celebrated for striking a balance between ‘what we are used to ’and ‘what is acceptable when original’. And only when checking the posters outside the theatre last night did I discover the tag d.f.tech and then looked left to find the name ‘Bhaskar’. Beginning with the title it didn’t look like one of his and as expected he was not on his A-game.
Plot
A 12 year old (calling himself White) arrives at the Ongole mirchi market and before the day ends the boy makes a lump sum profit starting with just the 10 lemons he bought for 5 bucks. White befriends Pavuram (Kishore Das), the neighbouring lemon vendor and not before long he is attacking people starting with the driver of Adikesavulu (Prakash Raj) when he runs over his lemon stand.
Adikesavulu is the chairman of the market yard and the man responsible for the many facilities the yard provides. All attributed to his altruistic nature. Adi has an uninterrupted run of 25 years as the chairman until White can fit in the timeline as Ram (The age of the male lead – always an ambiguity). By now even White is popular in the market for his goodwill, but, in his own way by fighting for the market’s safety and profitability.
Some IT millionaires with the help of a local MLA (Ahuthi Prasad) want the land the yard’s currently located at. However, what they don’t see coming is the mask Adi wears day and night to trick people into respecting him and his own plans for the market re-placement. Interrupting everyone’s plans and eventually wearing down Adi’s patience to pretend is White. These schemes of White are not just for the market’s sake, but, for his father who once was the Adi of the place.
Actors
The film’s setting and its mode of operation is very 90s, when most of our films had the protagonists being part of a working class community and writing was at its stagnant best. Very few films however convinced us that the hero is actually a part of it (Muta Mestri would be one). Post 2000, there have been even fewer leads who can look or perform these parts. And Ram is the epitome of the post 2000 dancing club.
Prakash Raj’s imposture (though overdone) remains the only consolation that could draw a few laughs.
Verdict
The film went all in the masala archetype and like most of them it just turns into a restless drag when you are many scenes ahead of the characters and probably have a more vivid image than what the film’s providing.
