Rating: 3/5
Banner: Sree Venkateshwara Creations
Cast: Siddharth, Shruthi Haasan, Hansika, Navadeep etc
Songs: Sirivennela, Chaitanya Krishna
BGM: Manisharma
Music: Rahul Raj
Cinematographer: Vijay K Chakravarthy
Editing: Marthand K Venkatesh
Producer: Dil Raju
Story, Screenplay, Dialogue, Direction: Venu Shreeram
Release Date: 11.11.11
It is known that expectations soar high when a film is coming in the combination of Dil Raju and Siddharth due to the historical image of Bommarillu. While it was the relation between father and son that was portrayed in Bommarillu by Bhaskar, now here in Oh My Friend, director Venu Shreeram tried to show the thin line between love and friendship. Let us see how he narrated.
Story
Chandu (Sidz) and Siri (Shruti) are friends from childhood and they are very close buddies. While Siri is a much planned girl with clarity of thought, Chandu is not interested in studies as he wants to become a rock star. This doesn’t go well with Chandu’s father (Bharani) but he takes it in his stride.
The story takes a turn when Chandu comes across Ritu (Hansika) and falls in love with her. In no time, he manages to win her heart. Meanwhile, Siri gets engaged to Uday (Navadeep).
The story takes a turn when the close bonding between Chandu-Siri begins to cause inconvenience to their respective partners. On the other hand, the elders feel both Chandu and Siri are actually in love but they don’t realize it. Is it really love? Or just close friendship? How the story of their lives takes a turn forms the essence.
Performances
Siddarth is used to doing such roles but in this film, he is expected to look young so he did his best for that. His performance was natural and scored brownie points in the climax emotional scene.
Shruti Haasan never got such a nice character in her career. A simple girl who is ready to do anything for her friend, she attracts with her performance. The actor in her is seen through this film.
Navadeep is seen with few shades of ‘Arya 2’ character. Even his acting was good.
The weakest link in the cast is Hansika. She has put oodles of weight and lost her cute charm, it may have been better if a new face was there in her place.
Tanikella Bharani was impressive, Ali’s comedy was okay, Raghu Babu came and went, Sana was standard. The others didn’t have much scope.
Highlights
- Music and songs
- Cinematography
- Siddarth- Shruti performance
Drawbacks
- One dimensional story
- Lack of comedy
Analysis:
Dil Raju’s films are known for technical values so even this film is rich in that. Vibrant colours, mood photography etc make their mark. But the real life for the film is the music and songs.
The dialogues are penned by director and they have been good at places. While he handled all departments well, he could not do the same in script. But he was good at getting the right emotions at crucial moments effectively.
Due to the one dimension narrative, scope of entertainment was not focused. Even though Ali was there, that didn’t work much. As usual, the film addresses the problem faced by youth but at the end, the emotional feel is more than the entertainment feel.
Due to this, one can expect mixed reactions depending on each person’s personal experiences. If only the entertainment value was added, the film would have been a sure shot treat. May be Dil Raju has to rely on the post release publicity for that.
Bottomline: Emotions okay...but weak entertainment
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected])
