Movie: Dikkulu Choodaku Ramayya
Rating: 3/5
Banner: Varahi Chalana Chitra
Cast: Ajay, Naga Shourya, Sana Maqbul, Indraza, Ali and Others
Story: P V Giri
Dialogues: Ramesh Gopi
Music: M M Keeravani
Editor: Tammi Raju
Cinematography: S Rajasekhar
Producer: Rajani Korapati
Screenplay, Direction: Trikoti
Release Date: Oct 10, 2014
It’s the season of small films. A lot of new and relatively new film-makers are touching upon subjects that are off beat to suit the changing tastes of audiences. Ajay starrer Dikkulu Choodaku Ramayya is one such attempt by Rajamouli’s assistant Trikoti. Let’s see how the film has come up…
Story:
The film starts off with Murali Krishna (Ajay), a bank officer with SBI who is married to Bhavani (Indraja) and has two grown-up sons. There is a voice-over which tells us right at the beginning that he was married at the age of 17 due to which his dream of having a love marriage goes awry.
During his many trials in falling in love with a young girl, Murali Krishna or Krish as he likes to be called meets an aerobics instructor Sameetha (Sana Maqbool) who owes money to their bank.
While it’s love at first sight for Krish, Sameetha takes him to be her good friend. Meanwhile, in a strange turn of events, Krish’s 18-year-old son Madhu (Naga Sourya) too meets Sameetha who turns out to be his college senior and falls for her.
Goes without saying, the rest of the story shows how the father and son get out of the tricky situation.
Artistes’ Performances:
Ajay plays the main protagonist of the film and the entire film revolves around him. Being a seasoned actor who has done many interesting roles in the past, he carries off his part well. He plays the part of a ‘young-looking’ 38-year-old father with a glad eye convincingly. In fact, he also gets to do a couple of songs and he does them effortlessly.
Yesteryears glamour doll Indraja is back to play the mom. Though it’s a little disappointing to see her play the mom so early, she plays the docile and family-adoring housewife realistically without going overboard.
Naga Sourya and Sana Maqbool fit their roles well. Naga Sourya is very convincing in the initial scenes as the shy boy who has just joined engineering college. Later, his role gets stretched a bit, but on the whole, he puts in a decent performance.
Sana gets to play the other important character apart from Ajay and she manages to pull off the show despite being a newcomer. She does emote well and dresses decently. Her smile is an asset for her and the director has taken special care to show her as a normal, ordinary, new-age girl.
The chubby little boy who plays younger brother to Madhu is cute, while Ali who plays the irritable neighbor Tommy to Sameetha is as good as ever. Brahmaji gets to play the friend Satyam and he is his usual self.
Technical Excellence:
The film is produced by Sai Korrapati who had earlier made Eega and Legend and it is directed by Trikoti who had assisted director Rajamouli in the past. The music for the film is by MM Keeravani and one can see his commitment in the kind of music he has provided for the film. It is different from the regular mass beats and is in perfect sync with the plot.
Trikoti must be given credit for making a clean and neat film with a subject that had lots of scope for vulgarity. But he steers clear of the temptation and sticks to his primary objective of telling the story he wants to narrate.
Highlights:
- Ajay
- Music
- Clean story
Drawbacks:
- Few scenes in the second half
Analysis:
In one line, the film is about a married man on the wrong side of 30s trying to find love. Now, the plot is ideal to put in vulgar sequences and double entendre dialogues. But all credit goes to Sai Korrapati and his director Trikoti for sticking to their basic plot and not titillating the subject.
Though Sai Korrapati has made blockbusters like Eega and Legend in the past, he does not try to make the film big and has given his director complete freedom to make the film the way he had visualized it.
So, we have a story set in a middle-class backdrop and deals with a situation faced by many youngsters and middle-aged people.
The director is bang on as far as the casting goes and that works well for the film. Usually, most directors try to make movies around seven year itch.
But Trikoti touches upon an aspect that young parents world over would relate to. He simply puts across the various situations that his characters go through rather than trying to teach or preach. Thankfully, he also does not show an overdose of emotions. Also, in trying to show Krish in good light, Trikoti does not make a vamp out of Sameetha, which is refreshing.
Experimenting with new genres is a luxury that small film-makers have vis-à-vis big film-makers.
Despite being a commercially successful producer, Sai Korrapati’s attempt at making the film must be appreciated.
In all, Dikkulu Choodaku Ramayya is a good effort both from the director and producer to touch upon a sensitive subject which is in keeping with the times.
Bottomline: Laudable effort.
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
Watch Dikkulu Choodaku Ramayya Public Talk
