Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde

Story: Karthik (Nithiin) sees Shruti (Isha) at a friend’s wedding and is instantly smitten. He traces her phone number and begins to woo her in earnest only to discover that he was chasing the wrong girl, Shravya (Nithya), who swears revenge.

Movie Review: It’s a goofball love saga of a self styled love guru who’s in love with Shruti but woos Shravya instead, mistaking one for the other because his friend, Pandu (Ali), hands him out the wrong number in a drunken stupor. As perplexing as that sounds, that’s the basic premise of this movie. The debutante filmmaker has borrowed elements of “mistaken identity comedy” and rolled them into a “rom-com” format, crafting out a “cheeky but fun” entertainer and deserves a pat on the back for pushing the envelope (for Tollywood romantic capers ie) a little further.

Save a few obnoxious gay jokes the humor is pretty clean and original all through. More importantly the jokes are an integral part of the ebbs and flow of the narrative, which is a rarity in Telugu cinema these days. The movie begins with introducing the protagonist Karthik, who relocates to Hyderabad to live a carefree life away from his parents who are settled abroad, although it isn’t clear where. Then there is Shravya who is a die hard romantic who dreams of getting hitched to a guy who will love her for what she is and not because she is beautiful and rich. Shruti on the other hand is the practical type who hates the idea of mushy romance.

Nithya Menen takes the honors as far as acting goes. She has the author backed role and overshadows everyone else save Nithiin who holds his own with an uncharacteristically underplayed performance. The two compliment each other very well and work up a great chemistry onscreen, continuing from where they left in Ishq. It has to be said the duo have done an even better job in this movie. Isha on the other hand has little to do, which is perhaps a good thing.

Pawan Kalyan fans will have plenty to dig into starting from the reasonably well done re-enactment of that chartbuster Un Dos Tres from Tholi Prema. There is a little homage to that famous navel sequence from Khushi as well, besides a couple of other random Pawan references. The other special attraction is the item number featuring Jwala Gutta however falls flat. Besides reminding us all of Namitha of yore, the badminton player does little.

The cinematography is pretty neat as is the music is peppy complimenting the tone of the movie. The writing is conversational and the dialogues witty. In the second half the movie gets a little heavy especially in the ending with the routine philosophizing over what is true love and how it is different from attraction and other such things.

Note: It’s not exactly a high concept comedy but packs in enough gags, so makes for paisa vasool entertainment.