Chandamama Kathalu

Synopsis: . The intentions just don’t match up with the execution. Perhaps it’s just a know how issue or it’s akin to the birth pangs that a woman has to go through before delivering a beautiful baby…this one turns out to be a still born.

Movie Review: It’s the kind of ambitious experiment that falls in the “this is so cool because it has never been done before in Telugu cinema” – as remarkable as it sounds even our best films rarely stand out for originality at the idea level or execution – category. To put it bluntly it’s just another wannabe that’s perhaps about a decade too late to harbor such sentiments.

There seems to be an inherent problem with these new age Tollywood films though. Invariably they end up being inferior adaptations of path breaking Hollywood films. This one is inspired by the multiple narrative genre, sets out to package eight different stories into one grand meta-narrative. The intentions just don’t match up with the execution. Perhaps it’s just a know how issue or it’s akin to the birth pangs that a woman has to go through before delivering a beautiful baby…this one turns out to be a still born.

We’re just not there yet as far as our filmmaking skills go – no doubting the filmmakers’ creative integrity. You actually want to root for the movie for it is quite a relief from our standard fare, but the end product we’re afraid is just too under whelming and even downright lame. Ironically in in trying hard to break away from the mainstream format the movie endorses to all the Tollywood stereotypes, whether in the character sketches, their conflicts and worse of all the resolution.

We have Sarathi, the ideal loving single father, a dreamer whose penny broke with a daughter who needs expensive medical treatment to stay alive. Lakshmi Manchu plays a supermodel who is past her prime, but can’t reconcile with the reality of her faded past glory.

In what seems like an indulgent attention to detail her decline is portrayed through the changing brands of cigarettes she smokes (from Davidoff lights to Goldflake king-size…it’s just a few rupees cheaper in anyway) and choice of alcohol (which drops from Greygoose to Smirn Off. But she continues being the free spirited diva. The characters must speak louder than the props shouldn’t they? Krishnudu is seen playing a 29-year-old fatso who has every card in the world but can’t get a girl to get married to. Naresh and Amala play lovers who catch up after thirty long years. Naga Shurya a village bum who ends up as municipal worker because of an ill fated romance. Since these are the more recognizable stars among the cast they all have happy endings.

The underdogs are just as predictable. Raghu (Chaitanya Krishna) plays a lowly slum dweller that traps a minister’s daughter and hopes to get hitched to her via an mms he shoots while getting cozy with her. Then there is a beggar who saves up Rs 10 lakh so as to repossess a home he once owned. He just ends up dead on a footpath the day he’s about make the purchase. Haseena (Richa) dumps her boyfriend Ashraf (Abhijeet) for a seemingly rich businessman from Dubai only to find out that her beau is a taxi driver.

The performances all look too forced save Naga Shaurya, Abhijeet and Richa Panai. Naresh looks a total misfit as a cigar smoking NRI who speaks with a funny twang. The music is decent as is the writing what it lacks is the skill in story telling.