Srinivasa Kalyanam : Movie Review
Makers of Shatamanam Bhavati now focus upon Indian traditional wedding and its importance. Entire second half of the film revolves around marriage arrangements and process of a Telugu wedding.
Story :
Srinivas (Nithin) comes from an orthodox joint family and Sridevi (Rashi) is the younger daughter of a business tycoon RK (Prakash Raj). They fall in love and Srinivas meets RK, who values time in money. RK agrees to the marriage on one agreement. Srinivas has to sign a pre-marital agreement according to the deal. In return, Srinivas asks RK’s presence in the wedding arrangements whenever it is needed. How RK gets to know the value of relations and greatness of wedding forms rest of the story.
Performances:
Nithin plays a soft spoken good ‘Ramudu manchi baludu’ character that has high doses of drama. He is impressive in the romantic scenes with Rashi Khanna. His performance in the final sequence filled with a lot of melodrama is noteworthy. There’s a lot of hype around Rashi’s character, but she plays a very regular character that has not much to write about. Prakash Raj has done similar characters in the past and it’s just cakewalk for the veteran. Jayasudha also does her usual stuff. Rajendra Prasad, Sitara, and Naresh are fine in their respective supporting roles.
Technicalities:
Vegesna Satish follows similar family drama template of Shatamanam Bhavati again. That film talked about the importance of taking care of parents in their old age and this one glorifies the traditional wedding. Besides impressive dialogue and a few melodramatic scenes that strike chord with the female audience, Srinivasa Kalyanam is a pretty ordinary film with routine setup and situations. Director doesn’t present it in a fresh way as it runs on a predictable note from start to finish.
Music by Mickey Meyer is good. A couple of songs stand out and the background score also is alright. Sameer Reddy’s camera captures the scenic beauty of Godavari districts in an impressive way. Dialogues are good in parts. Production values are decent.
Thumbs Up:
Nithin’s performance
Emotions
Dialogues
Thumbs Down:
Routine characters
Predictable conflict
Boring first half
Analysis:
Srinivasa Kalyanam is a film strictly targeted at the audience who love to watch tear jerking television soaps. The main conflict of the film comes to the fore only at the intermission point and the solution for it seems very predictable that it hardly engages the audience. First half of the film is extremely tedious with an ordinary love story between the lead pair and a few outdated jokes.
The film looks like a forced attempt to preach the greatness of Indian weddings and culture. Second half is totally dedicated to the process of pre wedding and the emotions that the main characters go through in the meantime. Climax is emotional but is very predictable. There are a few relatable scenes and dialogue that will directly connect with the contemporary audience. Satires on people sending wedding invitations on whatsapp and attending the weddings just for the sake of ‘attendance’ are striking.
Apart from dashes of humor here and there, Srinivasa Kalyanam is very dramatic and unrealistic at times. It gets preachy at times with the actors breaking into unending monologues. This may appeal to melodrama lovers but will make the entertainment seeking audience cringe in their seats. Youth will surely feel exhausted with the film offering literally zero entertainment in the second hour.
The film is like watching a wedding video in the second half. Most of the emotional scenes are artificial and fake that they couldn’t create any impact. Good performances and impressive dialogue are the only saving grace for this otherwise routine melodramatic wedding saga. The commercial outcome will totally depend upon how much the female audience likes it.
Verdict: Wedding CD!
