Kurralloi Kurrallu – Movie Review

After Samantha"s mesmerising performance in Ye Maya Chesave and Brindavanam, Srinivas Damera decided to dub a successful Tamil film Baana Kaathadi into Telugu with the title Kurralloi Kurrallu, to cash in on the craze among youth on Samantha. Moreover, the film is the debut film of Atharva, son of yesteryear"s actor and hero Murali, who is well known among the Telugu audiences. Though the entire film has the Tamil scent that runs with a gripping screenplay.

Ramesh (Atharva) is a plus-two student and he is crazy about flying kites and is always in the company of friends including a much senior Kumar (Karnas). Once when he goes running after a 'Rajinikanth" kite that flew off, he comes across Priya (Samantha), a fashion technology student, whose parents are living in the US. Interestingly, her pen drive gets misplaced and goes with Ramesh. Severely reprimanded by her college for losing the pen drive, which has her project details, Priya manages to trace Ramesh. After a few ruffled encounters, it ends up in their friendship as Ramesh returns the pen drive, which was found in his pocket when his mother was about to wash his clothes. Realising that he is in love with her, Ramesh goes to propose Priya. But unfortunately, she gives a hate look as Priya finds a condom in Ramesh"s hands and Priya decides to leave him. More trouble awaits Ramesh as he witnesses the killing of an ex-MLA committed by local goon Ravi (Prasanna) who is basically a good-natured youth, who warns Ramesh to leave the place and go elsewhere. As a businessman who wanted him to send to Gujarat to take part in kite flying contest, Ramesh leaves for Gujarat. Priya"s friend reveals Ramesh"s love towards her and he wanted to present a key chain with the names of Priya and Ramesh engraved on rice. Realising her folly, Priya goes in search of Ramesh and finds that he left for Gujarat and reaches there. But Ramesh refuses to accept her apologies. With lots of persuasion by his friends and also his mother, whom Priya could convince, Ramesh accepts her love and the film ends on a happy note.

Performance: Though, it is his debut film, Atharva has done a decent job. He has shown good ease in dances and emoted well in many scenes. He has many similarities of another Tamil hero Simbu @ Silambarasan. He looks very comfortable before the camera and does the job that is expected from him well. As fashion technology student, Samantha is there to deliver a good performance. She looks pretty and does have more scenes to perform. As the goon with a kind heart, Prasanna is a scene stealer, while Karunaas has filled the comedy slot as Kumar, hero"s buddy, in the movie. Most of the scenes involving him evoke fun and laughter. TP Gajendran as Kumar"s father and Monica as Atharva"s mother are adequate.

Technical: Richard M Nathan"s camera has captured the lower income flats with dingy corners in a realistic manner. Most of the scenes have been shot in a slum locality and the cinematographer is able to capture the moods of the slum-dwellers as was visualized by the director in his script. Yuvan Shankar Raja"s songs are just okay, but the background music is good in parts. Director Badri Venkatesh has tried to narrate a love story between a slum-dweller and an upper middle-class girl. Though the narration is okay to certain extent, the director has lost grip post interval. The film moves at brisk pace till the interval but soon the tempo becomes slow with hero going to Gujarat for kites festival and few songs including an item number, which come as speed breakers. What starts off as a breezy entertainer ends as an emotional pot boiler.

Remarks: The movie is not so great to watch, but just okay. Watch the film for Samantha"s nice performance as she has a lot of scope for performance in this film. At the same time, the peculiar narration of the slum-dwellers mentality impress you. Of course, you can wait for a DVD to watch instead of going to theatre and watch the film.

Cast: Atharva, Samantha, Prasanna, Karunaas, Monica, Manobala and others.

Credits: Cinematography – Richard Maria Nathan, Editing – Suresh Urs, Music – Yuvan Shankar Raja. Dialogues and Lyrics – Vennelakanti, Producer – Srinivas Damera, Story, screenplay and direction – Badri Venkatesh

Banner: 5 Colours Multimedia

Released on: April 8, 2011