Ee Maya Peremito

Story: Sri Ramachandra Murthy (Rahul Vijay) aka Chandu is a happy-go-lucky ‘rebel’ with no ambition in life. Sheetal Jain (Kavya Thapar) is the precious daughter of Pramod Jain (Murli Sharma). She falls in love with Chandu’s good nature but what happens when her father decides that he needs to change to be worthy of his daughter.

Review: Love in a beautiful emotion often explored in Tollywood, rarely with equally beautiful results. ‘Ee Maya Peremito’ is a film in the disguise of a love story that only wants to set Rahul Vijay up as a hero and not an actor. He gets the slow-motion intro, chugging beer while jumping on a trampoline like the ‘rebel’ his tee-shirt proclaims him to be. He gets ample opportunity to show off his dreamy dance moves for songs that don’t require it and enough dialogues that talk of his height and beauty. But what he gets the most out of the film is the constant reminder of how good a person his character Chandu is, with a fight or two thrown in for good measure. He’s also enabled to be himself by his father Babu Rao (Rajendra Prasad) who loves his son however he is.

Kavya Thapar on the other hand gets close-up shots with her hair constantly billowing in non-existent wind. But other than that, neither she nor her character Sheetal seems to have the power of choice in the film. Her father lists out the kind of men he wants for his daughter even while she’s still in school, her choice be damned. There’s talk of Chandhu being a jobless vagabond and it’s especially ironical when it comes from a father whose daughter seems particularly jobless too. Other than mooning around the hero and later pouting when he has no time to spend with her in the middle of the afternoon because he’s busy with a job he oh-so-easily acquired, she really has nothing much to do in the film. The way her character is treated in the film becomes especially regressive when Babu Rao tells his son, “Valaki santosham badha anni maname ra,” implying her father and later the hero is whom her world revolves around.

‘Ee Maya Peremito’ runs on an often explored retro template of a father deeming the hero unworthy of his daughter and the hero doing everything in his power to prove otherwise. Except, it does nothing different to set itself apart and make us care about characters that remain flat all through the film. Riddled with clichés, unmemorable scenes and predictability, the film is a test to the viewer’s patience. The plotline is so unoriginal, it even makes Murli Sharma bring out his inner Chandramouli from ‘Ninnu Kori’ to question the hero’s arahata in a scene.

Rahul Vijay seems to be another Raj Tarun in the making, in the sense that the only emotion he can seem to portray is a wide smile. The only other emotion he conveys in the film is when his pretty face crinkles slightly when he’s confused or sad. He does however know how to shake a leg. Kavya Thapar is good enough in her role, except she’s handed the short end of the straw here, despite having decent screen time. Murli Sharma and Rajendra Prasad too do the best with what they’re offered.

‘Ee Maya Peremito’ is a simple story that seems to drag on despite the short run-time. All it manages to do, is be a decent watch. Better luck next time!