Boy Meets Girl Review

Maybe, some love stories have to be watched with an open mind.  When in love, one can seem to be quirky, impractical-minded, or even downright eccentric.  An audience member, while watching `Back Bench Student', asked, "Why would a girl who doesn't know whether his boy is still in love with her come back to India from abroad in the middle of her course?" The answer is: She wants to come back to India at the cost of abandoning the course solely because she is in love with him.  For those who have not heard of real-life examples, films like `Raja Rani', `Mem Vayasuku Vaccham' and `Routine Love Story' would be boring.  (For the sake of such audiences, there are mindless, candyfloss films like `Heart Attack')

If I did not come across a friend who first fell in love with a name in childhood, then continued to pine for a girl with that name, I would not have sympathized with the hero's character in `Toli Prema Katha'.  That's not to say that the film is slice-of-life and a rare one.  Far from that, it is badly-written and even more badly-executed.

Siddhu (Siddharth) comes with a romantic baggage.  He has no other identity other than loving the name Maha Lakshmi.  Way back in 1998 when Pawan Kalyan tempted the middle-class underdog to fall in love with some angel he can meet by happenstance, our hero, then in school had had his first crush.  For so many years till he reached Standard X, he did not know that it was love although he was chanting her name and writing Maha nama koti like a post-hypnotic being.

He missed Maha Lakshmi without confessing his love to her.  Now in his early 20s, he still marvels in the name Maha Lakshmi.

Enters a girl named Maha Lakshmi (Nikitha) into his life.  Before he knows, he spends happy days with her.  His heart and mind are in conflict as he knows that he doesn't love the girl but only her name.  He sets forth to find the asli Maha Lakshmi (played by Kanikha Tiwari) who stole her heart.

The writer seems to have written the story thinking every real-life story (possibly, he has observed someone he knows) is a great story.  One character even says, "A great love story has just begun" when Siddhu does an Eskimo kiss with Maha!

The film is a tribute to that euphoric thing called `first love', and almost all characters have got immense respect for it!  The rather plain narration is filled with unwelcome buffoonery involving three-four comedians, an RGV parody scene and stuff like that.  What is funny about a `creative clown' wanting to make a `Family Revenge Story' centered on a mosquito, unaware that Rajamouli's Eega has already been made?

Siddharth's performance is so-so.  He has a good voice but his expressive voice is not eminently watchable.  Both Kanika Tiwari and Nikita simply take the zing out of an already lifeless rom-com.

Verdict:  A second-rate rom-com with nothing exciting.

Rating: 2/5