There are some names in film industry which are treated as brands among audience and their names help movie as additional advantage. If their movies are added to the movie it becomes hot cake among trade circles and audience gets in queue for tickets. Maniratnam is one among such brand names for his variant movies. He is now coming with another movie after the successful “Ok Bangaram” starring Karthi and Aditi Rao Hydari. As it is made in Tamil as Katru Veliyidai, it is being released into Telugu as “Cheliyaa” under the banner of SVC of Dil Raju. Let’s see how it works on us!
Story
Varun aka VC is a fighter pilot and is a guy who has no hard feelings for girls such as love and has many stories of him being with the change of girls in his life. He meets Leela (Aditi Rao Hydari) in hospital as he met with an accident during a trip with another girl on hills. They meet again and again and they both fall in love with each other. VC takes her to his home in New Delhi to attend his brother’s marriage and then Leela comes to know about his past relationships and VC asks her to shut her mouth which leads to quarrel between them. How they both meet again? What happens during his brother’s marriage? How he escape from the Pakistani jail? forms the rest of the story.
Cast and Performance
Karthi as Varun is superb and he is too good in his play boyish role and is equally as good as fighter pilot who works for mother India. Aditi Rao Hydari is too good with her expressions and she made the character of Leela lively. RJ Balaji is good in his limited role. All other actors who played the remaining roles are not so familiar to our Telugu audience but they are good to the extent of their roles.
Writing Department
Story of Cheliyaa is simple and good which is weaved around Kargil war. Screenplay is not so well written which makes audience bored and not engaged. Dialogues are well written.
Technical Departments
Songs composed by AR Rahman are nice and are chartbusters already. Maimarupaa song is good is watch on screen. Background score is so good and elevated the scenes whenever necessary. Cinematography by S Ravichandran is fantastic and locales of Srinagar are well captured. Editing by Sreekar Prasad is okay and could have been much better. Production values are apt.
Highlights
Lead actor’s performances
Cinematography by S Ravichandran
Music by AR Rahman
Minus
Screenplay
Verdict
Cheliyaa begins with war sequence featuring Karthi and later he is captured by Pakistani Army. Then it goes into flashback mode with a voiceover of Karthi in a poetic way with pure Telugu. He tells about his love story with Aditi Rao Hydari and happenings between them. There are some interesting conversations between the lead and some are lame and gives no interest to audience. Screenplay is dead slow and somewhere the magic of Maniratnam is missing. Interval comes where Karthi escapes from Pakistani Jail and it doesn’t create any curiosity to watch out for second half. The brand name Mani Ratnam is only thing that makes audience watch second half after the disappointing first half. Second half begins with quarrel between the leads and a patch up. Here comes the best till now in the form of Maimarupaa song which is well shot. Second half is good when compared to first half. Mani Ratnam made this Cheliyaa with his mark poetry written in every frame and scene with the help of high technical values but failed and made as a disappointment fare by none other than Mani Ratnam again.
